Spirit Airlines eliminates its customer service department
Although Spirit Airlines denies reports that it’s on the verge of making massive cutbacks, there’s evidence the no-frills discount carrier is quietly dismantling its customer service department.
Well, that may be an overstatement. But it’s not much of one.
Earlier this year, I published the names and e-mail addresses of Spirit’s executives. It’s a courtesy I extend to every airline with passengers who have service problems. Spirit’s response? It apparently changed its e-mail addresses so that it wouldn’t have to deal with its own customers. None of the addresses currently work, but if there are any Spirit employees out there with the correct contact information — well, you know how to reach me.
Since then, I’ve received numerous reports of customer service inquiries simply being ignored. Two of them landed in my “in” box just this morning.
Here’s one from reader Helen Leung, who recently returned from her honeymoon in Jamaica. Not only did Spirit charge her $20 to transport her luggage, but it lost her belongings and then refused to reimburse her for the clothes she had to buy on her vacation, even though she presented the airline with the necessary receipts.
“Spirit Airlines apparently handles their problems by ignoring their customers through phone and mail,” she told me.
The second came from reader Lana Cullum, who says an error by a Spirit reservations agent cost her $200 in bank fees. The airline refuses to answer her queries relating to the charges. “There is no way to speak to a person that I have found when you call the office in Miramar,” she says. “As far as the 800 number — forget it!”
I’m not sure if Spirit has fired its entire customer service department, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s made cutbacks or has instructed its agents to hold the line on any refunds. Either way, this is a deeply troubling sign.
Spirit was never a standout when it comes to customer service, but refusing to answer inquiries from its passengers could be a sign that the cutbacks everyone is talking about may actually represent a best-case scenario.
The worst-case scenario? Well, that’s where Spirit actually lives up to its name.
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32 Responses to “Spirit Airlines eliminates its customer service department”
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Okay Chris,
You really got me laughing on this one. They never had customer service!
Seriously, the one dealing we had with them was impossible. It took a bank credit card complaint to get our money back after they completely changed our itinerary and offered a refund.
Sorry to say that the loss of Spirit will not be a great loss.
Aloha, Jeff
http://beatofhawaii.com
I can’t get ANYONE to answer a question regarding a time change for me. Any creative suggestions?
Sue the Ba$tards! If you have a customer service issue with any airline that is of the calibre of Spirit / Skybus et. al. The FIRST stop needs to be a) challenge the charge for the fare with the credit card company and b) sue them in small claims court.
They may not have any lawyers either. . . if they are not paying people $8 an hour to work in customer service they certainly are not paying lawyers $300 an hour to defend them. Collection may become an issue however.
Isn’t this just a case of ‘See you in court: 5 times when you should just sue ‘em’?
[...] Vallarta’s not just for tourists, it’s for artists too. Airline fallout | Over at the Elliott blog, there is talk of Spirit’s elusive customer service department. This is in alignment with our [...]
I have been calling the 800 772 7117 number for three days. The only time it is not busy is the middle of the night but no one has ever answered. Any one have another number. They have also not answered any emails.
I called Spirit Sunday evening at 11:00pm. I was on hold for one hour and 15 min. I did talk to someone who was fairly friendly. My issue was that when I log onto my current booking, I get a message that I need to contact a customer service rep and it doesn’t allow me to pre-pay for my luggage. so I told this guy on Sunday and he said it would be fixed in 15 minutes and I should be able to pay. He just had to confirm names and times first. I keep logging on and I am still seeing the same message and I am still unable to pay!!! UGHHHH!! I refuse to pay double the price the day of my departure!!! This is rediculous!
Katie: so pay double the day of departure, pay with a credit card and dispute the charge. See what happens - either dispute half the charge or the whole thing. . .
[...] Link: Elliott.org [...]
Well it sounds like Spirit has become the new Skybus, or RyanAir of the USA. Rest assured I’ll never use them, not that their fares and/or routes are all that great anyway. The only good thing about Spirit is that their tickets are fully transferrable, for a $25 fee. But since none of the other airlines have ever followed suit with anything similar, it can’t be that great a perk.
