I have just finished a telephone “conversation” with Ryanair and have to come to the conclusion that they are the worst company for after sales support anywhere.

For those of you reading this from outside Europe, Ryanair is a low cost airline, offering flights around Europe for as little as $1 each way..

First problem they have is the total lack of anyway to contact them by email.  Before you fly, you are forced to either view their FAQ’s or call either their reservation centre (at £0.10 per minute, here is the kicker, it always takes a minimum of 5 minutes to get to actually speak to anybody) or their internet support team at a whopping £1 per minute..

You see, dear reader, this is the clever part, when using Ryanair, the problems are generally Internet related.  Their site recently relaunched and frankly the relaunch was dreadful, they removed half the features, emails were not being sent to confirm one had made a booking and the site crashed continuously.  So my latest Ryanair experience was another web related issue.  I checked in online and the site automatically picked up my birthday as my passport expiry date, it did so just after the page crashed on me, clearly indicating another Ryanair web problem.

What to do?

I called the £1 per minute line and (not surprisingly) the call was answered straight away, they don’t want you hanging around, at £1 per minute, they want you talking to them..

So the guy that answered started off angrily asking me what my home address was and what telephone number I used on the booking, standard security questions.  I then told him the problem and asked if he could manually change the passport date “No Sir, you screwed up and inputted the wrong date”, not the kind of language I would expect to hear coming from a £1 per minute support desk.  I explained the site crashed on inputting details and maybe this was the problem?  “No, you inputted incorrectly”, this is strange because I travel with them twice per week and I kind of know how the site works!  So I dared to question the stability of the site and the fact the link was a dead one not a link to online checking in, the “support” guy then replied “we have zero problems on our site, so it is user error”.  So, instead of trying to look at the situation, I am repeatedly told it is my fault.  And then, and this is the point I had to blog about, he hung up.  The guy was so helpful and friendly that he actually cut the conversation and hung up the phone.

So, Ryanair, answer me this, how do you train your staff, in fact, are they trained?  I have never ever been called a liar and been hung up on when calling customer services, ever, and doubt any of my readers have either.  At what point does all the bad publicity online make you sit up and take a look at the underlying issues?

Now, to make a complaint, I am told that I must fax a Dublin based number and wait for a response.  FAX?  FAX?  The last time I faxed this number was when my suitcase was destroyed by baggage handlers, at the airport the charming lady told me to..wait for it..FAX.. I never had a reply then either.  I have got four solutions for Ryanair, if they did these I think the general public would feel happier and actually recommend their services not the other way round:-

1. Have a general email support - send the person emailing an automated case number and a contact telephone number to chase after 5 working days if not resolved.

2. Have an emergency email support - as above but offer a premium rate number to call if no response within 12 hours.

3. Make staff use their names, that way the customer can note the name of the staff member, note the case number and you can either re-train the staff member or in the case above, fire the staff that are rude and clearly destroying your brand.

4. Employ someone to simply check all blogs/forums and complaints online and actually leave comments and interact with users/customers, offer rewards for good feedback.  Many airlines in the US do that, and they are learning that us customers don’t actually want to complain, we simply just want help or support.

Ryanair does what it says on the tin, you pay peanuts for short flights, you don’t go on board expecting anything apart from a seat and an affordable way to get around Europe.  But when things go wrong, they should and must get their act together, I am not an isolated case and would love to write a good review on Ryanair one day.  In fact if they ever come back to me because of this blog post, I will write a follow up.

Would any other business be in existance  with customer service like this?

Can you imagine ordering a sofa online and the system has a bug, and you end up ordering the wrong size or colour?  Can you imagine having to pay £1 per minute to be told it was your fault, tough luck..?

I’d love to hear your examples (if you have any) of bad customer service, I’d be amazed if you could beat mine.  but then again, nothing surprises me anymore!

Friends of mine called recently, simply asked if I could accept their friends blog on Fuelmyblog.

I took one look and knew we had to do something.  A small social media awareness campaign may just help them gather momentum and raise the plight of the family.  I won’t go into detail here, simply to say that Matt is taking part in an Ironman Challenge, which is extreme to say the very least..

2.4 mile swim

112 mile Bike ride

26.2 mile run

I wish him the best and hope this widget below sits on many blogs for the next month or so, please help us spread the word.

