My response would have been,

"Thank you for letting me know how little you think of your customers and your attitude toward valid complaints. As a result of this, I am now forwarding a copy of my complaint to appropriate government agencies, the Better Business Bureau, and the following customer-oriented organizations..."

And put those people on the CC list.

Baaaaa, baaaaaa, baaaaaa

does Consumerist have a "Dumbass of the Day" award? If so, this guy should win for today.
If not, this guy should win for today.

douche chills

LOL what a douchenozzle.

Maybe the CEO was having an off day?

ooooh snap!

unbelievable! A CEO who is a prick!

What an @$$.

Wow. It's like the Darwin Awards meet Consumerist. Outstanding!

as Engadget would say:

CEO NO HE DIDNT!!

This reminds me of one time when my cube neighbor wouldn't shut up--he just kept rattling on and on about something I couldn't care less about and I was tired of listening to him. I fashioned an e-mail to my other cube neighbor saying, "God, shut up already!" Only, I accidentally addressed it to the loudmouth.

I remember the horror after I hit send, realizing what I had done.I'm not sure how I ever played that one off. Rather poorly, I'm sure.

He may have been a douchebag, but delays HAPPEN damnit.

Especially given Fl to Atlanta in the summer late afternoon, who wants to bet thunderstorms were involved?

@Schminteresting:
> This reminds me of one time when my cube neighbor wouldn't shut up--he just kept rattling on and on about something I couldn't care less about and I was tired of listening to him. I fashioned an e-mail to my other cube neighbor saying, "God, shut up already!" Only, I accidentally addressed it to the loudmouth.

Did it work?

And this is surprising, how? A employee/manager/CEO being rude to a customer happens so often that it's hardly news.

And the BBB are twats, they're pretty damn useless.

I'm not offended by the delay, which happens. I am offended by his contempt for his customers and his utter lack of appreciation for what can happen on the internet. I e-mailed him today to let him know how his response got him added to my personal do-not-fly list, regardless of how much money it may save me.

Point of the massive CC aside, did you read the consumer's email? He spent $74 incl. taxes, and easily spent several hours compiling the cherry bomb email.

Just saying.

The background on all this is that Spirit's 800# is damn near nonfunctional. There are over 100 comments now of people being stranded, losing their flights, losing money, all because they aren't able to get ahold of anyone to rebook their cancellations. All hours of the day, Spirit's 800# says they're too busy to take your call, and then hangs up on you. Crazy.

This e-mail thing just seemed to throw it all into overdrive. Check out the original post to see the full conversation!

This is why Consumerist really needs a "haha" tag.

@artki: I think the rudeness of the statement silenced him, rather than the underlying message. I think he was in shock. But boy, was I mortified. Whew. That's one mistake I don't want to relive. You can be sure I double-check my recipient now!

While I don't condone the response, who in their right mind only allows 1.5 hours leeway when they book travel?

So if there was a traffic jam in Atlanta (which hardly EVER happens) would they try to recover their expenses from the city?

What idiots!

When I traveled a few years ago when delays weren't as common as they are now, I always allowed myself at least 4 hours leeway.

Whats funny is that this story originates on a "tech" blog and lambastes the person for" not understanding how the 'reply to all button' button works." What makes this amusing is that he says that he is going to go ahead and strip out all of the peoples last names, but in the original email posted below the story, he fails to understand how HTML codes and linking work. Apparently he forgot how to post a code only format of the email and while most of the mailto: links are broken, he squashed one together which still keeps the "John Prestifilippo" easily attainable with a mouseover.

Pot, theres someone named Kettle I'd like you to meet.

Actually Dashthehand, it originated on my *personal* blog where I throw things up to communicate with friends and family. This whole thing started with me doing just that.

If you really feel like I should take the time to go through all the email headers and fix/clean to make things more pleasant for your viewing pleasure, what can I say... Go tell the world how bad I am ;)

Well, this twatwaffle got part of my experience with his airline right. I never flew them before, but after experiencing the bottom-feeding Chinatown Bus of the Air that is "Spirit" I will never fly them again regardless of how much they 'save' me - presumably by cramming me into an even smaller than usual seat, charging me to check bags, and hiring only the surliest, most incompetent staff.

Perhaps it was not a "mistake" at all.

I don't think the author of the e-mail did everything right (1.5 hours allowed for error? Seriously?), but I do think that the real issue is the crappy customer service on every single level of Spirit. Kudos to Pelagius for calling them the Chinatown Bus of the Air. Do not want.

Let's see just how powerful the Consumerist is. If the CEO alluva sudden flip-flops, we'll know.

I don't think the response is that bad. It just seemed like a standard inter-office communication that wasn't meant to get out. The customer though was demanding a lot, and he should know airlines pretty much don't reimburse you for anything. Especially a discount carrier. I think consumers today just need to learn to build delays into their schedules. It sucks, but that's the way the system currently is running.

@alexrudloff: By "tech blog" I was referring to how you list your interests in technology and being a software engineer along with your resume in numerous formats which details that you're not just some idiot with "Blogmaker Xtreme v1.0" talking about your cat.

