EasyJet apologises to customer, 51, after destroying his suitcase and clothes worth £180

EasyJet apologises to customer, 51, after destroying his suitcase and clothes worth £180 on flight from Manchester to Lanzarote but only offering him £97.50

  • Peter Richardson picked his bag up at the airport to see it had been destroyed 
  • He went online to complain about experience and offered paltry compensation
  • EasyJet have now agreed to refund full cost of the bag and contents plus flight 

EasyJet today apologised to a customer after they destroyed his suitcase and clothes worth £180.

Peter Richardson from Warrington, Cheshire, picked up his bag at the airport in Arrecife, Lanzarote to find it had a huge hole through the middle.

The 51-year-old, who had flown from Manchester, took to social media to complain about his experience and branded the airline ‘Sleazyjet’.

Mr Richardson's damaged bag

Peter Richardson from Warrington, Cheshire, (left) picked up his bag (right) at the airport in Arrecife, Lanzarote to find it had a huge hole through the middle

Mr Richardson said that while easyJet reimbursed the £40 cost of the bag, he was offered just £57.50, or an £70 voucher to replace £140 worth of damaged clothing.

But now the airline has performed a u-turn and offered to fully reimburse his costs.

Pictures showed how Mr Richardson’s bag was ripped apart, while the soles of a pair of shoes contained within it were left completely mangled and a pair of shorts totally destroyed.

Complaining that the company had made it ‘as difficult as possible’ to submit a claim, he tweeted: ‘If you’re ever asked to put your bag in the hold, don’t bother.

‘They did this to my bag and a month later all I’ve had back is the cost of a new bag and an offer of half the value of the damaged items.

‘If I’d not followed it up vigorously I doubt anything would have happened as Sleazyjet are not interested in resolving this kind of issue.

‘Policy is clearly to make it as difficult as possible to recover the cost of items I had to replace and leave me out of pocket. Would someone from easyJet like to discuss the matter?’

Mr Richardson said that while easyJet reimbursed the £40 cost of the bag, he was offered just £57.50, or an £70 voucher to replace £140 worth of damaged clothing

Mr Richardson said that while easyJet reimbursed the £40 cost of the bag, he was offered just £57.50, or an £70 voucher to replace £140 worth of damaged clothing

Speaking today, Mr Richardson said: ‘We think it occurred at Arrecife as that’s when the case was returned to us.

‘They refunded the case which was £40. The shoes, flip flops and shorts cost £140 to replace and they offered me 57.50 or a £70 easyJet voucher.

‘The offer was based on half the approximate value of the original goods.

‘There has been a development today. They came back to me and offered a refund on the items I purchased, but I refused as I’d filed a claim with Aviation ADR.

‘I stated that I also wanted the cost of the £60.99 flight refunding, due to the amount of time I’ve spent on this. This has now been agreed to.’

EasyJet has since apologised for the incident.

Mr Richardson's damaged shorts

His shoes

Mr Richardson’s damaged shorts (left) and shoes (right). EasyJet has apologised to him for what happened 

An easyJet spokeswoman said: ‘easyJet has apologised to Mr Richardson for the damage caused to his bag whilst in transit and at the time of the incident reimbursed him for the cost of his bag and offered compensation for the damage to his clothes.

‘We understand how important it is that our customers are confident their luggage is well looked after and so we investigated this with our ground handling partners at Manchester and Arrecife airports.

‘easyJet flies on average over 1500 flights per day across more than 30 countries and incidents of damaged luggage are extremely low.’

It’s not the first time the airline have been accused of mishandling luggage.

In September, Eloise Walsh complained after her Samsonite suitcase was lost and then returned to her with the bag and contents destroyed.

In 2018, University of Exeter student Jiwon Choi also complained that her baggage was so damaged by the airline, it looked like it had ‘exploded’. 

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk