By failing to offer its customers an online complaints service, budget airline Ryanair is in breach of European Union rules, according to the European Commission.
Under the European E-commerce Directive, any company selling goods online must offer customers the opportunity to complain via e-mail. Ryanair currently has no e-mail contact listed on its website, instead requiring disgruntled customers to contact them by fax, letter or premium rate telephone number for urgent inquiries.
In a letter to a Member of the European Parliament, the Commission said that this failure to provide an e-mail address breached Article 5 of the directive and it falls to Ireland's consumer rights authority, the National Consumer Agency, to investigate and ensure that the rules are enforced.
Ryanair claims that passengers accept that all complaints must be made in writing when they click on the terms and conditions to make a booking. The airline added that almost all complaints are handled within seven days and that they receive fewer complaints than most airlines. Skeptics argue that this is precisely because Ryanair makes complaining more difficult by not providing an e-mail address.
Any Commission decision to aggressively enforce the directive is likely to have a positive outcome for online consumers as national authorities make sure that companies comply with the rules.
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Mark Hattersley said on Thu, 17 Mar 2011
Personally I find Ryanair fascinating as it's so different to most companies.
And in many ways the exact polar opposite to Apple (who wants all its customers to be happy - admittedly with somewhat lighter pokets ;-)
Ryanair's approach is the exact opposite "we don't care how unhappy some of our customers are because our sole aim is to drive down the price of the product by all means possible".
They're equally zealous as Apple but in a completely different direction.
Xhris2210 said on Thu, 17 Mar 2011
They seem unfortunately to be the model for all the low-cost airlines. The one fanatical aim is to get bottom-line price to look as low as possible. They'll then charge you extra fees, some of which are tax and airport fees. But others are anything beyond actually stepping onto the plane. A fee for seat reservation. Extra for any of your baggage and inflated amounts for any food or drink you buy, which is of course cheap rubbish. They even wanted to charge for using the toilet a bit back!
This is a bit like being quoted for a gallon of petrol and then finding that not only does it not include taxes and duty, but there is a charge for parking in the forecourt and a fee for using the petrol pump. And an extra cost for paying. And a booking fee.
grouchosmith said on Thu, 17 Mar 2011
> and that they receive fewer complaints than most airlines
If they're so confident in their 'service', they should not be worried about opening up access for lodging complaints then, should they?
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