Dear easyJet team

This is a nasty letter I wrote a few weeks ago when I arrived at the airport in Berlin and initially failed to find my flight. I was going to post it together with the response from easyjet, but have not yet heard back. Well, not really, anyway. Will edit this post if an when I hear anything.

Customer (Fxxxx Xxxxx)

29/03/2010 03.16 PM

Dear easyJet Team,
I just checked in for my flight from Berlin Schoenefeld (SXF) to Liverpool (LPL), that is your flight number 7224. My booking reference is XXXXXXX.
I have a serious problem with the fact that my booking reference, my checkin-online boarding pass, and your website (http://www.easyjet.com:80/en/cheap-flights/Berlin-Schoenefeld/Liverpool) show the completely wrong departure time. The actual, scheduled departure time is 18:20 (it will be after 7pm, counting for the fact that the flight is delayed), the time on all the other documentation available is given as 17:05. Judging by the line-up that formed when the Liverpool checkin finally opened, I would think that there are at least some 100 people that are also affected by the same problem. I arrived in time for dropping off my checked luggage, but I had to cut short an otherwise very constructive interview in Berlin. This last point is very troublesome. My stay in the city was decisively cut short for no apparent reason, except that your website and the schedule did not match. I am a regular easyJetcustomer, but after this incident I can no longer be sure that my flight leaves when I expect - what if it suddenly leaves earlier?
Therefore I would very much appreciate a comment about the status and consistency of your website.
Having been more than inconvenienced, I would also like to ask for a refund on my flight - if that is possible.
Sincerely,
Fxxxx Xxxxx
+44 XXX XXX XXXX.

Auto-Response

29/03/2010 03.16 PM

Dear Fxxxx We would like our Customers to have a speedy response to their enquiry, with this in mind we have looked at your email and have provided you with some suggestions for an instant answer to your question. We hope you will find these helpful. If we have not found an immediate answer to your question, we aim to respond to your question as soon as possible. Please be advised that due to high email volumes recived during snow disruption our response times are much longer than usual. Yours sincerely easyJet Customer Experience Team April 2, 9:01pm Dear Customer, You have recently requested some assistance from our customer services team at easyJet. As you are aware, there have been exceptional weather conditions throughout Europe for a number of weeks between December 2009 and February 2010. This has caused many customers to contact our customer services team and we have received over ten times the usual volume of emails. From our records, we have seen that we have not yet responded to your request and this is below our usual next day standard. Responding to our customers as quickly as possible is a top priority for us, so we have already doubled the size of our customer services team to meet this demand. We're also looking at other ways we can speed-up replies. To help us respond quickly, can we ask if you could avoid sending follow-up emails to check the status of your initial contact? Further emails increase the backlog that we need to deal with, slowing down replies overall. Please be assured that we will respond to your original email just as soon as we can. We would like to thank you for your patience during this difficult time. Yours sincerely easyJet Customer Experience Team UPDATED May 5, 2010: I finally got a real response. Something that was written in five minutes time and does not really make me trust this airline at all. Here it is: Dear Mr Xxxxx, Thank you for contacting us. I would like to sincerely apologise for the delay in replying to your message. Please be assured that this is not our usual standard. Unfortunately, due to airspace closure leading to recent massive disruptions caused by volcanic ashes in the atmosphere we are receiving extremely high volume of correspondence. Therefore, the average waiting time for a reply has extended. Further, I am sorry for the inconvenience caused to you because of the flight delay. I appreciate your concern regarding the departure time of your on 29 March 2010. Our records indicate that the standard departure time of the flight EZY 7224 was 1705 hours (****). However, the difference in timings shown on the documents and on our web site do vary according to the time zone. I regret that we are unable to refund you in these circumstances as you have used the flight. I do hope I have been able to answer your question fully; if I have not, please click here and we will be more than happy to assist you further. Yours sincerely, Chinmay Kumar Routray Customer Experience Champion (****) So this is really really not good. I know it was the wrong time, I know there was no airplane available, and I know that the ground staff told me this flight never happened at 17:05. Moreover, the time zone difference cited here can at most account for an even number of hours (ok, half-hours if you are on Newfoundland time) but not for 1:15. In any case, the boarding pass should never show anything but the local time - no?