Lost luggage woes

I will be upfront and say that Delta is my favorite US airline. I find that they have the best facilities for frequent travelers, they recognize their frequent travelers and they seem to be the best at handling things when they go wrong. Especially the latter is important, as we all know that in today's air travel problems occur more than we would all like.
Unfortunately, there is one area where Delta is not strong, at least in my personal experience, looking after your checked baggage. I normally travel with carry on baggage only, but a couple of months ago, on the return flight from the UK, I was forced to check in one bag because of security regulations. As I was flying via Atlanta to Canada (award travel, so not on a direct flight), I did not need to claim my bag at the first port of US entry as normal, but was told that it would be checked through. I had plenty of time for my connection in Atlanta, so did not expect any problems. Wrong!!!!
On arrival in Toronto, no bag, so off to the Delta luggage office, filed the claim and was told it was probably on the next flight (arriving around midnight) and that my bag would be sent on to the hotel immediately. Next morning I awoke, checked with the front desk, still no bag. Finally, when I got back from the office still in my traveling clothes, the bag had been delivered. I thought that it was just a glitch but.....
Last week my wife and daughter returned from a trip to Europe themselves. As their destination was in the US, they had to claim their bags in Atlanta, go through customs and then drop their checked bags for the next flight. This time Delta managed to lose the bags between customs and the flight home. Again, at the claim office they were promised delivery between 8 and 12 the following morning, if the bags arrived on a later flight. Next morning I checked the website and was pleased/disappointed to find that two out of three bags had been found and were indeed at the airport awaiting delivery. However, noon came and went, no bags. I ended up calling Delta and having the bags held at the airport, as I was scheduled to leave later that day and we did not want the delivery arriving while my wife was out at the airport. Next day the final bag turned up and was delivered. I think by that time my daughter had resigned herself to the loss of the clothes in the bag and had started thinking about the shopping spree to replace them. So the delivery was not actually as welcome as it might have been ;-).

But if anyone from Delta reads this, please train your agents to 'tell it like it is' and not to sugar coat things. It is bad enough for baggage to be lost, but setting the wrong expectations only makes things worse.