admira Posted June 2, 2017 Share Posted June 2, 2017 So this is a timeline of my EasyJet experience last weekend and I’m after some advice as to what the heck I do next please! Sorry this is rather long but I want to give the whole dreadful story. Friday We were due to fly from Luton to Hamburg with friends on Friday at 18:50. We had pre-paid for three night accommodation over there. Boarded the plane on time but after an hour we were asked to return to the terminal and wait in the bar / lounge as there was a technical fault with the planes navigation system. As we returned to the bar, the barman closed it. FAIL EasyJet staff had no idea what was happening so we waited at gate 7 for a further hour All 180 of us were then asked to walk 20 minutes back to check in desk 47 where we would be given further information. As we were walking en-masse back with our hand luggage through duty free, a notification flashed up on my phone saying “your plane is fixed and it will be departing shortly”. 8 minutes later I received another one saying it was still broken and delayed. FAIL Just before we arrived at desk 47, the girl at the front of our group was walking towards us saying ‘we’ve been told wrong’, apparently we have to go to gate 6" (which was right next to where we started. A German man was heard to utter a single swear word very loudly. FAIL Cue much ‘carry on film’ style hilarity as the two sets of passengers walking towards each other got caught up in the confusion. Back at gate 6 we were met not by any EasyJet staff but by a plain clothes policeman who they had cowardly brought in to tell us that our flight was now cancelled and we would all be put up in hotels for the night and that arranging this would take a couple of hours. FAIL At this point, EasyJet were obliged to offer us food and drink. All we got was a small bottle of water FAIL Eventually we were led back to the check in desks where one single member of staff was responsible for telling every passenger in turn exactly the same thing. A megaphone would have made time-saving sense FAIL “You will be taken to a hotel for the night and picked up at 6.00am tomorrow for a 9.00am flight. Here are some leaflet’s telling you how to claim compensation. Please buy your breakfast at the airport in the morning and submit your receipts where we will pay your expenses”. Seeing as the hotel we ended up in was a mere 11 minutes away and we didn’t arrive there until 100am, tired and hungry, quite why we had to be there 3 hours early the next morning was anyone’s guess FAIL Saturday We checked in for our flight, full of excitement for our German adventure. Our friends checked in a hold bag and we were duly given our boarding passes. As we walked away comparing seat numbers, we realised that we were all in the same row except male friend’s ticket which said ‘SAG’. Didn’t know what that meant and thought nothing of it. Nothing was mentioned by the check in staff so assumed it was of no significance. FAIL We went and bought breakfast and water for the flight and retained the receipts as per EasyJet’s instructions. This came to a hefty £55 for the four of us and I only had beans on toast and a milkshake! Flight was called so we went to the gate and the passengers started boarding. Female friend went through but when male friend went through he was stopped by an incredibly rude female member of Menzie's staff. “You have a stay at gate’ ticket. This means that you will not be boarding as there is no room for you on the plane. The rest of you can board.” FAIL Obviously we were not going without him and were aghast and full of questions but the staff member’s stock answer was “I am talking, you are not”. She even replied with this when asking me a question! FAIL Relevant things that I asked such as: “We’ve been waiting for 14 hours to board this plane, how can there not be any room when yesterday’s boarding pass had a seat number on it?” “Why did the check in desk put their luggage in the hold knowing they couldn’t board the aircraft?” “Why give a stand-by ticket to someone who is A) in a group of four, B) was one of the first people in the queue and C) was put up in a hotel as they couldn’t fly yesterday?” … were met with arrogance and disdain. “Nothing to do with me, I don’t work for EasyJet”. Eventually she admitted that yesterday’s 180 seater had been replaced with a 150 seater as that’s all they could get their hands on FAIL Apparently 30 more passengers would find an SAG on their ticket yet while we were moved to one side, the rest of the queue continued to board despite our constant protests and no more SAG’s being apparent. Eventually there was one lady with a golden SAG ticket who was due at a wedding that day. She was close to tears when she was rudely told “you won’t be going anywhere either” FAIL As more people boarded while the five of us sad sacks stood to one side feeling powerless, she suddenly shouted to the queue “right that’s it, the rest of you cannot board, the plane is now full”. These were people who had boarding passes with seat numbers and to say they weren’t happy was an understatement. She then started a lottery system as more seats mysteriously appeared on her monitor and picked people to go on the plane depending on how heart wrenching their sob story was. All along we kept reminding her “we have hold luggage on board and as you know, you are not permitted to fly when the luggage owning passenger is not on board too”. By now she was getting flustered and we demanded to see her supervisor. A