Problem with on-line booking, but nice solution

[RooFlyer]

QR have a nice discount offer on at the moment - about 10% off, for another day and a bit.

I happen to be in the market for some QR flights, so I jumped online, but when I got to the payment page, my anti-virus software blocked the payment page as 'possible data mining'. I couldn't find any way to un-block or white-list it, so I called QR on the phone to book manually if they could also offer the discount.

Got their Indian call centre (shudder), and they said they could take payment per my on-line booking (as far as it went) if I put a 'dummy' 'hold' on the reservation, so it would crystallise a PNR that they could deal with. I did that, a bit confused, but she said straight away that she could see 3 reservations in fact, corresponding to my 3 attempts to book as far as the payment page. She cancelled two and with a bit of back-and-forth we got to her about to take payment BUT she then says that because she is the 'Australian' contact centre, but the flight starts in Singapore, and is priced in Singapore dollars, there wold be abut A$400 extra in charges!!!

Before I could get too indignant, she suggested I call the Singapore contact centre number and the extra charges wouldn't be put on. Hmmm ... while I was mulling that over, she further suggested that she, in fact could take the call to the 'Singapore' number and she could process the payment without me having to 'start again'. Deal.

I got onto Skype and called the number, but it rejected it, both on Skype phone and on laptop. . I thought I was stuffed.

Then, a few minutes having elapsed, got an incoming call from an Indian number. What are the odds?

Sure enough, it was the Indian contact centre lady . She had sent me an e-mail with the Amadeus details of my booking so far (including my Qantas FF number) for me to check.

Having checked it, I was able to give her the cc details for payment, of the correct S$ amount, and she took my seat requests and then instantly sent me the e-ticket.

So, sometimes there are good 'uns in Indian call centres! I'll try to give feedback praising the lady.

 

[opusman]

If your AV doesn't have the ability to whitelist a page you need to find a better AV.

 

[RooFlyer]

Yeah, possibly .. its Kaspersky. But its also possible I didn't look hard enough.

 

[Pushka]

Yeah, possibly .. its Kaspersky. But its also possible I didn't look hard enough.

I think Windows 10 has an inbuilt virus protection that if kept updated is significantly better than any add on providers.

What an excellent outcome though!

 

[KarenD]

WOW very helpful and inventive for an offshore call centre. Well done to her!

Was the lady on the phone really quiet and hard to hear? I want to call QR again but it was so hard to hear the last two times that I called, so I am hesitant to call again.

If she wasn't quiet, do you remember what time of day you called? Maybe I need to change to a different time of day to get a different call centre lol.

 

[RooFlyer]

If she wasn't quiet, do you remember what time of day you called? Maybe I need to change to a different time of day to get a different call centre lol.

It was between 6 and 6:25 pm Eastern time. Her name was 'Kingel' and she was in Ahmedabad. Try asking for her.

I eventually got to send some positive feedback - but the QR web site makes it difficult!