Comments on: Booking Advice in Today’s Climate

By: Beth

Beth — Sat, 01 May 2010 14:34:16 +0000

Hmmm, Joel. I have contacted you directly and still haven’t heard back from you. More than a week and counting.

By: Joel Frey

Joel Frey — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 15:03:35 +0000

Hi Beth…I wanted to extend our apologies to you and to assure you and your readers that this is not a typical customer experience when booking at Travelocity. We’re taking a closer look at what we could have done better here. If you’d like to share anything else, feel free to contact me directly.

Joel Frey
Travelocity

By: Martin White

Martin White — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 07:08:53 +0000

This is the second email I received from Travelocity after complaining about NOT being able to hear and understand the Indian workers from the Call Center. I have no problem with the good people of India, but I could not hear or understand what was being said to me. I realize that it is much cheaper to outsource to India rather than use Americans in the Mid-West, and I do have a problem with companies NOT employing our own American workers. I also recognize that American workers cost a great deal more than their Indian counterparts – However, I can NOT hear nor understand what the Indian Call Center people are saying to me and it takes about 3 times longer to get anything done over the phone with those Indian workers. Below is Travelocity’s email to me regarding my complaints about inability to hear/understand – Expedia also uses Indian Call Centers as well (so noted).

Dear Valued Customer,

All of us at Travelocity know that outsourcing to India is a tough issue, but we want to make sure you heard our side of the story before reaching any final conclusions.

A few thoughts for you:Our competitors (Expedia and Orbitz and several airlines) outsource to India and the Philippines years ago. We tried incredibly hard to make our operation in Clintwood successful, but in the end, we lost $55 million in 2003, in large part because we had significantly higher call center and fulfillment costs than our competitors. If we continue to absorb such hefty losses, we won’t be able to provide jobs for any of our employees, nor will we be able to have great deals for our consumers.

You may always choose to write back to us with your concern, we will definitely assist you with your concern.

Sincerely,
Harry T
Travelocity Customer Care

By: sharon

sharon — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 18:26:09 +0000

I just got off the phone with Travelocity and spent a good 45 minutes speaking with two guys from India, “Simon” and “David”. What SHOULD have taken a few minutes IF I had spoken to someone in the American MidWest, took far too long and I could NOT HEAR what they were saying to me. At one point the Indian Rep even said to me that I was yelling and he could hear me and would I lower my voice. Being very impatient now because they could not find the cancelled reservation or the correct credit card, I said to him that “Yes, I was yelling because I could NOT hear him as communications from India to the the mountains of Western North Carolina were very bad”. Well, that cut his nasty little attitude. I have sent Travelocity emails asking that they use American Call Centers so that I could HEAR AND UNDERSTAND what was being said to me. It takes three times longer to deal with people from india than it does in dealing with Americans. Now, I have nothing against the Indians and they are polite and do try to help, BUT, I can NOT hear or understand them and they can not seem to understand what I am trying to accomplish – so there I am spending three times longer to do simple things. I have had it. I too am going to go to the airlines after checking flights/costs and go direct. No more Travelocity or Expedia – I have had it.

By: Beth

Beth — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 17:10:22 +0000

I’m not alone?