Flying to Naples: Horrible Customer Service Experience on Eurofly
 

I just got back from 2 amazing weeks on the Amalfi Coast. I used this website to ask a lot of questions when planning my trip, and everyone was really helpful. I'm organizing some of the information I collected (transportation options, etc.) and plan to publish it online soon, so I can be helpful the way everyone was for me.

In the mean time, I really want to tell the following story. It's so rare to have a terrible customer service experience and for there to be an appropriate forum for venting about it.

I flew Eurofly from JFK to Naples (round trip). During the 2 weeks I was in Italy, my ticket was accidentally brought to the Naples airport by a family member who was flying home a week earlier than I was. The ticket was left it in the hands of a station manager (a Eurofly check-in-desk worker) who promised to get it to me the next week, when I was scheduled to fly home.

I wanted to speak with someone regarding this situation, rather than just show up at the airport with my fingers crossed that this person would be there, with my ticket waiting for me.

I spent 2 days and a ton of expensive international cell phone minutes dealing with a series of unhelpful and downright rude State-side employees at Eurofly.

When I called to try to get a number at the Naples airport for Eurofly, I was told rudely “There is no number”. (Dead silence, no offer to try to work around the problem, no hmm, “let me see what else we can do” kind of noises, just dead silence.)

When I tried to reemphasize my discomfort with just showing up at an airport with no ticket and no verbal confirmation that anyone knew about my situation, I was cut off with a rude “There is nothing I can do.”

Then I asked to speak with a supervisor, his name was Joe.

Joe may be the least professional, rudest and most patronizing customer service supervisor on earth. I re-explained my situation, and my hope that he could help me get in touch with someone at the Naples airport who I could confirm my unusual ticket situation with.

The conversation went something like the following:
“I can’t give you that phone number.”

“Why?”

“There is no number.”

“But I have the name of the person who has my ticket. When you call your employees in Naples, what number do you use?”

“We don’t have any employees in Naples.”

“But I have someone’s name, he has my ticket.”

“Yeah, well, they only think they’re employees, they’re really not.”

“Sir, do you understand my concern, that I would like to confirm that this person will be around with my ticket when I get there?”

“Ok, when exactly do you leave for Italy?”

“I am in Italy now. I fly home in three days. I want to speak with the person holding my ticket.”

“Why don’t you go to the airport now?”

?*!@%$

At this point, my cell phone cut out, and my brain liquefied.

Keeping my own frustration in check, I called back multiple times and asked questions. I tried to offer alternative solutions to my problem. I tried to get some explanation of why I needed the actual paper ticket, since I was on a flight manifest. Or, whether someone could email me or fax me a copy of the ticket. Or whether someone could email or fax me something (anything!) that showed that I did once have a ticket?

Each person I spoke with after this was ruder and and less helpful, usually speaking over me loudly, telling me in short rude statements that there was nothing they could do.

I gave up.

I went to the airport many many many hours early the day of my flight, in order to leave a window of time in case my fears were realized and my ticket was not on the scene.

Luckily my fears were not realized. The Eurofly employee (or not an employee?) who was holding my ticket (a very friendly and helpful Michele Fiorinelli) was there and I was able to check-in without incident.

That's is. That's my story. I won't fly Eurofly again ever.

You shouldn't complain. You received your ticket-that's the bottom line. People should take responsibility for their action, and not pass the blame on anyone else. You goofed, and luckily someone bailed you out. Be happy!

Waldo, Your response is ridiculous and certainly uncalled for. She is just setting forth her experience with Eurofly and there is no reason for you to be so critical.

I also don't see what the big deal is. Most airlines will be reluctant to give out employee's phone numbers. And Eurofly probably really doesn't have their own employee at NAP, with their few times a week schedule; only contract workers.

And like Waldo says, they did OP a small favor, and she got your ticket. Not sure why OP was so upset.

Aaper ticket is like money - you lose it - you lost it. IMHO you were VERY lucky to get it back. All the phone calls may have been frustrating - but I think they went above and beyond to be sure you got the ticket. Who was the nitwit relative who took your ticket in the first place? S/he is who you should be angry w/.

sheesh - that should be "A paper ticket . . ."

To JerryS--You just don't get the point. Leighmaida was CERTAINLY complaining about Eurofly. Read her entry. She said they were horrible. She should kiss the ground that her ticket was saved by someone from Eurofly after she made a mistake. I don't know about you, but if my ticket was in the hands of someone I had never met, didn't know who they were,and I had absolutely no control of the situation, I would go bananas. Be real- accept the blame for the predicament in which you had placed yourself. Don't pass it off and then complain about it.

What an adventure! (I meant your trip...not this post!)

I gotta add one more thing--Leighmaida should have titled this post "Flying to Naples:WONDERFUL customer service experience on Eurofly!"

I can't imagine entrusting someone with my return ticket. You are lucky you got it back.

