“Totally dumbstruck”: Passengers furious as budget airline’s refund cheques bounce
Budget airline Ryanair has been made to apologise to customers after compensation cheques were found to have bounced.
Countless passengers were overcharged during a pilot strike period where flights were cancelled. Many customers have not yet reached a resolution after their cheques were rejected at banks around the UK as they had not been signed.
One woman named Karen Joyce was left €20 (NZD$35) out of pocket after she was charged by her bank.
Ms Joyce took to Facebook, writing: “I was totally dumbstruck. We were loyal Ryanair customers and for them to bounce the cheque as well I just thought was disgusting.”
After being on the phone with Ryanair for 20 minutes in an attempt to resolve the situation, the customer services rep hung up on her.
“Then he just put the phone down. I have not received anything from Ryanair,” she said.
The strike caused major disruption as thousands of flights were forced to cancel.
A spokesperson for Ryanair said: “Due to an admin error, a tiny number of cheques (less than 190 out of over 20,000 compensation cheques in July) were posted without a required signatory.
“These cheques were reissued last week, and we apologise sincerely for this inconvenience which arose out of our desire to issue these compensation cheques quickly to our customers.”
The UK Civil Aviation Authority has advised passengers to apply for compensation under EU law 261.
Previously, Ryanair had said that they are not planning on compensating affected passengers over the strikes as they were “caused by extraordinary circumstances.”
The budget airline told The Times that the unions were behaving “unreasonably.”