Rebecca sent a message to Michael O’Leary – CEO, Ryanair – Email Address that said:
We have just arrived back from a trip to Cologne, which was a surprise for Mum but unfortunately there were a number of incidents which ruined the trip and thus causing me to complain.
We arrived at Stanstead airport on Tuesday 21st June to catch flight FR2814 07.40 we watched the departure boards which informed us to go to gate 6 for Cologne, so we did but when we arrived it didn't look right, as on the board above the desk it just said Cologne but no airline, and we couldn't see the plane, so I asked the girl there if we were in the correct place and showed her our boarding pass,and she confirmed we were. We waited and queued only to get to another girl who said we were in the wrong place! I asked her to phone through so we wouldn't miss our plane but she refused and said "not her problem!" So consequently we missed our flight. We were escorted back to the Ryan Air information desk with three other people who had also been sent to the wrong gate.
We then had to go and book another flight, and we decided to opt for the Ryan Air flight to Durtmond at 1pm FR1788 to try and make up for lost time this cost us an additional £126.98Then to get to Cologne we had to get a train which cost us another £34.82So far we are £161.80 out of pocket.When it was time to go through to departure gate, we did only to be facing a similar situation. As we got to the gate there was no information as to which flight was departing from that gate, luckily this time we were in the right place but about 10 people flying to a different destination had also been sent to this gate and had to be escorted out.
How can Stanstead airport get such crucial information so wrong?
We then arrived at Cologne Bonn airport for our journey home on Thursday 23rd June.
We went through security control to be told we couldn't carry my mums medical bag on board because there was too much liquid in it ( please note all containers were within the required 100ml) my Mum had previously already had agreed with yourselves, a letter confirming that she would be allowed to carry this on board but we got refused, and shouted at by the person checking the bags and the police to "get out!" and "check the bag in or we were not allowed on the flight!"
We had no choice but to go and check in my mums bag which then cost us another €35 (£29.39)
We went and saw the girls at check in who I must say are the only polite and professional people we dealt with and they sympathised with us, looked at the letter and the bag and couldn't see what the problem was.
So we now go back through security and this time my mum gets stopped and searched ( this part isn't the problem as we have nothing to hide and understand this is your procedure) My mum has a colostomy bag and they wanted to look at it ( which again my mum has no objections to) but she does, to being demanded to show this in public in front of everyone to see, and found it embarrassing, why wasn't she taken to a private room to do this?
Like I said at the beginning of this email this was supposed to be a surprise holiday for my mum to enjoy but through the experiences it has ruined all of that, made her extremely upset and left us out of pocket.
Then just to make matters worse the flight FR2815 was delayed by about two hours
I would like a full refund of the additional flights, the train fare, fee for the checked in bag and compensation.
I would also like an explanation as to what has gone so wrong and an apology.
I have flown with you on numerous occasions the last time being back in January to Copenhagen and I have never experienced anything quite like it.
Once I returned home I tried contacting you with this complaint via your website but it only allows one thousand characters! So I sent a response asking for a email address and the server failed! I then contacted you by phone only for the member of staff to lie to me and said you don't have a email address and hung up on me, unfortunately I never got his name. I then called back again and got given this email address.
I suggest some customer service training for your staff because they are rude and incompetent!
I used to be an advocate for Ryan Air and recommend you to friends and family but after this whole experience I'm not so sure!
I sent this original complaint via your online complaint logging system back on the 30/06/16 and have since sent sixteen chaser emails! Where I have had no response other than you will be looking into within either seven or twenty days and to date 24/08/16 I still have had no response.
For your information I have included the online reference numbers where I have previously submitted this complaint.
As per the original letter I would like a full refund of the additional flights, the train fare, fee for the checked in bag and compensation.
I would also like an explanation as to what has gone so wrong and an apology.
If haven’t received a response within ten days of this letter I shall be taking the matter further with Micheal O’leary and ATOL
I look forward to hearing back from you
Kind regards
Rebecca
