Harass Your Way to (Eventual) Refunds
If at first you don't succeed, fax, fax again. And again.
Carole Denford wanted a refund for a flight she never took on European ultra-discount capitalization-challenged carrier easyJet. When she didn't get a response, she started sending faxes with her request, hundreds at a time.
- "When nothing happened, I sent another 100, and still nothing. My friend was so incensed, he started sending them from his work, too. He sent another 300, then a further 200 on the following two days - between us, we sent about 1,100."
It worked, eventually, but at what cost? Did she end up spending as much on phone bills as on the ticket she was refunding?
Be careful trying this in the United States. Wilfredo Torres, a disgruntled American Airlines customer, kept calling the offices of the airline's CEO, Gerald Arpey, to file a complaint. At one point, speed-dialin' Wilfredo made 200 calls within half an hour. Now the airline is suing him.
Are you receiving us, easyJet? [Guardian] (Thanks, jpacooney!)
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Comments:
Uh... she wanted a refund for a flight for which she did not turn up.
She says she couldn't change the flight because the EasyJet site doesn't work with Macintosh browsers, so she bought another ticket. Then she decided that she was entitled to a refund for the first one, even though she hadn't cancelled or changed it.
Now, it unquestionably sucks that EasyJet have a crappy Web site (Firefox for Mac is alleged to work), and it seems that their phone support also suXX0rZ. But I don't believe that gives a customer the right to be a dick.
I don't think I'll fly an airline that can't spell "promptly" right.
I believe that this is no longer trying to get a refund, it's straight-up harassment because the customer believed that they were mistreated.