"I'm a customer" Yet again airline staff abused by passengers (Mod Note in #25)

BlinkingLights

califano wrote: »

I'm not that familiar with Ryanair check-in policy but can you not also check in with the app?.

Yes, you can check in with an app for free at any stage ahead of the flight and you also cannot buy Ryanair tickets other than from Ryanair so, the check in process is made abundantly clear as you go through the steps online.

He should be thankful he wasn't flying through CDG or with United lol

spurious

I wonder did he fly in the end and did he pay the fifty? I hope he paid up big style if they let him board. Imagine when he finds out the price of a cup of tea on board.

anewme

It's said in various news reports that the passenger did not end up taking the flight.

proper order.

califano

BlinkingLights wrote: »

Yes, you can check in with an app for free at any stage ahead of the flight and you also cannot buy Ryanair tickets other than from Ryanair so, the check in process is made abundantly clear as you go through the steps online.

He should be thankful he wasn't flying through CDG or with United lol

Was it too late at this stage for him to check-in with the app?. If not why wasn't he advised to download the app if possible and check-in?.

I'm waiting for the morning time tv split screen apology from him!

anewme

anewme wrote: »

It's said in various news reports that the passenger did not end up taking the flight.

proper order.

Hopefully he'll be banned from all flights.

BlinkingLights

It may have been to late to check in at that stage. I think it's at any stage up to 2h ahead of the flight in most cases. You can reprint / reissue a boarding pass easily though.

It looks to me like he simply had not checked in at all and just turned up with the ticket.

I've seen this kind of thing before though. There's a certain type of person out there who thinks they should get grovelling service from "the help" and sadly, they are often American because there's a bit of a culture of expecting waiting staff to grovel to get tips. The attitude in France and Belgium is generally that you should treat anyone you're dealing with as an equal, not a servant. They're doing their job be it check-in desk operation, a shop assistant, a cafe waiter, a bus driver, the CEO of a large corporation. You're polite, you acknowledge them as a real person, you say good morning, you say please, you say thank you and you respect the fact that they are doing their job and they probably know how to do things that you don't.

I find it not only ridiculous that he played the racist card but also ironic as he treated someone in a front line, probably not that well paid customer service job like she was supposed to be grovelling to him as some kind of 19th century employer. That is not how it works and that's precisely why a % of American tourists will end up getting abysmal reactions in France from front line staff. If you walk into a cafe with the attitude that they're their to grovel, fail to acknowledge their existence etc etc you'll get a bad reaction.

I actually see it as an entitlement / class issue where somehow front line staff are deemed to be beneath respect. I'm not saying all front line staff are particularly pleasant to deal with either but there's a level of normal mutual respect between the customer and the front line service providers that should be seeing each other as equals in a simple human transaction.

pilly

What surprises and annoys me a lot about that is that security didn't arrive very quickly.

Anyone treating staff like that should be dealt with very swiftly by security.

If they can get 4 guys to drag a fella off a plane they should be able to get one to the desk. In fact why weren't any around.

I also agree with other posters that her colleagues weren't very supportive either.

Locker10a

BlinkingLights wrote: »

It may have been to late to check in at that stage. I think it's at any stage up to 2h ahead of the flight in most cases. You can reprint / reissue a boarding pass easily though.

It looks to me like he simply had not checked in at all and just turned up with the ticket.

I've seen this kind of thing before though. There's a certain type of person out there who thinks they should get grovelling service from "the help" and sadly, they are often American because there's a bit of a culture of expecting waiting staff to grovel to get tips. The attitude in France and Belgium is generally that you should treat anyone you're dealing with as an equal, not a servant. They're doing their job be it check-in desk operation, a shop assistant, a cafe waiter, a bus driver, the CEO of a large corporation. You're polite, you acknowledge them as a real person, you say good morning, you say please, you say thank you and you respect the fact that they are doing their job and they probably know how to do things that you don't.

I find it not only ridiculous that he played the racist card but also ironic as he treated someone in a front line, probably not that well paid customer service job like she was supposed to be grovelling to him as some kind of 19th century employer. That is not how it works and that's precisely why a % of American tourists will end up getting abysmal reactions in France from front line staff. If you walk into a cafe with the attitude that they're their to grovel, fail to acknowledge their existence etc etc you'll get a bad reaction.

I actually see it as an entitlement / class issue where somehow front line staff are deemed to be beneath respect. I'm not saying all front line staff are particularly pleasant to deal with either but there's a level of normal mutual respect between the customer and the front line service providers that should be seeing each other as equals in a simple human transaction.

Absolutely agree, very wise words, and sadly true

Subcomandante Marcos

buzzwell wrote: »

As opposed to people believing what they didn't see? How does that work?
I believe I saw an ignorant bully and an incompetent, abandoned employee of Ryanair.

