We're delighted to see Ryanair's staff engaging with customers through social media, but there's still some way to go before the firm's employees grasp the subtleties of online interaction.
Ryanair doesn't seem to have much time for a social media policy. Photograph: Monika Szyma/Flickr/Some rights reserved
Web developer Jason Roe thought he'd discovered a flaw in Ryanair's website while booking a flight, and blogged about how it seemed that users could book a flight for a charge of '0.00'.
Later that afternoon, someone calling themselves 'Ryanair Staff' posted the following comment, which we've published in all its glory:
"jason! you're an idiot and a liar!! fact is!
"you've opened one session then another and requested a page meant for a different session, you are so stupid you dont even know how you did it! you dont get a free flight, there is no dynamic data to render which is prob why you got 0.00. what self respecting developer uses a crappy CMS such as word press anyway AND puts they're mobile ph number online, i suppose even a prank call is better than nothing on a lonely sat evening!!"
Roe replied:
"I have not lied, I found a bug in your site that allows a user to see a 0.00 price listed beside a flight. Yes, I have cleared a session, but you have not prevented session jumping! I hope to god a Ryanair management type reads this.
"Crappy CMS such as wordpress .. its a blog? I put my mobile phone number online as im a freelance developer. At least I provide a phone number on my website, no premium lines here."
And got this reply:
"Hehe - I found a bug that lets me show anything I want on your site.
"All I have to do is put something along the lines of javascript:void(document.write('hehe')) into the address bar, and I can do whatever I want with your site ( or indeed any other site ).
"I'm not sure what you think you've achieved here - that wouldn't have gotten you through to the back end. You wouldn't even have been able to enter passenger information.
"You must never have seen a decent exploit, if you think this is something worth bragging about. There is another exploit you could try - wait until we're running a promotion when we give away a million odd seats for free anyway."
That exchange speaks for itself.
Trade blog Travolution picked this up, and said they confirmed that the IP address of 'Ryanair Staff' could be traced back to Ryanair headquarters. Later, Ryanair's official comms team gave Travolution a statement, though I'm not sure which response is more constructive:
"Ryanair can confirm that a Ryanair staff member did engage in a blog discussion. It is Ryanair policy not to waste time and energy corresponding with idiot bloggers and Ryanair can confirm that it won't be happening again.
"Lunatic bloggers can have the blog sphere all to themselves as our people are far too busy driving down the cost of air travel."
Econsultancy has very kindly dished out some free online marketing advice to Ryanair, including improving its website design, providing a contact number and removing the annoying error messages that pop up should you, for example, enter 29 February - the tone of which is rather like the techie in The Office.
And more importantly, Ryanair should learn to take criticism more constructively, writes Graham Charlton.
"We've criticised a few websites on this blog, and most companies have taken criticism on the chin. For instance, Asda contacted me after we published this post criticising its website, to say they appreciated the comments and were working on improvements. Encyclopedia Britannica agreed to an interview after a critical article while Reevoo even added new functions to its mobile site on the back of comments on this blog," he wrote.
"More importantly, none has responded with the kind of attitude that Ryanair's staff did on Jason's blog, which has resulted in plenty of bad publicity for the airline across the blogosphere."
"Senior management was probably unaware of this, but perhaps needs to lay down some rules for its employees to avoid future repetitions."
Ryanair doesn't seem to have much time for a social media policy. Photograph: Monika Szyma/Flickr/Some rights reserved
Web developer Jason Roe thought he'd discovered a flaw in Ryanair's website while booking a flight, and blogged about how it seemed that users could book a flight for a charge of '0.00'.
Later that afternoon, someone calling themselves 'Ryanair Staff' posted the following comment, which we've published in all its glory:
"jason! you're an idiot and a liar!! fact is!
"you've opened one session then another and requested a page meant for a different session, you are so stupid you dont even know how you did it! you dont get a free flight, there is no dynamic data to render which is prob why you got 0.00. what self respecting developer uses a crappy CMS such as word press anyway AND puts they're mobile ph number online, i suppose even a prank call is better than nothing on a lonely sat evening!!"
Roe replied:
"I have not lied, I found a bug in your site that allows a user to see a 0.00 price listed beside a flight. Yes, I have cleared a session, but you have not prevented session jumping! I hope to god a Ryanair management type reads this.
