Complaint Review: Frontier Airlines - Denver Colorado

On September 15, 2016 I took a One-way flight from Missoula, Montana to Denver, Colorado.  My first flight in nearly 30 years.  I checked a bag and some of my items were also in my boyfriend's bag.  Upon arrival at nearly 11:40 p.m. We got our luggage and went back to his apartment.  I began unpacking and realized that 3 pieces of jewelry were missing out of my luggage.  I immediately tried calling their luggage claims department and got a recording that they were not open.  

At 8:00 a.m. they opened and I got a recording that asked me to leave a detailed message and someone would call me back.     On September 16, 2016 I received a call back and a woman took a report and said that they did not cover jewelry.  According to their website it said they would not be liable for lost or damaged jewelry.  Little did I know that hidden in another part of the wesite, unrelated to baggage policies, on page 15 of their "Terms and Conditions" it states that they did not cover any jewelry.  

Note*  I do not believe that this information was actually even on their website when I purchased my ticket.  It is my belief that it has been added and further their website has changed with the pertinent information being in the baggage policy page now.

I went for several weeks not hearing anything and then in mid October I received a phone call from their Pilferage department.  They told me that they had gotten a message that I needed to file a claim.  I explained that they had already taken one.  The woman tried to find it in their system and there was nothing.  She took another one and I had her send me a copy of it via email.  She said someone would get back to me.  Several weeks later in November I wrote and asked what was going on with the investigation and they told me that it was being sent up to Security.  Then I got complete silence.  

For months I would send emails that went unanswered and the phone calls I made just told me to wait a few more weeks.  Finally in March I called and asked what the situation was and with no one getting back to me yet again, I called their Corporate headquarters and asked them to help at the end of April.  The woman I spoke with could not find either of the claim numbers I gave her.  She then began to put me on hold and kept coming back stating that she was trying to get other departments involved to find them.  After more than 20 minutes of this going back an fourth, I was then disconnected.

Then, I wrote to the Denver Baggage service on April 22, 2016 giving them ten days to get back to me.  They of course did not so, I found the CEO's email address online.  

I wrote to Barry Biffle and let him know of all of the trouble I had gone through just trying to get my claim dealt with and asked him to step in and fix the problem or I would be filing a Small Claims action.  He had a woman named Patty Dryer call me back and in the conversation she stated that she did not have a problem finding the claims in their system and didn't know how anyone else could have.  She explained that since they do not cover jewelry, the claims were closed.  She stated that they had sent me a $75.00 voucher but it had expired.  I laughed and said, I never received any voucher and that for nearly $5,000 worth of jewelry being stolen, I would never accept a voucher let alone one that had an expiration date.  

She stated that their baggage policies stated that they did not cover jewelry.  I stated that it said that they didn't cover it if it was damaged or lost.  Mine was taken out of my bag.  She said Frontier's position is a "loss is a loss".  I explained to her that a loss means lost luggage according to their posted policies on their website and that I had printed it out.  She kept with the 'A loss is a loss" mantra.  I then asked why no one did any investigation.  She said they didn't do one because they don't cover the items that were taken.  I was disgusted.  I told her that they had a fiduciary duty to me since they charged me for my luggage.  She stated that they didn't.  

When I was compeltely at wits end with her, I asked her where they would like for me to serve my Small Claims lawsuit on them.  She said that she would have to check and see.  She called me back and told me to serve it upon their legal Department at their 7001 Tower Rd. in Denver.  Low and behold that was also a lie.  Their own legal department was lying about where to serve the paperwork as they have a Registered Agent for service.  I ended up finding this information out on my own.  Once they gave me the incorrect information, I felt it necessary to write to Barry Biffle again and let him know about the lies that were continuing to be expressed by his personnel.  

I received an email in response, the day before I filed my Small Claims case against Frontier asking me for my telephone number.  I never received a call.  

In May 2016, a week after their Registered agent was served by the Sheriff's Department, I received contact from Frontier Airlines' Chicago counsel and at the end of that conversation, she stated that she felt confident that they would be settling with me before July 14, 2016 (the court date).  I sent her all of my information and waited.  I was happy to know that I would not have to go to court.  

I did not hear anything from her through June so, I contacted her again.  She stated she had been out of the office most of the month before, but still wanted to get it settled and that it would be in everyone's best interest.  All the way up until the day of court, I never received anything other than they would be settling.  Then as I was waiting in the courtroom nearly 10 minutes after court was supposed to start, I was informed by the court clerk that they were filing their answer and there were people to testify.  Their "In-house" counsel rushed in and let me know that they would not be settling with me and they didn't feel that they were responsible.  They refused to even give me the evidence that they put into the court until half way through the hearing.   Because of their information and the fact that I had not been given a chance to do any investigation of my own to rebutt their information or even read through it as it was more than 30 pages worth, the court found in their favor as a matter of law.  Patty Dryer, the woman whom had called me after my first email to Mr. Biffle, lied to the judge and said that she never told me that my claim was closed and that their policy is that they leave claims open, because "It is our hope that we can find the items and return them to their owners".  That is the most ridiculous statement since they didn't do any investigation in my case.  I was told that they didn't because they are not responsible.  That actually sounds like a more realistic statement, don't you think?

The judge did say that she fully believed that my jewelry was in my luggage and that it was stolen while in their control and custody  She also made the comment that she felt that the way I had been treated was absolutely horriffic.  She even TOLD me to Appeal her ruling.  

As I don't have $10,000.00 to appeal by day after tomorrow nor would I spend that to get $6,500.00 for my jewelry, I decided to let you all know so that people can know that Frontier Airlines and their employees are nothing but liars and theives.  By the way, I offered to settle with them for less than that $6,500.00.  

I went to Frontier's Website yesterday and noticed that all of the information that was hidden before, is now front and center.  My comment is this, If they felt that they had been compeltely above board in my case, then they would not have changed their Website to fix the issues that I brought up with it and their position.

I that hope, if nothing else, I can get people to learn from my case and not to trust or give their money to a company that obviously does nothing to protect their customers.  Because, in today's day and age, if they got my boxes out of my luggage, imagine what this person(s) could get into luggage if they wanted to cause harm to others.