Qantas Call Centre Long Wait Times

My understanding (from unofficial sources) is that there is a pool of priority phone numbers that airport staff give to passengers which rotates every few weeks.

I will attempt to publish the currently active number(s) in this post:

1300 304 318
1300 659 161
1300 025 396
1300 659 116

1300 024 715
1300 025 390
1300 659 115
1300 659 134
1300 659 502

 

[DC3]

… and now after over $60 in call credits I have it sorted.

So, the e-ticket looks good?

 

[ozflier]

As noted on another thread, the QFF call back system has failed at least from 0920 this am- I just didn't think Qantas customer service could get worse!

 

[TheRealTMA]

OK so which one of you started the change.org petition?

Thanks for the heads up.

 

[ronlon]

A few hours ago as only two business class seats were available, I booked my 2 kids 13yo and 15yo Melbourne to Frankfurt in economy class. I then went to book my wife and I in business class for the same flights ( seats are there ) and after 3 attempts to finalise the booking I could not due to an error message. Been on hold for 3 hours now to resolve this.......Is this my punishment for trying to split the kids from mum and dad while we sip bloody mary's ?

 

[Scr77]

A few hours ago as only two business class seats were available, I booked my 2 kids 13yo and 15yo Melbourne to Frankfurt in economy class. I then went to book my wife and I in business class for the same flights ( seats are there ) and after 3 attempts to finalise the booking I could not due to an error message. Been on hold for 3 hours now to resolve this.......Is this my punishment for trying to split the kids from mum and dad while we sip bloody mary's ?

No, it’s your punishment for not booking the business class flights first!

 

[CMA222]

Sign the Petition

Demand better Customer Service response from Qantas.

www.change.org

 

[Danger]

Ben Fordham's morning program on 2GB in Sydney covered the debacle this morning: 'Pick up the bloody phone!': Qantas leaves customers on hold for several hours.

Importantly, he said he'd be in touch with Qantas to get someone on the show. This is an excellent opportunity for everyone to send in their experience. First, everyone who has a Twitter account should tweet to Ben (as a caller did at the above link that got his attention) with a link to their post here on AFF. Second, if you're up and about at 6am when Ben's show starts, call in, phone or email. Third, I think this is an excellent opportunity for AFF to get its name out there. @Admin, @Mattg, an email to the program with excerpts from this thread and offering to be interviewed would go a long way, I reckon. You could include this Australian Aviation article from two years ago. If I can assist in putting something together, let me know.

 

[sqrt()]

Day of week	Tuesday
Time of call	5:38pm AEDT
Number used	1300 659 116
Status	Bronze
Hold time	Less than one minute
Call Centre (if known)	FJ possibly
Matter resolved	Yes
Details	When I called previously I was told they couldn't calculate the value of my flight credit from a partially flown booking (made through Amex with $450 Qantas Ultimate credit). This time, the agent put me on hold for ~8 minutes, came back and promptly told me the credit value (which included the Amex credit!) Pretty happy with the result, though no luck changing it to an online credit.

 

[kpc]

https://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-advice/flights/qantas-slammed-for-bloated-call-centre-wait-times/news-story/72afbc01c929c943d9e26931f9492f21

 

[Captain Halliday]

Day of week	Tuesday
Time of call	1946AEST
Number used	13 12 11
Status	Platinum
Hold time	Quoted 30-60 mins. Call answered at 1hr 51min and immediately dropped out.
Call Centre (if known)	NA
Matter resolved	No. I'm now up to five matters that need to be resolved FWIW
Details	NA

 

[OATEK]

Call by daughter last night in the UK

Day of week	Monday
Time of call	20:25BST
Number used	0800 964 432 (within UK)
Status	Bronze
Hold time	30-40 mins. Call answered, and took 10 minutes to complete.
Call Centre (if known)	Not known
Matter resolved	Yes, refund of flight cancelled by QF in 2021.
Details	Asked why requesting refund, said that to rebook will cost over $1500 more than competitors (booked with QR instead). Told will get a full refund - in about 2 months.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

https://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-advice/flights/qantas-slammed-for-bloated-call-centre-wait-times/news-story/72afbc01c929c943d9e26931f9492f21

Qf can’t help itself… they can’t even make an apology without a ‘but’.

They’re blaming it now on borders opening and restrictions being lifted! Not a single mention about them cancelling services because of ‘subdued demand’.