woman eventually appeared (the flight already being delayed by a further hour by this point). She asked rude lady to press a certain button on her computer and lo and behold, there was a seat for our male friend. Rude lady said “well that wasn’t there a moment ago”. FAIL I glared at her and made her aware what I thought of her utter incompetence and contempt for the fee-paying passengers and we went out to the bus on the tarmac that would take us to the plane. Several minutes later, the wedding guest boarded the bus to huge cheers and we were on our way. Or were we …? We boarded the plane with fellow passengers asking what the hold -up was before an announcement along the lines of “we do not have any fuel on the aircraft so we have to wait for a fuelling truck to become available”. FAIL At this stage, I tweeted EasyJet saying what a dreadful experience we had been through. More on that later It was 11am before we took off, a further two hour delay. So we had a great time in Hamburg even though we’d lost around 18 hours of our short city break. I thought that was the end of the appalling service but no. Tuesday I submitted my 261 Euros per person compensation claim for the flight cancellation as per the EU directive which is law. I also submitted the receipts as requested. The next day I received a reply saying our expenses claim had been refused because… and I quote “meals and refreshments were arranged by the hotel staff”. FAIL I replied to the effect “seeing as the hotel restaurant was closed at 100am when we arrived and closed at 6.00am when we were picked up again, how was it possible to feed us and why would we then go and buy breakfast?” Nothing heard since. Then I received a tweet back from EasyJet saying “Sorry you’ve had problems, Please send booking reference etc. and we will investigate”. Great I though we are getting somewhere. WRONG This was twitter mans reply this morning. Although I’ve not been told officially, this reply says they won’t be paying compensation that I am 100% entitled to but what do I do next????? Worst customer service I have ever experienced and I am a frequent flyer, traveller, hotel stayer and restaurant user. Twitter reply: “Hi [name]. Thank you for your message. I just viewed your case and as you already have been informed your claim for expenses was declined. When our financial department close the case, we in social media team, can do nothing more. I noticed that you have been refused for EU compensation too. I am sorry that I was not able to help you more, but please understand that decision is with finance department. Regards, Vlad” Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LesterRam Posted June 2, 2017 Share Posted June 2, 2017 Have you tried Ryanair? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gritstone Ram Posted June 2, 2017 Share Posted June 2, 2017 28 minutes ago, admira said: So this is a timeline of my EasyJet experience last weekend and I’m after some advice as to what the heck I do next please! Sorry this is rather long but I want to give the whole dreadful story. Friday We were due to fly from Luton to Hamburg with friends on Friday at 18:50. We had pre-paid for three night accommodation over there. Boarded the plane on time but after an hour we were asked to return to the terminal and wait in the bar / lounge as there was a technical fault with the planes navigation system. As we returned to the bar, the barman closed it. FAIL EasyJet staff had no idea what was happening so we waited at gate 7 for a further hour All 180 of us were then asked to walk 20 minutes back to check in desk 47 where we would be given further information. As we were walking en-masse back with our hand luggage through duty free, a notification flashed up on my phone saying “your plane is fixed and it will be departing shortly”. 8 minutes later I received another one saying it was still broken and delayed. FAIL Just before we arrived at desk 47, the girl at the front of our group was walking towards us saying ‘we’ve been told wrong’, apparently we have to go to gate 6" (which was right next to where we started. A German man was heard to utter a single swear word very loudly. FAIL Cue much ‘carry on film’ style hilarity as the two sets of passengers walking towards each other got caught up in the confusion. Back at gate 6 we were met not by any EasyJet staff but by a plain clothes policeman who they had cowardly brought in to tell us that our flight was now cancelled and we would all be put up in hotels for the night and that arranging this would take a couple of hours. FAIL At this point, EasyJet were obliged to offer us food and drink. All we got was a small bottle of water FAIL Eventually we were led back to the check in desks where one single member of staff was responsible for telling every passenger in turn exactly the same thing. A megaphone would have made time-saving sense FAIL “You will be taken to a hotel for the night and picked up at 6.00am tomorrow for a 9.00am flight. Here are some leaflet’s telling you how to claim compensation. Please buy your breakfast at the airport in the morning and submit your receipts where we will pay your expenses”. Seeing as the hotel we ended up in was a mere 11 minutes away and we didn’t arrive there until 100am, tired and hungry, quite why we had to be there 3 hours early the next morning was anyone’s guess FAIL Saturday We checked in for our flight, full of excitement for our German adventure. Our friends checked in a hold bag and we were duly given our boarding passes. As we walked away comparing seat numbers, we realised that we were all in the same row except male friend’s ticket which said ‘SAG’. Didn’t know what that meant and thought nothing of it. Nothing was mentioned by the check in staff so assumed it was of no significance. FAIL We went and bought breakfast and water for the flight and retained the receipts as per EasyJet’s instructions. This came to a hefty £55 for the four of us and I only had beans on toast and a milkshake! Flight was called so we went to the gate and the passengers started boarding. Female friend went through but when male friend went through he was stopped by an incredibly rude female member of Menzie's staff. “You have a stay at gate’ ticket. This means that you will not be boarding as there is no room for you on the plane. The rest of you can board.” FAIL Obviously we were not going without him and were aghast and full of questions but the staff member’s stock answer was “I am talking, you are not”. She even replied with this when asking me a question! FAIL Relevant things that I asked such as: “We’ve been waiting for 14 hours to board this plane, how can there not be any room when yesterday’s boarding pass had a seat number on it?” “Why did the check in desk put their luggage in the hold knowing they couldn’t board the aircraft?” “Why give a stand-by ticket to someone who is A) in a group of four, B) was one of the first people in the queue and C) was put up in a hotel as they couldn’t fly yesterday?” … were met with arrogance and disdain. “Nothing to do with me, I don’t work for EasyJet”. Eventually she admitted that yesterday’s 180 seater had been replaced with a 150 seater as that’s all they could get their hands on FAIL Apparently 30 more passengers would find an SAG on their ticket yet while we were moved to one side, the rest of the queue continued to board despite our constant protests and no more SAG’s being apparent. Eventually there was one lady with a golden SAG ticket who was due at a wedding that day. She was close to tears when she was rudely told “you won’t be going anywhere either” FAIL As more people boarded while the five of us sad sacks stood to one side feeling powerless, she suddenly shouted to the queue “right that’s it, the rest of you cannot board, the plane is now full”. These were people who had boarding passes with seat numbers and to say they weren’t happy was an understatement. She then started a lottery system as more seats mysteriously appeared on her monitor and picked people to go on the plane depending on how heart wrenching their sob story was. All along we kept reminding her “we have hold luggage on board and as you know, you are not permitted to fly when the luggage owning passenger is not on board too”. By now she was getting flustered and we demanded to see her supervisor. A woman eventually appeared (the flight already being delayed by a further hour by this point). She asked rude lady to press a certain button on her computer and lo and behold, there was a seat for our male friend. Rude lady said “well that wasn’t there a moment ago”. FAIL I glared at her and made her aware what I thought of her utter incompetence and contempt for the fee-paying passengers and we went out to the bus on the tarmac that would take us to the plane. Several minutes later, the wedding guest boarded the bus to huge cheers and we were on our way. Or were we …? We boarded the plane with fellow passengers asking what the hold -up was before an announcement along the lines of “we do not have any fuel on the aircraft so we have to wait for a fuelling truck to become available”. FAIL At this stage, I tweeted EasyJet saying what a dreadful experience we had been through. More on that later It was 11am before we took off, a further two hour delay. So we had a great time in Hamburg even though we’d lost around 18 hours of our short city break. I thought that was the end of the appalling service but no. Tuesday I submitted my 261 Euros per person compensation claim for the flight cancellation as per the EU directive which is law. I also submitted the receipts as requested. The next day I received a reply saying our expenses claim had been refused because… and I quote “meals and refreshments were arranged by the hotel staff”. FAIL I replied to the effect “seeing as the hotel restaurant was closed at 100am when we arrived and closed at 6.00am when we were picked up again, how was it possible to feed us and why would we then go and buy breakfast?” Nothing heard since. Then I received a tweet back from EasyJet saying “Sorry you’ve had problems, Please send booking reference etc. and we will investigate”. Great I though we are getting somewhere. WRONG This was twitter mans reply this morning. Although I’ve not been told officially, this reply says they won’t be paying compensation that I am 100% entitled to but what do I do next????? Worst customer service I have ever experienced and I am a frequent flyer, traveller, hotel stayer and restaurant user. Twitter reply: “Hi [name]. Thank you for your message. I just viewed your case and as you already have been informed your claim for expenses was declined. When our financial department close the case, we in social media team, can do nothing more. I noticed that you have been refused for EU compensation too. I am sorry that I was not able to help you more, but please understand that decision is with finance department. Regards, Vlad” You have two choices in my book... 1. Find out your rights and don't give up complaining until you're satisfied. This is the long game approach. 