“Totally dumbstruck”: Passengers furious as budget airline’s refund cheques bounce
<p>Budget airline Ryanair has been made to apologise to customers after compensation cheques were found to have bounced.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>One woman named Karen Joyce was left €20 (NZD$35) out of pocket after she was charged by her bank.</p>
<p>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.”</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>“Then he just put the phone down. I have not received anything from Ryanair,” she said.</p>
<p>The strike caused major disruption as thousands of flights were forced to cancel.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>“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.”</p>
<p>The UK Civil Aviation Authority has advised passengers to apply for compensation under EU law 261.</p>
<p>Previously, Ryanair had said that they are not planning on compensating affected passengers over the strikes as they were “caused by extraordinary circumstances.”</p>
<p>The budget airline told <em><a rel="noopener" href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/ryanair-defies-watchdog-over-compensation-for-strike-chaos-gwlr5qqmk" target="_blank">The Times</a> </em>that the unions were behaving “unreasonably.”</p>
