It’s a strategy. Ask RyanAir. They systematically shut down any way to communicate with them, except lawsuits. Tried their chatbot, hotline, email, letter, fax, small claims court (I’m not joking they don’t even care about that). Unless you turn up with a court order and confiscate a plane, they simply won’t give a fuck, and I’m sure it’s a tactic to deter 99% of their problems before they start

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ryandrake 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

These companies have correctly figured out that customers will still give them money, even if they provide no customer support, are actively hostile to their customers, and only respond to lawsuits. Such a weird timeline we are on! People willingly do business with companies who are actively against them.

	▲	dam_jackalopes an hour ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Sometimes you don't get a choice, which is even more frustrating. We got an admittedly very good deal to switch cell carriers. Part of that deal was receiving a debit card with my phone's trade in value loaded. That card turned out to be digital. I put it on my phone without thinking too much of it. However, given my lack of experience with Apple Pay, I didn't realize that I now didn't have access to my own card number. When I try to use the debit card, I am asked for a PIN that I've never been given an option to set up. When I call the card provider, the automated system demands a card number. Which I don't have. Granted, it was my ignorance as a user that is responsible for some of this but it's pretty clear that the lack of access and support is intentional.
	▲	matkoniecz an hour ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Ryanair admittedly wins on price and regulatory setup in EU provides guarantees that planes are safe. Yes, Ryanair stole 100 euro from me once, but if next flight is 50 to 250 euro cheaper than competition... I did some big projects motivated entirely by spite (project was overall helpful, but I would not do this if someone would be less nasty). But I still would use Ryanair.

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sensanaty 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

British Airways is the same. After they wrongfully didn't let me board my flight I had to escalate to the Dutch aviation authority (ILT, they sided in my favor within 3 days of me sending my letter in, that's how blatantly in the right I was) in order to get them to stop ignoring my emails, and even with the letter from ILT I still had to escalate to CEDR and they still took forever to compensate me what I was owed after legally being bound to do so. Along the way they tried every scummy tactic that exists, including sending me an email to close my CEDR case and they pinky promise they'll compensate me if I do that (which should be HIGHLY illegal but apparently isn't). They even went over the legally enforced time limits! They had 2 months after CEDR made their ruling in my favor to pay me back, and I STILL had to hound them after 2 and a half months to get my fucking money!

If I wasn't as idiotically stubborn as I am, I would've given up a month into the 8 month ordeal it eventually turned into. I guarantee you the vast majority of people wouldn't bother escalating to their CAA, or contact the relevant courts or authorities, which is what these scummy tactics are designed for. They would've been ignored like I did, then they would've given up because what's even the point?

The fact that we're allowing companies to get away with bullshit like this is ludicrous to me

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cube00 2 hours ago | parent [-]

>The fact that we're allowing companies to get away with bullshit like this is ludicrous to me.

If they decide to not reply it becomes much more resource consuming to go down the legal road.

I had this with DoorDash, even if you call they just say some specialised team needs to look at it and they'll email you back, surprise, they never do.

	▲	anjel an hour ago \| parent [-]
		This isn't laissez faire. Along with useless binding arbitration they precisely lobbied for a marketplace devoid of consumer protections or redress channels. We now live in an age of strict Non-liability.

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Retr0id 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> small claims court (I’m not joking they don’t even care about that)

If they don't show up, doesn't that mean you win by default? (And then you can indeed send a bailiff to seize a plane...)

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sscaryterry 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Depending on the jurisdiction, getting a judgement alone doesn't allow you to have a bailiff enforce it.

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StilesCrisis 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Yes, you can win in small claims if the other party doesn't show. I suspect a plane might exceed the "small claims" limit though!

	▲	Retr0id 2 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		€890 is apparently enough https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/mar/13/bailiffs-bo...
	▲	joshuaissac 2 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		The limit applies to what you can claim, rather than what you can impound in enforcing the court order.

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sscaryterry 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

The fact that this has become acceptable is the real problem.

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tcfhgj 3 hours ago | parent [-]

You don't want to harm the economy, do you?

	▲	sscaryterry 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I'm sure the people who will get hurt have plenty of money.

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ShinyLeftPad 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Same with Amazon Japan. It blocked my account with no way to contact them, never used again.