Alert Shipping dogs via Delta

Kathleen · February 15th 06, 05:06 PM posted to rec.pets.dogs.health

Permission to cross post granted by author.

From: Marcia Deugan

Subject: Major Airline screw up

Last Friday had to be one of the very most frustrating
days of my entire life. Never have I encountered ,
all at once, such a group of un-co-operative uncaring
people all working at the same company. The company
is Delta Airlines.

Looking back, I should have realized that something
was different. I have shipped puppies with Delta for
over 30 years. This time, when I called the Pets
First desk to make the reservation, at about 6 am one
morning I got a recording telling me that it was
closed and that I should call back during office
hours. The recording did not say what those office
hours were.

When I finally did get through to them later in the
day after being on hold "waiting for the next
available representative" for 25 minutes I made a
reservation for last Friday, Feb. 3, 2006 for a puppy
to go "Pets First" from Ft. Myers FL to Bloomington ,
Illinois, with a change of planes in Atlanta. I
specifically asked them to check that the planes were
big enough for a 200 crate, and was assured that both
were full size Delta jets.

I went up to the airport cargo on Thurs. Feb. 2 to do
the paper work , surrender the health certificates,
etc. since the flight was at 6:55 on Friday morning
and this would simplify . On Friday morning, I took
puppy , crate, newspaper, towel, stuffed toy, baby
blanket, an unopened bottle of water , dry food in a
zip lock bag, and plastic dishes attached to the door
of the shipping crate. Every inch of the crate and
all items were examined, approved , and placed in or
taped to the crate. This was at 5:30 in the morning.

My name and number, owner to be's name and number ,
were on at least 3 pieces of paperwork attached to the
crate. My name, address, and telephone number are on
the crate side in black laundry marker.

Puppy was to arrive in Bloomington at 11:30. At that
time the new owner called me. The puppy was not on
the plane. She was frantic. No one had called either
of us. The airline did not know where he was. An
hour later he was located in Atlanta. They informed
us that he was not on the plane because they had used
a different plane that did not allow dogs. So they
just let him sit there. THEY NEVER CALLED TO LET US
KNOW!.

No other flight with appropriate plane was scheduled
that day. It was then arranged that he would fly (at
2:40 pm) to Peoria, Illinois and arrive there at 3:20
(change of time zones) . OK - things happen. Not
happy, but puppy would get there and new owner would
drive to get him in Peoria. Then 3:20 arrived, so did
the plane, and THE PUPPY WAS NOT ON THE PLANE. THEY
NEVER CALLED EITHER ONE OF US TO SAY THAT HE WOULD NOT
BE ON THE PLANE. I had called the Pet First Desk and
been on hold for 60 minutes one time before giving up
and 50 minutes another to make sure he was on the
plane and never contacted a real person. The tracking
site on the Delta web site would not show anything. A
real person told us later that they DO NOT TRACK DOG
SHIPMENTS, ONLY PLANES.

It took two hours for them to find him, still at the
Atlanta airport. I was FRANTIC - I am 10 hours away
from Atlanta. The new owner (at the airport in
Peoria) was frantic. Once they located him ( I am
going," has he been out to potty, has he got water,
was he offered food?" - oh yes, he is fine, right here
in front of me wagging tail)

Arrangements made to put him on a plane at 8:40 pm.
Got through to the pet desk at 9:00 - NO - THE PUPPY
WAS NOT ON THAT FLIGHT - HE WAS STILL IN ATLANTA.
Told to call a "logistics" number I found that he had
not been put on that flight because it was carrying
dry ice. BUT THEY NEVER CALLED EITHER OF US TO TELL
US-------------WHY WHY WHY------------silence. Now,
they told me, he would have to go to a kennel as they
couldn't keep him at the airport for over four hours.
I am to the screaming stage - he has already BEEN at
the D------ airport for over 12 hours. Is the puppy OK
, is he dehydrated? Has he been allowed out of the
crate, does he have water? Puppy, they said , is
fine. Will go to a kennel. I will be billed. They
have no idea when puppy will fly to Illinois. ALSO
TELL ME NOW THAT HE WOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN SHIPPED OUT
WITHOUT A FAX FROM ME CHANGING HIS DESTINATION. NEVER
EVER MENTIONED THIS BEFORE ALL DAY
LONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I tell them to hold - using cell phone I call Kitty
Cahoon who is at dog shows in Atlanta. Kitty
immediately agrees to go and get the puppy - I convey
this to the idiot that I am talking to who then
transfers me to another idiot who says that they won't
release the puppy to anyone without a FAX. I stop
trying to reason with them and scream that it is now
11:30 at night and I don't have a bloody FAX machine.
No budging them. A rule. A contract that I signed
that morning giving them jurisdiction over the puppy.
I tell them that the contract has already been broken
by THEM - that it was to deliver the puppy to
Bloomington 12 hours earlier. I finally told them I
would find a FAX machine if I had to drive 100 miles
to do that - to not send the dog to a kennel. I am
terrified that I will never see this puppy alive
again. Finally my daughter gets hold of someone in
the newspaper office that she knows and a FAX is sent.
Kitty picks up the puppy. He is, thank God, alive.
He is also dehydrated, un- watered, un- fed and in a
kennel with urine and stool, dirty paper, bedding ,
and toys. To her it seems he has never been taken out
or fed or watered. In that shipping crate for 18
hours. They go back to the show grounds to her RV and
I sink to the floor crying and threatening to sue
Delta for the inhumane and callous way they have
managed to lose this pup and cause trauma to us all.

