Anna vs Wizzair
Written by Anna Etmanska
Wizzair and me, we’re not getting along too well. We’ve never been close, but these days things are bad. Really bad.
I’d successfully avoided flying Wizzair whenever possible, but last week I had no choice. It’s the only airline flying directly from Skavsta (which pretends to be Stockholm) to Gdańsk (which is actually in Gdańsk – imagine that!). I despise the so-called budget airlines, which fly you to middle of nowhere, charge you for the privilege of paying with a credit/debit card (even when they don’t offer you any alternative payment options), and demand a hefty per minute fee for talking to a mindless automaton at their call center. Yes, Wizzair has joined the ranks of greedy businesses (and American embassies) around the world that charge you for getting in touch with their customer service representative.
image courtesy of the airline I don’t get along with
On Friday I tried to book my return trip. I found a flight for Monday and proceeded to the booking page. I entered my debit card details and clicked “confirm” and nothing happened. After several centuries I got an error message instructing me to start again at the beginning. But first, very prudently, I checked my emails to see if the booking maybe perhaps magically had gone through. There were no emails from Wizzair. I started all over again. I got to the booking page and entered my debit card details and clicked “confirmed.” After about an eternity and a half a “timed out” message appeared. I again checked my emails to see if maybe the booking had gone through. And nada.
I made a cup of tea, ate a cookie, brushed my teeth, watched the news and began the booking process again. This time, just in case, I decided to use my credit card. The booking went through without any problems.
Today I decided to check my bank balance online. And wouldn’t you know it – there are TWO charges from Wizzair. Yes, for the bookings that “hadn’t gone through” and for which there were no confirmation emails. Odd, wouldn’t you say? Now I’m thinking how to handle this. Since this was a debit card, I can’t just call my bank and tell them to reverse the charges. And in order to call Wizzair to chew them out I have to pay 10 SEK per minute (a bit more than 1 euro). I am not happy. So not happy that it’s not even funny anymore. Wizzair, now you’ve done it.
And oh yeah, my family and I definitely won’t be using your services anymore. I need to be in Poland again in three weeks, and guess what? I’ll take the ferry.
- Travelodge.co.uk jump on credit card fee bandwagon
- Europe a la Carte featured on front page of Money Guardian
- Get a Visa Electron now to avoid some low cost airlines’ booking and card payment fees
- Ryanair hike their card fee to £5 per person per flight
- Hands off my holiday money banks, I’m using a currency card
Anna, I had a similar experience trying to book accommodation through onthebeach when I was putting together a DIY holiday in the Canaries. I entered my payment details and received no confirmation. I repeated process and booking went through. I phoned customer service and they told me they couldn’t assist as I’d made booking online and I’d have to email my enquiry. I did receive a reply within 24 hours saying I’d only made one booking (thank goodness).
Karen,
I think I will have to fork over some cash and call them. I only got one confirmed booking, but was charged for it every time I tried to make it – three times in all. Yet, when I logged in to “my account” on the Wizzair website, I only had one booking listed there.
Also, they say it will take up to 4 weeks to answer emails, and they ask to CALL with reservation problems, emails are for lost luggage and such. But I just sent them one. We’ll see.
Those are the risks of using cheap airlines, unfortunately…
wizzair very disappoint
i`ve the same problem £427.94 pending do you think i`ll get back plz tell me if know
Well If I can understand very well you have booked your flight on very busy server. This thing with booking flights online is happening with all the companies. I don’t understand why you should say that this is only the wizzair company problem.
I always buy my flights at least 1 week in advance with the transfer pay method and guess what: In wizzair You don’t have to pay 4€ as you are doing it when you pay the reservation by credit card. In other companies they are taking you much more (at least 10€) and dont have this transfer pay method.
By the way. There are existing wizzair phone numbers without overcharge. I don’t know if there are in all the contries where wizzair is flying, but if you are looking for it I think you can find it. I can give you the Romanian regular phone number.:0040364803920
Calin, thanks for your comment and for highlighting a method of avoiding card fees. Usualy there is at least one way, with Easyjet and Ryanair it’s paying by Visa electron card.
Calin,
thank you for yor comment.
Wizzair DOES charge for credit card bookings, in Sweden I believe it’s 50SEK, which is about 5 euro. Right now, supposedly, they don’t charge for direct bank transfers, but this payment option is not yet available in all countries where wizzair flies.
Yes, I know I booked my ticket during busy server time, but the difference between wizzair and other airlines is that other airlines (and it’s happened plenty of times to me, I fly a lot) cancel such transactions immediately. No need to chase your money and beg to have it refunded.
And incidentally, have you tried to call that Romanian number to deal with a reservation made in another country? I just have. I was told by the agent to call the paid line in my country. :)
Today I have flown with wizzair for what I hope is the last time.
Oh, and by the way, in their in-flight magazine wizzair claims to be flying to Arlanda airport in Stockholm, which of course is not true. They fly to Skavsta, but maybe they’re afraid to say so and tell the passengers that it’s a 2 hr bus ride from Skavsta to Stockholm proper? ;)
Wizzair???? NEVER AGAIN!!!!!! I never experienced such awful treatment!!! They rescheduled a flight and on their condition 15.1.1 they announce they give a refund and then you call their expensive callcenter and they simply refuse you! they will meet me in court for sure!!!!!!!!!
Thank you Anna.Your blog really helped me.
