I'm sure none of you missed the media hype over Google offering voice-over-internet (VoIP) services. Even though their offering is way inferior to existing providers such as Vonage; Skype; Broadvoice etc...

But the buzz in the IT world is that they are eventually going to link their service to their Adwords and links etc... This means that not only will you click on a link to go to a companies website - but you then click on another link on that website and your Google VoIP will call the company direct and put you through! All at no cost via the internet.

This is the beginning of the end (or the end of the beginning of the end if you're Winston Churchill) for traditional telcos - who are all "quaking in their boots" according to the financial press.

Google's VoIP will be compatible with other IM services such as Yahoo etc...; plus eventually it will become SIP compliant. SIP is the generic protocol for VoIP that will be widely adopted.

This means that such a VoIP link on a companies website will be linked to your SIP device of choice - just as you can specify which email program is linked to email links.

Once this starts to happen and companies adopt it; it will revolutionize the marketplace. Just as no company can afford not to have a website; none will be able to resist the free VoIP revolution.

Fear not - VoIP is just like email - and who pays for email now? (Apart from your net connection).

I think the shear weight of market forces will force this through; although companies who wish to charge for tech support etc... will find a way - perhaps by billing via your VoIP account or special VoIP numbers.

But I think it spells the end of disguised premium rate numbers.

Have to agree with all you say NGM.

VoIP spam will happen and customer service will always be bad as long as the customers claim they are willing to pay for good service; but actually buy the cheapest with no regard for it.

Easyjet and Ryanair just face this fact head on and don't try and hide it. They both state quite openly that customer service is not top of their list; they have one God only - and that is price. Same God the customer has!

I love watching those airport shows where the plebs turn up 29 minutes and 59 seconds before the flight and are refused boarding as they are 1 second late. Serves them right and I love seeing the Easyjet folks telling them to get stuffed. Teaches the plebs to take responsibility for their own actions - something they don't get taught at school or by their parents.

*end of rant*

But there is no doubt that VoIP is going to stuff the telcoms companies big time.

Note: Ryanair and Easyjet have draconian check-in rules so they can offer good reliability to rest of us who can turn-up on time. Out of 21 UK airlines Ryanair is the 4th most punctual and Easyjet the 15th. Both better then BA and Virgin.

http://www.flightontime.info/scheduled/scheduled.html

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That's a good point. Although if today's 084/087 help lines were to be charged as geographical calls, there may be the same problem as more people take up inclusive call packages.

Of course, I'm not condoning 084/087 one bit, but that would be a disadvantage as far as timewasters goes and may have been a selling point for telcos to businesses. That said, we are reliably informed that in the US, companies regularly use toll-free numbers.

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Having been excluded by Easyjet for checking in 29 minutes and 30 seconds beforehand at Luton and having then seen the flight take off 1 hour late I cannot agree with you.

The main reason Easyjet and Ryanair won't let late passengers check in is not because it makes the aircraft leave late but because they travel with minimum fuel reserve on board so as to further cut operating costs.  Thus if four passengers show up late they are already on their fuel margin so can't acommodate them.  Also in the case of Ryanair they make a fortune out of the £40 ticket rebooking fee which is why they try so hard to exclude people, typically by closing down checkins several minutes before the 40 minute deadline.

However Easyjet do let you transfer to the next flight for free if you are a few minutes late so the minimum fuel reserves thing seems to be their main motivation for excluding you.

If you like seeing an uneducated uncouth working class person pointlessly following the rulebook to abuse other people who have already paid far too much for a substandard product then Lousyjet or LyinAir is clearly for you.  A return fare for a week from London to Palma with Easyjet from any London airport in the last week has been £500 and I would never pay that to travel cattle class.

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The main reason uk companies get so many unwanted customer service calls is due to fowling up so many orders that customers then have to call to sort out.

In the US where bad customer service is not the norm customers have less reason to need to call.

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Tanllan,

If you travel with British Airways most passengers have travelled before so there is not much need to emphasise the safety demonstration.  With Easyjet there are still many people who fly irregularly or who have never flown before on board.

The one thing Easyjet I believe do pay a lot of attention to customer care wise is aircarft safety since they know a crash could be very damaging to their business, however much they might otherwise target low cost operation.

It seems that Helias Airlines did not realise this fact.

Do you come from Africa originally or is the Accra visit and conference purely due to the global nature of your job?  I can't say that it is necessarily where I would go for my leisure travels.

NGN - if Easyjet and Ryanair are so bad how come they are so popular and make so much money??

Despite all you say they, offer amazing pricing (much of the time), and fly to many, many airports unserviced by any other airlines from the UK. This allows lots of people who could not afford to fly before to do so now. So what if sometimes their pricing is just as bad as other airlines? So what if other airlines like BA have been forced to drop their stupid prices to compete?

I don't give a hoot about how "nice" the cabin staff are. Who gives a monkeys? I want my mother, my dog and my girlfriend to be nice to me. The only reason cabin staff are there anyway is because they are required for safety reasons. I'm not a baby.

I'm a responsible person: I READ T&C and small print - and I allow plenty of time to get to the airport. I expect a company to deliver what they agree to in their contractual agreement with me - no more and no less. I take responsibility for my own actions.

But if they break their contract with me a just pop on the web and issue a county court summons in two ticks. I once turned up at Geneva airport to take an Easyjet flight, and indeed the check-in desk was inexplicably closed about 10 minutes before the deadline. I got the airport manager as a witness; and in the summons required that they provide me with the names of all Easyjet staff on duty that day plus full details of their duty logs AND the video tape from the security cameras!

I claimed a full refund (£89); the cost of a replacement flight on BA (£324) plus £150 for the hassle. They paid almost the full lot (only £100 for hassle) before the court date! Plus the £30 for registering my claim. Very satisfying.

I don't quite understand your point about fuel margins. A jet has to be refueled before any passengers board; and as much of the time all the passengers turn up on time I can't see how it helps Easyjet with their fuel margins. ie: they can't under-fuel the jet on the hope that some passengers will not turn up.

The laws governing air-safety are incredibly strict and very well enforced in UK/Ireland and most of the EU. As long as Easyjet stay within the law I don't care.