SPIRIT had a Customer Service Department? How do you get rid of something that never existed? You have me rolling on this one. And they really changed their email addresses? Wow.
I don’t understand why they were not one of the first casualties of the recent “small airline demise”. You have Frontier (which is a pretty good little operation) and ATA going down, or about to…but Spirit is still flying? What a world we live in.
It is truly time (and I never thought I would say this) for the government to step in and re-regulate the airlines- just for a few years until they can gather their thoughts and get it together. Otherwise, there will be one, maybe two carriers in this country- Southwest and the conglomeration of “the big guys”. And the Kool-Aid over there at Southwest is running on low. And the “big guys” are tired of SWA running them into the ground. Big wars ahead. And the cutbacks at Spirit are just a glimpse of what is to come with larger carriers…
Call the DOT with your complaint, drive them to the top of the DOT complaint list (they might already be there). They will respond to the DOT.
RELOCATED not ELIMINATED
As a soon to be ex-outsourced SPIRIT airlines employee, let me just say that Spirit Airlines indeed has a customer service department. I am one of the agents here in the reservations department currently outsourced in Manila, Philippines.
Call me bitter, spiteful or by whatever other names apply, but Spirit outsourced their reservations department here last August of 2007 and after making arrangements to relocate so i can be closer to the office, Spirit announced last April of 2008 that they are now ending their contract with us, so yeah - all those names would apply.
Not because we were failing their requirements, in fact their operations were never better compared to when they had it in house and i know its hard to believe given this company’s reputation ( one of the goals they had for us was to abandon 50% of the service calls and just focus on the new bookings ) but the employees here honestly cared about their jobs which meant that we really gave a damn about how the callers felt.
What could be the reason you might ask? Well the Money of course!
Im sure you’ll all be happy to know that they are now moving their operations to India. Yes you read that right. India. I know that our grasp of the english vernacular is nowhere near perfect, but we can definitely hold our own and dont even get me started about accents.
So I wish Spirit Airlines and their customers, the best of luck.
p.s.
The spanish queue formerly handled by a call center in the Dominican Republic has been moved 2 weeks ago to somewhere in Ecuador.
Oh and they let go of half of the people here already. fully knowing that the call volume needed that much people until their call center in India can go full swing.
Until now I have been fortunate that I never had a problem. Now my $9 account says I need to contact customer service before I can make a reservation. I sent an e-mail 1 1/2 weeks ago with no response. After 1 hour on hold, I could not get a hold of anyone on the reservation line and it has been even more impossible (actually a night mare) to find a telephone number for the customer service department.
I feel like I have been scammed and I am frustrated.
We fly to Florida to visit children at least 4 times a year. We’ve flown the carrier with the best fares, including Spirit, Southwest, Air Tran, Northwest and USA 3000. I have NEVER had any trouble until our last trip. Since we fly often, and many times using Spirit, we decided to apply for the Free Spirit Master Card which would include our fee for the $9 Fare Club.
We had to cut our trip short due to the death of my brother. We tried for many hours to call the airlines to arrange to get home on the night we got the call. We finally decided to and were successful reaching someone using the Spanish speaking number only to be told there was no guarantees but if we went to the airport before the first flights went out for the day, we should be able to get home. That was not possible. Then we were told that our return trip would be vouchered if we found fares out with another carrier. We did (to the tune of $450) and when we returned to the counter for the vouchers, we were then told that we would not be able to receive any because one leg of the trip was already flown…HELLO, does everyone only book one way flights?
Once we were home, I kept trying to contact Spirit and in desperation I called the Administrative offices of Detroit Metro Airport and was given a phone number up to the Spirit desk in the airport. Finally, I’d spoken to someone who offered me the vouchers for travel.
Today we booked travel back to Florida to finish our visit with our newest grandbaby but were not able to use the vouchers and then when I tried to reserve our seats they wanted $5-$15 per seat, per flight (of which we do not have direct flights) to the tune of $160 tacked on to the cost of the flights. Since we’ll be traveling with a 3 year old, we’d feel better having seats assigned but I WILL NOT PAY $160 to do that!!!
