Ryanair and Eir voted the worst for customer service during Covid crisis - Agree?

ShineOn7 · 21-10-2020 7:19pm #1

Both companies were a shambles before Covid tbh and the pandemic just magnified it

https://www.irishtimes.com/business/ryanair-and-eir-the-worst-for-customer-service-during-covid-crisis-1.4385292

Ryanair, Aer Lingus, Bus Éireann, Eir and Vodafone have been ranked among the worst Irish organisations for customer service during the Covid crisis.

A new report shows many businesses going above and beyond during the pandemic. However, telcos, transportation companies, online retailers and delivery services all performed badly in terms of meeting customer expectations.

Richard Hillman · 21-10-2020 7:32pm

Eir are permanently the worst. Surely the massive fall off of customers (including myself) hasn't been worth outsourcing their customer service to India.

Pkiernan · 21-10-2020 7:35pm

I was always a die hard Ryanair fan until I had to process my refund thus year.

Now I hate them, and they'll be my choice of last resort.

Degag · 21-10-2020 8:18pm

Richard Hillman wrote: »

Eir are permanently the worst. Surely the massive fall off of customers (including myself) hasn't been worth outsourcing their customer service to India.

Have they? I had a big debacle with them earlier this year and it was pretty much all Irish people dealing with me.

In any case, terrible customer service, very little to do with the people on the phones but moreso to do with the infrastructure and processes Eir have in place i believe.

Would also agree with Bank of Ireland. Extremely poor service most of the time.

veryangryman · 21-10-2020 8:37pm

Fastway Couriers are sh1te of the most scuttery brown colour. If youve used them, youll know

Ferris_Bueller · 21-10-2020 9:19pm

Vodafone are the worst I have ever dealt with by a country mile, it was genuinely astounding how many times they consistently did the exact opposite of what they promised. Have had bad experiences with Three too but not quite as bad. In general phone/broadband providers seem to offer shocking customer service - you'd think that at least one of them would realise this as it would not take much to have a real advantage over your competitors.

wally1990 · 21-10-2020 9:44pm

My sister works in eir and is WFH and I hear some of ****e she deals with due to Co workers (**not saying she doesn't make mistakes but this is what I hear /see)

Customers ringing up after being hung up on /disconnected,
Clients being told ring X department to resolve Y query which is completely incorrect and they can't Transfer calls to certain departments (how F**King stupid IMO)
Her work internal email address being handed out to Customers (big no no)
Fake names being given by Co workers (based on why customers have said)
Customers claiming they were told X to close the sale and billing is completely different
Customers absolutely losing their all mighty reason(men) and shouting at her when they need something /external work outside of the standard done and there is a cost involved outside of the provision of mobile/broadband
service(changes to the property let's say)
Third party KN group damaging peoples property upon installation (roofs, walls etc) customer naturally contact EIR, awful phone calls obviously

SEPT 23 1989 · 21-10-2020 9:47pm

Eir

Waiting for half an hour

cut off

Waiting for 59 minutes

Cut off

Appalling

Richard Hillman · 21-10-2020 10:13pm

I was with meteor for years and then Eir took over. Never had problems with them until I bought a new phone online. Meteor used to be next day delivery but Eir was 2-3 days.

I waited a few days and no delivery. Waited a week or 2 and nothing.

Then I started to ring them. I spend an hour on hold, nothing, 2 hours on hold, nothing. After about 6 weeks I even rang them, went to do my weekly shop, got home and was still on hold for 3 hours, nothing. I then contacted my bank AIB and they sorted it out straight away, I got a refund.

A few days after my refund the phone suddenly appeared. I had already purchased the same phone with another network and had left Eir (it was prepay). I wrapped the phone up and posted it back to them explaining my displeasure, that I didn't want the phone and want nothing to do with the company again. The dopes refunded me again and I was up about €140 :pac:

If you have a problem with Eir, send them a letter in the post. It's much more effective.

The_Kew_Tour · 21-10-2020 10:14pm

Vodafone ain't much better if at all.

redlead · 21-10-2020 10:20pm

I must be the only person in Ireland that has had nothing but a positive experience with Eir customer service. They've always sorted me out anytime I've had an issue.

