Ryanair telecom ripoff, any advice?

netman

Hi folks,

I was on a Ryanair flight recently and saw this ad for a Ryanair Telecom call card, featuring international calls from as low as 3c per minute.

What immediately caught my attention was the map, basically there are three zones - red zone is 3c/minute, blue zone is 4c/minute, and the rest of the world has different pricing. Croatia is featured on the map in the red zone.

Being Croatian myself and getting charged close to 1 euro per minute by eircom I couldn't believe this was real and immediately got a 10 euro call card. That's over 30 times cheaper!

So I got home, made a call with the new Ryanair Telecom and after dialling Croatia the system informed that I have 43 minutes on the call. Now that doesn't sound right, does it? I brought out the calculator, and 10 euro divided by 43 minutes comes out to 23c per minute.

Wow, that's a sudden price increase, didn't know the inflaction in Ireland was that bad!

Rang their customer support, and I've been kindly informed that the map must have been misprinted (oh really!).

Now, I'm still happy with the price, but it's nearly 5 times more expensive than advertised. Is there anything I can do?

I'm guessing it's Ryanair's sneaky business policy to advertise low-low-low rates, and when you purchase the calling card it ends up being much more expensive.

HelterSkelter

Talk to the Advetinsing Standards Authority (www.asai.ie) and Department of Consumer Affairs (www.odca.ie).

This wouldn't be the first time Ryanair were in trouble for misleading advertising.

By the way, a call to Croatia is 7.5c a minute from http://www.yaptel.com. I use them all the time, there are no hidden extras. That rate include a freephone number you use to call them. You order the card on their site and they send you a PIN number within a day of ordering.

netman

Thanks HelterSkelter!

That was really helpful!
I've contacted both ASAI and ODCA, we'll see what happens.
I don't think Ryanair will change their pricing, but at least they might be forced to pull the false advetisement from their publications.

After I'm done with this 10 euro card I'll try Yaptel. I had no idea you could get such cheap rates! You have a drink on me

Ripwave

Originally posted by netman
I'm guessing it's Ryanair's sneaky business policy to advertise low-low-low rates, and when you purchase the calling card it ends up being much more expensive.

Yeah, there's so much phone traffic that it'd be a really lucrative "mistake".

Not.

Yes, the ad was misleading, and you didn't get you call for 4c/min - but be realistic about the motivation behind the problem. It'd probably be cheaper for them to switch all traffic to Croatia to the cheaper band than it would be to replace the ads.

Their website says that calling card calls to Croatia from Ireland cost 13c/minute. (Which is actually cheaper than their CPS calls to Croatia). And calls to most EU countries (including the UK) are 8c/minute, which doesn't bear any relationship to the prices you saw in the ad. Was there some special promotion code mentioned in the ad, or other restriction?

(By the way, I can second the yaptel recommendation. I bought a €20 "card" off them a couple of weeks ago, and haven't had any surprises, price wise, though I have had repeated difficulty getting through to one of the numbers that I regularly call in the US, even though the call goes straight through when I dial direct. If the problem persists this weekend, I might have to try some other provider).

eth0_

Maybe they only have a certain allocation of calls to Croatia at 3c per min? heh

BigEejit

Or whoever you are calling has to travel 50 miles outside of town to take the call

Urban Weigl

I pay less than 7c per minute to call Croatia with my packet8 VoIP phone. Might be worth looking into if you have a broadband connection and make many international calls. They also give you a US telephone number.

Quality is basically the same as an ordinary phone line.

oneweb

Originally posted by Urban Weigl
I pay less than 7c per minute to call Croatia with my packet8 VoIP phone. Might be worth looking into if you have a broadband connection and make many international calls. They also give you a US telephone number.

Quality is basically the same as an ordinary phone line.

Tell me more please

egan007

Originally posted by netman
Thanks HelterSkelter!

That was really helpful!
I've contacted both ASAI and ODCA, we'll see what happens.
I don't think Ryanair will change their pricing, but at least they might be forced to pull the false advetisement from their publications.

After I'm done with this 10 euro card I'll try Yaptel. I had no idea you could get such cheap rates! You have a drink on me

HI Netman

I use budget com - lesson for everyone that calls abroad here
check out www.budgetcom.ie

for most european countries call

1890 943 123
then you will be prompted to dial the number you want to call.
you will be charged at local rate..

I use this for calling the UK all the time - 1 hour is about 70cent

sliced my bills

bog