I’m sure at this stage you have all read well written, deeply interesting, and to the point articles relating to the Jason Roe / Ryanair debacle. For those of you who haven’t here is a quick summary:
Jason Roe an Irish web designer found a minor issue with Ryanair’s online booking site that made it appear that you could book a flight on Ryanair for free, however this was just a session issue and as such not really a valid cause for concern or a method that could be used to avail of free flights.
Roe posted about this issue in his blog, and the information that he provided was tweeted across the globe, however, in a case of chinese whispers, the message being conveyed was that the issue that Roe had discovered would allow visitors to the Ryanair website to book a legitimate flight with Ryanair for free. Prompting a number of people to try replicate this issue.
Shortly following the blog post, Official Ryanair tech staff started commenting on Roe’s blog. I won’t go into full quotes but the words ‘Liar’ and ‘Idiot’ were thrown about, not to mention that they made cheap comments about his personal life.
When this information reached the media, Ryanair confirmed that their technical staff had indeed posted these comments, however, instead of apologizing for their staffs’ behaviour they commented:
“It is Ryanair policy not to waste time and energy in corresponding with idiot bloggers, and Ryanair can confirm that it won’t be happening again. Lunatic bloggers can have the blog sphere all to themselves, as our people are far too busy driving down the cost of air travel.”
And this is the story thus far…
So here is my take on this situation, it may not be well written, nor deeply interesting, but it is an honest aparaisal of the situation as I see it.
Firstly, I am amazed and appalled by the public relations team at Ryanair. I can’t even begin to imagine the standards that their public relations officers must hold too, that they could condone the actions not only of their staff, but also that of the representative speaking on their behalf.
As a business that in the service industry, in the middle of an economic recession to handle a public relations issue so poorly is simply shambolic. I have worked for a number of large companies, and I know exactly the kind of damage that poor PR and bad media attention can do. As I mentioned above, considering the current economic situation, this is definitely not the kind of damage Ryanair can afford.
One would have hoped to see Ryanair at least portray a professional attitude in this case rather than resorting to unscrupulous and underhanded comments. However, even this seemed too much of a challenge. It was bad enough to see this kind of behaviour from staff but to make a public announcement of support for their comments really portrays their organization in a bad light.
For a company that has been around for 24 years, it would appear that Ryanair still has a hell of a lot to learn about good PR and good customer service.
Additionally I find the quote “Lunatic bloggers can have the blog sphere all to themselves, as our people are far too busy driving down the cost of air travel” particularly ironic considering Ryanair staff seemed to find the time to comment on Roe’s blog a multitude of times .
If this is a new method of decreasing the cost of air travel, I’d really like to see how Ryanair has worked this theory out.
Secondly, I’m sensing that the blogging community on a whole have turned on Ryanair over this issue and seem to be convinced that the ‘idiots’ comment was directed at them. Which I don’t personally think it was, or at least in my case. I like to believe it wasn’t, as I don’t believe I’m an idiot (at least most of the time) and I don’t believe that any of you are either.
In this case I think everyone should take a breather, before we begin boycotts, petitions and mass protests. Maybe bloggers as a whole could show Ryanair how its really done and make an official statement to the media regarding this issue on behalf of the blogging community without resorting to the same underhanded comments that Ryanair has laid before us today (Just an idea).
As it stands these are my thoughts on the subject and we’ll just have to wait and see whether anything further comes of these events.
The Ryanair Debacle – My Views
26 02 2009I’m sure at this stage you have all read well written, deeply interesting, and to the point articles relating to the Jason Roe / Ryanair debacle. For those of you who haven’t here is a quick summary:
Jason Roe an Irish web designer found a minor issue with Ryanair’s online booking site that made it appear that you could book a flight on Ryanair for free, however this was just a session issue and as such not really a valid cause for concern or a method that could be used to avail of free flights.
Roe posted about this issue in his blog, and the information that he provided was tweeted across the globe, however, in a case of chinese whispers, the message being conveyed was that the issue that Roe had discovered would allow visitors to the Ryanair website to book a legitimate flight with Ryanair for free. Prompting a number of people to try replicate this issue.
Shortly following the blog post, Official Ryanair tech staff started commenting on Roe’s blog. I won’t go into full quotes but the words ‘Liar’ and ‘Idiot’ were thrown about, not to mention that they made cheap comments about his personal life.
When this information reached the media, Ryanair confirmed that their technical staff had indeed posted these comments, however, instead of apologizing for their staffs’ behaviour they commented:
“It is Ryanair policy not to waste time and energy in corresponding with idiot bloggers, and Ryanair can confirm that it won’t be happening again. Lunatic bloggers can have the blog sphere all to themselves, as our people are far too busy driving down the cost of air travel.”
And this is the story thus far…
So here is my take on this situation, it may not be well written, nor deeply interesting, but it is an honest aparaisal of the situation as I see it.
Firstly, I am amazed and appalled by the public relations team at Ryanair. I can’t even begin to imagine the standards that their public relations officers must hold too, that they could condone the actions not only of their staff, but also that of the representative speaking on their behalf.
As a business that in the service industry, in the middle of an economic recession to handle a public relations issue so poorly is simply shambolic. I have worked for a number of large companies, and I know exactly the kind of damage that poor PR and bad media attention can do. As I mentioned above, considering the current economic situation, this is definitely not the kind of damage Ryanair can afford.
One would have hoped to see Ryanair at least portray a professional attitude in this case rather than resorting to unscrupulous and underhanded comments. However, even this seemed too much of a challenge. It was bad enough to see this kind of behaviour from staff but to make a public announcement of support for their comments really portrays their organization in a bad light.
For a company that has been around for 24 years, it would appear that Ryanair still has a hell of a lot to learn about good PR and good customer service.
Additionally I find the quote “Lunatic bloggers can have the blog sphere all to themselves, as our people are far too busy driving down the cost of air travel” particularly ironic considering Ryanair staff seemed to find the time to comment on Roe’s blog a multitude of times .
If this is a new method of decreasing the cost of air travel, I’d really like to see how Ryanair has worked this theory out.
Secondly, I’m sensing that the blogging community on a whole have turned on Ryanair over this issue and seem to be convinced that the ‘idiots’ comment was directed at them. Which I don’t personally think it was, or at least in my case. I like to believe it wasn’t, as I don’t believe I’m an idiot (at least most of the time) and I don’t believe that any of you are either.
In this case I think everyone should take a breather, before we begin boycotts, petitions and mass protests. Maybe bloggers as a whole could show Ryanair how its really done and make an official statement to the media regarding this issue on behalf of the blogging community without resorting to the same underhanded comments that Ryanair has laid before us today (Just an idea).
As it stands these are my thoughts on the subject and we’ll just have to wait and see whether anything further comes of these events.
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Tags: comments, idiot bloggers, Ireland, Jason Roe, Lunatic bloggers, Ryanair, Ryanair staff, Ryanair.com
Categories : Blogging, Current Affairs, Uncategorized