Adding insult to injury the I used my new Free Spirit Credit card to book these flights but find I am unable to log in to the website with the Free Spirit number on it!!! When I call the number given me at the time I applied for it, I am told that I have to call Spirit directly. I did and actually got a live person (which stunned me) only to be told that they cannot help me, they only book travel. Who can help me?
I intend to fly as planned but will be bending the ears of all the customers at the counters each leg of this trip with my frustration and since I have a nearly 2 hour layove, I will not leave the Spirit counter until this is all worked out. As I told the person I talked to at Barclay’s, I will pay the credit card off and cut it up and will most likely think twice (or many times more) before flying Spirit again.
I fly 4 spirit flights a month and, obviously, enjoyed (past tense) the savings. But, i agree with all comments on the outragous customer service debacle. Today i called, waited the customary 20 minutes and was answered by (you guessed it) India representative. (I know this due to the fact that we were having a language barrier and I asked where was I calling and the response was given by the very nice female customer service rep.) Additionally troubling during the call was all the construction noise (hammering and loud talking) in the background during the entire call - no lie. It seems like so many are sending their customer service to this country - and I have nothing against good, kind folks from India. Its just when you are discusing an issue - poor communication only makes it worse. HP and most credit card companies I geal with have farmed their departments out to here. so it goes with Spirit Air…
Mark
I too have had many dealings with the folks in India in the last two days. My 5:30 am flight from boston to myrtle beach was long gone when I finally reached the gate at 5:19! Now I know I was cutting it close, but we had checked a bag so Spirit knew we were in the airport and although they claim the plane left at 5:28, there was no plane in sight of the gate while we were there. As a matter of fact after we were told by the gate attendent that the “plane was gone” , my daughter and I crossed four lanes of traffic to get to American Airlines in another terminal building, found their ticket agent, and had her research any available flights. All this happened and we were almost back to the Spirit Ticket counter at 5:34!!!!! (by that time their counter was already closed for the day) After sending a fax, two emails, and spending approxiamately 5 hours on hold thursday 6/19, I did get my luggage back from Myrtle Beach (I guess I should consider myself lucky.) However according to any employees I have spoken to, it is their policy to reserve the right to deny boarding if you do not report to the gate 20 minutes prior to departure time. Nowhere on their site is this policy posted although on the preprinted boarding pass it says “please be on the aircraft 20 minutes before the departure time” . This sounds more like a suggestion as is in no way mentions that those who don’t may forfeit their ticket (and return ticket as well as Spirit claims that because I was a “no show” I am allowed no compensation for the return ticket as well). Knowing full well they resold those seats, this is quite a lucrative scam. I am truly saddened by what looks like Spirit’s inevitable demise because my daughter will enter Coastal Carolina in the fall and this being the only direct boston to myrtle beach route gave me some comfort in sending her so far from home. I only hope that when they do go under, some other airline of better repute will pick up this route. In the meantime I am not through trying to get satisfaction although I am not hopeful and in the future, I will have to use other, more expensive carriers because sometimes you get just what you pay for.
I have always flied Spirit because they fly into Atlantic City from Florida which is very close to my house. I have a problem, though. I booked a flight for my daughter on June 20, 2008 from Ft. Laurderdale to Atlantic City for that night at 8:00PM. My daughter arrived at the airport, and was sent to the wrong line which made her miss her flight. There was an Indian person who sent her in a line that was for a New York cancellation. When she did get into the right line, she had missed her flight. The girl that worked for Spirit told her she could take the next flight in the morning at 9:30AM for a charge of $75.00. I rebooked the flight that night for a one way ticket. I had booked a round trip before. I had to pay full price for the one way ticket. I don’t think this was fair because it was a mistake from one of Spirit’s employees. The reservation was for Stacie Tuohy.
