The Doc Searls Weblog : Tuesday, March 11, 2003

Tuesday, March 11, 2003

Previous topic

Next topic

Tuesday, March 11, 2003
started 3/12/2003; 12:09:41 AM - last post 3/12/2003; 8:32:31 AM

Doc Searls - Tuesday, March 11, 2003

3/12/2003; 4:09:41 AM (reads: 5412, responses: 4)

Road Rage

I'm here. After hours of coaxing, the laptop has risen from the dead, though probably only momentarily. That's been the pattern. It should sieze up any second now.

Rather than bore you with my tale of travel woe, I'll treat you to one nugget that encapsulates pretty much everything else that's happened today: Neither United nor Air Canada appears to have any idea where my bag is, because they have no record, other than the tag they gave me when I checked the bag in Santa Barbara, of its existence.

At least that's what the disinterested Air Canada baggage professional told me at the airport. Hey, at least he exists. There was nobody at United's baggage counter at all. Their telephone baggage customer relations system appears to consist of an automaton with the worst speech recognition I've ever encountered. After it fails, it says it will "transfer your call to an attendant," after which it transfers your call back to itself.

It's about ten degrees outside. Snow, ice and wind all around. I'm here in my loafers. My warm coat is in the lost bag, along with all the other clean clothes I didn't buy for tomorrow at the discount warehouse on the way here from the airport.

It's 12:35am. Gotta get some sleep. Long day ahead.

discuss

Hanan Cohen - Don't change the graphics

3/12/2003; 5:16:28 AM (reads: 458, responses: 0)

I looked up the page and saw that your picture is still smiling. Don't change the graphics!

discuss

Andrew Barnett - Re: Tuesday, March 11, 2003

3/12/2003; 10:20:16 AM (reads: 490, responses: 1)

My sister in law works for a company that provides ground services, such as check-in and luggage, to airlines without sufficient presence to provide their own. She worked for a time handling lost-luggage queries. One day she struck an understandably upset customer whose bags had been mislaid. She attempted to calm him but he continued to shout and rant at her. Finally she said, "Look, there are exactly 2 people in the world right now who care about your bags, and one of them is rapidly losing interest."

Funny, but what I don't get is this: who are these people that build organisations and systems which make both their staff and customers equally unhappy, pitting one against t'other, where staff don't care and customers are treated as an unwelcome burden. What motivates them? What makes them think they're doing it right? How do they function in their family and social lives? I don't get it.

discuss

Christopher Baldrey - Re: Tuesday, March 11, 2003

3/12/2003; 12:32:31 PM (reads: 465, responses: 0)

Welcome to Southern Ontario Doc.... It's warm compared to a few days ago!

discuss

Bubba - Re: Tuesday, March 11, 2003

3/12/2003; 2:51:15 PM (reads: 570, responses: 0)

The airline industry is the only one that can have such poor customer service, and still attract customers. That's not to say they're making any money at it. But they're still scratching their heads trying to figure out why. Hmmmm...

discuss

Membership : Join Now : Login

Search archives

Santa Barbarians
Edhat
SB Independent
SB Newsroom
Kevin Barron
Blogabarbara
Craig Smith
SB*Free Press
Joe Andieu
Patrick Gregston
John Quiimby
Das Williams' dad
Katy Pearce
Taymar Pixley
Lisa Gates
Cookie Jill

