If you were ignored for hours and hours today by Delta on Twitter you were not the only one. I reached out with some simple questions to Delta and was ignored for most of the day (even when I DMed or direct messaged DeltaAssist). Then when I finally got a response it was not the best shall we say. No, not the normal amazing service we have come to expect from one of the best customer service features from Delta Air Lines.
Delta today on their PR news hub site bragged about the merger between the two twitter handles into one. In all practical terms DeltaAssist has been responding to the Delta handle for quite some time now. Notice in part what was said at the news hub:
“We are committed to listening, caring and connecting with our customers 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” said Charisse Evans, Delta’s Vice President – Reservation Sales and Customer Care. “By incorporating @DeltaAssist into @Delta, our customers will have one source for in-the-moment assistance before, during and after their travels, along with access to Delta updates, travel tips and much more.”
Well that sounds outstanding but they left out a bunch of little details you really need to know and perhaps should have been included in the PR splash. I asked about the poor response today, of all days since it was merger day, and was told by Delta rep Brian Kruse that :
“The team is working diligently on the situation. We apologize for any delays that customers may be experiencing today during the integration.”
Much appreciated. Let’s give these normally outstanding folks the benefit of the doubt. But there is more you need to know that was not published.
Most of us (who are smart and frequent Delta travelers) have been following @DeltaAssist for some time now and also have @DeltaAssist following us so that we can direct message them and thus keep private information private such as our PNR or information about our itineraries as you really hate to have those broadcast in public. I also asked Delta the following questions and was told:
1) Does a user need to follow @Delta to DM? – “Yes, the user will need to follow @Delta.”
2) If a user followed @DeltaAssist previously, will @Delta automatically follow the user? – “No”
So, Delta does not seem to have the ability to transfer all the DeltaAssist followers over to Delta (as I did when I changed from DeltaPoints to RenesPoints btw). So you will have to 1) personally follow @Delta now on twitter and then 2) once again request @Delta to follow you so you can DM them and keep your questions about trips private.
This is no small point and again it would have been great for Delta to advise us all to do this today to have the service we are used to.
While frustrated today with Delta’s changeover I am letting this one go as for years DeltaAssist has been amazing and I will just chalk this one up to a Delta IT failure and look forward to the outstanding level of service I usually get! – Rene
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Rene, Twitter has improved/changed Direct Messaging recently. See
https://support.twitter.com/articles/14606 and specifically:
To receive Direct Messages from anyone:
You can receive Messages from anyone if you check the box next to Receive Direct Messages from anyone in your Security and privacy settings on twitter.com. You can also adjust this setting via the Twitter for iOS or Twitter for Android apps.
Note: If you enable this option, any user can add you to group conversations.
Why am I having trouble sending Direct Messages?
There is an account limit of 1,000 Direct Messages sent per day. Once you reach this limit, you can’t send any more Direct Messages for the day.
If you are sending Direct Messages to accounts that do not follow you, you may need to verify your phone number.
There was another email I received from Twitter that discussed new techniques for direct messages between companies and their followers. At the moment, I can’t find it, but it was compelling and the changes were intended for support accounts.
All of this said, the merging of accounts is unfortunate in my opinion. It made sense to have one account for support matters and another account for the general brand/marketing. Delta will probably end up regretting this.
@srhayes
Cheers, Scott
LOL another “enhancement” but this one all Delta flyers can enjoy not just medallions. I’ll give them a few days before I ask @Delta to follow me.