:: Susan Waters: Executive Director InternetBar.org ::

Recently I took a quick trip across the U.S. and back in two days. That was grueling enough, but the return trip turned into a difficult one. I was scheduled to be awake for 22 hours that day if all had gone well, something I probably shouldn’t do.

The first leg of my trip was delayed, with the promise that it would leave sometime that day, but no estimated time for departure. As I waited in the customer service line to rebook, a process that was taking about 40 minutes per customer, I called the airline and rebooked on the phone, so all I needed was to exchange the boarding passes. I waited in line for 2.5 hours to do that, then they said they’d transfer my bag to the new itinerary.

I wasn’t surprised when I arrived home in San Francisco to find that my bag had not come with me. I wasn’t too surprised, either, to find out the the flight I had originally been scheduled on had been cancelled, contrary to the assurances given to the passengers. So, I filed my claim for the missing bag and limped home.

The next day I called and was told that my bag would arrive in San Francisco at 2:30 that afternoon, and be delivered to me. Of course it wasn’t.

When I called the next day, I was told that there was no claim for the bag, and the baggage service had no way to know where to deliver it. I, of course, said there was a claim, I had a copy, and the day before the customer service representative had no problem locating the claim and telling me where my bag was and when it would arrive. However, it had not been delivered. This representative repeated that there was no claim for the bag and the service had no way to know where to deliver the bag. I pointed out that my baggage tag has my name, address, phone number, etc. The person hung up the telephone.

My bag was delivered the next day.

A difficult return trip was made much worse by the delayed bag, which it took four days to get back, and my frustration level is high. I sent an email to customer service detailing this experience and complaining about the poor service and the poor attitudes of the customer service representative I spoke to on day 3. I received an answering email telling me what a valued customer I am.

So, why am I writing this? Because this is an insignificant dispute in the scheme of things, but poor management of unmet expectations created high levels of frustration and anger at this airline, which may affect future buying decisions. Think about what it fees like to be helpless and frustrated about something much more important.

That’s where online dispute resolution (ODR) can be so helpful. If the parties can agree on a civil system to resolve disputes, then perhaps future experiences can be put to rest without generating such negative feelings, not only about the circumstances, but about the other party.

ODR can resolve problems quickly, easily, without requiring life-changing scheduling, and at moderate expense. Wouldn’t this be a better way to resolve disputes than creating frustration and anger as the current system does?

Susan B. Waters, EDM