My Pan Am DVT Visit

matt_w

New Member
This past week I was down in the Phoenix area to visit Pan Am, in addition to a couple of other schools, and boy was I horribly disappointed w/Pan Am... /ubbthreads/images/icons/frown.gif

Keep in mind that this is just my experience, I am sure that there’s probably one good tour that was given out there. But this wasn’t by any means good.

When I showed up for my <font color="red"> prescheduled </font color> tour, I wasn&amp;#8217;t greeted w/a friendly hello, but more like "Oh, they didn&amp;#8217;t call you?"

I was a bit perturbed by this initial statement, and it was followed up with a... "Our tour guide, as well as the person in charge of tour scheduling is out on vacation"

They actually managed to throw a makeshift tour with one of the guys who worked in dispatch; although the depth of information that he made available wasn&amp;#8217;t what I was after, no offence to him. Strictly a building tour, no price overview, washout rate, or any other facts/figures.

The fact of the matter is that, they couldn&amp;#8217;t manage to offer a simple phone call to keep me from coming out there, which would have saved me time and money.

Everyone here knows what a good first impression means, take it from me this was in no way a good first impression. The sole fact that I seemed to have &amp;#8216;fallen through the cracks&amp;#8217; on this matter really gives one a good impression of what their business practices are. It makes me wonder what type of lemonade stand they&amp;#8217;re trying to run over there.
 
Whats with all the &amp;#8217 stuff in your post?

When I toured the Florida campus (2 weeks ago) it was most enjoyable and informative. I was met by the tour person, and we then went to her office. She explained the entire program, and then I asked all the questions which I had already prepared. All of my questions were answered, and for the questions she didn't know, she got someone who could answer them.
Then we toured the facilities, maint. area, and I climbed into any of the aircraft that I wanted to. Asked more questions along the way, and they to were answered. I had a pretty good list of questions too, as I was accompanied by my cousin, who is an FO with ACA. He also asked questions, (some I never would have thought of).
Over all I got a very good impression of the school and I think I have made up my mind. I think I will be starting there at the end of August.
Turk

"Do, or do not, there is no try."
 
Yep, my meeting at Pan Am @ DVT went the same as your's Turk. Everything was presented perfectly and all my questions were answered. They sugar coated it pefectly!! J/K. The only mistake I made was that this was the only school I looked into, I was relatively new to this idea of academy style training, and this message board wasn't much back then. I was so excited to start there, I changed my start date to the month before!! It's a shame Pan Am's customer skills are so limited to one tour guide! Good Luck
 
Embry-Riddle. Not too bad, they're going through a massive expansion/makeover(presently in year 2 of 10). If they had only started a few years earlier, I would have signed up in a heart beat /ubbthreads/images/icons/smile.gif
 
UPDATE!!!

This morning I was greeted with a person from Pan Am regarding my tour and the post on this discussion board. First off, she made the snide remark to call my initial post "slander" towards Pan Am. (watch out FLDiver /ubbthreads/images/icons/wink.gif ) Now keep in mind that slander means:

False and damaging statement: a false and malicious statement that damages somebody's reputation.

First off, I am merely informing interested parties what the hell went on out there. What I had to say was the truth. That actually did happen. They just called me a liar, not a good way to start off the conversation.....

Next they attempted to explain to me that the fact I wasn't given a tour was the sole fact that I was not yet 18. Let me write that again: it was because I wasn't 18. Now keep in mind that the tour guide and person in charge of the tour scheduling were out on vacation. They failed to mention that I had to be 18 to take a tour. They knew all my specifics. And I was not acquainted with this little practice during the phone conversation that set an actual date for the tour. I would have almost certainly thought that if the tour wasn't going to work, due to my age or schedule conflicts that they would call ME; at least that is my impression of good business practices. But apparently, its all my responsibility. So now I sit here, more infuriated than ever. I cannot seem to grasp why they'd throw this back on me. Any support out there?
 
Hey, if you have any other correspondence with PAIFA, tell them to have Stephanie Heron-Weeber (career development counselor) give me a ring and I'll talk to her about this website.

Also, specifically who did you speak to today? Because if they're going to blatantly accuse me or my users of slander, things can get real ugly.
 
Re: My Pan Am DVT Visit *DELETED*

Post deleted by Doug Taylor
 
Wow 39 minute telephone call and I got some stuff cleared up!

More later...
 
Great, I can't wait to hear. I began to address some of the points brought up by FLDiver and others with Pan Am on a recent phone call because I too am considering Pan Am. Although when I did, it seemed like the tone of the conversation swithed from "glossy sales technique" to "you're annoying me". I told the person who I was talking to that I wanted to make my own decision, but that I would like to have several things laid out clearly in advance. I also requested to get copies of all of the contracts that I would have to sign with Pan Am. He first told me that I couln't have copies and then he told me that they don't really have "contracts" and the only "contract" was their 6 month guarantee, etc. etc. (Dodge the bullet) So far, all of the other schools who I've requested contracts from have said yes. I've planned a trip to Florida in the next several weeks to check out several schools so I'll keep everybody abreast of my progress. Huh huh, he said breast.
 
Ok, well I gave Pan Am a call yesterday and talked to them about the situation.

I was on hold for a bit, and the call got dropped so I called back again and got through to the person whom I was looking for.

She was very apologetic for the situation and sounded like she wanted to clear things up.

I read her some postings from the forum and asked her about the use of the word 'slander' and she really didn't admit to making the statement.

She told me that a lot of people from Pan Am read the forums, and I asked about why they don't volunteer someone to enter the forums and answer questions about the flight school.

I told her as long as a person clearly identified themselves as a rep from Pan Am, that they could answer questions about the flight school. I also explained why I'm so adamant about disclosing that because I caught another flight school posing as unsatisfied students in a competitors forum. (true story!).

Free advertising and spamming - bad. Answering questions - good.
 
Doug,
Great idea about Pan Am having a Rep. to answer questions in the forums. I don't know if you read my posts on the other thread but it seems that I may get at least some of my money back. I still have to write another letter to Pan Am to clarify some things but the situation seems to be looking up a bit. I may be speaking too soon but it seems that the attitudes at Pan Am have changed, when it comes to dealing with MY situation anyway. Will keep you posted.

Jim
 
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