Experience with Qantas FF shop

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scottmac99

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Nov 2, 2006
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I thought you might be interested in my experience to date with ordering from the new Qantas online FF shop.

Essentially, I have given up on being able to use my points for actually flying somewhere, and instead ordered a nice new plasma TV from Qantas to clean out my points balance. On the face of it, this is an ideal solution for me.

At the time of writing, just over two weeks (12 working days, nearly 3 weeks) after submitting the order, nothing has yet happened, but if I am to believe the info on the website, I should have had delivery by last Friday (ie. 10 working days after placing the order).

I note, however, that the detailed terms and conditions in essence state that Qantas doesn’t promise to do anything at all in relation to goods ordered via points redemptions (which may be perfectly OK from a legal standpoint, but to me seems to border on fraud). That is, they can elect to not supply the goods at all; supply a subsistute of their choice; supply something else altogether; take until Xmas, if they wish, to supply anything, etc etc. And once something has been supplied, there is a hardly-generous grace period of only 5 days to return anything that was faulty on delivery, and presumably this will have to be to somewhere in Sydney (I live in Melbourne). In other words, responsibility for the warrantee remains with the manufacturer and not Qantas nor its agent Carlson Marketing.

So I am waiting with baited breath to see what happens. I did speak to a FF rep last Friday, who said he would "follow up" the status of my order, but that it would take "2 or 3 days" before he had an answer. [I know what my clients would say if I gave them that kind of response to a query for lack of meeting an order.]

I could have gone down to JB myself and purchased this TV two weeks ago, so I can't see why Qantas/Carlson are having such trouble in supplying it via points redemption. In fact, there's an idea, why not just send me a voucher for the amount involved, and I can source it myself, plus have the added value of a real store to return it to if it breaks ?

[I've generally given up on Qantas, which I am loathe to do because I am one of their long-suffering shareholders. In fact, I am traveling to Canada in September, and have chosen to fly Air NZ, partly because they have Prem Econ, and Qantas doesn't start its Prem Econ service to Nth America until Dec and partly because my last few trips on Qantas internationally have been pretty average. I should finish on a positive note, however - went to Vietnam with Jetstar last year and to my surprise the experience was actually good.]
 
jeepers.

What also sh!ts me is the archaic members annual fee. Airlines like Etihad, Emirates, Singapore are all free and their programs are just better, both from a seat perspective and a merchandise perspective.

Interestingly, the article in saturday's SMH stated that as less flights will be available due to less planes and generally increased demand...the old flight redemption may well be a thing of the past for qantas unless you are willing to forgo 1m points for a national flight.

Their ff membership base and currency value will also soon be a thing of the past in my opinion.
 
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There used to be a $25 annual fee; this was canned at least 5 years ago.

ISTR, it was introduced with the 2001 changes but lasted only 18 month or so. It may not have been payable by QP/SG/WP and perhaps PS.
 
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Australian and New Zealand residents need to pay a once only joining fee of:
Australian residents - A$82.50*
New Zealand residents - NZ$50
 
I should add that I did look at using my Virgin points for the same thing, ie. a nice big TV, but the model I looked at in the Velocity shop was a 3 year old Sony that even Sony Australia no longer list as being available.

How cheapa*rse is that?
 
Really? I don't remember such a fee !

Was definitely there for a short time (though I recall it as being $20).

PS. As serfty states, maybe certain levels did not get charged it (and I thought it was a year or two earlier than 2001...but could easily be wrong on that).
 
I have found the Frequent Flyer shop to be of great value. I redeemed my points for a washing machine and it arrived within 7 working days. Also used my points to numerous Myer vouchers.

Very impressed. :p And there is no annual fee.

The FF store makes Virgins store laughable...
 
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Well, I've sent an extended version of my post to Paul Sheehan, at Fairfax, given his diatribe against Qantas this morning. Won't achieve anything by it, but at least it's off my chest. :)
 
Yeah, I am sure he will appreciate your story. I don't think he has ever written a positive article about Qantas Frequent Flyer.

He must of missed out on getting award seats once and is still having trouble coming to terms with it...
 
They've stopped ignoring me. I doubt it was the email I sent to Carlson (which simply resulted in an automated response telling me that 'someone' from QFF would get back to me within 2 days). It may have been the feedback I sent into Qantas directly, simply asking for someone/anyone to let me know what was happening to my order.

