Elevator company took seven months to respond to panicked tweet from woman trapped in lift

A WOMAN trapped in an elevator tweeted to the company for help. They tweeted back to check on her ... seven months later.

The request for help went unanswered for seven months, then this. Picture: Twitter

FEBRUARY 14 was a rough day for Amanda Carpenter.

While others were out celebrating Valentine’s Day, she was very much alone. Not by choice.

Ms Carpenter, a conservative political columnist for CNN and former Ted Cruz campaign staffer, was in transit at Baltimore-Washington International Airport.

She had climbed inside an elevator when her day came to a screeching halt. Literally. Trapped and alone, she thought about her options then reached for her smartphone.

Amanda Carpenter spent Valentine’s Day trapped in an airport lift. Picture: Twitter

She tweeted the following message hoping the company affiliated with the lift could offer her a solution. Quickly.

“Guys. I’m trapped in an Amtrak elevator at BWI Airport. Help?”

Amtrak’s social media team missed the message because Ms Carpenter didn’t include “@Amtrak” or any hashtags that might’ve popped up in their notifications. Without their help, she was released from the lift a short time later.

Almost seven months down the track, on September 7, Ms Carpenter received a response out of the blue.

“We are sorry to hear that. Are you still in the elevator?” Amtrak’s official Twitter account asked.

This may be the worst customer service response time ever: pic.twitter.com/8KCQv5WW6L

— Yoni Mernick (@OriginalYoni) September 8, 2016

“Oh my thank you for this but I was trapped months ago. Like last February. Thanks for checking...? Ha,” she responded.

Amtrak, which manages America’s largest train network, later explained that they just wanted to make sure.

“Glad you’re out,” they wrote back the next day, followed by, “Not our finest hour yesterday.”

But the internet was characteristically savage.

@Amtrak Yisssss, yissss, i'm still in the elevator! @amandacarpenter pic.twitter.com/pGwpE35cuj

— 🐕 (@Dogbroccoli) September 8, 2016

There are babies alive today that were not conceived when @amandacarpenter contacted @Amtrak.#BetterLateThanNever

— Abdul-Basit Haqq (@AbdulBasit_Haqq) September 8, 2016

@Amtrak @amandacarpenter Wow, not even your tweets get to the destination on-time.

— Scoop (((Chang))) (@ScoopChang_) September 8, 2016

Ms Carpenter was offered a free express train ticket for the inconvenience, which she accepted.