I just thought a post here about Easyjet's recent problem would be appropriate.
We've flown with them before - well aware they are "cheap and cheerful". We booked to fly Liverpool to Nice (return) way back in November 2009.
A few week ago we received an email stating our flight had been cancelled. I spotted this within a couple of hours of it arriving in my in-tray and naturally reacted by 'phoning Easyjet - at 10p per minute.
After 26 minutes without reply I gave up, sent an email and hoped for the best (not ideal I know).
Next day I received another email from Easyjet explaining that the previous flight cancellation email had been an error - the flight was NOT cancelled, but it was subject to a time change. We were offered two stark choices............cancel (and obtain a credit) or accept the flight change. No apology.
I'd already asked for a call-back from customer services resulting from the previous night's failure to answer my 'phone call.
Eventually I spoke with a lady in customer services - she was displeased with my tone (resulting from the fact that they'd worried the whotsits out of me for 18 hours before admitting a fault with their email system). However, she graciously allowed me to accept the changes to the flight time - no mention of course of refunding me the cost of the 10p per minute 'phone call.
4 weeks later and I'm still waiting for a call back from Easyjet - in fact. I'm still waiting for any kind of response back from them.
I consider this unacceptable.
Mike
They are awful at the moment.
They cancelled a flight we booked returning from Nice. We spent ages messing about to rebook an earlier flight -we had to pay £50 to do this. They then sent an e-mail saying it was a mistake. They refunded the £50.
A couple of weeks later they cancelled it again, this time for real. It lopped half a day of a short break.
Today they sent an e-mail bringing forward our outward flight by half an hour to 6.45 am.
They cancelled a flight we booked returning from Nice. We spent ages messing about to rebook an earlier flight -we had to pay £50 to do this. They then sent an e-mail saying it was a mistake. They refunded the £50.
A couple of weeks later they cancelled it again, this time for real. It lopped half a day of a short break.
Today they sent an e-mail bringing forward our outward flight by half an hour to 6.45 am.
I just yesterday had my return flight from Palma in April cancelled have now got to stay extra day (hardship I have to put up with)
Perhaps the flights are a lot less busy so they're having to move things around a bit?
Their customer service is rubbish but I suppose thats why they're a no frills airline. They are more than happy to take peoples money but don't want to know after a booking has been made.
Their customer service is rubbish but I suppose thats why they're a no frills airline. They are more than happy to take peoples money but don't want to know after a booking has been made.
They just seem, plain and simple, incompetent to me!
Laura,
many years ago when airlines/tour-operators were "not busy" they CONSOLIDATED. It's a crap concept, was then, is now.
Consider the following example. You've booked a meal in a nice restaurant, you arrive at the stated time but find the place closed. There's a sign on the door informing you that due to "lack of demand" the place will not open until 9:45pm - 1hr after your booked time. Also, the lamb shank, the salmon, the duck breast AND the fillet steaks are all off - lack of demand. No, you can't have a refund as there are still lots of choices - you can re-book, but the only available slots will be much earlier and whilst there's no extra cost you must 'phone the 0845 (or 0870, 0871 etc etc etc - but NEVER the 0800) number to rebook.
Call me cynical.
Call me a realist.
Mike
ps. to partly solve the cost of such 0845, 0870 'phone calls check out the http://www.saynoto0870 web site
many years ago when airlines/tour-operators were "not busy" they CONSOLIDATED. It's a crap concept, was then, is now.
Consider the following example. You've booked a meal in a nice restaurant, you arrive at the stated time but find the place closed. There's a sign on the door informing you that due to "lack of demand" the place will not open until 9:45pm - 1hr after your booked time. Also, the lamb shank, the salmon, the duck breast AND the fillet steaks are all off - lack of demand. No, you can't have a refund as there are still lots of choices - you can re-book, but the only available slots will be much earlier and whilst there's no extra cost you must 'phone the 0845 (or 0870, 0871 etc etc etc - but NEVER the 0800) number to rebook.
Call me cynical.
Call me a realist.