ShineOn7 · 21-10-2020 10:26pm

redlead wrote: »

I must be the only person in Ireland that has had nothing but a positive experience with Eir customer service.

You literally are

They're a bunch of absolute cúnts

And I only use that word for the really "special" people

21-10-2020 10:31pm

I see Peter Mark on the list. Didn’t they introduce some ridiculous pricing structure when hairdressers opened back up earlier in the year? Something about extra cost for root growth and a different cost if you’d home dyed?

21-10-2020 10:35pm

Gardai making both lists. Now that's covering all the bases

Potential-Monke · 22-10-2020 1:51am

I love when AGS get included in these things. The feedback will never be mainly positive because, well, they arrest people. No one is happy to be arrested, and most of the people they arrest think they're innocent and the big bad Garda is out to get them (completing ignoring the house they broke into, drugs they dealt, or person they glassed). Just a lose-lose situation really!

Luckily haven't had to contact anyone on that list.

Rubberchikken · 22-10-2020 1:57am

Eir.
The worse customer service I've ever experienced.

How a company can employ such incompetenta is inexplicable. The only thing that keeps me with them is the lack of energy required to switch to a slightly less incompetent company.

Potential-Monke · 22-10-2020 3:02am

I don't think it's the people of Eir who are the main issue. From what I've heard, the company is far from helpful for them, and basically doesn't give direction on certain things. Having worked in a number of call centres, I can see why they may drop calls, etc. Lying is different though.

rn · 22-10-2020 3:49am

Eir is without doubt the worst I've dealt with, probably dealt with them on 12-15 occasions. I include my dealings with gomo in that.

SineadSpears · 22-10-2020 4:00am

My friend works for Ryanair & I've said to her, even before covid, that I would be fired after two weeks if I had to deal with their passengers! They can be so thick.

When the flights started back after the first lockdown, you would have people turning up without checking if there were any restrictions on the destination they were travelling to.

Then you have people pretending that they didn't know they needed a particular document to fly.
She was boarding a flight & had one group with a passanger even pretending to be a captain, & that he didn't need any documents to fly:rolleyes:
Captain & his buddies missed their flight that day.

Or that it was a requirement to wear a mask to go onboard, & even causing blue murder at being told they needed to buy a mask from the airport (I think they have machines that sell them all over the airport now).

The whole world was watching the news, & were online daily checking to see if things were getting back to normal. NOTHING was going back to being as it was before.
People turning up without checking what was required first, have no one to blame but themselves.

Arghus · 22-10-2020 4:08am

I'd vote for Ryanair for the self-serving shamelessness of M O'L pretending he's an expert on public health during a pandemic. And screwing customers over refunds - to the point of flying intentionally empty planes - as much as possible.

Even Eir aren't quite as psychopathic as that.

Mr. CooL ICE · 22-10-2020 10:01am

SineadSpears wrote: »

My friend works for Ryanair & I've said to her, even before covid, that I would be fired after two weeks if I had to deal with their passengers! They can be so thick.

Don't think that's specific to Ryanair passengers. I'm pretty sure I witnessed the following every time I've been waiting to go through security...

Security: "Any liquids in your bag"
Passenger: "No"
Security: *pulls out massive bottle of shampoo* "You can't bring this through"
Passenger: "Oh, I didn't know that was liquid"

I'm not exactly well traveled, but I swear people's IQs drop the second they enter an airport

22-10-2020 10:12am

SineadSpears wrote: »

My friend works for Ryanair & I've said to her, even before covid, that I would be fired after two weeks if I had to deal with their passengers! They can be so thick.

When the flights started back after the first lockdown, you would have people turning up without checking if there were any restrictions on the destination they were travelling to.

Then you have people pretending that they didn't know they needed a particular document to fly.
She was boarding a flight & had one group with a passanger even pretending to be a captain, & that he didn't need any documents to fly:rolleyes:
Captain & his buddies missed their flight that day.

Or that it was a requirement to wear a mask to go onboard, & even causing blue murder at being told they needed to buy a mask from the airport (I think they have machines that sell them all over the airport now).