You can read Matt and Colett’s blog here.

Feel free to donate to their fund here

Below is the widget code:-

<a href=”http://tri4joe.com/donate/”><img src=”http://blog.fuelmyblog.co.uk/images/this-blog-supports-trip4joe.jpg” alt=”We support Trip4joe” width=”125″ height=”125″ border=”0″ /></a>

Just back from England, lots of great meetings. Met some amazing people and the project I hope to be launching soon is gathering momentum. I found myself in two private drinking clubs networking with some very very cool people.

I have been fuzzy headed of late, Sylvie and I lost somebody tragically last week and was a complete accident, someone I had planned to do so much with this summer, a great bloke, we’d planned to row around the ile de re and various other things, and I am struggling to come to terms with this loss. So if I have not been 100% focussed in the past week, missed your email, failed to reply on twitter, forgive me.

Jean-Vincent was a top man and may he rest in peace.

The norm will return soon, I promise.

(Comments are off for this one)

Cards made by the kids…(Dear Master..you see, they know their place!)

Friends and Forums!

Thanks everyone, off to buy a new phone for the house..back to reality..!

Dear Blogger team,

Please please think about where you host your status page:-

status.blogspot.com?

One of my favourite sites is twitter, it allows me to instantly see what is going on, read blog posts as they happen, get news before it appears on major news sites such as the BBC and the Guardian, but more importantly, it lets me connect with the World instantly.

A few days ago, I asked a simple question (you only have 140 characters to get any message across) “Global Fuel price check, how much is a gallon or litre of diesel/gas where you live? Please answer with Country/State and price, thanks!”…the results were interesting and I have published them below, it shows us instantly how much the different government’s tax us and also how prices vary from state to state in some cases.

smartiesplace @fuelmyblog currently at $1.55 a litre in Melbourne Australia

HellaSound @fuelmyblog $4.29 in San Francisco, CA

webduck @fuelmyblog $4.057 in Port Orchard, WA

supermom_in_ny @fuelmyblog On Memorial Day (Mon) I paid $4.11 a gallon for regular and I live in upstate NY…not NYC!

lezzles @fuelmyblog Re. fuel prices - it’s only $0.17 in Caracas.

AngelaChenShui @fuelmyblog approx US$1.20/litre for high octane gas; US$1/litre for regular, Jamaica

hawksdomain @fuelmyblog USA - Kansas $3.79/gal on the way to work this morning… news said it would be up to $3.90 by the end of the day tho

blm03 @fuelmyblog It was $4.29 over the weekend in Chicago, IL USA

Archit @fuelmyblog $5.77 per gallon for Petrol in West Bengal, India.

Cantalyssa @fuelmyblog USA/ South Carolina $3.78gas $4.55 diesel (per gallon)

John_C @fuelmyblog Jacksonville, Florida, USAGE current gas price: $3.938/US Gallon.

WritingJourney @fuelmyblog $4.18, Michigan, U.S

aragornsbeard @fuelmyblog About €1.50/litre here in the vendee, France.

And my Mother texted (SMS) me saying the price is £1.189  for petrol in Hertfordshire, England.

So, there are 4.55 Litres to a gallon so to compare averages where available:-

USA Average across answers was $4.05 per gallon which is $0.89 per litre or £0.45 per litre

In India is is $5.77 per gallon which is $1.26 per litre or £0.64 per litre

In Australia it is AUS$1.55 a litre which is £0.75 per litre or for the folks in the US $6.73 per gallon

In Caracas, Venezuela it is $0.17 per gallon! which is $0.037 per litre or £0.02 per litre (rounded up)

In the Vendee in France it is €1.50 per litre or £1.18 per litre which is $10.56 per gallon!

In La Rochelle in France it is €1.41 per litre or £1.10 per litre which is $9.91 per gallon

in Hertfordshire, England it is £1.189 per litre or $10.69 per gallon.

So now you can see why half of Europe is on strike due to the fuel prices right now..

This is what makes the internet such a great human resource.

Thanks to everyone that took part

If you haven’t yet added me as a friend on twitter I am known there, surprisingly(!), as fuelmyblog.

Jemima Kiss just asked for something to cheer her up on twitter, so Jemima, here it is:-

Thoughts everybody? hehe