So it's nice to hear when the tables are turned against them.
News today reaches Consumer Tiger of the airline being slapped on the hands for treating Dutch consumers badly.
The Consumer Authority in the Netherlands has imposed a penalty of €370,000 on Ryanair for being quite rotten to customers.
Go the Dutch!
It's great to see a national consumer protection agency standing up to the muscle of Ryanair, which has been moving the goalposts every year in terms of decent customer service.
The issues the authority found were:
- Ryanair’s airfares displayed on its website did not include all foreseeable and unavoidable costs
- The online booking process did not offer consumers the option to review the information they entered and to correct any mistakes before finalizing the booking
- On its website, Ryanair fails to publish an email address, which makes it difficult to communicate directly with the company
- Ryanair’s customer services is offered in English only, but this was not mentioned anywhere on its Dutch website
The airline has said it will appeal the decision which "is littered with errors" and that its website "fully complies with all EU and Dutch consumer protection regulations."
Still, it's good to hear that Ryanair is being kept on its toes.
At the end of last year, Ryanair was finally forced to scrap its unlawful 'credit card handling fee', after pressure from the UK's Office of Fair Trading, but turned around straight away with the cynical introduction of a 2% credit card fee and a €6 administration fee.
He's clever at getting round rules and regulations that Michael O'Leary. I wouldn't put it past him to somehow avoid the hefty fine from the Netherlands by some nifty maneuvering.