Please email me back. Thank you
[...] Airlines has been widely reviled online (see the comments here, for example) for providing less-than-stellar customer service. Let’s move past that for a [...]
I booked four $17.50 flights (each way, round-trip) for a total Fare + FET of $176.00. The travel taxes and fees is another $167.20 totalling $313. Does that make sense? I can’t find anywhere on their site a breakdown of these taxes and fee charges and I tried to call customer service and no one is answering. Please help. The flight is from Atlantic City to Fort Lauderdale and return. Thanks.
Spirit has got to be the WORST airline operating in the United States in terms of customer service. After telling me I could make a change to my itinerary for a change fee, when I tried to do this at the counter I was told the entire ticket was invali because itshould have been done 24 hours before I tried to fly. The ticket, you guessed it, is non-refundable.
They are nothing but COMMON THIEVES!!!!
Agreed … Spirit Airlines “Common Thieves”.
We booked a family flight to FL.. Due to a Spirit Airline online reservation system error, we incurred an additional $100 fee. After 3 wks of numerous calls to C.S., (as they did not respond to their online “incident reports”) We finally reached a rep. late at night. The nightmare was well underway. We were misled by a representative and a mgr. by the name of Ronald. They would make the name change correction since it was their system error. The rep. did not disclose that the process would entail cancelling and rebooking and then informed me that the flight is now at a $100 increase from the original purchase price. I spoke to a manager, Ronald (so he says) and he said to fax a letter to Miramar, FL. When I inquired of a direct contact number, he was not allowed to submit one. Of course no response (this has been ongoing since June 6th).
So, the paying customers are paying for the consequences of Spirit Airlines poor service or lack of one! Needless to say, our credit card company will be getting a claim call from me when the statement arrives.
After trying for over two weeks to get someone to answer the customer service line to find out why I had a charge of $39.95 from Club Spirit Promotions, I finally tried on the reseveration line. No luck! The person I spoke to bearly spoke English. He took credit card info and after having to give the info three times I was told he couldn’t help me. My only recourse was to call Master Card and put the charge in dispute. With no lie I was on hold each time for at least twenty five minutes then got a hang-up. Possibly I will some day find out why this charge wasy on my Master Card. I am very disappointed in Spirit since I have traveled between Atlantic City and Tampa a number of times.
As I picked up my brother (terminally ill with cancer) and his children last night I literally stood in the airport laughing… I could not believe that amidst the excitement of family and friends reuniting, returning home, etc that the talk of the airport was Spirit Airlines? The horror stories were endless and as my six year old nephew summed it up “we hate spirit airlines”.
I could recount endless stories, but many of you have already told of the very situations we faced in the last couple of weeks. I have spent more time on the phone with Spirit than I have spent in my lifetime making personal reservations and assisting clients (previous airline and travel agent employee).
One situation really struck me last night - the family in front of me was at the ticket counter to get a pass to pick up their 9 year old unaccompanied minor - the agent refused to give the mother or father a pass to the gate because SPIRIT had failed to note the reservation as a UM? The proper paperwork was completed and the child was going to arrive at the gate expecting his mother or father to pick him up, a flight attendant was going to expect someone there to sign for him and yet she refused to issue a pass?
The agent suggested they go wait in the baggage claim area to which the father questioned how in the world the airline would no where to find them and deliver their child? She looked puzzled and told them to go stand in line at security and “MAYBE” the flight attendant would come looking for them there? The couple was very composed (I was getting concerned for them, but mostly for their childs safety) and walked over and stood in line at security. I told them to make the TSA agent aware of the situation and maybe they could help pursue the issue with them.
The couple and their son joined up with us at the baggage area where they shared the frustration of the flight crew who spent wasted time locating them at the security area and expressed frustration with having to go and board another flight? All was well with the child, but it took over thirty minutes for the luggage to finally hit the carousel. These people have major issues…
I could go on and on… I know which carrier NOT TO FLY!
