I booked a flight for May 22, 2018 Flight #5778 leaving Denver, CO going to New Orleans, LA. The flight was for my 10yr daughter. When I booked this on the phone with a customer service representative, I let that agent know I wanted to pay for the Unaccompanied minor fee along with the difference in the price for the ticket. At that time I was quoted $39 and I said no I need to pay the fee and she said ok. That was no problem and I gave her a credit card number. At that time she assured me that everything was taken care of including that Unaccompanied fee. For 2 weeks I was under the assumption she had charged for the fee. When I get to the ticket counter I am told that fee was charged but the card was declined. Being that my email confirmation did not tell what the exact dollar amount that was charged, of course I felt that I had already paid. The ticket agent said no I don’t show that unaccompanied fee being paid. I said I paid that, well it doesn’t show. At that time another employee was walking by(LaTasia), and another ticket agent stopped her explained what was happening. (Even though the other ticket agent never said a word to me, not even Hello.) At that time LaTasia said no it was not charged because it shows the card was declined. I said girl if you knew how many calls I had to make to even book this ticket I am sure that I paid it(again believing the cust serv rep). By this time I am a little angry. I had to get a friend to put the purchase on her card because the numbers on my debit card had been rubbed all the way off and I was awaiting a new card. I put $91.00 I believe on her card to make the purchase. So LaTasia says your yelling and you need to calm down. I said LaTasia I don’t have a problem with you. She says well ok but you need to calm down. I can waive the fee for you but you need to calm down. Then she proceeds to tell my ticket agent to call customer service. The agent calls customer service and speaks to someone who of course says no it was not paid. I asked to speak to them too but she hung up the phone and said again you didn’t pay the fee. I said ok I will call myself. LaTasia slides my driver license and luggage sticker back to me and says go ahead and come back up to the counter after you talk to them. At the same I’m on the phone with My friend, Crystal Harris, who purchased the ticket on her card and we see the customer service agent did not charge! So I ask would they be willing to take the payment by phone being that I don’t have that much money on me at the time. They said no. I asked LaTasia could she just waive the fee as she stated before and she said” No. I am not waiving the fee for you, I am going to go get the supervisor now because you have an attitude. Now I am crying a little, I have no idea what to do. My daughters father is driving 2 hours to get her from New Orleans. The supervisor comes over and his name is Mike. He says tell what is going on. So I began to tell him, crying and trying to calm down. Not yelling just trying to stop the tears and speak. He listens to half of what I say cuts me off and says listen the ladies at the counter feel you were rude. I am like what! No way I was not mad at them I just thought I paid. So he says I think you should go back up there and apologize!?!! The fact that I not even being rude to these women I am appalled! I said, “ I have to kiss ass?”(In what life does a supervisor tell a customer to do that!?!) That makes him angry and he says we are not waiving anything for you! I mean looking like if he could cuss me out and hit me he would at this time. Now I’m in full cry mode, he storms back behind the counter says we are not waiving a fee for her(I was never once addressed by my name even though it was right there). I asked about my bags and a refund. He very angrily asked what they looked like and yes I can get a refund the same way I paid. I knew my daughter had to be on this flight so I swallowed my pride and apologized as instructed for nothing. Then they waived the fee and we were off. In my entire customer service career I have never ever instructed a guest/consumer to apologize to me or any other employee in order to accommodate them. I work in an Elite team in my call center, I only deal with angry customers. I specialize in knowing the difference between someone being upset with the company and someone being specifically disrespectful to me personally. I felt like I was being reprimanded like a child not a customer for the mistake of someone else in Southwest. I feel that to show exceptional customer service I should have been called back if the card was declined or even emailed. Especially if you’re a good representative you’d go beyond and make sure that your customer is aware before they travel. Then to add insult to injury when my daughters father arrived at MSY there was not 1 soul available to assist him in the pick up process. We did as instructed, arrived an hour before he flight so he can check in. It was a complete ghost town yet no one advised us that this would happen. He tried to ask an police officer that was EXTREMLY RUDE and only wanted to know where his ticket was. I called customer service and spoke to a young lady that was very helpful in the process. She contacted a supervisor and they had a Southwest employee escort my daughter to the baggage claim where she met up with her father. From the first minute this process started yesterday it was a total train wreck. Of all the times I’ve flown with Southwest I have never had an experience such as this. The customer service rep needs to be retrained and understand that if an issue like the card declining occurs she needs to take extra steps to ensure the passenger doesn’t show up to the airport thinking they are all set. The ticket agent was dry but there are no rules for not being cordial and polite I suppose and as for LaTasia she shouldn’t be employed if she fails to show empathy for guest and feels that it is ok to make a guest apologize to her. I still have a flight credits that need to be used. After this do you really think I ever want to fly with Southwest again??
Then every time I call customer relations the hold time is 30 minutes or more. I go to the website there is no email address listed for customer relations even though I am told to contact customer relations. I live in mountain time when I get off of work and I am able to call customer relations the wait time is an excess of a hour and they would be closed before they get to my call. This is absolutely ridiculous