This is Sunday. Puppy was not in good enough shape to
try to fly him yesterday. Fluids have helped and he
is now back to acting good. Delta wants to "start
over" to get him to Peoria. They also want me to pay
another $200 to do so. Guess what - I have called my
credit card company and that charge already there will
be disputed until the day I die. I WILL NEVER USE
DELTA TO SHIP A PUPPY AGAIN. I will tell everyone I
know of the horrible way we were treated. I will
contact every Delta official that I can get a
name/address for. Any other suggestions? I WILL
FOLLOW THROUGH.

All through this whole thing not one employee of Delta
ever apologized for the problems. Not once did
anyone, except for one ticket agent in Bloomington,
even express sympathy. I told the last person I
talked to at the Atlanta airport that if that puppy
died that "heads would roll". Well, the puppy has
survived. Kitty has him safe with her. We don't know
at this time if he will continue his trip or what.
Right now we are just glad that he is alive. But
heads are still going to roll.

Please feel free to post to any and all lists and
concerned people so they can't do this to anyone else.

Marcia Deugan
ZIYADAH Sussex Spaniels

wolfpuppy · #2 March 4th 06, 07:56 PM posted to rec.pets.dogs.health

"Kathleen" wrote in message
...
Permission to cross post granted by author.

From: Marcia Deugan

Subject: Major Airline screw up

Last Friday had to be one of the very most frustrating
days of my entire life. Never have I encountered ,
all at once, such a group of un-co-operative uncaring
people all working at the same company. The company
is Delta Airlines.

Looking back, I should have realized that something
was different. I have shipped puppies with Delta for
over 30 years. This time, when I called the Pets
First desk to make the reservation, at about 6 am one
morning I got a recording telling me that it was
closed and that I should call back during office
hours. The recording did not say what those office
hours were.

When I finally did get through to them later in the
day after being on hold "waiting for the next
available representative" for 25 minutes I made a
reservation for last Friday, Feb. 3, 2006 for a puppy
to go "Pets First" from Ft. Myers FL to Bloomington ,
Illinois, with a change of planes in Atlanta. I
specifically asked them to check that the planes were
big enough for a 200 crate, and was assured that both
were full size Delta jets.

I went up to the airport cargo on Thurs. Feb. 2 to do
the paper work , surrender the health certificates,
etc. since the flight was at 6:55 on Friday morning
and this would simplify . On Friday morning, I took
puppy , crate, newspaper, towel, stuffed toy, baby
blanket, an unopened bottle of water , dry food in a
zip lock bag, and plastic dishes attached to the door
of the shipping crate. Every inch of the crate and
all items were examined, approved , and placed in or
taped to the crate. This was at 5:30 in the morning.

My name and number, owner to be's name and number ,
were on at least 3 pieces of paperwork attached to the
crate. My name, address, and telephone number are on
the crate side in black laundry marker.

Puppy was to arrive in Bloomington at 11:30. At that
time the new owner called me. The puppy was not on
the plane. She was frantic. No one had called either
of us. The airline did not know where he was. An
hour later he was located in Atlanta. They informed
us that he was not on the plane because they had used
a different plane that did not allow dogs. So they
just let him sit there. THEY NEVER CALLED TO LET US
KNOW!.

