Terrible experience with Delta...Advice needed

I moved to London with my family about 6 months ago.  As soon as I knew we were moving I started printing DEFRA checklists and contacting airlines.  I soon found the only route available to me was on Delta through Detroit.  I began calling Delta asking questions trying to gather info and make sure that I have had all my ducks in a row.  I even booked my kids and I on the same return flight to make sure that we could all be reunited as soon as possible.  It totally didn't work out that way. Here is where advice is needed because the situation I just went through has left me feeling completely taken advantage of.

1.  Delta informed me of all their requirements and that I would also have to pay $650 at the ARC as a clearance fee.  Because of this I did all my own checklists and took care of everything myself only to be told upon arriving at the ARC that Delta had not notified Defra that my dog was coming and that he would be held until the next day when they could clear him. 

2.  The ARC staff informed me upon my arrival there that the $650 fee was supposed to pay for a pet clearance agent here in London who would make sure I had everything in order for my dog's clearance.  I called a number they gave me for a clearance agent because I was told I had to.  All the clearance agent did was make one phone call to me to tell me what DEFRA was going to charge me for a vet visit and show up at ARC on the day I finally retrieved my dog and say okay you need to pay our fee and we need it in pounds.  It converts to 450 pounds.  In my jet lag and anxiety to get my dog I paid.  Turns out $650 converts to 420 pounds!  All this woman did was make 1 phone call and I had to pay her 450 pounds.  Is this really true?  I feel like a real sucker and need to know if I really needed to pay this fee.

3.  Because Delta didn't inform DEFRA that my dog was coming his tick and worm treatment was over 48 hours by the next day when DEFRA was to clear him.  DEFRA then required him to me retreated and with that treatment and the extra boarding and extra car fees going back and forth to ARC again I think we are at an additional 250 pounds. 



Thanks for any advice and for letting me vent.  I just feel like I was bled dry here and need to know what if anything I should do about it! 

I'm not sure what your options are, really, other than take it up with Delta customer service.

I flew my pets with British Airways and needed an agent at Heathrow who would "escort" my pets to the ARC. I have no idea if they actually did that or not, but the agent was included in my payment to BA, so I didn't really care either way. The agent I used was James Cargo, so you could call and ask them what their fees would be, to see if £450's in the right ballpark.

Delta might reimburse you in some fashion, but I don't know how much. Given that they did tell you about the $650 in advance, I don't know that #1 or #2 (where your problem seems to be with the exchange rate, not anything to do with Delta) would bother them much. #3 is an issue, but in my experience, getting companies to fork over anything in response to my inconvenience (like car fees) is like pulling teeth.

Out of curiosity, how much did Delta quote, and how big is your dog? You may have just gotten a discounted price to account for the fact that you'd be paying the $650 on this end. (Virgin Atlantic's prices are almost always lower than British Airways for the same route, but that's because you have to pay handling fees and such in £ when you arrive at the ARC to pick up your pet.)

I ended up paying Delta $530 for my dog's transport.  I guess I thought that the $650 was going to be paid to DEFRA or ARC for picking up the dog from the plane, checking him over, clearing his paperwork, etc..

My frustration comes from knowing that the $650 was for an agent to handle and streamline the process on this end which did not happen.  Then to have to overpay a fee to a company that did nothing but make one phone call is beyond ridiculous to me.  I just feel fleeced. 

As far as Delta goes I was passed around many times on the phone until I was finally instructed to fill out a failure of service form online.  The follow up email said that I would receive some sort of communication within 30 days.  I have been considering going to their Facebook page to complain and see if that helps? 

Thanks for your response!

The whole "James Cargo" part is a mystery to me. From our point of view we paid British Airways a single amount that covered everything, including the ARC. No hidden fees, etc. We hand our dogs over to BA and pick them up from the City of London (which runs the ARC). I'm not sure what James Cargo actually does, but it's probably not much.

I didn't shop around between the airlines for three reasons:

1. BA had a direct flight. I don't trust the large hub airports with my dogs when making a connection.

2. BA's home is Heathrow and so they must do a lot with the ARC, which will hopefully make the process go smoothly.

3. BA quoted prices that covered everything and I had heard about hidden charges with other airlines before.

If I had shopped around I would have expected to find another airline cheaper, but perhaps that was with hidden fees. I don't know. So maybe even with the extra cost you ended up paying a total that was something like I did anyway.

Andy

Take a look at this guy's website:

http://www.elliott.org/category/blog/

He writes a travel troubleshooting column on MSNBC, and has a lot of good advice for how to go about complaining in a way that has a better chance of getting a response:

http://www.elliott.org/help/how-to-fix-your-trip/

I think the agent you describe, who would streamline/handle everything, is more the "pet transport companies". (You arrange everything with them prior to starting the process, and they hold your hand/do things for you throughout the process, not necessarily just the airfare part.) If I recall correctly, when I very casually looked into it, the cost was ~$2,000 (for 2 pets), so getting it for $650 is unlikely.

Having to pay for the company to make a call may just be the cost of doing business. I didn't have an option to not use an agent at Heathrow/ARC for my pets. Since it was included in the price, it was just a matter of faxing them a form, so it wasn't a big deal, but with Virgin Atlantic you have to pay extra for it, and it's not optional.

$530 for transport sounds pretty cheap. I don't know how big your dog is, but I paid ~$2,300 to ship my 60lb dog and 13lb cat over, and I think the cat was about $500 of that. If your dog is > 15lbs, I would assume that the transport cost/quote should have included the $650 charge, and there was just miscommunication about when/where/how it would be paid.