The whole world was watching the news, & were online daily checking to see if things were getting back to normal. NOTHING was going back to being as it was before.
People turning up without checking what was required first, have no one to blame but themselves.

I agree with this to a point.

there is the other side, the rude staff, the annoying for the sake of being annoying, not showing any flexibility and still trying to sting people needlessly.

Planes are half full, they need customers and yet they still pounce on bags that are borderline. They still snap at people. They dont wear the masks themselves inside the airport even that is also a rule.

Allow me to tell a short story. Travelled with wife and 2 kids, 1 and 2 years of age. We had 2 checked bags and at the time, the carry on each. My wife broke her leg and in Dublin airport, she doesnt go through with you but on her own and meets you on the plane. I managed to squeeze all out belongings into 2 checked bags but it weighed 54km. Our allowance overall for the flight was 20kg + 20kg + 40kg carry on = 80kg. Would they allow me to proceed? nope, empty the bags. I asked politely, I tried reasoning with them that actually it was easier for them as well as the plane is full, nope. I tried begging that 2 very young kids and bags on my own was a real headache, nope.

So had to buy a bag to put the extras in and bring it with me. When we got on the plane, guess what? no ****ing room and it had to go in the hold! Now you tell me why that made sense? why they couldnt show some human compassion?

Degag · 22-10-2020 6:26pm

Potential-Monke wrote: »

I don't think it's the people of Eir who are the main issue. From what I've heard, the company is far from helpful for them, and basically doesn't give direction on certain things. Having worked in a number of call centres, I can see why they may drop calls, etc. Lying is different though.

This. It's incredibly disingenuous to blame the people on the frontline when calling contact centres. The can only go by the processes that they have and don't have scope generally to go outside of them. Sure you will get through to better agents than others but in gereral the ineptness of a contact centre has little to do with frontline staff but moreso the company's structure and business model itself.

SineadSpears · 22-10-2020 6:42pm

There is an incentive in Ryanair with staff getting bonuses for money collected for overweight bags & charging for bags even slightly oversized. My friend says she doesn't get involved in that, but that other staff climb over each other to deal with passengers that they see can be charged. Imagine.
I worked there before, not with Ryanair though.

Not all airlines use the same system either.
Some will allow you to pool your total weight together, but other airlines don't. Be careful with that.
If you had a baggage allowance of
20kg x 2 (checked bags)
10kg x4 (carry on bags)
Thats 80kg total.

But if you had
30kg x 2 (checked bags)
10kg x 2 (carry on bags)
Again 80kg total,
but once you enter in the two 30kg bags into each passengers checkin, the system(depending on who you are flying with) will register those bags as being overweight (over your 20kg allowance that you have paid for each).
There is simply no way to override that unfortunately.

Totally understand the inconvenience of you having first, to buy another bag in the airport, then having to drag it around when you had kids with you too.
Then having the bag not even going onboard with you in the end, when you feel it could have just been taken at checkin!

Some airline take carry on bags free at checkin. Others don't.
Again, no way around it.
If staff took that bag at checkin, the system will ask for a payment.
If they took a carry on bag thinking it was ok(maybe new staff), well then the passanger wouldn't be able to be boarded at the gate because they would have an outstanding payment on their reservation.

When carry on bags are taken free of charge, & put into the hold at the gate, it is because yes the flight is full as they will announce, but also because they can see that not many checked bags have been taken at checkin.
This is only known towards the end of checkin, minutes before a flight is due to start boarding.

Very few people travel with just a handbag, therefore that means that most people on that flight are expected, by staff & dispatch, to be travelling with carry on bags.
& that there MIGHT not be enough space on board for all those cabin bags to fit. So the staff need to take a certain amount of carry on bags & put them into the hold.
Sometimes passengers do end up unexpectedly travelling light, & that is where you get 'last time I was travelling, there was loads of space empty on board'. Staff are just trying to think of worst case scenario.