It’s the first time I book a flight for June and I am thinking if I should go or not.
Is there any cancelation fee involve ?
Dorina
I was hoping to find some internet posts on this very issue! I used to fly wizzair quite frequently because they fly from katowice to bergamo for really cheap. I never used to have problems. However when wizzair was the only option for me to book a flight in two weeks time, I was pretty irritated to make the booking twice and for it not to go through at all! All that waiting, confirming…and nothing! And sure enough I found the charges on my card the next day.
This is a new change to their website, I don’t think any stupid justifications about servers belong here; servers are about slow processing, not about additional charges.
Sonia – sorry to hear that you’ve been having problems on the Wizzair site. I hope that you manage to get a refund for the second charge which hadn’t even been confirmed.
hi! once i have paid for my tickets via bank transfer. my tickets have never been issued, and they have never refunded the money and they have never replied to 3 of my e-mails. i cant call the centre, because they have different charges made from a phone box. i lost £70 with them. i will never book a ticket with them again. as someone has already said they will meet me in court too.
Jacek – it sounds as though Wizzair is not going to win any awards for good customer service. I hope that you manage to get your money back.
I booked a flight right after my girlfriend did. She paid by bank transfer, I also paid for mine right after (separate bookings). We used different banks.
Hers went through and she received a confirmation email 2 days later. It appears the 5-day holding period has expired today, but it’s still On Hold (when I log in). The money was transferred off my bank account the same day I booked.
It costs about 1EUR/min to call them.
They charge a “service charge” if they have to refund money.
Some of the worst service I have ever had to endure.
Warsaw – OMG I hate these premium phone numbers, if you are left on hold and/or passed from one person to another you can end up paying a fortune for the phone call to sort out something that’s not even your fault. I hope that you do get your ticket confirmed as I assume you want to travel with your girlfriend.
well, after a 10min call (had to use a cell phone, as by default regular phones have premium numbers blocked, and it takes a few business days to have the phone company change that — u must submit a written form, etc.), which cost many times more than the EUR 4 I saved by not using a credit card, I got a fax no. (at least that was a local no.). I sent the fax with my bank transfer confirmation, and the next day they confirmed the flight.
So, they ended up making extra money on the phone call, even though it was their fault they did not issue me the ticket in the first place..
Warsaw – thanks for the update, It does sound as though it would have been cheaper and easier to pay by credit card but that’s not that point. If Wizzair say you can avoid fees by paying by bank transfer then that systen should work efficiently.
Hi Warsaw, could you please share your experience with me?I have wired the ticket cost to Wizzair, but it happened late on Thursday (the day of booking), thus the week-end falls in between. Would you tell me the 5-day holding period, does it include non business days?If so I doubt they are going to receive the money on time within the 5 days, cuz it normally takes 3-5 working days for the transfer. Will the letter of confirmation from my bank make them confirm my ticket, I mean faxing it to them, because these premium phone lines of theirs are just disaster :(?
FYI — looks like EasyJet might be moving out of Warsaw, and to Krakow (like SkyEurope did already) due to excessively high costs at the Warsaw airport.
And Lot just cancelled my return flight from Milan in July, for no apparent reason. I hope others are having better luck with airlines than I am!
You people apparently now nothing about the airline and what is happening there.For once you could just think about server overloads bad connections and information trafic jam.But nooo it is beter to spill guts on the people that work there and build teories that it was on purpose-sure it was if you are stupid enought to dont controll your transfers you deseve it.I had a similar situation they have charged me twice for the reservation but never ever had a problem with getting the money bac.We are living in 20th century for crying out loud it is enough to send an email and they will deal with it.Yes it will be up to 30 days but this is not a race ,and just think about other people that are mailing them they also have a right to receive an answer.And a cost for connection- a good thing at least it scares of people like you.Sonia : if the information is pending on a server for too long this information has a declined acces that is the security measure of the bank so ask them why first they are delaying the transaction and than charge your account.Warsaw it is not the extortion first check if you have provided enough details in your transfer form if not it was impossible to to relate your transfer to a specific reservation.
And Gdans you have paid within 24 hours from the booking so you have apsolutelly nothing to worry about.
Karen – the system works fine it is the poeple that wright “payment for flight” in details data are the problem.
You people are pathetic,always blaming others for your own mistakes.
Interested – thanks for your comment. Glad to hear that you had no problem getting your money back from Wizzair. However you don’t seem to have any sympathy for other readers who have had problems with Wizzair. Personally I think that customer service phone numbers should charge at a standard not premium rate. Perhaps Wizzair should copy Ryanair and allow passengers to book using a Visa Electron Card with no charges as I think it’s simpler to pay by debit card which is instantly confirmed than have to do a bank transfer.
Budget airlines can really be frustrating as they do anything to rip us as off as much as they can. We book tickets with them because we want to save money. We try to avoid them not to get frustrated again. But then there is frustration vs. saving money. I’m not sure how much you paid for those tickets, but if you paid three times the lowest fare, I’m sure it’s still cheaper than the ferry.
Ovline – thanks for you very pertinent comment about the ongoing battle between saving money vs frustration which most of us experience with budget airlines. I have to say I’ve been lucky (so far) had lots of really cheap Ryanair flights eg 3 £2 return flights last Autumn with no problems. However I know the system get the payment card that attracts no fees, only take hand luggage and make sure that you take the printout online check in to airport.