Mike
ps. to partly solve the cost of such 0845, 0870 'phone calls check out the http://www.saynoto0870 web site
Just to even things up a little Ryanair are also prolific at doing exactly the same 
We booked 15 return flights from East Mids to Valencia as soon as they were released last year for July 2010. Booked and paid in full. Villa booked, transfers and car hire etc. parking at the airport all booked.
6 weeks ago we get an email to say the flight's cancelled completely and we can either have a credit note for the £4k paid OR change day & time
We took our money and rebooked with..........Ryanair via Stansted which is where our original flights had been moved to ! Of course we didn't want to give another penny to them but our hands were tied as there was no other choice & thankfully it only meant cancelling our parking and re-booking. Not once did we receive an apology through the whole debacle
We booked 15 return flights from East Mids to Valencia as soon as they were released last year for July 2010. Booked and paid in full. Villa booked, transfers and car hire etc. parking at the airport all booked.
6 weeks ago we get an email to say the flight's cancelled completely and we can either have a credit note for the £4k paid OR change day & time
We took our money and rebooked with..........Ryanair via Stansted which is where our original flights had been moved to ! Of course we didn't want to give another penny to them but our hands were tied as there was no other choice & thankfully it only meant cancelling our parking and re-booking. Not once did we receive an apology through the whole debacle
you must 'phone the 0845 (or 0870, 0871 etc etc etc - but NEVER the 0800) number to rebook.
You can get free 0845 and 0870 with TalkTalk. It doesn't cover 0844 and 0871 though.
Very reasonable compared to BT.
hi rugbyballs.
i have talktalk and cant get 0845 and 0870 numbers free..
i have talktalk and cant get 0845 and 0870 numbers free..
Good innit! 
Sorry thought you said you could! Maybe the package you have -I pay an extra £4 a month to get these calls free during the day time as well. 
4 weeks later and I'm still waiting for a call back from Easyjet - in fact. I'm still waiting for any kind of response back from them.
You can view your flight reservation online at anytime and should you recieve notification of a flight change, manage and confirm the arrangements via this online facility.
http://www.easyjet.com/asp/EN/Members/
MikeCunliffe wrote:
Eventually I spoke with a lady in customer services......However, she graciously allowed me to accept the changes to the flight time.........
4 weeks later and I'm still waiting for a call back from Easyjet - in fact. I'm still waiting for any kind of response back from them.
Having changed your flights why would you expect them to call back? Surely case closed?
Whilst you have a case about the quality of customer service, getting messed about with timetable changes is always a risk for flights booked more than about 3 months in advance. In one 2 year period I had that with FlyBe (not by much), Monarch (three change to 2 flights none of which really disrupted my plans), MyTravel (who I took to court when they wouldn't let me cancel) and Swiss whose new times really didn't work but whose customer service was excellent. They solved the problem by moving me to a slightly earlier Zurich flight that should have been £100 more and then gave me a train ticket back to Basel so that I arrived at my destination at more or less the right time.
My recent experience of Easyjet has been the opposite I have to say....I booked a flight with them and made a mess of the dates as a result of not checking as thoroughly as I normally do...it was at the end of a very difficult day but still my fault. Within 2 minutes I went back into the booking to change it, only to find the fee was over £50....This I disagreed with and sent an e mail to Andy Harrison the CEO ( his e mail address is widely available on the net) and frankly not as polite as it should have been 
Anyways the following day I received a reply accepting some of the points I had made and refunded the £50 as a goodwill gesture. A prompt and generous response which means I will be more than happy to use them again............
Anyways the following day I received a reply accepting some of the points I had made and refunded the £50 as a goodwill gesture. A prompt and generous response which means I will be more than happy to use them again............
AHV,
I requested a response to seek refund of the 0845 costs.
Why should I suffer the costs associated with their invalid email?
Still no call back by the way.
EMIRATES, by comparison, provided a bottle of champagne as an apology for a problem my wife and I suffered on a recent flight with them. Emirates score 1, Easyjet nil.
Mike
I requested a response to seek refund of the 0845 costs.
