ON THE ROAD
Response center welcomes concerns
Washington Post
The phone calls, letters and e-mails pour in: A business traveler left his laptop computer at a security checkpoint during his trip between New York's La Guardia Airport and Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, and he wanted it back.
A passenger flying through Baltimore-Washington International Airport complained that he lost a $5 bottle of laundry detergent. He expected the government to reimburse him.
A woman from the Southwest calls every week to ask the government to look into a UFO that flies over her house.
Every week, thousands of complaints and comments flood into the Transportation Security Administration's response center. The office receives about 2,000 telephone calls, 2,500 e-mails and 200 letters a week. Some days, the operators answer as many as 300 calls.
The TSA's response operators, working for now in a former supply warehouse in the General Services Administration's building, most often are asked about what passengers may carry on flights. One traveler groused that his open bottle of whiskey was confiscated at Kahului Airport on Maui. He learned to his chagrin that federal law prohibits passengers from carrying open containers of alcoholic beverages on flights.
Items forgotten at security checkpoints also are high on the list of travelers' concerns. But TSA officials said while they try to help people find their lost items, the office does not act as a lost-and-found. "We do everything we can to remind passengers not to forget their items," said TSA spokesman Robert Johnson. "There is some responsibility on the part of the passenger as well."
The center was created to give passengers a sense that their concerns would be heard after Sept. 11, when flying became worrisome. Airline executives complained that after 9/11, demand for travel fell significantly because of the "hassle factor" of long and excessively intrusive security checks.
The response center employs 12 operators for phone calls and nine workers to handle e-mails. TSA officials said callers should rarely get busy signals because each phone has 20 lines. But they could get a recorded message asking them to leave their name and phone number. TSA spokesman Brian Turmail said operators are required to return calls within 24 hours. The center is upgrading its phone system to handle more calls. Travelers aren't rushed off the phone so another complaint can be heard.
"It's a legal process," Johnson said. "If you're going to call and complain about a screener, you just can't call and hang up."
Greg Warren, manager of the response center, said that for expediency, travelers are advised to call or e-mail rather than send a letter. "We want them to tell us their stories," he said.
It can take from 24 hours to two weeks to resolve a complaint, depending on the complexity of the issue. The complaints are logged, and travelers are sent letters informing them that the TSA is investigating. Copies of the letters are sent to the TSA's legal department and the heads of security at airports where the incidents in question occurred.
Not all callers complain. Some praise polite, quick and thorough screeners. One traveler who flew out of Washington's Dulles International Airport wrote that he expected his trip to be "horrible" but instead it turned out to be a "wonderful experience."
The center can be reached at (866) 289-9673 from within the United States, at (202) 385-1900 from any phone, or by e-mail: TellTSA@tsa.dot.gov. Office hours are 3 a.m.-5 p.m. Hawai'i time during the week and 5 a.m.-1 p.m. weekends and holidays.
