Will EasyJet care? Valued customer feedback

Posted on | September 11, 2009 | No Comments

Just wrote this email to the EasyJet airline company.

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Christian Villum
Date: Fri, Sep 11, 2009 at 10:35 AM
Subject: Feedback from a loyal customer
To: press.office@easyjet.com

Dear Easyjet,

as this was the only email address I could find on your extensive website, I hope that those receiving it in the press department will forward it to those handling customer feedback.
(By the way, are you not aware that present day web 2.0 business dynamics invite customer feedback as a value asset? If you do, why is it so hard to contact you by email/form/social media service/whatever?)

First of all, I want to praise your product. I sincerely appreciate your low prices and module-based fees in which I as a customer can tailor my travel needs (select and pay for check-in of luggage if needed etc.). Very useful and via a website that is swift and easy to maneuver using simply intuition. Consider me a loyal customer. So loyal as to actually contact you with the following message, rather than just get mad, leave your site and avoid using your service in the future.

I would like to express great dissatisfaction with the visa-fee of 70 DKK (I am Danish, hence the currency) that appears very late in the online ticket purchase transaction process. First of all, it is a very high fee for a trip between Copenhagen and Berlin (total price DKK 333), especially knowing that Visa-transactions are free in 20,000 other off- and online stores around the globe.
Secondly, it is ethically questionable and downright wrong to quote an “all-inclusive” price first and then add non-avoidable fees later (I noted that all credit cards cost a fee of DKK 70 except for Visa Electron and one other Visa-version that is anything but common). NOT COOL. It caused me to cancel my purchase, leave your website and write this email, while even being on a deadline and not having the time to do such a thing. I hope it will reach someone who cares.

Kind regards,
Christian Villum, Denmark
villum(at)autofunk.dk

PS: Look forward to finding a ‘Please leave us feedback’ option on your front page.

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UPDATE (SEPT 11, 09:15pm): Less than 10 minutes after this blog post was tweeted, I received a direct message on Twitter. Seems like a template based reply, though. But still okay, I guess. I tweeted back: ‘Look forward to hear more’ – let’s see if their social media setup supports real web 2.0 customer relations.

UPDATE (SEPT 11, 10.00pm): Less than one hour after I sent the email to the press department, I received an email with a direct link for an online form through which messages to the customer department could be sent. Point to EasyJet for that. I have now sent the email again through the form – let’s see what happens.

UPDATE (SEPT 13, 09.55pm): Received a much more personal direct message on Twitter – wishing me a good time in Berlin. Definitely not a bot, I like that. But let’s see what happens to the Visa-fee. And let’s see if they’ll let me know.

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UPDATE (SEPT 12, 02.30pm):

Less than one hour after I sent the email to the press department, I receive

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UPDATE (OCT 14, 2009):

Just stumbled upon this article on Boing Boing – remembered my EasyJet grievance – and thought it should be included in this post:

Airlines that charge fees lost most more money than airlines that don’t

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