There's no excuse for the attitude & smart alecky answers from the so-called customer service reps. They are probably the ones who are not really employees of Eurofly - probably work at an outsourced tele-center. Management is all in Italy if you want to find someone to complain to. Check the UK or Italian version of company website to find a link to an org chart.

I think you are very lucky to have someone at the airport hold your ticket for a while just because you or the relative took the wrong ticket. I wouldn't trust that and think you should have gone to the airport to get them back from them.

Actually, if you read the US Eurofly responses neutrally, they aren't that smart alecky at all. They just said there was no number at the airport to give them, they didn't have employees right there with a phone number (which doesn't surprise me) you can reach them, the employees think they are but are not (which sounds like they are contract workers, and not employed directly by Eurofly, why is that so surprising) and why don't you go to the airport now to see what you can find? I don't think any of those responses were smart-alecky in the slightest, and were fairly good advice, actually. Really, some customer is careless and gives their ticket away to a relative who takes it somewhere else, and this is Eurofly's fault?

I agree, Christine, I would be writing a letter of appreciation, if anything.

Agree - you're very lucky the ticket was there - and should be mad as hell at the idiot relative that took it with them. And why did they leave it at the airport? They should have arranged to get it back to you (if they had a week before you were returning there had to be several choices - express mail, FedEx or similar - so you would have the ticket in your hand - and not have to trust to the good graces of people who are just contrct workers with the airline.)

What your relative did was the equivalent of seeing they had your wallet by mistake and leaving it with the checker in the supermarket for you to pick up at some later date - instead of dropping it off at your house - or FedExing it to you. Then - you call the Manager - who has no idea what you're talking about, and start asking for the home phone numbers of the checkers. See - it doesn;t make sense! He did;t cause the problem and doesn;t want to give out confidential info - why should he?)

It would have been nice, perhaps, if Eurofly had asked the 'agent' to contact Leighmaida instead. I'm sure that would have been possible, since Leighmaida had the person's name.

Yet another Classic post from a Newbie!!!

Let's see if I got this right.
Instead of Fed-Exing your ticket to your hotel, your relative left it with a really nice man who probably broke the rules to get you your ticket.
Then you call and expect the whole airline company to bend over backwards to help you.
Why do you think that the customer service person wouldn't help you?
Do you think that Eurofly is a family run business with the customer service staff selling airline tickets on the floor like bananas?
Or could it possibly be a larger company where the customer service people are in a different location?
It is possible that after hearing your story that Joe thought you were some nut or stalking or worse.
Really, think about it, how often do you think that guy hears a story like this?

Now, because no good deed goes unpunished, you have posted poor Michele Fiorinelli name on the internet in connection with a post warning people off of Eurofly. Hopefully, someone in his company that knows him does not read this and show it to the boss. This is exactly why companies have rules and policies about things that they require employees to adhere too.
I hope you gave that guy a really big tip or at least the cost of the Fed-ex mailer you should have used in the first place.

The least you could have done was posted about what a great company Eurofly is to have a guy like this working for them.

So, how was Eurofly anyway as far as the flight experience?

I was looking for feedback on Eurofly for my own travel to Italy and I found this. Doesn't sway me one way or another. Except to think how kind it was of the Naples rep to hold onto the ticket for the week. I am sure that the Naples rep was stressed and nervous about being responsible for this ticket. I know I would be if this was not part of my job.

Click on the airline forum and do a search for Eurofly or Euroflyusa. There have been several reviews there and links to other reviews on Flyertalk.

truly unbelievable and unnapreciative.

Holy responses.

This post was intended to vent after a really crappy telephone customer service experience. I agree that the initial error (and cause of the situation in the first place) was mine, but it just sucks a lot that not a single person I spoke with on the phone was willing to do anything above the bare minimum to try to solve the problem.

Thanks to the person who pointed out about leaving the Eurofly guy's name in the post (that was a big mistake and I realized it immediately. Sorry for that, but i'm not sure how to fix that now.)

As for the question about the actual flying experience on Eurofly, nothing special.

And lastly, I am not unappreciative.

probably kicking a dead horse here - but &quot;<i>not a single person I spoke with on the phone was willing to do anything above the bare minimum to try to solve the problem.</i>&quot; What did you expect they could/should to do for you?? I really don't see anything they did wrong - and yes, you do seem unappreciative.

I'm sure it was REALLY stressful, but it all worked out in the end. once your ticket is in your hands it is your responsibility. Thank your lucky stars you got the ticket back and didn't have to buy a walk-up full fare replacement ticket.

Many are telling leighmaida she was crazy for wanting an employee's personal phone number...but that's not what she asked for. Reread the OP. Although she made some mistakes (and yes...I would have gone to the airport immediately) I don't think it's unreasonable for them to have made an attempt to contact their ticket desk at the airport and find the lost ticket. Whether an employee or a contract worker...they still would have probably had a way to try and contact them. They could at least have helped leighmaida find the general airport number and tracked the agent from there.

&quot;It is possible that after hearing your story that Joe thought you were some nut or stalking or worse.&quot; - L84SKY

That's rather dramatic don't you think...even sillier than the OP.

