Aftersales Apathy
Discussion
My latest piss boiler is Wizz Air. They canceled my return flight. I took it on the chin and booked my return flight with Ryan Air (it was one of the two to keep the journey simple).
A week after booking that alternate flight, the outbound flight was also canceled. It caused a bit of a headache in terms of insurance and logistics, plus I had to add another day to my stay at the hotel which itself was a drama.
Wizz Air offered a 120% refund on my canceled flights on the proviso that I kept it as credit on my Wizz Air account. I declined and requested that the amount I paid was refunded, and that we forget about the whole thing. This is when the trouble started; it is extremely difficult to get your money back from them and I strongly believe it is by design.
There is no direct contact with Wizz Air; no email (has to be via their Complaints Form) or by telephone (for which there is a £15.00 charge). The complaints form requires that you input your account number, name and email. Once you get through this security check, they want to know the:
1. booking confirmation number;
2. origin of your flight;
3. destination;
4. date of travel;
5. flight number - before you can progress to the text input and explain the issue you are highlighting. It all gets stuck here for a while because, the flight number is 'not recognised'. I put in the one stated on the booking confirmation and boarding pass, but it wasn't accepted and therefore I couldn't progress to the next page. After quite some time, I found that the flight number needed a prefix; a 'W9' in front of the 1902 Wizz Air quote on the bumph they send you. This information wasn't obvious and only found on the invoice, not the booking confirmation nor boarding pass.
Progress?
It took two weeks for them to respond to my 'case' to say that it was being dealt with. Week three, an update notification: your case has been resolved. Case closed.
No refund.
I waited a couple of weeks, then another. No refund. Back onto their website; into my account... input account number... booking confirmation... origin, etc. Re-open case. I made it clear that I wanted a refund and if I didn't get it I will escalate. I'm back into the abyss of them getting someone internally to go through the case and get back to me.
My frustration is that I cannot just pick up the phone because there isn't really anyone there, plus they want to charge me a fee for the pleasure. There's no direct email contact, and I do not accept that them having my account number is not enough information to bring up what has been flagged on my account.
It's this kind of aftersales not-giving-a-s
t syndrome that seems to be almost everywhere you go. These firms are great at taking your money when there's a sale to be had.
Chargeback time? It was paid for by [Visa] business debit card. Or issue?
A week after booking that alternate flight, the outbound flight was also canceled. It caused a bit of a headache in terms of insurance and logistics, plus I had to add another day to my stay at the hotel which itself was a drama.
Wizz Air offered a 120% refund on my canceled flights on the proviso that I kept it as credit on my Wizz Air account. I declined and requested that the amount I paid was refunded, and that we forget about the whole thing. This is when the trouble started; it is extremely difficult to get your money back from them and I strongly believe it is by design.
There is no direct contact with Wizz Air; no email (has to be via their Complaints Form) or by telephone (for which there is a £15.00 charge). The complaints form requires that you input your account number, name and email. Once you get through this security check, they want to know the:
1. booking confirmation number;
2. origin of your flight;
3. destination;
4. date of travel;
5. flight number - before you can progress to the text input and explain the issue you are highlighting. It all gets stuck here for a while because, the flight number is 'not recognised'. I put in the one stated on the booking confirmation and boarding pass, but it wasn't accepted and therefore I couldn't progress to the next page. After quite some time, I found that the flight number needed a prefix; a 'W9' in front of the 1902 Wizz Air quote on the bumph they send you. This information wasn't obvious and only found on the invoice, not the booking confirmation nor boarding pass.
Progress?
It took two weeks for them to respond to my 'case' to say that it was being dealt with. Week three, an update notification: your case has been resolved. Case closed.
No refund.
I waited a couple of weeks, then another. No refund. Back onto their website; into my account... input account number... booking confirmation... origin, etc. Re-open case. I made it clear that I wanted a refund and if I didn't get it I will escalate. I'm back into the abyss of them getting someone internally to go through the case and get back to me.
