I’ve got nothing against the low cost, no frills airlines, they are a necessary market innovation.  They perform a real service and get me places I need to go. It’s part of the deal that you pay for food, get treated like a cow, and become intimate with people who don’t use deodorant. Airlines have to make money — I want them to!  On the other hand, it makes me very angry when somebody takes my money and doesn’t deliver, like Easy Jet.

See, I’m a tallish guy, 6-1. Economy seats in planes are a bit of torture for me. So, I often take up the offer to get “Economy Plus” (that’s United’s program) or “Speedy Boarding” (Easy Jet’s) and get a slightly better seat. United, while not my favorite airline, at least delivers.  Not so with Easy Jet.

With their program you pay a bit more to board first, and you can snab a decent seat because you beat the rest of the hoard onto the plane.  Last evening I passed through the gate first, but to my chagrin, discovered I was only boarding the bus to the plane first. Being first onto the bus, I was hemmed in and subsequently nearly last onto the plane.  I mentioned it to the head steward, who said “something like that happens in Barcelona too.” Which tells me they are aware of this (and are not fixing it).  I was, as they say “SOL.”

Having just read BAM! (see my post prior to this one) about customer service, it occurred to me that this experience was interesting and telling.  Telling in that I suspect/predict Easy Jet will not do well over time because they are not meeting even the lowered expectations of their customers. Screwing your customers is a practice that earns bad press, and is not a good business model. If you bet on fundamentals, sell your stock in Easy Jet.

I complained that evening and got nothing.  A free drink or two would have had me pacified. A coupon for 20 bucks off my next flight would also have worked. No creativity in evidence…

I wrote an email this afternoon asking for a refund of that leg of my journey.  At the very least I’d expect they would refund me the extra that I spent for early boarding.  So far, I’ve gotten two emails back from them.  One asking me please not to send any more due to the high volume of email they get.  Another asking me to update my customer details — with a link — and no explanation of any kind.

I bit, I followed the link and updated my details.  I’d forgotten I had a profile with them. Then, exploring their system, I discovered that they’ve given my complaint a reference #, a status (“unresolved”), and a time/date stamp.  As I write this, about 10 hours later, that’s as far as my complaint has gotten, no response from a human being.  So, my view now is that they have a wonderfully automated system for taking a customers money, not delivering, and then a delay machine for complaints.  I’m not impressed.  In fact, I’m even more upset than I was on the plane.  It’s not about money, which wasn’t that much.  It’s the principle. You should get what you pay for.

I’m not going to do much more with the complaint, I don’t have the time.  However, I’m going to tell all my blog subscribers, and my 4000+ Twitter followers to avoid Easy Jet because they are unethical, are aware of it, and are doing nothing about it.  That’s no way to run a railroad — or an airline.