I booked a flight for my girlfriend from Katowice to Gatwick for Saturday, March 29th 2008. The booking appeared to be completed successfully using their using their online booking system at www.wizzair.com. A payment of 208 zl (£47) for the flight was taken on my credit card. At the end of the booking process a sum of 12 zl (£3) was shown as pending. I presumed that this was a credit card fee and that it would be taken later as there is no restriction for payments on my credit card.
Unfortunately, when my girlfriend arrived at the check-in she was told that her booking was pending (even though payment had been taken and her name was on the passenger list) and she could not be checked in. She went to speak with the Wizzair representatives who first contacted their Wizzair's office in Warsaw and eventually Wizzair's head office in Hungry. Neither office was able to confirm the status of the booking or explain why there had been a problem. I have been back to the website and there is no facility to resolve such issues and. in my view, it is a problem with their website that the correct amount was not taken originally. By the time that the Wizzair representatives at Katowice had contacted Wizzair's head office my girlfriend had missed check-in and missed her flight. The only suggestion that Wizzair could make was to book a ticket for tomorrow (at three times the price (£150) and make a complaint to their customer services department in order to get a refund. In addition, I had booked a taxi to pick her up from Gatwick and bring her to Southampton; the taxi had already left for the airport, incurring a cost of £75. Also, I have a ticket booked for my girlfriends return to Poland on 3rd April - which now is not likely to be used unless she is able to travel to UK by other means. Finally, I tried to contact Wizzair customer services by telephone to get this resolved. Wizzair charge a staggering £0.65 per minute to talk to their customers representatives when you have a problem, and as is normally the case with these so called 'help lines' you get placed in a queue by an automated system and, in my case, was cut-off by the system without the chance to talk to someone after 3 minutes having been charged £2.00 for the pleasure!
So far my costs for this problem caused by Wizzair booking system have been; the cost of the flight (£50.00), 15 minutes telephone calls to my girlfriend's mobile in Poland to try and help get the problem resolved (£11.25), phone calls to Wizzair customer service that were cut-off (£2.00), unused taxi fare from Gatwick to Southampton, charged and receipted (£75.00), return flight that will not now be used (£38.00). Therefore, total cost to date 176.20 and still no sight of getting this resolved. I am sure that Wizzair successfully carry many 1000's of passengers each month, however if you do have a problem with their booking system you may be left with your loved ones stranded AND it will cost you a lot of time, effort and money to get any resolution. Wizzair really need to get their booking system and customer service sorted out.
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Advantages: None as they cancelled the service that I paid for Disadvantages: They cancel flights without informing customers, leave you stranded with no way of getting home
mnsconsult 27.08.2008 (27.08.2008)
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Review of Wizz Air
Mar 29th, 2008
very helpful by (43%):
helpful by (57%):