My frustration is that I cannot just pick up the phone because there isn't really anyone there, plus they want to charge me a fee for the pleasure. There's no direct email contact, and I do not accept that them having my account number is not enough information to bring up what has been flagged on my account.
It's this kind of aftersales not-giving-a-s
t syndrome that seems to be almost everywhere you go. These firms are great at taking your money when there's a sale to be had. Chargeback time? It was paid for by [Visa] business debit card. Or issue?
tangerine_sedge said:
There's a reason why budget airlines are budget....
The problem I had was flying to Wroclaw. It's all very well paying more to fly with a national carrier, but there are no direct flights from any of the UK airports. You have to go via another country which adds lengthy times to the flights. Given also that I prefer Luton or Stansted, I was all but snookered. City Airport is always my first choice for short haul flights, but much has changed after Covid.
On the other side of the coin. I had a holiday booked with Love Holidays which was cancelled in the height of the Covid nonsense when we couldn't leave the house without a good excuse never mind go on holiday. I'd paid Love Holidays the hotel and flight costs, then paid for allocated seats and extra baggage direct to Jet2.
I fully expected a drawn out battle to get my refunds.
The day after they cancelled Love Holidays refunded the hotel costs and said it's up to Jet2 to refund your flight costs.
The next day a full refund from Jet2 appeared including all the extras.
How it should be done! Both companies certainly top of the list for future bookings.
I fully expected a drawn out battle to get my refunds.
The day after they cancelled Love Holidays refunded the hotel costs and said it's up to Jet2 to refund your flight costs.
The next day a full refund from Jet2 appeared including all the extras.
How it should be done! Both companies certainly top of the list for future bookings.
jfdi said:
The next day a full refund from Jet2 appeared including all the extras..
Jet2 are excellent in my experience. They also treat their staff well and apparently it's a great place to work. For short flights I prefer them to pretty much any other carrier. Their package holidays are also pretty good.Appreciate the pain OP but this is how budget airlines offer the prices they do, they save operational costs and pass those savings onto the customer - if the customer wants those back they pay for it.
The issue here is that they haven't resolved in your favour after you challenged their offer of a credit refund. Its not the after service care as far as I can read its all been done in accordance for buying a cheap airline ticket (whether or not they are the only carrier to a destination is not the issue either).
I would be collating all the information you can that supports your standpoint. What do the Ts and Cs say in terms of what you get in terms of a cancelled flight? A very quick google shows that it says they will give you wizz credits not a cash refund, are you asking for something outside your contract with them? Know your legal entitlement and contract with wizz air, pay the £15 and get on the phone and sort it out over the phone (I am not sure what you mean by saying its not worth it as generally there is no one there, have you tried calling and paid the money?).
The issue here is that they haven't resolved in your favour after you challenged their offer of a credit refund. Its not the after service care as far as I can read its all been done in accordance for buying a cheap airline ticket (whether or not they are the only carrier to a destination is not the issue either).
I would be collating all the information you can that supports your standpoint. What do the Ts and Cs say in terms of what you get in terms of a cancelled flight? A very quick google shows that it says they will give you wizz credits not a cash refund, are you asking for something outside your contract with them? Know your legal entitlement and contract with wizz air, pay the £15 and get on the phone and sort it out over the phone (I am not sure what you mean by saying its not worth it as generally there is no one there, have you tried calling and paid the money?).
I had a couple of Easy Jet cancellations during Covid and had no issues getting a refund and they do fly when they say they will.
A friend has tried Wizz Air from Cardiff and had cancellations. Since I book accommodation, parking etc separately, I prefer reliability and the "cheap fate" tends to inflate every step of the way with Wizz Air.
A friend has tried Wizz Air from Cardiff and had cancellations. Since I book accommodation, parking etc separately, I prefer reliability and the "cheap fate" tends to inflate every step of the way with Wizz Air.
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