Ryanair: what complaint?

In a recent TV advert, Ryanair went to great efforts to shout about a Civil Aviation Authority [CAA] report which said the budget airline received fewer complaints than any other.

So .... me and some chums were off to Gdansk for a long weekend. The Ryanair flights were booked by one of the group - but I wanted extra legroom on the flights there and back so I went to the Ryanair.com [note: it's on a dot come, not .co.uk or .ie] to make the purchase. 

Everything went well until I got to the page where I chose my seat - and was able to see the price. 

Note how it is shown as 10.99 USD [United States Dollars]. An obvious bug? I thought so, but should I report it? Look what happened to someone who did a few years ago: Ryanair website bug: blogger called 'idiot and liar'.

Now ... I knew the price was around 10 pounds - which I was willing to pay - so I clicked on through to 'buy' and paid by PayPal. And if the charge had been 2 x £10.99 [£21.98] that would have been an end to it. But when I got my PayPal receipt, it was for £22.42. 

So ... I went to the Ryanair website and used the 'chat' facility [not considered to be a 'complaint' on that platform], and started a chat with 'Nandor'. I decided that I would start with the issue of the price being shown in USD. 

Notice how Nandor tells me I am wrong about the price being in USD, and ignores the issue of me being charged £22.42. His response to my reply was along the lines of the 'idiot and liar' case from the past ...

Having told me what I had seen [and recorded in a screenshot] was not possible, and that I could not pay a USD fee [he's obviously never purchased something online from the USA], he then referred me to the 'ryanair seat price.doc' - which was priced in pounds.

So ... I decided to take up his invitation, and filled in a 'contact form' [still not a 'complaint' for the CAA?]. I repeated what I had said in the 'chat'. And the reply was ...

I think my reply to 'Tudor' needs no explanation:

However - the reply was a 'standard' list of webpage addresses for the various range of complaints eg late flight, lost baggage etc etc. The closest one for my problem was 'Compliments or general complaints and queries, please click here http://frd.ie/help/ '. And when I clicked on it I found myself back at the blank form I had completed previously, to which 'Tudor' had replied. 

So I filled it in again,  but started with the reference number of the earlier form:

And do you know what? Big drum roll ...

Yep, no response. Does that mean the 'complaint' never existed?

So, could it be then that Ryanair get fewer complaints by the way they record them? Or not record them. For example; in this case, my 'complaint' was not treated as a complaint - but a request for information on the cost of seats with extra legroom.

I would normally use this as an exercise for students and ask them how Ryanair should have responded? But in this case, how about something like ...

OOPS ... we seem to have a glitch in our system, I'll let our tech team know. As you were shown the price in dollars that is what we should have charged you. At today's exchange rate that is £14.32. Also, the extra 44p is the charge for using PayPal - this is identified on the payment page, maybe we need to make the notice more obvious :-). I'll arrange for this to be waived in this instance also. You will receive a refund of £8.10 into you PayPal account shortly. I hope you had a good trip to Poland.

And do you know what? If that is what had happened, this post would be about how well Ryanair responded to a 'complaint' - and not the opposite. And if this gets listed high on Google [it might] ... that would have been £8.10 well spent.

Flying local

My complaints about KLM sending me offers to fly from anywhere-but-my-local-airport since this blog began 8 years ago [see poor geography], but they seem to have got their act in order with this latest email ...

However, if I want to be picky - why fill my email viewing pane with that picture which actually adds nothing to the offer or the appeal of the offer [in my books I condemn the use of 'hero shots'].

you're not welcome

I received this email this morning.

If you are relatively new to the Internet you may not have seen similar messages to this before - but 10 years or so ago they were common. And they were a BAD then as they are now. 

Could you ever imaging a doorman at a fashion store turning away a customer saying that that 'you can't come in here that handbag is so last year', or a petrol station refusing to sell petrol to older cars? Well, that's just as ridiculous as having E-on tell me I have to change my computer to enter their website.

A slip up from Amazon

Usually an example of good practice, Amazon got this wrong. I received an email from them - no problem with this, in moderation it is sound marketing ...

However, check out the price - it's in dollars. Suspicious, I clicked on the 'learn more' link, and was taken to the US site -  where I can't make a purchase. 

Of course, if I wanted to buy the product I could cut and paste the title into the .co.uk website and buy it there - but that is not a good buyer experience.

How to fulfill an order

I ordered a book for work - and the day before it was due to be delivered I got this email ...

I was impressed. But why? Shouldn't this be the norm?

Intrusive advertising

So I spotted a link to an article on the Nottingham Post's website which took my interest. Pity the newspaper have not quite got to grips with the business model of selling advertising AROUND content, not over it - and no, this ad could not be deleted or moved. Ho humm.

Just a bit iffy ...

So I had ordered some hankies [a chap can't have too many hankies] from a 'shop' on eBay. Before they arrived, this notice appeared on 'my eBay' ...

This, I thought, does not bode well, it looks like the seller has been up to no good. Take note of the two messages from eBay. Ah well, it was goodbye hankies - but it wasn't a significant sum of money and I use PayPal, so I'll get it back anyway.

But hey-ho ... the hankies arrived. But in the packaging was an A4 printed message, which read:

DO YOU HAVE AN OLD EBAY ACCOUNT THAT YOU NO LONGER USE?

WE BUY OLD EBAY ACCOUNTS SO WHY NOT CONTACT US

WITH DETAILS OF YOUR ACCOUNT DO THAT WE CAN MAKE YOU A CASH OFFER.

There was then a contact email address. 

ACCOUNTS WILL ONLY BE CONSIDERED IF THEY HAVE A HIGH SELLING LIMIT.

I checked the website on the domain of that email address and it is an empty shop i.e. an online shopfront with no products.

So here's the thing. Buying a business in order to 'inherit' the goodwill and brand history that goes with it is a standard method of doing business [it's why BMW bought MINI].

However, this organization is seeking to buy businesses that have ceased trading but have some 'juice' with eBay i.e. a good sales record with plenty of good feedback.

Now, am I just being a bit of an old cynic - but why would a legitimate business want to do that?

And would I like to buy something from an eBay seller that has been 'resurrected' by a new owner who has already had eBay close them down?  Probably not ... if I knew.

More [advertising] money than gas

Well ...  spring has sprung - and I was looking for a refill for my patio heater's gas bottle. So I searched on Google, and got ...

But when I clicked on the ad [remember, the seller has placed that ad, so they paid for my click], I got this ...

Ho hum

PS ... in case you are wondering why I clicked on the most expensive ad - I clicked on them all as none said if delivery costs were included.

A monster of a deal?

I clicked on an ad from dealmonster.co.uk. It would seem someone can't add up. If I wanted to be really picky - as the advert said 'from £109', I think this might be committing an offense under some law or other.

Argos : closed for business?

In a distant and different lifetime, I worked in retail. If we wanted to re-merchandise a shop we did it during the night when it was closed. So why has this changed in the digital age?

PS - I'm not even going to comment about the coding error half way down the right hand site [follow my arrow].

Whoa ... update: two minutes after I did the screensave image above, the Argos homepage changed to this ...

So, Argos ... make your mind up: 'improving' or 'busy' - neither is really acceptable, but either is more acceptable than telling stories to customers.

PS guess where I am NOT going to buy the product I originally went to Argos.co.uk for?