Anyway, a nice lady phoned to say one of my items had been dispatched last week. I queried this because the shop site still said the order was in progress, but not dispatched. She said it takes a while to be updated (understatement of the year, that one, since it is now 5 days since she said this item had been dispatched). The other item (TV) she said was 'estimated' to be delivered next Thurs (ie. 3 weeks after ordering). when I asked could she be certain of that, because I would have to take the day off work to stay at home to receive it, she said she couldn't be certain, and whilst they don't normally do this, someone could phone me to confirm when it was actually going to turn up. And no, she had no idea of why things had taken so long.

She did give me an Oz Post tracking number for the smaller item, but when I keyed this in the Oz Post website, it denied any knowledge of the consignment. So I'll wait and see if either of these items actually turns up.

Yes, I'm ranting about something that's not really that important, after all noone has died. But to me this whole experience is just symptomatic of what Q has been doing for some time now - cutting costs wherever possible without considering what it's doing to their brand and reputation. The poor b*ggers at the store are probably overworked to blazes, and then on top of that they have to deal with grumpy people like me.

Thanks for listening.
 
Well, the TV has arrived, 3 weeks wait ... The TNT guy at the depot in Laverton was really helpful, took pains to let me know when (ie. what time) it would be likely to be delivered so someone could be at home, and was also concerned that it didn't receive too much handling/jostling in the truck. I have nothing but praise for TNT.

The other item, which I was assured by Qantas had been dispatched "last week" ie. two weeks ago now, still hasn't shown. This one was via Oz Post.

So still not 100% happy, Jan.
 
I have found the Frequent Flyer shop to be of great value. I redeemed my points for a washing machine and it arrived within 7 working days. Also used my points to numerous Myer vouchers.

Very impressed. :p And there is no annual fee.

The FF store makes Virgins store laughable...


I ordered luggage 58 days ago and still no sign of it. I sent them an email 14 days ago asking where it was and still no reply. That's beyond laughable in my books.

I should have read this thread first. 2 months to get a new suitcase would have been pretty ordinary in 1850 if it was coming from London by sailing ship. Now it is just pathetic.
 
I ordered luggage 58 days ago and still no sign of it. I sent them an email 14 days ago asking where it was and still no reply. That's beyond laughable in my books.

I should have read this thread first. 2 months to get a new suitcase would have been pretty ordinary in 1850 if it was coming from London by sailing ship. Now it is just pathetic.
aussieguy,

Welcome to AFF.

I haven't really looked at the shop but wonder if they have a phone contact :?:

There are of course some good stories but from what I've seen the bad seem to be disproportionately large.
 
A positive story for a change...

I purchased a carryon set for Mrs Mzy from the QFF site and it arrived within three days. Me thinks I am one of the lucky ones?

good luck...mzy
 
I ordered luggage on 22 June. I finally got them on the phone on 20 August and they had no idea where it was so I cancelled the order. Now I'm still chasing the refund. Absolutely pathetic. Order from them at your own risk.
 
Isn't it funny what a quick Google returns when you hop online in frustration to see if others have similar bad experiences with something? I'm sure one day my brain will twig to get online before lifting a finger to do ANYTHING and possibly avoid (or at least be forewarned of) shabby service and mega-frustration.

I'd all but dumped Q a couple of years ago in favour of V for domestic travel for a whole bunch of reasons (not petty ones...all to do with a better flying experience). Consequently I got a letter stating points will be expiring, so decided to cash them in on Myer vouchers and a hand beater (just to chew up every last one I could). The beater arrived within a week or so - FANTASTIC news for the local white elephant stall - but the vouchers ordered Sep 5th are still missing in action (10 wks ago). This is despite coming to the realisation that they hadn't arrived after week 7, chasing up FF, being told the fastest way to resolve it is complete a stat dec and send it back so they could re-issue immediately. I turned that around same day (Oct 24th), just over 3 wks ago.

Now I'm the first to admit that I personally run out bills as absolutely long as I can to have the use of the money, but this is beating even my best record!!!!!

I too wish I'd done my 'qantas carlson' google months ago. Then, having read this thread, I'd just have sat back and waited 'til Feb next year for their arrival.
 
Consequently I got a letter stating points will be expiring, so decided to cash them in on Myer vouchers... but the vouchers ordered Sep 5th are still missing in action (10 wks ago).
I ordered some Myer vouchers last weekend... It says 10 working days so I would expect them by next Friday... Will wait and see how it goes???
 
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