EY trying to rip me off

Old Jun 28, 2012, 1:00 am
  #1  
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EY trying to rip me off

In dealing with a fair bit of airlines around the world I have never come across a single airline that tries to impose cancellation charges where the penalties section in the fare basis clearly indicates that cancellation/refund/changes are permitted at any time.

I just cancelled 2 EY business tickets over the phone and got the agent to tell me there will be a 25GBP fee for each booking. I said ok but something didn't sound right (the booking was made in Euros, how come the agent is quoting a cancellation charge in GBP). After hanging up I pulled up the fare basis for the ticket to double check, and sure enough it showed no penalties for cancellation.

Just as I was about to call EY again, I get an email from an agent confirming the cancellation and indicating there will be 110AUD cancellation fee per person!

Is this something anyone has encountered before? Very disappointing.

Last edited by edy4eva; Jun 28, 2012 at 1:12 am
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Old Jul 2, 2012, 9:54 am
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Originally Posted by edy4eva
In dealing with a fair bit of airlines around the world I have never come across a single airline that tries to impose cancellation charges where the penalties section in the fare basis clearly indicates that cancellation/refund/changes are permitted at any time.

I just cancelled 2 EY business tickets over the phone and got the agent to tell me there will be a 25GBP fee for each booking. I said ok but something didn't sound right (the booking was made in Euros, how come the agent is quoting a cancellation charge in GBP). After hanging up I pulled up the fare basis for the ticket to double check, and sure enough it showed no penalties for cancellation.

Just as I was about to call EY again, I get an email from an agent confirming the cancellation and indicating there will be 110AUD cancellation fee per person!

Is this something anyone has encountered before? Very disappointing.
Just wait until you see how long it takes them to refund your credit card...
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Old Jul 2, 2012, 10:56 am
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Which call center did you use? AUH is really, really bad. Call up Manchester and get them to sort it out. Use Skype if you are concerned about the cost.
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Old Jul 3, 2012, 1:45 pm
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Originally Posted by edy4eva
In dealing with a fair bit of airlines around the world I have never come across a single airline that tries to impose cancellation charges where the penalties section in the fare basis clearly indicates that cancellation/refund/changes are permitted at any time.

I just cancelled 2 EY business tickets over the phone and got the agent to tell me there will be a 25GBP fee for each booking. I said ok but something didn't sound right (the booking was made in Euros, how come the agent is quoting a cancellation charge in GBP). After hanging up I pulled up the fare basis for the ticket to double check, and sure enough it showed no penalties for cancellation.

Just as I was about to call EY again, I get an email from an agent confirming the cancellation and indicating there will be 110AUD cancellation fee per person!

Is this something anyone has encountered before? Very disappointing.
Did you book through an agent?

Most airlines/agents have a penalty fee now, and that includes business, especially if the ticket was one of the "cheaper business class fares".

Were you ever made aware of the penalty?
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Old Jul 3, 2012, 2:42 pm
  #5  
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By agent I meant EY customer care agents ( or lack of).
the tickets were booked direct with EY. I had booked and cancelled before with them and everything went smoothly. I even booked through expedia and cancelled and got the refunds on the same day. But this time it's like dealing with a low cost airline about to go bust and hence is trying every trick in the book to scam people off.
I did talk to the call centre in Manchester, twice. They said the 110AUD charge per ticket is because I called from Australia, and that these are service charges indicated by the * on their website.

I was promised a call back from a lady in Manchester who said will call hq to get the fee down to the originaly agreed 25GBP but nothing was guaranteed. Obviously I haven't heard back from her yet, and doubt ever will.

The tickets were ex-IST and were fully flexible business with the only penalty being for no-show.

Nothing in their terms and conditions points to their phone service charges. It's ridiculous even thinking about it given the lakc of other options (not sure if their manage my booking feature has it).
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Old Jul 13, 2012, 12:39 am
  #6  
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An update:
Two weeks have elapsed since my last call with EY. No emails or calls received from them.
So I called their office in BEY (as I am there atm), IST (tickets are ex-IST) and AUH (HQ naturally) with 1 CLEAR question: 'Has there been any updates on the service charges?'

BEY: After explaining the situation to the seemingly bright agent, Anees, he put me through with his supervisor. His supervisor wanted to hear the full story. After that she proceeded to say that I should contact the person who I spoke to last time. I told her this is an airline we're talking about not some shop around the corner and that I was busy to write down the name of the person let alone trying to track them down in their Manchester call centre. She insisted that it was a 'mistake' on my behalf for not noting down that person's name! Unbelievable. The conversation was going no where specially after she mentioned that since 1 Januray 2012, all over the phone transactions (cancellations, changes, bookings) involve a service fee determined by the agent and a multitude of other factors.

IST: They close for 30 minutes lunch time. At 1pm I called and after pressing 9 to go to the English menu, then 1 for bookings/changes there is a 10 second delay of silence then the call disconnects. Great. Tried this 10 times in the afternoon, no dice.

