Ryanair forced to apologise after cheques for compensation BOUNCE – with passengers charged extra fees by banks
Up to 190 passengers were left unable to bank their cheques for compensation
RYANAIR has been forced to apologise after sending out cheques for compensation to customers that bounced.
Many of the passengers were charged extra fees after the cheques were rejected by banks and they have since been unable to get through to Ryanair on the phone.
The cheques hadn't been signed so couldn't be paid into accounts.
reports that one passenger called Karen Joyce was left €20 (£17.94) out of pocket after she was charged by her bank.
She said: "I was totally dumbstruck. We were loyal Ryanair customers and for them to bounce the cheque as well I just thought was disgusting.”
After calling Ryanair to complain, she spent 20 minutes on the phone to a customer services rep before she was hung up on.
Karen added: "Then he just put the phone down. I have not received anything from Ryanair."
Many of the cheques had been sent out to compensate customers for the series of strikes this summer with cancelled flights for thousands of holidaymakers.
A spokesperson for Ryanair said: “Due to an admin error, a tiny number of cheques (less than 190 out of over 20,000 compensation cheques in July) were posted without a required signatory.
“These cheques were re-issued last week and we apologise sincerely for this inconvenience which arose out of our desire to issue these compensation cheques quickly to our customers.”
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The Civil Aviation Authority recently advised passengers caught up in strikes to apply for compensation, under EU law 261.
Compensation comes in at €250 (£224) for short flights of up to 932 miles in Europe.
For longer flights compensation stands at €400 (£358).
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Ryanair had previously stated that it would not be paying any compensation over the strikes because they were “caused by extraordinary circumstances”.
The airline told The Times that it was not liable because unions were acting "unreasonably".
Sun Online Travel previously revealed that Ryanair was blasted by a passenger after a "stinking" pile of vomit from a previous flight was left uncleaned - and passengers on the next flight were confronted by it.