&quot;Yet another Classic post from a Newbie!!!&quot; - barbmike

Yet another classic post from someone who's life must revolves WAY too much around forums in general. This isn't your living room...it's a place for people to ask questions.

<i>This isn't your living room...it's a place for people to ask questions.</i>

Correct. But the OP didn't post to ask questions. She posted to vent.

I agree...but venting is something that is done here a lot. Hearing about other's complaints and frustrations helps me formulate my own traveling plans and strategies.

I do think the OP was a bit out of line on placing the blame...but I'd say some of the follow up posts were plain silly.

I guess that line about newbie gets me annoyed every time. As though some of the old sages of the forum are sitting around having a grand old time w/ their wise discussions and then some of us bumble in and ruin their party...hence the line about the living room.

So many of you are missing the point. Losing control of the paper was a bad situation to be in. However, it sounds like this bad situation was made into a worse situation by the Eurofly customer service folks. Leighmaida is not blaming Eurofly for losing their ticket, they were describing the service (or lack of service) that they received after the ticket was entrusted to a Eurofly representative at the airport. I make my living in a customer service role and agree that the Eurofly customer service staff could have done more to help resolve this “Series of Unfortunate Events”. The role of customer service is to help the customer, and with a little more effort on their part, leighmaida would have probably been posting a love letter to Eurofly on this site insead of the one currently posted. These forums are a great place to be able to share experiences...both good and bad.

&quot;<i>These forums are a great place to be able to share experiences...both good and bad.</i>&quot;

Absolutely agree w/ you. And once that experience is shared, others can post their responses either... agreeing w/ or disagreeing w/ the OP's point of view.

I ask what would AA or United (especially &quot;Untied&quot;) have done in the same situation - the OP would probably have been SOL.

Hi guys!
I'm the famous &quot;poor&quot; Michele Fiorinelli working at Naples Intenrational Airport! I'm quite happy to read my name on your forum!
In any case, just to say the ultimate word on thi matter, I remind perfectly the story, that's why I left my visit card to the mother of the passenger, and I was sure everythingd would have worked in the perfect way!
You all are right, you can contact an Eurofly rep only in Italy at the call center.
For your info, I'm the &quot;poor&quot; station Manager of the handling agent of Eurofly.
Regards
Michele

leighmaida, I recently, for 2 weeks, tried to get Capital One to remove a charge on my credit card account, that they erroneously placed there. I can so, I mean totally, understand your pain!!! I thought I would go bonkers thruout the entire horribly poor customer service &amp; untrained (or dumb?) employees.

While I can agree with other posters that you could have handled the situation differently, I also agree with you that this company provided extremely poor customer service. Doesn't matter whether they could help you or not. The employees did not provide appropriate communication skills &amp; customer service.

What you have provided to this board is a warning to those who do not want to deal with companies that have poor service employees. That matters to some; to some it does not. Others may choose to accept Eurofly due to itinerary &amp; cost, but will do so with the knowledge you have given.

Thanks for your input. But mostly, I hope your seething soon subsides - mine took quite a while! But I felt much better once I got a credit card with a bank that has local branches (I can walk into or call directly to solve my problems).

If you write a letter (&amp; may not be a bad idea), I suggest you complain about the way the employees handled your calls - should have been, &quot;I'm so sorry about your situation. However, the telephone number you are wanting is not a public number. While I cannot give that number to you, if you will hold, I will see if I can reach the person....or I will forward this to my supervisor to see if he (Joe!) will contact the person. But let's face it. In today's world of such mega-companies &amp; tight budgets, such service is no longer provided.

Good luck next time!

Julie

Meanwhile, lost in this discussion, is the info about problems with Eurofly. If you go to the Slow Travel message boards, you will see many posts regarding the miserable experiences people have had with Eurofuly, especially, it seems, in Naples. To me this story here seemed like just another typical Eurofly behavior.

No matter whether it was the customer's fault or not, the airline personnel should have been more courteous and at least made an attempt to contact the Naples rep and verify that the ticket was there. But they didn't, and this, plus what I have read on Slow Travel, tells me never to fly with them. And that's what's important to Euroflyl here.

Charnee

I guess I don't get it. People make DUMB mistakes, and look for others to bail them out. When are you gonna realize that when you buy an airline ticket, the ONLY obligation of the airline is to get you to your destination safely and timely. I'm not a champion of the airlines, but asking the airline and its employees to reverse a stupid action on you part, and then getting answers that don't measure up to your boneheaded expectations is sort of asking the airline to go above and beyond their policies. I guess I'm from the old school, taking responsibility for my actions. You should have accepted your ticket gratiously from Michele, and promptly SHUT UP, and not mentioned it. You only compounded the error of your ways. So there!!!

JulieAgain: &quot;<i>But mostly, I hope your seething soon subsides - mine took quite a while!</i>&quot; - Well I surely hope she is over her seething by now! She posted this back in June and hasn'r been back on here for months.

michu (michelle) : Thanks for posting