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“A New Low in Customer Service - Our Ryanair Story”

written by Catherine001 on 13/02/2013

Our daughter and her friend (22 and 19 year old, university students) were traveling back from Tenerife to London. At the check-in, our daughter noted that the agent did not stamp her boarding pass (a requirement for non-European passport holders). She asked the agent about this a number of times and each time the agent 'assured' her this was not needed. Come boarding time at the gate, they refused to let her board because she was missing this stamp. After running back to the check-out and scrambling to 1) find any Ryanair staff, 2) get the staff to actually help her, 3) get her boarding pass stamped, she went back to the gate only to be told it was too late when it wasn't. Her friend was able to exit the plane yet they wouldn't let her board (both had carry on luggage so no issue there). The only help came from a kind gentleman from a car rental booth who helped the girls track down a Ryanair agent. The mistake was Ryanair's yet they took no accountability for it nor did they do anything to help these two young ladies who were left stranded in a foreign country, late at night, with no place to stay and few alternative options. With no help from Ryanair, the girls got the last and only other flight out with Monarch Air (new ticket purchase)which took them to Birmingham vs London and got in after 1 a.m. instead of 11 p.m. so no available buses/trains to get to Oxford (the end destination). To make things worse, the weather was bad on the ground. We made frantic calls from Canada to arrange a car-hire service while the girls were inflight so they could have a ride home when they landed. All of this because the Ryanair staff didn't know what they were doing, didn't care to help resolve the issue, didn't act with any sense of urgency, and didn't assume ANY accountability or responsibility for the situation they created! It was a very long night, especially for us as parents. Very disappointed in Ryanair and in disbelief that such an airline could actually remain in business with this level of inadquate staff training, extremely poor service, and no ownership for mistakes they make. Wow!