Cabin bags actually cause so much hassle for crew on board. They delay flights too(amongst other things obviously).
Delayed flights cause more delayed flights believe it or not.
Delayed flights cause airline fines.
Delayed flights lead to passengers possibly missing their connecting flights.
Staff writing out reports, changed gates last minute, stressed passengers, staff having to stay back after doing a long shift, sometimes having started at 3am.
Nobody wants/likes delayed flights.

Side note, some carry on allowances can be 12kg, or as little as 8kg. Check with your airline.
Maximum bag allowance in 32kg. No staff is (rightly) allowed lift anything over 32kg, no matter what allowance you have paid for.

Moral of the(long) story is, check with your airline before flying. Staff are just following the big boys rules

22-10-2020 6:44pm

Degag wrote: »

This. It's incredibly disingenuous to blame the people on the frontline when calling contact centres. The can only go by the processes that they have and don't have scope generally to go outside of them. Sure you will get through to better agents than others but in gereral the ineptness of a contact centre has little to do with frontline staff but moreso the company's structure and business model itself.

Who is blaming the individual? The company has been found to have terrible customer service. Thats accurate.

Degag · 22-10-2020 6:51pm

Niner leprauchan wrote: »

Who is blaming the individual? The company has been found to have terrible customer service. Thats accurate.

There have been a few comments in here calling the front end staff incompetent etc etc.

Hangdogroad · 22-10-2020 7:10pm

veryangryman wrote: »

Fastway Couriers are sh1te of the most scuttery brown colour. If youve used them, youll know

I used them once to make a delivery. Never again. Kept me waiting all day and never answer the phone.

cannotlogin · 22-10-2020 9:18pm

I don't think Ryan Air are too bad. They promise very little and that's exactly what you get. Don't use them where time is an issue or where I have to be somewhere that my luggage is 100% essential. You get what you pay for.

On the other hand, there isn't one mobile/broadband provider in the country with an sort of decent customer service. Eir are the absolute worst but they others aren't too far behind.

2lazytogetup · 22-10-2020 11:07pm

Eir are the worst. and thats going back to 2008 ive had problems with them.

if Eir offered me 2euro a year broadband, i wouldnt take it. they are that bad and not worth the hassle.

at least with ryanair they are cheap and you know what you are getting.

SineadSpears · 22-10-2020 11:27pm

2lazytogetup wrote: »

at least with ryanair they are cheap and you know what you are getting.

You'd think that, but no, the amount of times you hear Ryanair passengers screaming in the airport because they have to pay for a boarding pass.
They expect their boarding pass, priority boarding, 20kg bag, a meal & a hot shower for the grand total of €25 that they have paid for their flight.

Can be very entertaining to watch when you don't have to deal with those customers yourself

Milena009 · 23-10-2020 12:16am

Hangdogroad wrote: »

I used them once to make a delivery. Never again. Kept me waiting all day and never answer the phone.

So much that.
Fastway are pretty much worse courier company I dealt with
I think Ryanair is not as bad as loveholidays.
Its a package holiday company so hotel + flights but come June / July and then separate Holiday in September I had to pro actively reach out to hotels if they are open if anything and yet
Their only support was via chat (miracle to get on)
If your hotel was closed but flight going ahead... They were Washing their hands off of you ..... Mine is sorted but wow

uch · 23-10-2020 12:31am

eir are the biggest cnuts in the country, so frustrating to deal with, I sometimes have to deal with them through work, and I can tell you they are the biggest jumped up self centred cnuts in the republic, I had a friend who put in a query to a TD, and he put it through the Dáil and they still wouldn't answer, they just think they are above everybody, should never have been sold off, but EU and state aid rules and all that

Rodney Bathgate · 23-10-2020 12:34am

Aer Lingus up there in the top three. Doesn’t surprise me. Surprised their % isn’t higher in fact.

Still waiting for a voucher since March. Apparently my request was ‘prioritised’ more than a month ago.

Zaph · 23-10-2020 1:38am

Rodney Bathgate wrote: »

Aer Lingus up there in the top three. Doesn’t surprise me. Surprised their % isn’t higher in fact.

Still waiting for a voucher since March. Apparently my request was ‘prioritised’ more than a month ago.

Well just to give you a little hope, I finally got a cash refund from them last week. Still waiting on anything at all back from Ryanair for the return flight for that trip.

