Trying to make a complaint to Aer Lingus....they are having a laugh.

[IsleOfMan]

Because the vast majority of complaints are likely to be frivolous.

How do you know this?

I am not sure what you mean when you say that the "ratios didn't work" when you were denied boarding in your own case. Was this a frivolous complaint or was this a situation where you were automatically entitled to a refund anyway?

Why did you have to write to them? If you were denied boarding then they should be contacting you. They had all your details.

If you are automatically entitled to a refund it will come out in due course. So maybe filling in the online form once is sufficient . How long should a person be made to wait in this case incidentally?

If it is not a cut and dry situation then you might want to follow up to see what is happening. Why should you have to input your flight details. name & address, details of other passengers travelling again and again and again. Once should be enough. One reference number should be enough. Instead they give you a different reference number each time.

 

[Gordon Gekko]

My understanding is that there should be X number of cabin crew to cover Y number of passengers.

They flew me home later that day and advised me to write in to claim the €400 compensation and for any expenses (e.g. lunch etc). Some time later, the money arrived. No hassle.

Had I chosen to follow up in the interim, having to submit my details again (which is similar to when the always ask for your name, booking reference, and email over the phone) would hardly be the end of the world.

My fear is that the type of person who has an issue with taking 30 seconds to populate a couple of information fields is the same type of person who's clogging up the system with complaints about them running out of cooked breakfasts.

 

[Leo]

No, I wrote to them.

Speculating about the specific issue may be off-topic, but the seriousness of the issue is absolutely relevant. Why? Because the vast majority of complaints are likely to be frivolous. The process is designed to deal with ALL complaints. And the complaint here seems to be around the "difficulty" and "hassle" of having to put your details on an online form every time you engage with the process. What's wrong with writing to them (i.e. filling in the online form) and then leaving them to deal with it?

Have you read the thread? The difficulty isn't with the form, there's nothing much wrong with that bar the problems people without access to computers face. The issue is the lack of follow up or feedback, or any opportunity to query the status of a complaint.

The seriousness should have no bearing on the complaints mechanism. If it's a frivolous complain it should be closed in a reasonable time frame. What is there to gain for either party in entertaining such complaints for months?

Would you have been happy to wait 3 months for your refund like I had to without any acknowledgment or feedback in the meantime?

 

[Leper]

Leo, That's where you are wrong. Queries take time to be answered. Customer Service in any company doesn't just give refunds on demand, the reason(s) to justify refunds must be investigated. We don't know of the complaint on this subject other than it is a complaint about the complaint's procedure (and fair enough!).

Of course the gravity of a complaint has a bearing on the subject. Unfortunately, frivolous complaints seem to get much more "air-time" on the likes of fora such as this while more grevious complaints get a back-seat.

Nobody is happy to wait 3 months for a resolution to anything. But, such is the nature of the beast that there are delays because of minor complaints from inveterate moaners who will moan about anything and at any time.

If we were to take your reasoning murder trials would be settled within ten minutes of the apprehension of the suspect. Would you be happy by this. Normal investigations into murder situations take quite much time. Would you be happy to be convicted within 3 months of the deed?

 

[Gordon Gekko]

Have you read the thread? The difficulty isn't with the form, there's nothing much wrong with that bar the problems people without access to computers face. The issue is the lack of follow up or feedback, or any opportunity to query the status of a complaint.

The seriousness should have no bearing on the complaints mechanism. If it's a frivolous complain it should be closed in a reasonable time frame. What is there to gain for either party in entertaining such complaints for months?

Would you have been happy to wait 3 months for your refund like I had to without any acknowledgment or feedback in the meantime?

Clearly you have not read the thread...the issue is with having to spend 30 seconds inputting information.

I would have no issue waiting three months for my refund. I wrote to Aer Lingus and it was dealt with. I didn't feel the need to write to them again, but had I done so, I would not have had an issue with the obvious requirement to include the relevant details in the second letter.

You seem to be missing my point (and Leper's), which is essentially that frivolous complaints make the system as time consuming as it is. Our ancillary point is around the suspicion that the OP's complaint is frivolous. Despite numerous requests, he/she refuses to divulge its nature, which leads me to believe that it's about them not serving skinny lattes or something similar rather than some customer service atrocity.

 

[Leo]

Clearly you have not read the thread...the issue is with having to spend 30 seconds inputting information.

Where did the OP ever say the issue was spending 30 seconds filling in a form?

The OP certainly seemed to agree that my issue with the system resonated with their own.

You seem to be missing my point (and Leper's), which is essentially that frivolous complaints make the system as time consuming as it is.

It's not that I'm missing the point, it's that the issue of such complaints isn't what the OP asked about. No doubt there are a lot of frivolous complaints, any consumer complaints system will receive a large volume of such complaints. Most companies close them off quickly and efficiently, indeed most companies would consider taking anything like 3 months to send an initial response even to a frivolous complaint pretty poor customer service.

 

[Gordon Gekko]

You are asked to complete an online form with your personal details, your flight details and the nature of your complaint.

If you are lucky you might get a response within 2 to 3 weeks.

You have to complete all your personal detail, flight details, yet again.

Each time you need to respond to the Aer Lingus email you have to complete this identical online form again and again and again

Leo, the issue IS around the "hassle" of having to fill in a few details...see above.

Also, 2/3 weeks was mentioned, not 3 months.

 

[Leo]

Leo, the issue IS around the "hassle" of having to fill in a few details...see above.

It really isn't, as the OP has clarified this a number of times in subsequent posts, also agreeing with posts by myself and thedaddyman stating the issue wasn't with the form. They even said that they consider the form is 'perfectly reasonable', and that

My complaint is about how they deal with customer complaints.

Then when Leper brought up the form again, the OP responded with:

Leper, you still don't get it do you?

Also, 2/3 weeks was mentioned, not 3 months.

3 months was the period I had to wait for my complaint to be handled and refund issued. All clearly stated a number of times in the thread.

 

[Kimmagegirl]

Clearly you have not read the thread...the issue is with having to spend 30 seconds inputting information.

No it's not. It's about having to input the same information over and over every time you want to communicate with Aer Lingus. Once should be enough. One reference number should be enough.

You should be able to "reply" to an email from them.

 

[Gordon Gekko]

No it's not. It's about having to input the same information over and over every time you want to communicate with Aer Lingus. Once should be enough. One reference number should be enough.

You should be able to "reply" to an email from them.

So the issue is with the form...

 

[Leper]

No it's not. It's about having to input the same information over and over every time you want to communicate with Aer Lingus. Once should be enough. One reference number should be enough.

You should be able to "reply" to an email from them.

Our point exactly KG. There is only need to fill in the form once. Completing the form with the same complaint again and again is just delaying issues and clogging up the system. [The word "PUERILE" comes to mind.

All you got to do about the ability of Irish people complaining about something is read some of the posts here on this thread. Complaining is like the first rule of a skilled carpenter:- Measure Twice, Cut Once. From my years working in Customer Service for a major firm in Ireland, I can categorically say the vast amount of complaints were badly presented.

 

[Kimmagegirl]

Completing the form with the same complaint again and again is just delaying issues and clogging up the system. [The word "PUERILE" comes to mind.

That's not what the OP is talking about. If a person needs to ask a question or respond to a question they are required to complete every section of the form again. Their name & address, their flight details, who travelled, old reference number, dates etc

They are not copying and pasting their original complaint over and over like you are saying.

How many times do Aer Lingus need this information? Is once not enough?

 

[Gordon Gekko]

The same people who are giving out about having to spend a few seconds inputting some data would be giving out about data protection if Aer Lingus acted purely on the basis of someone citing a reference number.

If you want to know why it takes weeks to get a resolution and why there's no phoneline, just read this thread or Google "airline complaints".

The public, in aggregate, are not reasonable.

 

[T McGibney]

The problem for Aer Lingus is that every other major corporate customer service facility seems to operate on a reference number-based system, with no compromise on data security.

When I needed assistance from Aer Lingus customer service back in 2013, it took 7 months for them to address my complaint.

 

[Leo]

The same people who are giving out about having to spend a few seconds inputting some data would be giving out about data protection if Aer Lingus acted purely on the basis of someone citing a reference number.

Again, posted multiple times that the few seconds filling in the form isn't an issue. The OP has clearly stated this, as have I in relation to my complaint.

Data protection is a complete red-herring. It AL wanted to, they could do like many other organisations do and use multi-factor auth to bring the user to a page containing their already submitted details when supplemental information is requested rather than have them submit a completely new issue.

 

[Leo]

Our point exactly KG. There is only need to fill in the form once. Completing the form with the same complaint again and again is just delaying issues and clogging up the system.

Did you even read the OP's contributions? They were asked for supplemental information. To submit it, they had to fill in all the complaint details again because the act of submitting supplemental information creates a new case in the AL system with no link back to the original ticket submitted.

 

[Purple]

Those defending Aer Lingus here are on a hiding to nowhere.
They could use a reference number and they should let people know that their complaint has been received and is being looked at. That should happen within hours, not days or months.

 

[Leper]

Those defending Aer Lingus here are on a hiding to nowhere.
They could use a reference number and they should let people know that their complaint has been received and is being looked at. That should happen within hours, not days or months.

They don't, it's no big deal, Get over it !!!!!

 

[Purple]

They don't, it's no big deal, Get over it !!!!!

It's not in a global context but in a discussion about customer service and the relative quality of the service given by Aer Lingus it is relevant.
They have pretensions, delusions even, of being something other than a low cost airline but in reality within Europe they are like a not quite as good version of Ryan Air.

 

[BOXtheFOX]

Aer Lingus starring on Liveline now.