Dozens of irate EZjet customers waited again yesterday at the airline’s office in Brickdam to collect their refunds.
The manager of EZjet, Rosalinda Rasul yesterday declined to speak to Stabroek News about the refunds and whether customers will receive their money by December 17 as had been planned.
Customers became upset when they were told that they would receive a post-dated cheque as they said they had been told that their monies were safe and held in an escrow account.
“They ain’t get money no money now to pay that’s why they making excuses,” one passenger told this newspaper. He feared that he wouldn’t receive his refund. “What would happen if we turn up at the bank with our cheques on the 17th and they tell us that there’s no money?”
One man said that he received a refund letter on November 10 but hasn’t yet received a refund for his two-way ticket. He said that he tried on several occasions to contact EZjet but they refused to speak to him. “They are insulting our intelligence,” he went on to say.
A Guyanese man who was stranded in the United States for one week with his wife and baby said that he made every effort to contact the air service but was unsuccessful. He was later informed that refund forms were available on facebook.com and that an EZjet representative would contact all passengers in 24 hours. However to this day he hasn’t received any feedback from EZjet.
Another passenger said that she is an American citizen and she had been stranded in Guyana for a month. She had purchased her return ticket from EZjet and was prepared to leave on November, 7 but was told that the flight was postponed to the following day. It was not until November 9 that she heard about the cancellation of flights and since then had been trying to receive her refund.
A policeman was present yesterday at the office to maintain order.
EZjet announced on November 9 that it was cancelling all flights following an order from the United States Department of Transportation (DOT) to suspend its operations. That order stemmed from difficulties between EZJet and the company it was wet-leasing a plane from. Hundreds of travellers both here and in New York have since flocked to EZjet offices for their refunds.
The order by the DOT to suspend operations was preceded by a civil lawsuit in the US against EZjet owner Sonny Ramdeo. It was filed by his former employer who claimed that he had embezzled money from them. Ramdeo subsequently stood down from EZjet.