2. Use Ryanair in future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WharfedaleRam Posted June 2, 2017 Share Posted June 2, 2017 Formal complaint to the Civil Aviation Authority. Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RoyMac5 Posted June 2, 2017 Share Posted June 2, 2017 Try posting on here, or looking for info: MSE The Flight Delay Compensation Board Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DEL Posted June 2, 2017 Share Posted June 2, 2017 3 minutes ago, WharfedaleRam said: Formal complaint to the Civil Aviation Authority. Good luck! Yeah was going to say this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richinspain Posted June 2, 2017 Share Posted June 2, 2017 17 minutes ago, LesterRam said: Have you tried Ryanair? Despite all the horrendous stories you hear about Ryanair all of my flights back home (admittedly there haven't been as many as I would have liked) have been through them over the past 10-12 years. I've been lucky enough to never have the least bit of trouble. In fact other than not booking my suitcases the first time because I assumed that one was included in the ticket, I can't even remember a small delay. Leg room is atrocious mind. Probably put the mockers on myself now! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mostyn6 Posted June 2, 2017 Share Posted June 2, 2017 https://www.resolver.co.uk/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mozza Posted June 2, 2017 Share Posted June 2, 2017 Nightmare, feel for you all,what a fff..farce, claim for every penny Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sith Happens Posted June 3, 2017 Share Posted June 3, 2017 Try CAB too, there is a whole section about this on there website. When complaining I would trim it down to just the facts in bullet points. I dont think there is any value in pursuing or mentioning about staff members attitudes as its not relevant to what you are claiming for, the shorter you keep your complaint the more likely someone is to read it properly. Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angry Ram Posted June 3, 2017 Share Posted June 3, 2017 Doe s not help but these things happen and it could have been communicated better In Some areas. Flghts do go technical from time to time and right at that point nobody is going to be able to tell you when it will be fixed. That's impossible.. Is the part in Luton or somewhere else? Many variances that will affect the repair. Okay they put on a smaller aircraft trying to recover the situation and 30 or so could not board. At least 150 will get away, so that in some way is a positive? Does not help the 30 I agree but better than 180 unhappy bunnies. So not a fail in my eyes.. okay they sent you to a wrong gate. I am sure that was not on purpose and everyone at EasyJet was pissing themselves laughing. It was a mistake, no big deal. The rest sounds pretty poor to be fair. @admira Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
admira Posted June 4, 2017 Author Share Posted June 4, 2017 Thanks for all the advice. Yet another failure appears to be the duff info from their twitter guy as I've just received this: "We’ve reviewed your claim and are pleased to say that you are eligible for EU261 Compensation. Your flight was delayed overnight due to technical issues. This delay was within our control and is considered a non-extraordinary circumstance under EU law. We’ll transfer 875.28 GBP for 4 passengers in total to the bank account details you gave us. Please allow at least 7-10 days for this to arrive in your account." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
admira Posted June 5, 2017 Author Share Posted June 5, 2017 Just sent a letter to their CEO outlining their failures and requesting that they pay my promised expenses. This is a very good website if you want to find details of the big wigs at any company. Often these details are hidden from us menials. http://www.ceoemail.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Tibbs Posted June 5, 2017 Share Posted June 5, 2017 I'd normally say you pay for what you get (I use EasyJet to travel home Inverness-Luton most weeks so I know how bad they are) but after BA's catastrophe the other week it seems like there's always going to be instances like this unfortunately with whoever you fly with. It's not even the unservicibility of aircraft/complete system loss that are the problem, it's the customer service. It must be tough to deal with 150+ unhappy passengers for sure, especially when the information they are getting fed is either wrong or non-informative. That's down to the airlines to get right in their training packages though, it's obviously failing for some. I find their staff to be the worst I've come across on my travels but I won't generalise too much as there's obviously some good chaps and ladies that work for EasyJet. I kinda get the feeling that when I complain to them they almost want to say "Well you chose this budget piece of crap, deal with it". For £9.99 a trip (sometimes), maybe they're right but last week was the first time in 10 journeys this year that both my outward and return flights went smoothly, on time with no hassle. It's not good enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RamNut Posted June 5, 2017 Share Posted June 5, 2017 On 2 June 2017 at 17:32, LesterRam said: Have you tried Ryanair? Lol. They are worse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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