Dear United

After losing my luggage, United has screwed up my delivery address 3 times - San Ysodro, San Ysdoro, Sansierro. It's San Ysidro, just like I wrote in block letters you fucking idiots. And it shouldn't take 3 days to get me my damn luggage back.

Below was the letter I wrote on Monday, followed by the letter I wrote today.

Dear United,

Yesterday (Sunday) I flew from Seattle to San Francisco on flight 571. I checked in one bag and it did not arrive in San Francisco with me. I filed a claim at SFO and found out that the agent in Seattle made the mistake of being logged into the profile of the passenger who was in line ahead of me when he checked my bag in.

I was appalled to find that the claim sticker they gave me read “Sarah Roberts.” This Sarah Roberts was to continue from SFO onto San Diego and so that is where my bag is now. I am absolutely outraged that a mistake like this could happen. Even the agent in SFO with whom I filed the claim commented, “Pretty scary how something like this could happen huh?” Yeah, it’s scary alright. Especially since my bag contains my medication, eye glasses, and file of important documents containing very personal information. That file included a lease application with all my banking, credit, and social security information – plenty to get someone started on stealing my ID. Lest I mention that the lease application was due TODAY for an apartment that I spent the weekend in Seattle looking for. So now I’m without my glasses, medication and now overdue lease application.

The agent in SFO, who did not once utter an apology, processed my application and promised that my bags be delivered to my office by noon today. It’s 3pm now. I logged in on your web site and it says “Unfortunately, your baggage has not been located. However, we do have it on priority trace. We apologize for any inconvenience we may be causing you. Please check back with us in a few hours for any updated information.”

But that’s not the worst of it. From the web page I could see that the agent at SFO had entered my office address incorrectly. Of course that doesn’t matter much when my bag is still lost in San Diego, but it certainly doesn’t give me any more faith in United Airlines’ ability to serve its customers.

Let’s sum this up. My bag was checked in under another passenger’s name. That passenger went to San Diego, as did my suitcase. My suitcase was not delivered by noon as promised because it’s still lost. I check online and my delivery address was entered incorrectly by a very unapologetic and incompetent agent. Now by the time the bag is located and delivered I probably will not be at this address (I’ll be at home) and I will have to contact United once again to reroute the shipping of my bag. If I don’t I will miss two days of medication, endure navigating my house in the evening without my glasses, and possibly lose the apartment I spent my weekend in Seattle looking for. For this, United has promised me a $25 travel certificate. The inconvenience and time this has cost me is worth far more than $25. I am requesting more compensation than a laughable $25. That hardly makes up for the time I spent just waiting in line to file a claim at SFO late on a Sunday night.

Sincerely,

fumbling

And today's letter:

Dear Levi,

I finally got my luggage back Wednesday afternoon 23rd Aug, three days after it was lost Sunday night the 20th. While I appreciate the travel certificate I am still concerned about what was done with the contents of my bag while it was gone for three days.

When I checked in my bag I had hastily stuffed a file with all my apartment hunting/lease application documents into my suitcase. When I got it back, I noticed this file was neatly tucked into the strap inside my suitcase. This is not where I had left it. The reason for my concern is that those documents, as I mentioned earlier, contain very personal information including:

- My social security number
- Account numbers for all my bank accounts
- Driver's license number
- License plate number
- Phone numbers and addresses of all places I've lived the last three years
- My parents' and my landlord's contact information
- My birthdate
- My income

I am extremely concerned about who might have seen/copied that information since my bag was left unsupervised in a public place for 3 days. Even if it had been held in a locked area by United (which I doubt since the last customer service rep I spoke to had to call the San Diego Airport Tuesday just to track down the whereabouts of my bag), I'd still be concerned about my files having been moved and people, including United employees, viewing/stealing my information. As I hope you understand identity theft is a very real and very serious issue and such instances of theft are common and often ruin the lives of those victimized. Other companies who put their customers at risk of identity theft commonly compensate by issuing a year or more of credit monitoring services. I am requesting the same of United and expect that, as a company that strives to take care of its customers, United will comply. I look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

fumbling