"Crappy CMS such as wordpress .. its a blog? I put my mobile phone number online as im a freelance developer. At least I provide a phone number on my website, no premium lines here."
And got this reply:
"Hehe - I found a bug that lets me show anything I want on your site.
"All I have to do is put something along the lines of javascript:void(document.write('hehe')) into the address bar, and I can do whatever I want with your site ( or indeed any other site ).
"I'm not sure what you think you've achieved here - that wouldn't have gotten you through to the back end. You wouldn't even have been able to enter passenger information.
"You must never have seen a decent exploit, if you think this is something worth bragging about. There is another exploit you could try - wait until we're running a promotion when we give away a million odd seats for free anyway."
That exchange speaks for itself.
Trade blog Travolution picked this up, and said they confirmed that the IP address of 'Ryanair Staff' could be traced back to Ryanair headquarters. Later, Ryanair's official comms team gave Travolution a statement, though I'm not sure which response is more constructive:
"Ryanair can confirm that a Ryanair staff member did engage in a blog discussion. It is Ryanair policy not to waste time and energy corresponding with idiot bloggers and Ryanair can confirm that it won't be happening again.
"Lunatic bloggers can have the blog sphere all to themselves as our people are far too busy driving down the cost of air travel."
Econsultancy has very kindly dished out some free online marketing advice to Ryanair, including improving its website design, providing a contact number and removing the annoying error messages that pop up should you, for example, enter 29 February - the tone of which is rather like the techie in The Office.
And more importantly, Ryanair should learn to take criticism more constructively, writes Graham Charlton.
"We've criticised a few websites on this blog, and most companies have taken criticism on the chin. For instance, Asda contacted me after we published this post criticising its website, to say they appreciated the comments and were working on improvements. Encyclopedia Britannica agreed to an interview after a critical article while Reevoo even added new functions to its mobile site on the back of comments on this blog," he wrote.
"More importantly, none has responded with the kind of attitude that Ryanair's staff did on Jason's blog, which has resulted in plenty of bad publicity for the airline across the blogosphere."
"Senior management was probably unaware of this, but perhaps needs to lay down some rules for its employees to avoid future repetitions."
We're delighted to see Ryanair's staff engaging with customers through social media, but there's still some way to go before the firm's employees grasp the subtleties of online interaction.
Ryanair doesn't seem to have much time for a social media policy. Photograph: Monika Szyma/Flickr/Some rights reserved
Web developer Jason Roe thought he'd discovered a flaw in Ryanair's website while booking a flight, and blogged about how it seemed that users could book a flight for a charge of '0.00'.
Later that afternoon, someone calling themselves 'Ryanair Staff' posted the following comment, which we've published in all its glory:
"jason! you're an idiot and a liar!! fact is!
"you've opened one session then another and requested a page meant for a different session, you are so stupid you dont even know how you did it! you dont get a free flight, there is no dynamic data to render which is prob why you got 0.00. what self respecting developer uses a crappy CMS such as word press anyway AND puts they're mobile ph number online, i suppose even a prank call is better than nothing on a lonely sat evening!!"
Roe replied:
"I have not lied, I found a bug in your site that allows a user to see a 0.00 price listed beside a flight. Yes, I have cleared a session, but you have not prevented session jumping! I hope to god a Ryanair management type reads this.
"Crappy CMS such as wordpress .. its a blog? I put my mobile phone number online as im a freelance developer. At least I provide a phone number on my website, no premium lines here."
And got this reply:
"Hehe - I found a bug that lets me show anything I want on your site.
"All I have to do is put something along the lines of javascript:void(document.write('hehe')) into the address bar, and I can do whatever I want with your site ( or indeed any other site ).
"I'm not sure what you think you've achieved here - that wouldn't have gotten you through to the back end. You wouldn't even have been able to enter passenger information.
"You must never have seen a decent exploit, if you think this is something worth bragging about. There is another exploit you could try - wait until we're running a promotion when we give away a million odd seats for free anyway."
That exchange speaks for itself.
Trade blog Travolution picked this up, and said they confirmed that the IP address of 'Ryanair Staff' could be traced back to Ryanair headquarters. Later, Ryanair's official comms team gave Travolution a statement, though I'm not sure which response is more constructive:
"Ryanair can confirm that a Ryanair staff member did engage in a blog discussion. It is Ryanair policy not to waste time and energy corresponding with idiot bloggers and Ryanair can confirm that it won't be happening again.