AUH: I decided to talk to their Arabic team, perhaps I thought I could hear some sense back. The agent, Maryam, was good in wanting to know the full story. But in the end she said it's the 'law/rules' and that there is no rates schedule for service charges as it's more complicated than that. She put me on hold for 15 minutes while she went away to check my cancelled ticket. She came back saying that the 'decision' is that 110AUD will be deducted from each ticket and that someone tried to call me but that my number was incorrect! She did point out it will take 45 business days to get the refund processed (yes that's 9 weeks).

Here's my 2 cents:
- Forget about booking with EY. And if you must then do not book direct, use Expedia or a travel agent. Should you cancel you should get your money very fast and without any hassles. Should you need to change, you won't be paying any charges.
- I wouldn't have even thought about calling them about this if they had a page on their website detailing their service charges. They don't. They don't even bother giving an alternative to their ripoff system.

They are the worst airline I have ever dealt with in terms of customer relations. They have no respect to their own word. Naturally they have no respect towards their customers. NOT an airline to consider flying with.

Last edited by edy4eva; Jul 13, 2012 at 12:45 am
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Old Jul 16, 2012, 7:00 am
  #7  
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You do realise that pax can go to the SYD office? I work with EY in some respects, and the reception area has 2 staff, dressed as FAs, who can make and change reservations.

My father prefers to pay cash, so he makes a phone reservation and then goes in to pay. Avoids the cc fee

I dare say you may have more luck in person arguing your case.
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Old Aug 21, 2012, 12:21 pm
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Another update:
It's been almost 2 months since calling for the refund. I had enough and called EY in AUH. Call got answered immediately (no waiting) by a human being. She checked things, then came back with a mere 15 euros service charge per ticket (saying the previous quotes 25GBP and 110AUD were incorrect). She said the refund request will be sent for processing as urgent and that I should expect the money back into the credit card within 10 working days.
Thanked her a lot, first/most positive experience so far.

On a side note, if I didn't call, will they have actually gone and processed the refund? or hedged on perhaps me forgetting about it?
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Old Aug 21, 2012, 5:00 pm
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I have a contact in Australia who may be able to sort it out for you .
email me if you need help.
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Old Aug 22, 2012, 2:33 am
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Thats a frustrating experience for sure, hope your matter gets sorted out soon.

The thing with Etihad is that their service is quite inconsistent. I flew to Chicago last month for a business trip, and was surprized at how different the service was on the two flights. On the outbound leg, the aircraft was a bit older, the "seat-belt on/off" lights in the entire J cabin did not work, and my attendant call-button was also defective. Yet, the crew were very polite and helpful.

On the return flight, the aircraft was newer, and everything worked, but the service was indifferent at best, and frankly below par. I even had to ask them to give me a menu card and the AUH immigration fast-track card, both very basic items of service.
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Old Sep 5, 2012, 9:06 am
  #11  
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Final update: received the money into the credit card just under 2 weeks after the last call. As promised full fare refund minus 15 euros service charge per ticket.
Can't say I'm satisfied with the whole experience. Things should have worked like that from the very first call.
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Old Sep 18, 2012, 9:26 am
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I AGREE 100 % - This airline has developed into a 'I DO NOT CARE ABOUT YOU" airline !!!! I had very very bad experience in in flight service also not once ! - many times !!!
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Old Sep 18, 2012, 12:30 pm
  #13  
 
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EY is still a young airline trying to fill big shoes that other more established airlines have worked systematically to build. Their problem is due the the people they have and the training they give o their staff. They have the money to spend but they don't have the experienced, smart, switched-on personnel in decision making capacity who can think and conclude on situations like yours. I have flown EY several times and have inconsistent and mixed experiences, their ground staff, customer service and sales staff are largely weak, but I have found their air crew to be well trained and generally interested in helping you.
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Old Sep 18, 2012, 9:19 pm
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You should try flying EY out of Brussels, we're one of the best teams in the world ;-)
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Old Nov 12, 2012, 10:24 am
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My experience with Etihad is that eventually I seem to win out but not without stubborn resistance and unneccessary agravation. I booked a reward ticket for my wife. I was unsure whether she would need to fly as she was looking at doing a course. As there was some uncertainty I was diligent about checking the fare basis which allowed for cancellation with a fee.

I booked the fare but after a month the wife finally passed her IELTS with a score that meant she did not need to do the course. Rang up to cancel the ticket and was told it was non refundable. Asked to speak to a supervisor and was told there was none available and they would call back. I checked the ticket and there was no mention of cancellation at all in the terms and conditions. Checked on line by going through the ticket purchase and opening link to the fare basis and it redirected to a link saying I should go to the fare basis to get this information.

Took a lot of screen shots, waited a couple of days and rang again. Seemed I got redirected to Manchester and they were at least helpful and serious about resolving the issue which was a first in my experience. I put the supervisor on speakerphone and let him know I was recording the conversation for future possible legal action. Went through my story, established that Etihad had not provided me with any notification that the fare was non refundable, that there was no online evidence in the booking process that the fare was non refundable and suggested that they refund the points.

I was asked to email all in writing and it should take 24 hrs to get a decision. It ended up taking 2 weeks however I received my points back less the cash penalty I said was on the web site which was all I was really after. It goes to show that their systems are far from infallible and it seems there are some competent customer service agents in Etihad after all.
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