Everybody else
Spot-on
RageBoy
MysticBourgeoisie
David Weinberger
Miscellaneous
Dave
Berkman
John Palfrey
IT Garage
Bret Fausett
Susan Crawford
Bruce Sterling
Steve Lewis/Bubkes
Hak Pak Sak
Brad Kava
Brad Templeton
Sheila Lennon
Don Marti
Steve Urquhart
Wes Felter
Brad DeLong
Tom Evslin
Brian Oberkirch
Dean Landsman
Hugh MacLeod
LAist
Jeremy Ruston
Geoff Jones
Vaspers the Grate
Sig Rinde
Chris Albritton
Ronni Bennett
Thomas Hawk
Kevin Bedell
Howard
Bryan
Deep Fun
BoingBoing
edhat
Terry Heaton
Jay Rosen
Kim Cameron
George Lakoff
Scott Rosenberg
Larry Lessig
Jim Thompson
Jeff Jarvis
David Isenberg
Stephen Johnson
Tim Oren
Geoff Moore
Rex Hammock
This is Broken
Max Sawicky
Stuart Hughes
Dave Pentecost
John Perry Barlow
Mary Hodder
Dan Gillmor
Steve Gillmor
Dean Landsman
John Stodder
Seth Finkelstein
Renee Blodgett
misbehaving.net
Ruby Sinreich
Ed Cone
Julie Leung
Ted Leung
Ken Coar
Flemming Funch
Mike Sanders
Marc Canter
Joi Ito
Ethan Zuckerman
Doug Kaye
Jon Lebkowski
Judith Meskill
Allen Searls
Esther Dyson
Christopher Lydon
Russell Beattie
Tim Bray
Brian Millar
Mark Pilgrim
Michael Hall
Backup Brain
Frankston, Reed
Britt Blaser
Brent Simmons
Loic Le Meur
Leslie Winer
Mike Taht
Eric Raymond
Volokh Conspiracy
Steven Levy
Lisa Rein
Skywave
Epeus' epigone
Glenn Reynolds
James Taranto
Frank Paynter
Ross Mayfield
Dana Blankenhorn
Ken Bereskin/Panther
Daily Wireless
Filchyboy
OxBlog
Bryan Field-Elliot
Rajesh Jain
Oliver Willis
Gary Turner
Michael O'Connor Clarke
Jennifer Balderama
Kevin Werbach
Amy Wohl
Phil Windley
Fulcrum
Real Joe
Greater Democracy
Mitch Ratcliffe /biz
Mitch Ratcliffe/soc
Wayne Robins
VivaCapitalism
Cut on the bias
Howard Greenstein
The Poor Man
Mickey Kaus
Dave Sifry
Buzz Bruggeman
Ben Hammersley
Matt Jones
Paul Andrews
John Robb
Schoolblog
Tom Shugart
Matt Welch
Blur Circle
Denise Howell
JY
BlackHoleBrain
Chris Pirillo
Marek
Tony Pierce
Chris Nolan's
Spot On
Wil Wheaton
Meg
Brian Linse
Dan Pink
Dawn Olsen
Craig
Yoz
The Head Lemur
Ev
Jeremy Zawodny
Susan Kitchens
K5
Anu Gupta
Jonathon
Fishrush
Dave Ely
Euan Semple
Eric Norlin
Paul Boutin
James Lileks
David Williams
Mary Wehmeier
Bruner Blog
Halley Suitt
Webword
Ann Salisbury
Om Malik
Moxie
J's Notes
Meesh
NUblog
TBTF
Cam
Seth Finkelstein
Tom Matrullo
Chip Hoagland
Deborah
Fortboise
J.D. Lasica
Photodude
Phil Wolff
Andre Durand
Eric Hansen
Mike McBride
Jeneane Sessum
Chris Nolan
Gonzo Engaged
Michael Mussington
UseTheSource
Wes
Adam
Sam Ruby
Miguel
Frank Field
Rebecca Blood
Joshua Allen
Cluetrain
JOHO
EGR
Searls site
Scoble
AKMA
Kottke
Tomalak's Realm
Tim O'Reilly
Mitch Kapor
Bill Quick
Dan Bricklin
Lou Josephs
Alan Reiter
N.Z. Bear
Todd Morman
Zeldman
Glenn
Joshua
Rex Hammock
Matthew Thomas
Brian Dear
Baylink
Burningbird

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-
NonCommercial-
ShareAlike 2.5 License.