Showing posts with label EasyJet. Show all posts
Showing posts with label EasyJet. Show all posts

Wednesday, 27 July 2011

EASYJET - THE SAGA CONTINUES

As you would expect, I received this totally patronising and insulting rubbish from Easyjet. From my own experience you can only make a first impression once, and my first impression of the "Customer Care" department is, unfortunately, exactly what I expected. Ignoring my relevant point that the gate was closed while 19 people with children stood there. The reason I put so much informatiuon in my original contact was to pre-empt any misunderstanding but unfortunately you are dealing with people who think that Easyjet is KING.

Unfortunately this type of thing goes on far too often and most people give up This is what they rely on. I just want to get them to the point where they admit fault and then I'll go for the compensation. But I have to get them to that point first.

As I say my next step is the MD and the Trading Standards Department, another bunch of useless idiots! Ah well! It gives me something to do, as if I don't have enough anyway!!!

EASYJET’S REPLY
Our Reference: 110726-001018
Booking Reference: EHPNQXZ

26th July 2011

Dear Mrs Cordner,

Thank you for contacting us regarding your flight. I am very sorry to hear of the inconvenience caused to you and your family on the day of the 19 July 2011.

Airport security has the right to uphold any passengers coming through to do their security checks and this is something which we cant change or prevent. In this case we advise all our passengers when they make a booking with us to arrive at the airport as soon as check in opens to allow time to get through to security and to the boarding gate.

Our check-in policy is included in our Carrier's Regulations which we ask you to read before confirming your booking. We also ask you to confirm that you have understood and accepted our Carrier's Regulations by ticking a box. Without doing this, you would not be able to complete your booking.

For your information I have included a link to our ‘check-in' section online:-

http://www.easyjet.com/EN/Flying/index.html

One of the ways we can guarantee a good level of on time performance is to ensure all our customers are at the gate on time. We will always try to help our customers when we can and exceptions can sometimes be made only if there is enough time for the necessary security checks to be completed and the departure time will not be affected.

As you mentioned in your e-mail you took the option of a transfer with us, this is at the airports discretion and cannot be offered all the time. As you took this option I cannot refund the cost of the transfer fee or the other costs you mentioned as easyjet is a point to point carrier and therefore does not deal with transport or supplements after a flight has been taken with us.

Therefore, I am unable to offer you a refund and I hope that this issue will not stop you from choosing to fly with easyJet in the future.

I do hope I have been able to answer your question fully.

Yours sincerely,

- Jennifer Hagan -
Customer Service Representative

MY REPLY ON 26TH JULY 2011

I did not ask for reimbursement, I merely listed my out of pocket expenses. The full history of that event was to aid your investigation. You will see from my email if your read it properly is that we DID comply with your terms and conditions i.e. we were through check in before your own cut off period of 40 minutes and at the gate before your cut off period of 25 minutes.

I will now escalate your reply to your MD unless my queries are answered. Please comply with my email request to listen to and time the conversation between your employees at the gate and ascertain for yourself why they closed that gate when 19 people with young children stood there.

Tuesday, 26 July 2011

This is an email I sent to EasyJet this morning. I have no expectation of anything being resolved, but you have to try don't you? If I don't get an answer I will escallate the problem to the MD and repeatedly keep sending numbered emails (i.e. this is the second time I have sent this email etc. etc.) until I get a satisfactory reply. I used this tactic once before and it worked.

DENIED BOARDING ON 0715 FLIGHT 2051 FROM LUTON AIRPORT ON 19/07/2011
BOOKING REF NO EHPNQXZ

We were denied boarding on this flight despite the fact that we cleared check in at 0610 and presented at the gate before 0650. Your closure times are 0635 at check in and 0650 at gate so please explain why this happened.

The mornings’ events unfolded as follows. As you will see there were problems at the airport that morning, but we still managed to arrive at the gate on time.

0400 Were collected by mini-van from our home in Surfleet, Lincolnshire.
0540 Arrived at airport complex. Congestion on airport approach road delayed arrival at terminal building.
0555 Stood in check line
0605 Checked in 30 minutes before cut off time of 0635
0610 At security we were advised that it would take approximately 15/20 minutes to clear due to high passenger levels.
0630 As we approached the security belts we were transferred to a longer queue “past line 6” because we had a pushchair.
0635 Selected for a random liquid test.
0650 Went directly to the gate where the desk clerk was speaking to someone on the telephone. She gestured with her hand and shook her head that we should wait.
Another 12 passengers joined us. Interestingly enough each family had a pushchair and had also been diverted to “past line 6”, the security point for pushchairs.
0655 The lengthy conversation came to a end when it was announced that the gate had been closed and we were denied boarding due to our late arrival. We vehemently denied this and asked to see someone in authority. Eventually Amanda Nunan (this may not be the correct spelling but she should be easily identified because she was the “dispatcher”, if this is the correct term) came to the desk.
We all pleaded with her to allow us to board. She refused despite the fact that we had one infant (aged 18 months) and three young children (one aged 2) with us. The other families also had two babies and children, many of who were crying.
0710 Amanda Nunan took us Gate 9 to “await further instructions”. We waited for approximately 30.
0750 From there we were taken to the EasyJet Sales Desk and advised that we should stand in line to book another flight. While standing in line we got into conversation with another lady who had had a similar experience. She told us that in her case 9 had been denied boarding on the Dortmond flight that morning. Once again Amanda Nunan was the “dispatcher”. (If this is the term).
0850 As all flights to Geneva were full we booked we booked on to the 1435 flight to Zurich instead. We met the lady denied access on the Dortmond flight again later that morning and she told us that she had been talking to 3 lads who had also been denied boarding on another flight, once again Amanda Nunan had been involved.
1816 We eventually arrived at Zurich Station where we changed rail tickets from Geneva/Aigle to Zurich/Aigle at an additional cost of CHF 184
2150 Arrived Aigle. Caught taxi because the last bus to Villars had left.
2210 Arrived Villars with four exhausted children who had left home at 0400 that morning. We were originally scheduled to arrive at 1355.

Out of pocket expenses due to being denied access to that flight:
Extra airfare £300.00
Lunch at Est Ristorante Luton £ 45.20
Extra cost of transferring train tickets £139.90 (CHF 184)
Taxi £ 76.03 (CHF 100)

My question is, what did we do wrong? We followed procedures every step of the way. We were not late at check in and we were not late at the gate. What else could we have done?

I am a MD of a service company and we record all calls, both external and internal and presume that a company like yours does the same. In the interest of good customer relations it is in both our interests to know the exact timing of that conversation, what exactly was discussed, why that inhumane decision was made and by whom.

In conclusion I would like to say that although there were problems at the airport that particular morning we arrived at the gate within your specified time period. Although, I have to say that it is my suspicion that by the time the telephone conversation was concluded and the gate closed it was probably after that cut off time. The conversation seemed to be about who was being denied boarding. They even talked about the number of “infants”. And this was while we were all standing there with young babies and children! I still can’t understand why, on compassionate grounds alone, we were not allowed to board that plane.