As for saying their customers are ‘understanding’ of the long call hold times? Was that a poll of the mythical customer feedback group that supported ‘simpler and fairer’, cafe breakfasts, and cutting chauffeur cars?

 

[Mattg]

Qf can’t help itself… they can’t even make an apology without a ‘but’.

They’re blaming it now on borders opening and restrictions being lifted! Not a single mention about them cancelling services because of ‘subdued demand’.

As for saying their customers are ‘understanding’ of the long call hold times? Was that a poll of the mythical customer feedback group that supported ‘simpler and fairer’, cafe breakfasts, and cutting chauffeur cars?

Far out.

Qantas cannot keep blaming COVID for what was a problem already before the pandemic and continues to be a problem of their own making. This excuse is past its use-by-date.

Two specific comments about the response from Qantas:

“Because Covid has significantly changed our network and that of our partner airlines, many customer queries are far more complex than they were pre-pandemic and are on average taking 50 per cent longer to resolve when chatting to one of our agents.

No, calls are taking 50% longer on average because the staff at the outsourced call centres haven't been trained properly and take forever to process simple requests. The calls would be even longer, on average, if so many weren't being disconnected!

“We’ve already added hundreds of staff to our call centres, and each month we are recruiting and training more people."

I haven't seen much evidence of this "training".

 

[ozflier]

I agree - I spoke with an agent from AKL a week or so ago - he insisted that Air France was a full member of OW and could be used as part of a oneworld award itinerary.
By the time it got to ticketing , she may have finally realised that she was wrong so I just said I'd think about it and get back to QFF. I tried again ( only 60 minutes wait) and got Hobart and it was fixed .

 

[Guvner]

The elephant in the room is the extremely buggy website/app. I'd be guessing of course, but I'd estimate 30%-40% of the calls could be eliminated if the online offering did what it was supposed to do.

"“We’ve already added hundreds of staff to our call centres, and each month we are recruiting and training more people."

That's because it is a comparatively cheap, readily available, and easily expendable source of labor
Maybe add some competency to your IT development and testing teams.? i.e. spend dollars at the source of the issues. Just an idea.

There's an old saying in IT development. Cheap, Fast, Good: Pick two.

 

[NSun]

Day of week	Wednesday
Time of call	7:45am AEDT
Number used	13 12 11
Status	Platinum
Hold time	None at the start because I was offered a callback although it took ~1 hour for a call back and then waited 15 minutes while my issue was resolved
Call Centre (if known)	Hobart
Matter resolved	Yes
Details	Booked a flight to the US last night to visit an expat mate for Thanksgiving and wanted to change one of my intra-US flights. As I used a flight credit, I could only book a simple return flight (SYD-ORD) but booked via LAX on the way back and wanted to switch ORD-LAX back a day so I could spend 24 hours in LA - I had a long enough layover as it was even for LAX (4 hours) but was hoping to potentially see a Rams game in LA. Was put on hold for 15 minutes and the issue was resolved. I also asked why I hadn't received a confirmation despite having done the Advance Passenger Information and they told me they needed further details, got those and then was told I would get my email confirmation later this afternoon. I would note as a WP - and one who only ever calls at 7.30am-8am in hope of getting Auckland or Hobart - this is the first time I ever had to wait over 10 minutes to speak to someone. But at least I was offered a callback and got the Hobart call centre. If WP is the difference between being offered callback and having to wait on hold, I would say it is the difference would be worth it.

 

[Peasant]

I would note as a WP - and one who only ever calls at 7.30am-8am in hope of getting Auckland or Hobart - this is the first time I ever had to wait over 10 minutes to speak to someone. But at least I was offered a callback and got the Hobart call centre. If WP is the difference between being offered callback and having to wait on hold, I would say it is the difference would be worth it.

My experience last weekend suggests this isn't consistently applied. On Saturday afternoon I wasn't offered a call back and spent more than four hours on hold before giving up. Trying again on Sunday morning just after 9am, I was offered one and received the callback just over an hour later. My guess is there's some kind of cap that is applied after which the callback waiting list is full.

Regardless, it's diabolical for Platinums at the moment so I really do feel for anyone who has no status and it's bad enough that people should refrain from booking with QF until it's resolved.

 

[Peasant]

I'd also like to know what the deal is with the rampant call disconnections that are happening in the offshore centres. Is it poor call quality? Or is it operators simply hanging up because requests are too difficult or it makes their call stats look better?

 

[Guvner]

Definitely the latter.

 

[aikman]

Definitely the latter.

Shouldn't management do something to stop this?