No other flight with appropriate plane was scheduled
that day. It was then arranged that he would fly (at
2:40 pm) to Peoria, Illinois and arrive there at 3:20
(change of time zones) . OK - things happen. Not
happy, but puppy would get there and new owner would
drive to get him in Peoria. Then 3:20 arrived, so did
the plane, and THE PUPPY WAS NOT ON THE PLANE. THEY
NEVER CALLED EITHER ONE OF US TO SAY THAT HE WOULD NOT
BE ON THE PLANE. I had called the Pet First Desk and
been on hold for 60 minutes one time before giving up
and 50 minutes another to make sure he was on the
plane and never contacted a real person. The tracking
site on the Delta web site would not show anything. A
real person told us later that they DO NOT TRACK DOG
SHIPMENTS, ONLY PLANES.

It took two hours for them to find him, still at the
Atlanta airport. I was FRANTIC - I am 10 hours away
from Atlanta. The new owner (at the airport in
Peoria) was frantic. Once they located him ( I am
going," has he been out to potty, has he got water,
was he offered food?" - oh yes, he is fine, right here
in front of me wagging tail)

Arrangements made to put him on a plane at 8:40 pm.
Got through to the pet desk at 9:00 - NO - THE PUPPY
WAS NOT ON THAT FLIGHT - HE WAS STILL IN ATLANTA.
Told to call a "logistics" number I found that he had
not been put on that flight because it was carrying
dry ice. BUT THEY NEVER CALLED EITHER OF US TO TELL
US-------------WHY WHY WHY------------silence. Now,
they told me, he would have to go to a kennel as they
couldn't keep him at the airport for over four hours.
I am to the screaming stage - he has already BEEN at
the D------ airport for over 12 hours. Is the puppy OK
, is he dehydrated? Has he been allowed out of the
crate, does he have water? Puppy, they said , is
fine. Will go to a kennel. I will be billed. They
have no idea when puppy will fly to Illinois. ALSO
TELL ME NOW THAT HE WOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN SHIPPED OUT
WITHOUT A FAX FROM ME CHANGING HIS DESTINATION. NEVER
EVER MENTIONED THIS BEFORE ALL DAY
LONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I tell them to hold - using cell phone I call Kitty
Cahoon who is at dog shows in Atlanta. Kitty
immediately agrees to go and get the puppy - I convey
this to the idiot that I am talking to who then
transfers me to another idiot who says that they won't
release the puppy to anyone without a FAX. I stop
trying to reason with them and scream that it is now
11:30 at night and I don't have a bloody FAX machine.
No budging them. A rule. A contract that I signed
that morning giving them jurisdiction over the puppy.
I tell them that the contract has already been broken
by THEM - that it was to deliver the puppy to
Bloomington 12 hours earlier. I finally told them I
would find a FAX machine if I had to drive 100 miles
to do that - to not send the dog to a kennel. I am
terrified that I will never see this puppy alive
again. Finally my daughter gets hold of someone in
the newspaper office that she knows and a FAX is sent.
Kitty picks up the puppy. He is, thank God, alive.
He is also dehydrated, un- watered, un- fed and in a
kennel with urine and stool, dirty paper, bedding ,
and toys. To her it seems he has never been taken out
or fed or watered. In that shipping crate for 18
hours. They go back to the show grounds to her RV and
I sink to the floor crying and threatening to sue
Delta for the inhumane and callous way they have
managed to lose this pup and cause trauma to us all.

This is Sunday. Puppy was not in good enough shape to
try to fly him yesterday. Fluids have helped and he
is now back to acting good. Delta wants to "start
over" to get him to Peoria. They also want me to pay
another $200 to do so. Guess what - I have called my
credit card company and that charge already there will
be disputed until the day I die. I WILL NEVER USE
DELTA TO SHIP A PUPPY AGAIN. I will tell everyone I
know of the horrible way we were treated. I will
contact every Delta official that I can get a
name/address for. Any other suggestions? I WILL
FOLLOW THROUGH.

All through this whole thing not one employee of Delta
ever apologized for the problems. Not once did
anyone, except for one ticket agent in Bloomington,
even express sympathy. I told the last person I
talked to at the Atlanta airport that if that puppy
died that "heads would roll". Well, the puppy has
survived. Kitty has him safe with her. We don't know
at this time if he will continue his trip or what.
Right now we are just glad that he is alive. But
heads are still going to roll.

Please feel free to post to any and all lists and
concerned people so they can't do this to anyone else.

Marcia Deugan
ZIYADAH Sussex Spaniels

I, too, have had bad experiences with delta, although not, it seems, to the
degree you have. However, I wouldn't fly on delta again if someone bought
my ticket, and am happy as a lark that they are on the verge of going out of
business. They are uncaring, unfeeling, assholes. It sounds to me like you
have a legal case against them, although with their financial woes (big
surprise, eh?) you may have trouble collecting if you did win.

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