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Ryanair Wins!

// September 10th, 2009 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

wizz

During our “Official” Awards ceremony this weekend, held in Geneva.  The World renowned Contest for “Worst Euro-Budget Airline” in the Universe has ended.  We collected over 256 x 10e^27 votes from voters as far reaching as Pago Pago, the Sudan, the Isle of Man, North Korea, East Timor, Tahiti, and the Galapagos Islands!

As a tribute to the fairness and integrity of this site and it’s founders, all it’s contributors, editors, and lengthy editorial staff… we sadly must announce that our contest for the “Worst Euro-Budget Airline” (2009) is over and Wizzair lost…

The award goes to Ryanair!  Disappointing but true.   Ryanair got 100 suck votes to Wizzair’s 92! We can only conclude that despite their best efforts to pervert customer service and manipulate the goodness out of the once illustrious act of jet setting… Wizzair still sucks less (slightly) than Ryanair.

And so it is with great sadness to present Wizzair with the Runner-up award for:

SECOND PLACE!!!!! AS THE “WORST EURO-BUDGET AIRLINE” IN THE UNIVERSE!

Thanks to all those who participated, including those 12+ Hungarian IP addresses that all clicked to Ryanair within 2 days…

We know we can count on getting as much participation for our next Poll… “What’s in a Name” to pick our new domain name should we lose our ongoing legal arbitration with Wizzair’s crack WizzTeam of lawyers for OUR domain WIZZAIRSUCKS.com

[poll id="2"]

Wizzair v. Wizzairsucks.com arbitration begins!

// August 26th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Uncategorized

It’s final.  The arbitration deadline date has been set for September 13th, 2009.  This gives me 20 days to tender my response after having received their official Complaint.  I received the Complaint from Wizzair’s Legal Team… herein referred to as WizzLegal, Monday August 24th.  This gives me 20 days to prove Wizzairsucks.com is not “confusingly similar” to their “Wizz” trade mark, I have a legitimate interest in the domain Wizzairsucks.com… (ie not a cybersquatter), and I purchased the domain in “Good Faith.”

The decision is to be decided by a single panelist appointed by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

However I am skeptical towards this process in general and in the WIPO in particular.  In my short examination of the institution’s brief history I found a large amount of questionable and often contradictory rulings.  I found examples of both outcomes supporting my position and possible failure for reasons of a capricious nature.  The organization of its body I feel supports the rights and complaints of the complainant who pays for the process more than the respondent who does not.  This is nearly always the case historically for every other human endeavor where two parties are involved and one is paying disproportionately more.  My rudimentary understanding is that while the burden is on the complaint to pay for this process, they therefore have a greater ability for a favorable outcome.  They choose the number of panelists to suit their advantage; the respondent can choose to have three panelists only if they agree to pay 1/2 the expense.  The expense being ~$500 regardless of the case against them having merit or not.

While I understand the necessity for the WIPO’s existence in the vast amount of cases dealing almost exclusively on Trademark infringement in Squatter cases.  These would undoubtedly prove frivolous and needlessly tie up whatever courtrooms they ended up in. In such cases I see the WIPO as a great benefit being a third-party.  However I do not believe this body or any other which seems to me keenly built to suit commercial interest over any other deserves the right to decide what is, and what is not free speech. Certain WIPO panelists have said as much, but others have from time to time side-stepped their mandate.

In one case in particular, the Respondent, who was described as childish lost a series of domains to Walmart, i.e. WalmartCanadaSucks.com only to win in a later case for the domain WallmartCanadaSucks.com (Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. wallmartcanadasucks.com and Kenneth J. Harvey)

The UDRP has a narrow scope. It is meant to protect against trademark infringement, not to provide a general remedy for all misconduct involving domain names.” – WIPO Panelist in Wallmartcanadasucks.com Arbitration

Using the WIPO in a single panelist showdown is something akin to coin flipping.  The coin deciding the panelist and the panelist deciding the scope of their own powers and whether or not to exceed them or their mandate.

See the case of the sleepy WIPO panelist and the legal advice of “know your panelist.”


Our Legal Right to Exist Begins

// August 21st, 2009 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

On Friday, August 21st we received an official complaint against us from Wizzair via the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center. It was copied to me along with the Wizzair agent Ms. Bekessy and two of their attorneys Ms. Petranyi and Ms. Ormai. The law firm appears to the UK based CMS Cameron McKenna (www.cms-cmck.com).

Acknowledgement of Receipt of Complaint
wizzairsucks.com

The WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center (the Center) hereby acknowledges receipt of your Complaint, which the Center received on 17-Aug-2009.

Your case has been assigned the following Case Number: XXXXXXXXX (edited out)

The Case Manager assigned to your case is: XXXXXXXXX

Your Case Manager’s contact details are as follows:

Address:
34, chemin des Colombettes
1211 Geneva 20
Switzerland

Telephone: (+41 22) 338 8247
Facsimile: (+41 22) 740 3700
E-mail: domain.disputes@wipo.int

Please indicate the assigned Case Number in all future communications or submissions concerning your case. Questions concerning your case should be addressed to the Case Manager directly.

We are required by Paragraph 4(a) of the Rules for Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (Rules) to determine whether the Complaint complies with the formal requirements of the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy and the Rules. We shall notify you of any formal deficiencies, with a copy to the Respondent. You will then have five days within which to remedy these deficiencies, failing which, your Complaint will be deemed withdrawn, without prejudice to the submission of a new Complaint by you.