And no, its not for my viewing pleasure, its irony. You complain about their lack of computer knowledge. Then, someone with your level of knowledge (AS DETAILED BY YOUR RESUME) makes an easily avoidable mistake after stating to the community that you would be altering the email to make sure you're the "good guy" and not getting other people spammed? in trouble? Not that it would matter anyways.

Stupid? Yeah. Curt? Sure. Obnoxious? Not really, considering I bet every person posting a comment above has said something behind someone elses back before.

Without reading the original email the customer wrote (which I'm having trouble finding through the nested series of links here), I can't seem to come out either way on the issue. bhall03 seems to think it's the customer's dumb fault here, and I'm somewhat inclined to side with him/her.

I will however say this, and direct it especially toward the guy on Stuck On The Palmetto who hates Spirit: saying "you get what you pay for" IS NOT A REASON TO GET RIGHTEOUSLY ANGRY. It is a reason to accept that something sucks, then move on. Anything beyond that is a personal vendetta.

You hate Spirit, I get it. But it's cheap, it suits my needs, and generally every airline in this country is shit so sliding a little further down for the sake of a couple hundred bucks is well worth it IMHO. I'm willing to take risks with my travel plans for cheap because I am a 20-something tightwad. You are not. We understand.

In case you didn't catch it, here are the emails:

ben.baldanza@spiritair.com Ben Baldanza President/CEO
martin.harrison@spiritair.com Martin Harrison COO
tony.lefebvre@spiritair.com Tony Lefebvre Senior VP of Customer "NO" Service
john.prestifilippo@spiritair.com John Prestfilippo Senior VP of Technical Operations

Edie and Sleze are correct.

The poster didn't do everything right. 1.5 hours leeway when flying is schedule suicide.

And the email that should have stayed within the office seems typical, if maybe a bit arrogant.

At least he didn't say, "Go tell them to take a flying fa"

Update: New email from Ben to Pasquale:
"Pasquale, hold off on that response. I'll let the world know how bad we are myself."

Disappointing--I've been a big fan of Spirit for about two years. I should send an email telling them I will keep this incident in my mind when comparing airlines, and will choose to spend my money where the customer is valued.

haha. This is more than ironic.

LOL

What an idiot! Hopefully this will embarass him enough to either leave or start changing some of their policies. For those that are defending the airline, try calling the customer service line. You get hung up on 99% of the time!

Sometimes you get what you pay for.

@dashthehand: You soooo remind me of that college humor video floating around that makes fun of internet commenters. Go outside.

For me, the surprising thing has been how many people have grown to expect getting screwed by airlines. It's like we as consumers just expect the hassle and the delays. Google "The best of Flights, The worst of Flights" by Daniel Gross. Great summary.

@Pelagius
Best reference to the Chinatown Bus. Unless someone has ridden one, they'll never truly appreciate the comment.

I loved the chinatown bus driver. He looked like Jules from Pulp Fiction met James Brown. Had to be 70, to boot. He would leave people at the Dover House if they were late.

After reading the ladies letter I probably would have said the same thing but I wouldn't hit the "reply all" button. She wanted the company to give her money for the $38 tickets plus the two $100 tickets plus the cheap hotel room. I would have told her to her face to take a leap and added her to the "no-fly" list. There are times when a company should do their best to make a customer happy and other times when they should tell the customer to just go away...

Everyone says stuff at work that others aren't supposed to here. The difference is the CEO got caught and now he's got to pay the piper. He F'ed up.

I agree with the CEO actually. Yes their plane was late but I don't see why the airline should pay for her concert tickets and hotel room. She obviously didn't give herself a whole lot of time between the airport and the concert hall. Planes are late all the time. Would she have asked the taxi driver to reimburse her concert tickets if there had been a traffic jam?

@alexrudloff:
It's not a matter of accepting getting screwed by the airlines. The only sure fire way for individuals to change corporate behavior is not to patronize those companies that give you poor service. In the case of airlines this may mean paying more money for the same product.

Those people that would prefer to place money over service can then plan for disruptions in their travel plans. And no, this is not a suggestion that the other carriers are any better. But people that plan for delays or other snafus that do tend to occur, not only with travel, but normal daily activities, are better prepared.

OH SNAP

@Beyond:
I agree that the customer was a little out of line...but I think the real issue here is not whether you agree with the CEO's private sentiment, but the fact that sending these private thoughts (however inadvertently) to the customer is really, really ill-advised and unprofessional. The airline industry in general, and Spirit in particular, are having enough major customer service malfunctions without a CEO shooting his own company in the foot.

Classic!

"Send this jerk the bedbug letter."

@krylonultraflat: I don't think it's that, exactly, that is angering everyone.

It's this guy's attitude to a valid complaint. You don't keep customers by making them feel unwanted.

This is a very standard interoffice correspondence; just a slippery MS Outlook button. I see nothing rude or absurd in the response.

Moreover, the counter point to this is the exact reason so many executive customer service teams, reps, etc, are so intolerable - the pathetic sugar laden, semantically driven responses. Even fluff for a porno.

In the end, what does it matter if the response is bubbling with butterfly's and chocolate chip kisses or like the above; if the result is the same?

The customer was a wiener, crying foul over a $74 R/T; if he was ultimately in the right, this is what charge backs, and c/c merchant agreements are for.