"Lunatic bloggers can have the blog sphere all to themselves as our people are far too busy driving down the cost of air travel."
Econsultancy has very kindly dished out some free online marketing advice to Ryanair, including improving its website design, providing a contact number and removing the annoying error messages that pop up should you, for example, enter 29 February - the tone of which is rather like the techie in The Office.
And more importantly, Ryanair should learn to take criticism more constructively, writes Graham Charlton.
"We've criticised a few websites on this blog, and most companies have taken criticism on the chin. For instance, Asda contacted me after we published this post criticising its website, to say they appreciated the comments and were working on improvements. Encyclopedia Britannica agreed to an interview after a critical article while Reevoo even added new functions to its mobile site on the back of comments on this blog," he wrote.
"More importantly, none has responded with the kind of attitude that Ryanair's staff did on Jason's blog, which has resulted in plenty of bad publicity for the airline across the blogosphere."
"Senior management was probably unaware of this, but perhaps needs to lay down some rules for its employees to avoid future repetitions."
Ryanair doesn't seem to have much time for a social media policy. Photograph: Monika Szyma/Flickr/Some rights reserved
Web developer Jason Roe thought he'd discovered a flaw in Ryanair's website while booking a flight, and blogged about how it seemed that users could book a flight for a charge of '0.00'.
Later that afternoon, someone calling themselves 'Ryanair Staff' posted the following comment, which we've published in all its glory:
"jason! you're an idiot and a liar!! fact is!
"you've opened one session then another and requested a page meant for a different session, you are so stupid you dont even know how you did it! you dont get a free flight, there is no dynamic data to render which is prob why you got 0.00. what self respecting developer uses a crappy CMS such as word press anyway AND puts they're mobile ph number online, i suppose even a prank call is better than nothing on a lonely sat evening!!"
Roe replied:
"I have not lied, I found a bug in your site that allows a user to see a 0.00 price listed beside a flight. Yes, I have cleared a session, but you have not prevented session jumping! I hope to god a Ryanair management type reads this.
"Crappy CMS such as wordpress .. its a blog? I put my mobile phone number online as im a freelance developer. At least I provide a phone number on my website, no premium lines here."
And got this reply:
"Hehe - I found a bug that lets me show anything I want on your site.
"All I have to do is put something along the lines of javascript:void(document.write('hehe')) into the address bar, and I can do whatever I want with your site ( or indeed any other site ).
"I'm not sure what you think you've achieved here - that wouldn't have gotten you through to the back end. You wouldn't even have been able to enter passenger information.
"You must never have seen a decent exploit, if you think this is something worth bragging about. There is another exploit you could try - wait until we're running a promotion when we give away a million odd seats for free anyway."
That exchange speaks for itself.
Trade blog Travolution picked this up, and said they confirmed that the IP address of 'Ryanair Staff' could be traced back to Ryanair headquarters. Later, Ryanair's official comms team gave Travolution a statement, though I'm not sure which response is more constructive:
"Ryanair can confirm that a Ryanair staff member did engage in a blog discussion. It is Ryanair policy not to waste time and energy corresponding with idiot bloggers and Ryanair can confirm that it won't be happening again.
"Lunatic bloggers can have the blog sphere all to themselves as our people are far too busy driving down the cost of air travel."
Econsultancy has very kindly dished out some free online marketing advice to Ryanair, including improving its website design, providing a contact number and removing the annoying error messages that pop up should you, for example, enter 29 February - the tone of which is rather like the techie in The Office.
And more importantly, Ryanair should learn to take criticism more constructively, writes Graham Charlton.
"We've criticised a few websites on this blog, and most companies have taken criticism on the chin. For instance, Asda contacted me after we published this post criticising its website, to say they appreciated the comments and were working on improvements. Encyclopedia Britannica agreed to an interview after a critical article while Reevoo even added new functions to its mobile site on the back of comments on this blog," he wrote.
"More importantly, none has responded with the kind of attitude that Ryanair's staff did on Jason's blog, which has resulted in plenty of bad publicity for the airline across the blogosphere."
"Senior management was probably unaware of this, but perhaps needs to lay down some rules for its employees to avoid future repetitions."
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