Why should I suffer the costs associated with their invalid email?
Still no call back by the way.
EMIRATES, by comparison, provided a bottle of champagne as an apology for a problem my wife and I suffered on a recent flight with them. Emirates score 1, Easyjet nil.
Mike
and, for comparison, Emirates charged you how much in the first place?
A little tip that might help.
I used the above saynoto0870 website to get a geographical number. I called the call centre when it opened (8am I believe), and got straight through. It was for my typo on a name on a ticket.
They were all happy at that time of the morning (not yet had a full day of people moaning at them!) and they fixed my problem foc (they didn't have to!) and we had a laugh. The call centre staff likes getting off to a good start like the rest of it. And I didn't have to wait on hold for ages.
Try calling first thing and seeing if you get a better response (try with any call centre if you are anticipating problems or require help!).
I used the above saynoto0870 website to get a geographical number. I called the call centre when it opened (8am I believe), and got straight through. It was for my typo on a name on a ticket.
They were all happy at that time of the morning (not yet had a full day of people moaning at them!) and they fixed my problem foc (they didn't have to!) and we had a laugh. The call centre staff likes getting off to a good start like the rest of it. And I didn't have to wait on hold for ages.
Try calling first thing and seeing if you get a better response (try with any call centre if you are anticipating problems or require help!).
Steve8482,
The Emirates flight Birmingham to Dubai were part of a cruise and hotel package.
Had we booked with Emirates directly for the flights I would suspect they would be far more expensive than flights to Nice.
But what bearing does price have upon customer service ? I believe a "cheap" fare should not result in a "cheap" customer service. Accepting sub-standard service simply because we've not paid much allows companies to get away with poor service levels.
Mike
The Emirates flight Birmingham to Dubai were part of a cruise and hotel package.
Had we booked with Emirates directly for the flights I would suspect they would be far more expensive than flights to Nice.
But what bearing does price have upon customer service ? I believe a "cheap" fare should not result in a "cheap" customer service. Accepting sub-standard service simply because we've not paid much allows companies to get away with poor service levels.
Mike
You get what you pay for.
easyjet are basically a flying bus company. You can expect them to say please and thank you at the right times however much you pay but anything that costs money to provide (like staff) is obviously going to be limited. It's like going to Aldi for the price and expecting Waitrose levels of service.
Emirates didn't get the champagne out of the owners cellar, they clearly have a policy of handling problems this way but that means that somewhere along the way every passenger pays something towards funding it. Easyjet don't charge you extra when things go right so have no slush fund to give out freebies when it doesn't.
Have you actually had your phone bill? I got stuck in several queues on this type of phone numbers when I had the trouble with Mytravel but when the phone bill came I had only been charged for the few minutes I'd actually been connected to someone.
I wouldn't get worked up about not getting an "apology". You aren't going to get it from the person who decided the staffing levels and caused the hanging around on the phone, or the person who caused the flight to be retimed (who might be a foreign air traffic control manager). As far as I'm concerned automatic bland apologies are just as rude as none at all - I'd prefer to have an explanation.
easyjet are basically a flying bus company. You can expect them to say please and thank you at the right times however much you pay but anything that costs money to provide (like staff) is obviously going to be limited. It's like going to Aldi for the price and expecting Waitrose levels of service.
Emirates didn't get the champagne out of the owners cellar, they clearly have a policy of handling problems this way but that means that somewhere along the way every passenger pays something towards funding it. Easyjet don't charge you extra when things go right so have no slush fund to give out freebies when it doesn't.
Have you actually had your phone bill? I got stuck in several queues on this type of phone numbers when I had the trouble with Mytravel but when the phone bill came I had only been charged for the few minutes I'd actually been connected to someone.
I wouldn't get worked up about not getting an "apology". You aren't going to get it from the person who decided the staffing levels and caused the hanging around on the phone, or the person who caused the flight to be retimed (who might be a foreign air traffic control manager). As far as I'm concerned automatic bland apologies are just as rude as none at all - I'd prefer to have an explanation.
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