More of the same horror stories. When we arrived in Boston for our 10:30 direct flight to Fort Lauderdale on July 7 only to be told there was a” schedule change” and our plane had left at 5:30.I had confirmed the flight on July 1. They acted as if it was our fault and offered no help. They had not notified us by any means.”Schedule change” allows them to avoid the legal problems of a flight cancelation. Well,14 hours later we got home;I lost a day’s wages and a few hundred dollars buying tickets from USAir. Thanks SpiritAirlines
This is the WORST airline EVER. My family and I had so many problems that I WILL NEVER FLY with them again. First of all, they have a non existent costumer service. I don’t have a problem paying for the luggage but not honoring the print out from the Internet and trying to charge us twice for the luggage is too much . We had a 10 month baby with us , the employees of this F@!@# airline broke our brand new stroller , we had to carry our baby , all ther luggage + the broken stroller around the airport… You can only imagine how fun that was!!! After 3 months of getting receipts , repair estimates and all the other crap they send us a letter saying they won’t be able to compensate us for lack of information. THIS AIRLINE IS FULL OF CRAP!!!! DON’T EVER FLY WITH SPIRIT!!!!!
Spirit Air has no customer service. My husband and I have 45,000 frequent flier airmiles . We can not use them because we are “locked out” and our passwords will not work. I have spent two months trying to get someone to help me. They will not talk to me on the phone or by email. Always hanging up on me, putting me on hold for hours, or giving me a bogus phone number that does not work. Emails never are answered. So unbelievably frustrating. Sara Hubbard
this past November, myself and my two daughters booked a flight from Atlantic city, NJ. to Orlando Fla. as per the instructions on the boarding pass we were advised to arrive 3 hours prior to departure. When we arrived there was no one in the terminal,
so we waited a short time until i saw a gentleman by the counter. I asked him if he knew what time the airport opened. His response, DOES IT LOOK LIKE I HAVE A CRYSTAL BALL!
i responded, NO YOU IDIOT, BUT THE JACKET YOUR WEARING READS SPIRIT AIRLINES.
END OF STORY
I quit flying Spirit years ago. I had several flights in a row that were late. I realize that weather and mechanical problems can affect travel times, but the last incident took the cake.
I was putting my God-daughter, who had come to visit on the plane - an unaccompanied minor - for her trip home. Under this arrangment, I waited in the gate area until the plane departed. A mechanical problem was found on the plane and all of the passengers de-planed and told to stay in the gate area. I followed those instructed and pulled some books out of my God-daughter’s carry-on bag and tried to keep her entertained. Meanwhile, the crew left the gate area to go to Burger King. The plane was fixed and ready for passengers to board, except the crew wasn’t there. We waited 30 minutes for them! On top of that, when they did arrive with Burger King bags in hand (of course, there were snide comments by passengers, like thanks for getting my lunch too…), they were less than friendly and courtesous. I felt like we interrupted their lunch plans and were put out by this!
I contacted Spirit about the experience. They responded with, sorry for your problem in X airport (not where I was) on your flight to Y city (not my god-daughter’s destination). For your inconvience, we’ll send you a voucher for $30.
As a marketing and public relations professional myself, I was appauled. I realize we all have “form” letters on our computers, but they didn’t even take the time to edit the letter or address the fact that I was so displeased with the inappropriate and unprofessional conduct of the crew, so much so that I’d never fly the airline again…I’d rather pay $30 more (at the time) and take the Northwest flight. With this being stated, why do they think a $30 voucher would win by business back? I’m amazed that they’ve stayed in business…this took place 10 years ago.
Hey John Eric, I worked for Spirit here in Ecuador, yes the english customer service department is now located in India, yeah, awful but big bosses want it like that… I used to work for the english area and yes I know my english is not excellent and several times I was discriminated by american customers saying they don’t want to speak to a latin guy, and I did my best to solve their problems, webpage really causes more inconvenients than giving real help, but hey guess what, customers sometimes called us asking help or demanding attention in something that just does not apply, some troubles were caused by themselves and they used to think we were able to solve all their issues when they clearly were out of our hands. All in all, if you want to save money then read all the policies before purchasing a ticket to see how convenient it is for you