Ryanair - beware purchase card fees are being inaccurately shown

Options
I purchased return flights today London<>Dinard online, payment page popup (where you see how much each card type costs) advised the fee for debit card was £1.20/sector (2 passengers=>total £4.80).

However, confirmation email showed I was charged £16 debit card fee (£4/sector). Rang Ryanair & they said fees had increased to £4/sector, when I mentioned that the payment page still says £1.20/sector the adviser dropped the phone. I rang back, another adviser (Amanda) repeated the story of new fees, and tried to make the situation by saying that debit card is still cheaper than credit card (£4 vs £5/sector), however what she failed to recognise was that the purchase page shows false fees also for credit cards! To this she added that the website payment page would probably be updated with the new non-false fee structure "in a few days" - so obviously more people are going to have excess fees stolen from them in the meantime. When I told her this was not good enough & requested a refund of the falsely-charged fee overpayment, she then transferred me to her supervisor who dropped the phone once I started speaking.

They are essentially stealing these extra fees from customers, I have electronic screenprints of all of the pages in the purchase process as full proof. Although hidden in the T&C page of site is the list of new fee structure, for anyone who is on purchase page (i.e. everyone!) & checks the fees charged they will be told a false value by Ryanair. Ryanair are refusing to refund me the difference (£16-£4.80=£11.20) they falsely overcharged me. Imagine Tesco showing the price of a pizza as £4.80 & then taking £16 off your card without telling you they're charging the difference.

I'm going to take this to the airline regulator & BBC Watchdog etc. Feel free to let me know if you've experienced similar false overcharging by Ryanair.

P.S. I have all the screen prints of each page in the purchase process, showing clearly the false fee structure in the popup window on the purchase page.

Do you think it fair that Ryanair displays false card fees on flight purchase page? 39 votes

Yes - I love to donate money to charities like Ryanair
5%
ShockingPinkcardiffforthefacup 2 votes
Would you really expect Ryanair to be honest in this...
20%
marcowilSuggsPhill_555cheap_charlienic_cBengtjd87jaybee64 8 votes
No - purchase page fees are false advertising and illegal
61%
desimanplumb1_2richardwshammyjackAmyslijalooadouglasmhorMarkLS12TM'sjoolsyboolshotnuts21simonSE15valenciasALWAYSSKINTbeautifullybroken[Deleted User]A.JonesMipsDonniedodowanttobeasaver 24 votes
Why fly Ryanair in the first place....
12%
stonemanBigglesemmediMicrostar_2neil9313 5 votes
«134567

Comments

  • karendb
    karendb Posts: 313 Forumite
    Options
    Not affected by this myself at the moment but good luck with your claim!
    I would love to be lazy but can't find the time:exclamati
  • A.Jones
    A.Jones Posts: 508 Forumite
    Options
    No - purchase page fees are false advertising and illegal
    I have just had the same £1.20 was shown before clicking pay, they charged me £4.00 once I clicked pay.
  • Donkey_Travellers
    Options
    No - purchase page fees are false advertising and illegal
    Exactly the same thing happend to me on Friday am. Ryanair displayed the total cost of using Maestro as £4.80, but on completion of the transaction I realised they had charged £16!! I rang Customer Services and was told that the charges were now £4 per person per flight. I explained that they were displaying charges of £1.20 pppf and that they were wrong to increase these charges without prior notification. At this point I was 'cut off'.
  • pennylane99
    pennylane99 Posts: 5,783 Forumite
    Combo Breaker First Post
    Options
    next to the box where you input your payment credit/debit card details it says "click to view fee charges"...

    a box pops up telling you the fee is £4 each sector, or free if using Electron.
  • stoneman
    stoneman Posts: 4,521 Forumite
    Photogenic Name Dropper First Anniversary Combo Breaker
    Options
    Why fly Ryanair in the first place....
    next to the box where you input your payment credit/debit card details it says "click to view fee charges"...

    a box pops up telling you the fee is £4 each sector, or free if using Electron.
    and why would you do that when it already shows that the fee is £1.20. I can only assume by this statement of yours you are trying to "get" at some people for not doing this.
    The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot. If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well to add something for the risk you run, and if you do that you will have enough to pay for something better.
  • Donkey_Travellers
    Options
    No - purchase page fees are false advertising and illegal
    next to the box where you input your payment credit/debit card details it says "click to view fee charges"...

    a box pops up telling you the fee is £4 each sector, or free if using Electron.

    I did 'click to view fee charges' and it displayed £1.20 pppf both on Friday am and later that day.
  • dmg24
    dmg24 Posts: 33,925 Forumite
    Options
    I did 'click to view fee charges' and it displayed £1.20 pppf both on Friday am and later that day.

    I'm hoping you took a timed screenshot?

    Sounds like they did not synchronise the times when they updated different parts of the system, and I agree that they should honour the price that was notified to you at the time of purchase. I could not say for sure without seeing the screens, but if the £4 charge was not shown anywhere, I would say that they are legally bound to honour the lower charge.
    Gone ... or have I?
  • dmg24
    dmg24 Posts: 33,925 Forumite
    Options
    stoneman wrote: »
    and why would you do that when it already shows that the fee is £1.20. I can only assume by this statement of yours you are trying to "get" at some people for not doing this.

    Or maybe they were just stating what the screen showed when they checked? :rolleyes:
    Gone ... or have I?
  • Donkey_Travellers
    Options
    No - purchase page fees are false advertising and illegal
    dmg24 wrote: »
    I'm hoping you took a timed screenshot?

    Sounds like they did not synchronise the times when they updated different parts of the system, and I agree that they should honour the price that was notified to you at the time of purchase. I could not say for sure without seeing the screens, but if the £4 charge was not shown anywhere, I would say that they are legally bound to honour the lower charge.

    Sadly no screenshot, however the flight price had also shot up 2 minutes after I made my booking....every cloud.....
  • dmg24
    dmg24 Posts: 33,925 Forumite
    Options
    Sadly no screenshot, however the flight price had also shot up 2 minutes after I made my booking....every cloud.....

    That is a positive way to look at it, looks like you got the last tickets at that pricing level.

    I'm sorry that you didn't take screenshots as, although I am a regular (and very happy) Ryanair passenger, I don't agree with any company that tries to avoid their legal responsibilities.

    It is also sad that we have to think about taking screenshots when making online transactions, I've just been stung a few too many times (stupid Toys r Us) so now err on the side of caution! x
    Gone ... or have I?
This discussion has been closed.
Meet your Ambassadors

Categories

  • All Categories
  • 343.6K Banking & Borrowing
  • 250.2K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
  • 449.9K Spending & Discounts
  • 235.8K Work, Benefits & Business
  • 608.8K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
  • 173.3K Life & Family
  • 248.4K Travel & Transport
  • 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
  • 15.9K Discuss & Feedback
  • 15.1K Coronavirus Support Boards