Chinasea · 23-10-2020 8:34am

Eir, yes appalling service. But not Ryanair. I really don't understand people's shortsightedness.

Screaming ranting and raving in the midst of a global pandemic about delays in getting their €30.00/70/100.00 refunds. I mean get over yourself.

The airlines have been particularly hard hit, yet when this mess is over all the moaners will be expecting their bargain basement flights again, with not one thought, nor care about the Airline business in the interim.

DrumSteve · 23-10-2020 8:44am

I can only agree on Eir, though one thing to note their call centre is down the country not India, after they moved out of telephone house in Marlborough Street in Dublin they moved the jobs to Sligo.

I believe the webchat is in India.

That said, as someone fairly well acquainted with the company, there were some good people there but the organisation as a whole was a total shambles. I would never give them my business again after the hassle I had trying to cancel; they were still sending me bills months after I switched to sky.

Greyfox · 23-10-2020 8:57am

Richard Hillman wrote: »

Eir are permanently the worst. Surely the massive fall off of customers (including myself) hasn't been worth outsourcing their customer service to India.

Yeah Eir are the worst, horrible company, an hour getting through to them on avarage. The problem is people dont care enough about customer care as all that matters to the general public is thinking there getting a good deal and Eir sales guys are great at making it seem like your getting a great deal

carq · 23-10-2020 9:01am

Ferris_Bueller wrote: »

Vodafone are the worst I have ever dealt with by a country mile, it was genuinely astounding how many times they consistently did the exact opposite of what they promised. Have had bad experiences with Three too but not quite as bad. In general phone/broadband providers seem to offer shocking customer service - you'd think that at least one of them would realise this as it would not take much to have a real advantage over your competitors.

I am currently in a 6 week saga just to get another tv box ordered.
it is incredible how bad they are and plain incompetent.

i think i have spent around 13 -14 hours of my life now on the phone to them just to give them more business

2lazytogetup · 23-10-2020 9:06am

Chinasea wrote: »

Eir, yes appalling service. But not Ryanair. I really don't understand people's shortsightedness.

Screaming ranting and raving in the midst of a global pandemic about delays in getting their €30.00/70/100.00 refunds. I mean get over yourself.

The airlines have been particularly hard hit, yet when this mess is over all the moaners will be expecting their bargain basement flights again, with not one thought, nor care about the Airline business in the interim.

yeah totally agree. heard stories of people spending hours on phones and emailing them to get 50euro back. all that effort and stress for something you are ultimately going to be refunded on anyway.

DrumSteve · 23-10-2020 9:14am

2lazytogetup wrote: »

yeah totally agree. heard stories of people spending hours on phones and emailing them to get 50euro back. all that effort and stress for something you are ultimately going to be refunded on anyway.

Funny thing is that the easiest way to get in contact with them is to cancel your direct debit.

ennis81 · 23-10-2020 9:16am

Eir are shocking, my father got gangrene on his foot during Covid, he was in hospital for 2 weeks, we missed an eir bill and they cut his phone Line off, never missed a bill in over 40 years, took me over 2 hours to talk to someone in eir to cancel the account, we had to switch to sky who were FANTASTIC to deal with

23-10-2020 10:31am

Chinasea wrote: »

Screaming ranting and raving in the midst of a global pandemic about delays in getting their €30.00/70/100.00 refunds. I mean get over yourself.

Its my money. They didnt take months to charge me for the flight, did they? You need to also consider the financial impact it has on people, not every flight is 30 euro and in some cases people had to then book alternative flights which now cost more as a result of being so close to the travel time. Between Ryanair refunds Im still waiting on and the cost of replacement flights, im down 2k

Its a con as well, making people scream at them because they keep sending vouchers that arent worth a damn, just adds to the mayhem and confusion.

I had matching bus and rail bookings with each flight, they were all refunded within 48 hours automatically. Its not that hard. Ryanair have made it hard by trying to avoid payment as much as possible.