There were literally zero ryanair staff in the video.

weldoninhio

dusty207 wrote: »

Lot to be said for refusing to talk to anybody while they're using a phone to record the conversation, in fact in a commercial situation it should be banned.

Is it not already illegal to make a recording once you are airside in an airport??

weldoninhio

pilly wrote: »

What surprises and annoys me a lot about that is that security didn't arrive very quickly.

Anyone treating staff like that should be dealt with very swiftly by security.

If they can get 4 guys to drag a fella off a plane they should be able to get one to the desk. In fact why weren't any around.

I also agree with other posters that her colleagues weren't very supportive either.

Her "colleagues" were trainees being shown the ropes by Sabrina. I'd say that they didn't know how to react.

buzzwell

Subcomandante Marcos wrote: »

There were literally zero ryanair staff in the video.

Doesn't matter and is not the point.

She was cut adrift by whoever her employer is.

She's in a vulnerable position and obviously trained not to seek assistance.
And no one offered her any.
What a nice supportive bunch.

I'd say staff morale is good there, wha?

AndyBoBandy

buzzwell wrote: »

Doesn't matter and is not the point.

Eh, so why did you make a point of it?

buzzwell wrote: »

I believe I saw an ignorant bully and an incompetent, abandoned employee of Ryanair.

or was it just a way to get a dig in at Ryanair?

buzzwell

weldoninhio wrote: »

Her "colleagues" were trainees being shown the ropes by Sabrina. I'd say that they didn't know how to react.

Neither did Sabrina in fairness. She tried to ignore the guy.
She refused his request for a supervisor.

Do you think what we saw is the text book way to deal with such a tosser?

No it's not, you call security and a supervisor because you've a verbally abusive customer on your hands. If you're employer gives a damn you're ok.
But she can't do that because of her contract being so flimsy.
She can't show she can't deal with tough situations.

It's like call centres; ever have to ask an agent for a supervisor?
They hate doing it, it's a sign they've failed.

mahamageehad

What a grade A a$$hat. Hopefully he wasn't allowed on. Yeah, she didn't react well but as others have pointed out she probably did everything she could to help him at the start, and that was edited out. The guy with the calming voice at the end was a saint.

rawn

buzzwell wrote:

Neither did Sabrina in fairness. She tried to ignore the guy. She refused his request for a supervisor.

To be fair, she may have called a supervisor before Richard started filming, only to be told the supervisor was busy /on break /just to wait. She must have known she'd cry if she spoke to him again so was desperately waiting for someone to show up. That's what it looked like to me. Poor lady, I would have broken down a lot sooner.

pilly

buzzwell wrote: »

Neither did Sabrina in fairness. She tried to ignore the guy.
She refused his request for a supervisor.

Do you think what we saw is the text book way to deal with such a tosser?

No it's not, you call security and a supervisor because you've a verbally abusive customer on your hands. If you're employer gives a damn you're ok.
But she can't do that because of her contract being so flimsy.
She can't show she can't deal with tough situations.

It's like call centres; ever have to ask an agent for a supervisor?
They hate doing it, it's a sign they've failed.

She was on the phone numerous times, I'd imagine she was calling for help.

The reason the agent is a call centre won't pass you to a supervisor is because they told not to.

buzzwell

pilly wrote: »

She was on the phone numerous times, I'd imagine she was calling for help.

And didn't get it. She was left to handle it herself.
She was left with a verbally abusive bully.

The recording is 7 minutes long.
That's been edited down to 7 minutes.

She, as you say, may have actually asked for help didn't get and was treated like shįt by her employer and that guy.

pilly wrote: »

The reason the agent is a call centre won't pass you to a supervisor is because they told not to.

Exactly. But why would she be any different??

I didn't hear her telling the idiot that she'd asked for a supervisor in that video.

We guess she was asking for help from someone, or to prevent a rap on her knuckles, going through the motions of making calls so she won't get in trouble for asking for help.

pilly

buzzwell wrote:

We guess she was asking for help from someone, or to prevent a rap on her knuckles, going through the motions of making calls so she won't get in trouble for asking for help.

Don't know why you're getting so angry with me.

I'm not the employer.

weldoninhio

buzzwell wrote: »

Neither did Sabrina in fairness. She tried to ignore the guy.
She refused his request for a supervisor.

Do you think what we saw is the text book way to deal with such a tosser?

No it's not, you call security and a supervisor because you've a verbally abusive customer on your hands. If you're employer gives a damn you're ok.
But she can't do that because of her contract being so flimsy.
She can't show she can't deal with tough situations.

It's like call centres; ever have to ask an agent for a supervisor?
They hate doing it, it's a sign they've failed.

I think she dealt with it well. She called both security and her supervisor on camera. She told the man what the story was, €50 for a boarding pass, he went off on one, so she ignored him and tried to get on with her job.

BlinkingLights

What she was doing was logical though. She can't change company policy and she's not actually even working for Ryanair, but for a check in agent at Brussels Airport. All she can do is operate their ticketing policy and the guy clearly didn't check in online.

Also to be fair to Ryanair, they're an ultra low budget airline and their policies are extremely clear and not only that but generally well publicised and understood by most passengers.

I think there's an unreasonable expectation about what's possible with a low cost fare too. I consider Ryanair and other low frills carriers to be more like a railway company. Would you turn up at the station 5 mins before departure without a reservation and expect online fare prices?

The reality is that Ryanair uses heavy fees to ensure hundreds of people don't turn up waving tickets and do all that bureaucracy themselves. That's why the ticket is so cheap!

It's not 1975 and you're not flying PanAm on $7000 ticket with the jet set. You're on a utilitarian, short, highly efficient fight. You will have to pay for extras and you have to accept you're shopping in the supermarket not at a high end bespoke hipster grocery store.

I also think there's an element of people going in waiting for Ryanair to be rude so they can be validated on YouTube.

You'll typically avoid engaging with someone like that as the alternative is a massive shouting match that just makes your day miserable and possibly could even turn into a major security incident.

For all you know that reaction may be airport policy to avoid confrontations.

Bushmanpm

Richard is all "Champagne taste with lemonade money" as if he has as much money as he has self indulgent piss importance, he would be on his own Lear Jet, not bargain basement Ryanscare

anewme

Bushmanpm wrote: »

Richard is all "Champagne taste with lemonade money" as if he has as much money as he has self indulgent piss importance, he would be on his own Lear Jet, not bargain basement Ryanscare

It's far from Champagne he was reared, he does not even work, hes a busker in Cologne!

Locker10a

anewme wrote: »

Bushmanpm wrote: »

Richard is all "Champagne taste with lemonade money" as if he has as much money as he has self indulgent piss importance, he would be on his own Lear Jet, not bargain basement Ryanscare

It's far from Champagne he was reared, he does not even work, hes a busker in Cologne!

I wouldn't tarnish the nice folks from Cologne with any association with him, he may have lived/lives there but he's clearly, a super-entitled, psycho yank.

Korat

In any situation regardless of how important you think your issue is, try imagining how the staff you're complaining to feels.

It calms me down a lot anyway.

I think I'm very important but not so much that I'd ruin someone’s day.

jahalpin

Her behaviour was quite bad as well, once a customer asks to speak to the supervisor or manager then it should become the supervisors or managers problem

The customer wasn't actually very offensive and if someone working for a company with a reputation for a distrain towards their customers such as Ryanair can't handle complaints without crying, then they are probably in the wrong job

AndyBoBandy

jahalpin wrote: »

The customer wasn't actually very offensive

You need to watch the video again.

jahalpin wrote: »

and if someone working for a company with a reputation for a distrain towards their customers such as Ryanair can't handle complaints without crying, then they are probably in the wrong job

She doesn't work for Ryanair, she works for a handling agent that looks after Ryanair's ground ops at Brussels airport.

Tell me how

jahalpin wrote:

The customer wasn't actually very offensive and if someone working for a company with a reputation for a distrain towards their customers such as Ryanair can't handle complaints without crying, then they are probably in the wrong job

Would you please watch and understand the video.

The customer was offensive, in tone if not in words to the lady and his words to the fellow passenger were offensive.

The lady, wasn't working for Ryanair.

She cried probably after over ten minutes of this behaviour. Anyone could be affected by that and she did well in my view to hold her cool and tears were an acceptable relief of the stress over any other behaviour such as being abusive back.

anewme

Tell me how wrote: »

Would you please watch and understand the video.

The customer was offensive, in tone if not in words to the lady and his words to the fellow passenger were offensive.

The lady, wasn't working for Ryanair.

She cried probably after over ten minutes of this behaviour. Anyone could be affected by that and she did well in my view to hold her cool and tears were an acceptable relief of the stress over any other behaviour such as being abusive back.

I'd have decked the condescending idiot. His monotone voice was enough.

Dignity at work applies to all.

i know of a recent situation where a call centre team were upset when a customer having a tantrum threatened suicide when they were not given what they wanted. The team were upset as they had very recently tragically lost a team member.

Well the customer got the call back he requested from the supervisor, though I don't think it was the call he wanted as he got told a few blunt home truths. He was also made aware that all calls are recorded.

Customer phoned back 2 days later with a heartfelt apology.

No one should be bullied in their job.

gctest50

Locker10a wrote: »

I wouldn't tarnish the nice folks from Cologne with any association with him, he may have lived/lives there but he's clearly, a super-entitled, psycho yank.

He seems to be on a serious mission in his head and forgets about anything else

Seems to me to be like one of those radicalized on his little trip to Europe

.