As a lawsuit is in the works, I will not include many details, but I will just comment for people to be aware that United has (at minimum, one) extremely nasty agent working at the EWR Customer Service desk.
I was flying recently, and when I went to the desk, she was extremely nasty, before I even said a word, and before she even knew if I was late etc., or for any other reason with which United could try to use to squeeze out of this, and blame it on. No, she was simply nasty from the get go, before I even said a word (and she actually bent all four of our passports to keep them open. No, not what you're thinking- not along the vertical direction, as when in folding a book open. No, the HORIZONTAL direction- across the middle of all the passport pages, thereby creasing all four of our passports. And again, this was before I said a word). Bad apples can happen in any company, (and unfortunately, there do exist some naturally nasty humans; without proper self-work, they remain that way), but they obviously have an issue with the vetting process if this woman is actually working as a daily agent speaking to customers. I'm all for being inclusive and hiring this woman who obviously would not be hired by many a company- but she should have been stuffing envelopes far in the back offices- not up front being nasty to customers. Again, hiring nasty people can happen by mistake, but the real issue is when the company is informed about it, and will try to downplay it, instead of owning it. Welcome to United. When I communicated with the company about this nasty behavior, this was their written reply: "Regarding the behavior of our employee, we've reviewed the matter and found that our employee was following standard procedure. Although we cannot disclose specifics, we confirmed that your arrival was after the check-in cutoff time for the flight." LOL. I was the one who informed them that I was late, and that the complaint had nothing to do with that, but with the agents behavior, and the answer is "your arrival was after the check-in cutoff time"! Gaslighting at it's best! As the CEO of my business, I will integrate this United personal experience in our employee training courses, as an example of what never to do, should a customer ever bring up an incident of not being properly addressed. Again, mistakes can happen in any company, even my own, but when the response from the Corporate Office is to try to deflect and actually write that I came late, even after I was the one who informed them that I was late, and the issue was the employee's behavior before she even knew what flight I was on etc., then you know this is not the company to be associated with. Mistakes happen. Reputable companies feel bad about it. United apparently does not. Not a company to continue with obviously. Being a frequent flier, I have already cancelled my corporate account linked to United, and will take my business elsewhere, as well as advise my employees of this, and recommend other airlines.