A Complaint that satisfies all of the formal requirements of the Rules for Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy will be notified by us to the Respondent in accordance with Rules, Paragraph 4(a). The Respondent will then have 20 calendar days within which to submit a Response.

————————————————
The WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center is an international provider of non-profit services for the out-of-court resolution of commercial disputes. The Center specializes in cases arising out of technology and intellectual property transactions, such as licensing, R&D and distribution agreements.
WIPO arbitration, mediation and expert determination contract clauses: http://www.wipo.int/amc/en/arbitration/contract-clauses
WIPO domain name dispute resolution: http://www.wipo.int/amc/en/domains
WIPO training events: http://www.wipo.int/amc/en/events

Legal Threats Begin

// August 18th, 2009 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

In the 5 months since Wizzairsucks began we have received no response from Wizzair. The reason for the site’s existence was also because of a lack of response from several former customers of Wizzair with their own complaints. These too have gone unanswered in the 5 months since the site started. However, today we received a clandestine email from our domain registrar Godaddy:

“We have received notification that a legal complaint on the domain name(s) has been filed through the World Intellectual Property Organization, http://www.wipo.int. Please contact domaindisputes@godaddy.com with any questions.”

Apparently Wizzair wishes to contest the Fair Use of the website’s name and quite possibly some of its content and our legal right to express it. More than likely they have lawyers that have already assessed it and have legally advised that laws unfortunately exist to protect just such a site against the likes of them, but they will try to intimidate all the same.

The travesty in all this is that like a neglected child, all we crave from this whole mess is a bit of attention. We were put to bed without our customer service and now we are upset. A slight customer service relationship, even a directional automated letter or two would have sufficed to satiate our appetites and might have prevented this site’s existence.

All they have proved so far is that:

A) Wizzair has no customer service whatsoever
B) They have no desire to create one
C) They do have lawyers
D) With those lawyers, instead of trying to fix that customer service gap, they will attack those all to willing to point it out

More importantly and despite their best efforts. Hundreds of their former customers also think they suck and have been willing to write comments and letters to back up their arguments and document their own experiences. In the past 5 months we have received 2,364 unique visitors and 6,419 page views from mostly the UK and Poland but also from Slovakia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Switzerland, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Sweden, Finland, and Norway.

To Wizzair:

Instead of threatening your disenchanted customers and using the intimidation of your legal team, wouldn’t it be far better to concern yourself and direct your energies toward the realization that you do “suck” because a fair number of your customers think so? You may be immune to some amount of the suck factor because you hide behind your low prices, and they protect you. You may not have to compete in many of your markets. But as our little chart shows, when it comes to the suck factor, only in contrast to Ryanair do you suck less, and that little champion title fluctuates between the two of you on any given day.

In our 5 month existence we have managed to supplant you in the role of your own Customer Service, and what we have learned so far is this:

Given the $5 difference between you and Skyeurope or Easyjet you lose.

Open letter to the Big Wizz C.E.O.

// August 3rd, 2009 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

Dear Josef,

In your auto-response to me on Apr. 8th 2009, you understated the matter a bit. You stated it could take up to 30 days to receive a response. It has now been nearly 5 months… we’re on the cusp of our 5 month anniversary together and I still have not heard a peep from you.

I am currently fighting you off my credit card which I was amazed recently because you did respond to them. You also exaggerated a little stating “services were provided as promised.” Admit it, that would be quite remarkable considering we didn’t board the flight. Please tell me, what were these services you provided? Maybe all along it was me owing you? Was it the expensive train ride for myself and my family that we were required to take after being stranded at an airport in Dortmund? Or the taxi ride you didn’t pay for to the first little plane ride you canceled the day before and moved 150km to another city?

You fibbed again, you rascal.

There are third world dictatorships that have more accountability than you. There’s some ironic marvelous beauty in that, you’ve got spunk! They accept the odd phone call, its a lot to ask I know. You don’t write. You don’t call. The least you could do is answer the phone or drop us an email occasionally.

It’s lonely being a customer sometimes.

I admit I myself am a bit of the jealous type. It bothers me that you’ll talk to Visa but not me. I suppose it’s your habit. Maybe you’re playing hard to get?

Anyway… if you do want to talk to me or anyone else for that matter, all our correspondence is being logged on wizzairsucks.com. Your cottage industry customer service soap box. Its even got t-shirts! Along with hundreds of other letters too! Check it out, you might learn something from your customers. Its amazing the feedback you can get from stranded passengers from all around the world!

Lets make this relationship work.

Uncontactable

// August 3rd, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Uncategorized

Hi…I have desperatly tried to get in contact with wizzair customer service. But all the numbers i have dialed(sweden, england, ireland)dont seem to work? no reply either to my mail.

could someone please help me with numbers you have had luck with.

Thanks in advance

Wizzair is a thief! by John

// May 5th, 2009 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

Wizz Air is a thief. A booked and paid ticket to Lviv for 17 May 2009 was cancelled by email 28 April. Not a word to explain why. No refund. No replacement flight. Mails to Customer Services bounce. Premium phone lines are not answered. Wizz means “Wizz your money”. Avoid at ALL cost!!