Global
Corporations – to whom should they be accountable?
by
John Strafford
The World is
increasingly dominated by large Global Corporations. Some more powerful than governments so what
can be done about this?
I set out below my
experience with easyJet:
My wife booked a return
flight for herself, myself and one of our sons to Corfu. Included in the booking was one week’s car
hire with Europcar with myself as the named driver. As is usual the flights and the car hire
were paid in advance.
We arrived in Corfu and
were met at the airport by a representative of Europcar who took us to their
office to collect the car. At the
office I showed them my passport. At
which point the Europcar representative said we could not hire a car from them
as I was over 75 years old. However,
they said if I went to the car hire firm next door they would willingly hire a
car to me. As they were not supplying a
car which had been paid for I asked for a refund. They said I must do this in the UK as it was
easyJet who had taken the money.
I went next door and
hired a car from Corona Car Hire, which was only slightly more expensive than
the car from Europcar.
On returning to the UK
my wife telephoned easyJet to ask for the refund; they said she must contact
Europcar in London. She did but they
did not want to know.
I then telephoned
Customer Service at easyJet and spoke to
a representative and explained the position. He told me, after consulting with his
superior to email easyJet, set out what had happened and attach the car hire
agreement with Corona and the receipt for payment. He said after doing this telephone easyJet
and they would tell me what would happen next.
After doing all this
and sending off the email I duly telephoned them the following day. This time I spoke to a different
representative of easyJet who told me that they had not received the email so
could I send it again? I duly did so.
The next day I
telephoned easyJet again and spoke to another representative who said this was
nothing to do with easyJet!
So there we are. You pay easyJet for a car. It is not supplied, but they refuse to
return the money paid.
Isn’t it time that
there was an Ombudsman who could force these Global Corporations to treat their
customers in a fair way and when they do not, fine them accordingly?
I can only say to all
easyJet customers beware of hiring a car through them!