Good luck with getting help from Delta. Posting on their Facebook page (do they also have Twitter?) could speed things along, if they monitor that sort of thing.

The whole "James Cargo" part is a mystery to me. From our point of view we paid British Airways a single amount that covered everything, including the ARC. No hidden fees, etc. We hand our dogs over to BA and pick them up from the City of London (which runs the ARC). I'm not sure what James Cargo actually does, but it's probably not much.

http://www.jamescargo.com/

I think their involvement, at most, consisted of making sure my boys got off the plane and were the animals that were supposed to arrive (and therefore meant to head off to ARC). For all I know, they didn't even do that much, and just forwarded on their form (with the description of my pets) to Heathrow/ARC for them to handle.

http://www.jamescargo.com/

I think their involvement, at most, consisted of making sure my boys got off the plane and were the animals that were supposed to arrive (and therefore meant to head off to ARC). For all I know, they didn't even do that much, and just forwarded on their form (with the description of my pets) to Heathrow/ARC for them to handle.

I think you are right. I remember BA telling me to fax details of my dogs to James Cargo well before we travelled. My guess is that they passed that on to ARC and DEFRA. I made a mistake on the form and James Cargo called me within an hour to clarify, so that part must be important in the process.

Andy

I did not read all the post made in this thread, but did want to quickly say that I had a friend who flew in direct from Atlanta to London on Delta with 3 dogs, and they ALSO HAD PROBLEMS with Delta NOT NOTIFYING ARC about the dogs arrivals and they, the dogs, had to stay at ARC an extra day.  I think the issue may have been it was a Sunday arrival, which Delta had told them they would have to make special arrangements to have someone their, or to have the proper authorities, or something like that.

I flew my 2 dogs via BA directly from Atlanta to London, and BA did a fabulous job are making sure my dogs were taken care of in all ways possible.  They contacted James Cargo and the ARC and made all the advance notifications, and we had no troubles at all.

So sorry to read about your issues, but seems Delta does not do a good job when it comes to taking care of ones furbabies.

DEFRA seems to be very proactive on how animals are treated by the airlines.  When I brought my dog over, Virgin made me go get a bigger kennel for her transport, than I had originally thought I would need.   Virgin told me that they had to strictly enforce the DEFRA guidelines for animal transport and that they only get  a couple of chances, and then DEFRA would rescind the airlines license for carrying animals on that route. 

I would contact Delta and tell them unless they work with you regarding your dissatisfaction, you are  lodging a complaint with DEFRA.  Perhaps a threat of losing a revenue stream might compel them to work with you.  After all, their incompetence not only led to additional costs for you, but also meant that your dog went through unnecessary stress and separation from you and your family.  They shouldn't be able to just shrug you off so easily.

I'm afraid you dont really have a complaint here.  You NEED an agent on the other side and it isnt really Delta's fault that you didnt know this.  Delta safely flew your dog to the UK, which is what you paid them for... what happened to them once on the ground isnt their problem, I dont think.

What EQ and Andy are saying is right - James Cargo (although I am sure they arent the only ones who do it) are the people who notified the ARC we were coming and took our animals off the plane to the ARC, and if they charge £450 for the service, then thats what they charge.  It sounds like your complaint would be with the agent (whoever it may be), but you arent likely to get any refund as they did their job properly once notified.

When I brought my dog over, she was met at the plane by someone from ARC.  They took her to the ARC Reception Centre, where they processed the paperwork and then released her to me at the Reception Centre about 4 hours after we arrived at Heathrow.   I believe I paid ARC their fee when I picked up Abbey.  There was no need to arrange for transportation from the plane to the ARC Reception Centre as this was part of why you are paying a fee.  Now, this was over 7 years ago, so things might have changed.  But looking at the DEFRA site, there is no indication that additional transportation is needed.  A Google search found this thread on a British Ex-Pat site, and it seems that indeed, pets are transported from the Airline to ARC as part of the clearance process.

The $650/£450 fee seems in line with what I paid to ARC, allowing for inflation, so that is not something you can avoid paying.

What seems remiss to me is the fact that Delta did not notify ARC that there was a dog arriving who needed to have clearance.  Where did your dog spend the night?  This is where I think you need to focus your complaint.

^^ That was our experience as well.  Both BA and Virgin had both mentioned James Cargo when I was calling around for quotes.  At the time (and sounds like they still are), it was explained to me that they were the third-party contracted middleman for paperwork and pet handling on the ground at Heathrow. 

As someone mentioned, BA includes the fees for the Heathrow end in the overall ticket price, other airlines did not.  We flew Virgin, called their agent when we landed and she met us at the ARC where we had to pay their fee in pounds.  IIRC, the agent handled the paperwork with DEFRA and came back to give us the all-clear.  Our cats were handed over shortly thereafter. 

It definitely sounds like the breakdown came from Delta, and that's where I'd lodge my complaint.  You'd have had to pay the same ground fee even if things had been handled correctly, but the additional wait time, trip back to the airport and need to re-administer flea/worm treatment is certainly an issue worth complaining about. 

reading all this has me nervous. I'm planning on moving with my cat sometime next year and I was quoted by Delta that the fee is 200. By the sounds of it more than just that is involved. How the heck does one find out for certain? This cost was given by Delta itself.

I would ask for further details from Delta - what agent do they use, etc. If you can find that out, you can contact the agent directly for a quote from them, and compare that to the 200 from Delta.

Also, you could see if Delta would be willing to fax you a detailed quote in writing - that way, if they quote you X the day before your pets fly, and at the airport suddenly it's Y, you at least have proof that it should be X and ask why there's a discrepancy.