Ryanair charged me for a transaction they said failed... now what?

kapowaz

Two nights ago I was booking a flight with Ryanair for my girlfriend, who is coming over from Dublin to stay for the weekend (she doesn't have her own debit card, so I was paying for the flight for her). Ryanair's website was very slow throughout the whole process, but at the very final step (payment authorisation) it took a good 2-3 minutes before finally displaying an error page saying:

An Error Has Occurred
An error condition exists which is preventing you from continuing. You may wish to start over and try again.
If you continue to get this error message, please contact the airline.

Additional details about the error:
An error has occurred. Please try again.

Very vague and helpful. It was getting late, so after letting my girlfriend know, I decided I'd give up and try again in the morning. So, I went back to Ryanair's website yesterday morning only to find their prices had risen considerably, and the website was still slow as treacle. In annoyance I went to Aer Lingus, where I was able to book a ticket at a near-identical price without any problems.

Then that evening my girlfriend called to tell me that she'd received a confirmation email from both Ryanair and Aer Lingus; both flights had been booked, and I'd obviously been charged for both.

Now curiously enough, Ryanair's website (in addition to being an eye-bleeding mess) doesn't have obvious or helpful links to what to do in a situation like this; their most prominent contact details page gives you their postal address and fax number (very useful) and another page for ‘Internet Support’ has a premium rate (£1/min) number, which I obviously am reluctant to call.

So I googled and found another consumer advocacy site called Ryanair Campaign which listed Ryanair's head office phone number, as well as several email addresses alleged to belong to customer service staff there. I immediately emailed the details of my situation to these addresses, and resolved to call the number in the morning.

I've experienced unhelpful customer support staff at various companies previously, but I'm not exaggerating when I say that this was the most unbelievably customer-hostile employee I've ever spoken to in my life. When I asked to be put through to customer services, the woman I spoke to refused; telling me that if I wanted to pursue a refund it would have to be done in writing (also making an aside about how it was unlikely I'd qualify). She informed me that they're in a different building and she can't transfer the call. When I asked if there was anybody within her office I could speak to, she again denied there was, and when I asked to speak to her manager again she refused to do so.

Astonished by just how rude and unhelpful somebody who is allegedly a company's ambassador to the public could be, I rang another number which — luckily — the automated switchboard had read out to me before I spoke to Ms. Unpleasant; this time an 0871 number, which whilst not cheap should at least not result in a £30 call. My first call was — bizarrely — cut off within a few seconds of getting through the queue to a member of staff, but on my second attempt I was basically told the same as I had been before; that customer service do not have phones, that they do not have computers where they can receive emails, and that the only mechanism for pursuing a refund is by post or fax.

The whole episode has left me felt exceedingly angry. I will certainly never, ever, ever use Ryanair again, but it seems likely that it will take weeks to get my money back. And so my thoughts went back to the process I went through when I claimed my bank charges back from Barclays, which was thanks to the advice I found on this site. I'd like to know what possible avenues I have to explore to get my money back in as quick and efficient a timeframe as possible. I'm guessing that a Small Claims Court filing could be made (although being an Irish company I'm not sure there?) but what would else could I try? Has anybody else attempted to get money back from Ryanair successfully?

I'd be very interested to hear what others can suggest.

Voyager2002

You don't say whether you were using a credit or debit card, but in any case I suggest you contact your card issuer and dispute the charge.

No need to mention that you re-visited the Ryanair site in the morning and the price had risen. All that is relevant is that you attempted to make a booking and received an error message; that you then made alternative arrangements; that you were therefore wrongly charged; and that Ryanair have not been helpful in returning your money.

Send a copy of a brief letter along those lines to Ryanair and to your card issuer, and you should get some job.

kapowaz

Thanks for that! I've phoned my bank and they've raised it as a disputed card payment. I'll write to Ryanair informing them too.

M4RKM

yup.. exactly what i was going to say...

in future, if you use anything and get an error, it is always useful to get a screengrab of the screen, so at least you have something to reference when complaining about being charged !


M

jammin_2

kapowaz wrote: »

I'll write to Ryanair informing them too.

I'd skip this. Not worth your time and effort. Let your card issuer sort it out.

JailhouseBabe

I must say, my experience was completely the opposite. I booked flights on my card for my father, but the screen stayed on the "processing" page that normally only takes 2 minutes for over 10 hours. I eventually closed it, waited a few hours for a confirmation of booking email (which never arrived) then started the booking over. It was only when Ryanair sent me the email to check in online that I realised it was double booked and 2 payments had been taken from my bank account.

I got the number from the website, phoned and spoke to a guy who could not have been more helpful, and a full refund was in my account 2 or 3 days later. I didn't expect to receive that level of service from Ryanair, so I was very impressed (and probably extremely lucky!)

kapowaz

Okay, I got a letter from my bank today informing me that they're unable to do anything about the payment. This now leaves me in the position of having to contact Ryanair to try and arrange a refund — after the flight's date.

Can anybody offer any advice before I write my angry letter? I'm thinking of using a similar format to my Letter Before Action to my old bank, but I'd appreciate any advice people might be able to give.

kapowaz

JailhouseBabe: you say that you were able to ring and get a refund sorted, but that would seem to directly contradict my own experience, so I'd be very grateful if you could tell me which number you called! Was it the 0900 number (£1/minute)? I'm very reluctant to have to pay what could end up being £20-30 just to get a refund I'm owed. When I rang the other number (an 0871 number) I was told that their customer service team there aren't authorised to give refunds...

kapowaz

So, nearly two weeks have passed since both writing to and faxing Ryanair and still no reply, not even to confirm receipt of correspondence. How long should I wait before issuing a threat of small claims court action?

maimee_magic

Same thing happened to me when I booked flights with Ryanair on 27th November, a page popped up saying I'd entered my card details wrongly but I didn't rebook it and checked my card first to see if payment had been made and it had. Warning bells are sounding!! Wonder how many other people this has happened to and they've been paid twice for the same flight.

jancee_2

Ring the 'rest of the world' number for queries. 0035312497791. I believe it costs you the normal price to ring Ireland.