Mark my words, there will be a report in a few years about how much money Ryanair kept as a result of claims slipping throught the cracks and people giving up.

murpho999 · 23-10-2020 10:55am

ennis81 wrote: »

Eir are shocking, my father got gangrene on his foot during Covid, he was in hospital for 2 weeks, we missed an eir bill and they cut his phone Line off, never missed a bill in over 40 years, took me over 2 hours to talk to someone in eir to cancel the account, we had to switch to sky who were FANTASTIC to deal with

I am not a fan of Eir at all but the point is that you missed the bill and the cut off process is automatic so I wouldn't bet too bad with them.

Just switch to direct debit and all those problems are prevented.

Chinasea · 23-10-2020 11:48am

Niner leprauchan wrote: »

Its my money. They didnt take months to charge me for the flight, did they? You need to also consider the financial impact it has on people, not every flight is 30 euro and in some cases people had to then book alternative flights which now cost more as a result of being so close to the travel time.

Mark my words, there will be a report in a few years about how much money Ryanair kept as a result of claims slipping throught the cracks and people giving up.

No there will not. Talk about whataboutery and hysteria. Kick a man when he's down.

The Tetrarch · 23-10-2020 12:00pm

Ryanair shoot up to 55% "failed to meet customer expectations".
That looks like an improvement to me.

The Tetrarch · 23-10-2020 12:01pm

Chinasea wrote: »

No there will not. Talk about whataboutery and hysteria. Kick a man when he's down.

Yes, please.

23-10-2020 12:42pm

Chinasea wrote: »

No there will not. Talk about whataboutery and hysteria. Kick a man when he's down.

Kick a 'man' when hes down? They have BILLIONS in reserve. Billions. O'Leary is a multimillionaire. I and most of his customers are not so who is kicking who? Cancelling peoples flights en-mass when its those customers that they rely on to continue to exist. Naturally if a route is not booking, you cancel the schedule but to cancel a flight with 7 days notice is well and truly kicking your customers. They openly lied to me about the cancellations as well by the way. I kept a copy of the exchange where they swore blind the flights were still happening but 'sold out' means exactly that. It doesnt, its Ryanair lying again just as they do with the on time percentage which is doctored thanks to exaggerating their flight times.

Its not whataboutery. Most companies have been able to process refunds because in most companies, its automatic and simple goes back to where it came from. Paypal can do it, Amazon can do it. B&Q can do it. Argos can do it. Why not Ryanair? Because they are doing everything in their power to frustrate the process which will result in people losing track of refunds and/or accepting vouchers.

I accepted 3 vouchers. messy to use, arent on your Ryanair account so you need to keep track of them yourself and when the next flight gets cancelled, the money will go back to the voucher which hopefully, you still have. so despite getting on planes every single month, I still have my Ryanair vouchers plus a sizable amount owed to me.

ennis81 · 23-10-2020 1:25pm

murpho999 wrote: »

I am not a fan of Eir at all but the point is that you missed the bill and the cut off process is automatic so I wouldn't bet too bad with them.

Just switch to direct debit and all those problems are prevented.

I understand how these kind of companies work, but when I investigated the situation my dad was actually in credit with them, so they should not have cut him off, they also managed to do something to the line which made it unusable, Sky had to send out technicians to lay a new phone line, and I must of spent around 10hours on the phone to Eir to get them to refund the money they owed my dad

smokybacon · 29-10-2020 2:00pm

It’s gas waited on the line for the 35 mins, told takes ten days to process an order. Told can’t cancel order until after. Yet website says dispatch is 2-3 days. So really 12-13 days! Sounds disorganised all right.

Manach · 29-10-2020 5:15pm

I'd agree on Eir. Before I switched their service was slow and my incident request jumped from dept. to dept. with each one requiring a re-iteration of the problem.

jmlad2020 · 30-10-2020 1:47am

Vodafone are the worst. They get my vote. They do everything possible (and purposely) to annoy you, get you to hang up.

You call the Vodafone Ireland office initially but unfortunately the people who actually have access to the important information (and can somewhat offer assistance) are abroad (intentional) so you get transferred after speaking to David in Cork to someone with bad English and a poor ear for Irish accents (intentional).

Ryanair and Eir voted the worst for customer service during Covid crisis - Agree?

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