Ryanair Mobile “It’s your choice whether you want to use it or not”
Before we get the usual suspects giving out about the pricing of the Ryanair onboard mobile phone service, Michael O’Leary came up with the perfect comment that should head off any complaints about the high costs of the new service:
It’s your choice whether you want to use it or not.
The article linked above says that customers will be charged up to 50c for texts messages and from €2 to €3 per minute for a call. If you want to send e-mails from your smart phone it’ll cost you between €1 and €2 depending on your operator. Like roaming, you’ll be charged to receive calls but not texts.
This is the equivalent of a luxury service for mobile phone users. It’s not essential – it hasn’t been essential for the past 10 to 15 years, so it’s not essential now.
This is simply a money making stream for Ryanair. It’s up to consumers whether or not they’re willing to avail of the service, but please please don’t go bleating to Joe Duffy about the high costs if you get caught out with a large bill because you got carried away on a flight, or enjoyed the duty free too much and decided some drunken onboard texts or calls would be some fun.
2 Comments
If you think Ryanair are bad you should try dealing with 3 Mobile. I bought a Skype phone in The North for £38. The same model was on sale here for €99. The Skype turned out to be blocked if you use a 3 Ireland sim. When I questioned this with customer care I was subjected to a barrage of abuse. I was called a liar. I was told I had acted illegally. I was told the problem could be fixed but not for me. That I did not have a genuine problem. Told by Irish customer Care that it was an English problem. Told by UK customer care It was an Irish problem and told a whole series of blatant untruths as to what the problem was. 3 Ireland definitely regard Ryanair as their model for customer care.
@Dave – I share your pain. As a former 3 Mobile customer, I’ve had similar problems with them.
It’s unfortunate. Like Ryanair, when the product is decent enough, the customer experience is ruined by shocking customer service.
Then again, to get the cheap services, you might take your chances and hope that nothing goes wrong and that you won’t need to call them with problems.
The crap shoot that is Irish customer service.