WIZZ AIR RATED WORST AIRLINE FOR 'DIABOLICAL' CUSTOMER SERVICE IN SURVEY BY FRUSTRATED PASSENGERS

Wizz Air has been named the worst airline in UK for customer service in new Which? survey, with irate passengers frustrated about how tricky it can be to raise issues with the company.

New research conducted by Which? has revealed the airlines that are falling behind on customer service, with Wizz Air securing title of worst provider.

Each airline was scored according to different areas of customer service, including how easy it is to find a contact number, how long it takes to get in touch with a person who can help and how well issues are dealt with. Wizz Air scored low across each different customer service request.

In the findings, the survey revealed that 57% of people who attempted to contact Wizz Air reported experiencing at least one problem with their customer services.

In response to the survey, a spokesperson for Wizz Air said the airline does "not accept the findings of this report, which are inaccurate, unrepresentative and misleading."

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Of those who reported an issue in their customer service dealing with Wizz Air, 44% stated they waited a long time to get an email reply and 44% also reported how when they did speak to a customer service assistant, they were either unhelpful or dismissive.

Like with many companies' customer service teams, customers using Wizz Air have reported having to wait a while on hold before reaching a human being; 31% of those who had problems said they waited a long time to talk to a Wizz Air staff member. For some unlucky ones (21%), they were unable to reach someone at all, with the same amount of people also expressing how they never received an email response.

Another customer wrote online about how it is difficult to contact the airline in the first place: "Wizz Air have no email contact and phoning them costs £1.50 a minute!" they wrote. Frustratingly, 13% of people waiting to speak to an advisor on the phone, were disconnected having been on hold for a long time.

Last year a gobsmacked customer hit out at Wizz Air after he was charged £220 - just to ring the airline's customer service line. Lewis Richardson, 35, was stung while trying to change his flights for a family holiday to Spain, the Mirror reported at the time. A spokesperson for Wizz Air later said the issue had been due to an "isolated internal error". They added: "The customer service team has contacted Mr Richardson and the case has now been resolved. Wizz Air sincerely apologises for the inconvenience caused.”

The problems reported by Wizz Air customer service are clearly reflected in the satisfaction scores, which were well below average across the board. At the other end of the table, Jet2 was the highest scoring airline for its customer service.

Rocio Concha, Which? director of policy and advocacy, said: “Travellers are currently facing some of the highest ever fares, but our latest survey shows the standards of customer service of some airlines to be very poor.

“Airlines must step up their game and ensure they are properly investing in their customer services to make it easier for passengers to get in touch with someone who can help, and get timely and effective solutions when they encounter a problem.

“The government must prioritise giving the Civil Aviation Authority stronger powers, including direct fining powers, so it can properly hold airlines to account when they fail to comply with consumer protection laws.”

Marion Geoffroy, managing director at Wizz Air UK, has pushed back hard against the report.

“We do not accept the findings of this report, which are inaccurate, unrepresentative and misleading. Which? only surveyed 68 Wizz Air customers, which is less that 0.001% of our UK customer base of 12.3 million passengers. It is unclear to us how Which? can claim its survey is nationally representative when only 1.66% of their respondents said they had contacted Wizz Air’s customer service team," she said.

“We are serious about constantly improving and providing great customer service. We made a public commitment to our customers in 2023 to improve Wizz Air’s operations and set ourselves clear targets. Since then, we have invested more than £90 million and are proud of the results to date, which are among the strongest in the entire industry.

“When it comes to operational performance, Wizz Air’s completion rate in the UK is 99.5%, a 2.1% improvement on last year. In the first half of this year, despite a challenging operational environment, only 1.8% of UK flights were delayed for more than three hours, representing a 50% reduction compared to last year. In April and May this year, Wizz Air had the highest completion rate in Europe.

“With regard to customer service, the improvements are equally clear to see. Following disruption, customers will on average receive any compensation payment three times faster than 2022-2023, with the majority settled within 25 days. The share of customer claims answered within five days is five times better than it was three years ago, reaching 84.1% of customers today. For customer calls, the number of those calls answered within 35 seconds rose by 26% in the same period.

“While we appreciate that there is always room for improvement - something the airline is wholeheartedly committed to - this data clearly shows that Wizz Air is doing a significantly better job than the erroneous Which? report suggests. We are also continuing to invest in new innovations, such as the new Amelia Voice service which has been designed to improve customer service accessibility. During the recent IT outage, this new system reached nearly 150,000 passengers in need.

“We are disappointed that Which? is wrongly pointing the finger at Wizz Air once again and will continue to try to engage with the organisation to highlight the points raised in this response.”

Over 4,000 people were surveyed in May 2024 to establish how well businesses across a range of key sectors are handling customer service, and where they are falling short. Over 1,000 responses were recorded and assessed.

2024-07-30T23:09:30Z dg43tfdfdgfd