Qantas customer service woes, help please

[drcam]

About 7 weeks ago I called Qantas to (1) get my Flight credit refunded and I also cancelled a redemption booking online.

2 weeks later, my flight credit was not refunded and it remained on the system. My points from the redemption were not refunded even though I did get my taxes back. I called Qantas customer service, it took 1 hour of waiting. They said both would be actioned within 1 week. After 2 weeks there was no progress on either issue.

I called Qantas again 2 weeks ago and they apologised and confirmed that for some reason no action was taken. They again promised it would be fixed in 1 week. The following Monday, my flight credit was removed from the system and I got an e-mail saying it was now "used". However, as of today, there was no refund to my credit card.

Also, there was no recrediting of my QFF points. (About 89k in total after fees).

Please advise what should be the next step that I should take.

 

[NM]

Oh dear. What a sad and frustrating story. Unfortunately, one we have heard all too often.

The bad news is that there is no easy fix or a simple phone number or email address we can offer that will magically fix the issue.

The best advice I can offer is what you have already done. Its what we refer to as HUCA (Hang Up and Call Again). But of course each time you do this you waste lots of time waiting to get through to a person, and then they just make a promise they have no way to ensure will actually be forthcoming. And then you wait the week until the promise proves to be baseless and start again.

Short of commencing legal action, which comes with financial risk to you, there is not much more you can do, which really is a very sad state of affairs. If you insist that you wait on the phone while the QF call centre agent takes some action that will ensure you get your money/points back, they will likely just hang up on you (many, many reports of this happening, so its obviously a tactic they use and not a technology glitch) and you are back to HUCA.

Good luck, and please let us know the progress (or lack of).

 

[drcam]

After a finite number of attempts I plan to escalate the issue to the aviation consumer commission. Realistically if it is not resolved by Halloween.

 

[Dr Ralph]

Don't waste any further time on this, just lodge a complaint with fair trading.

Post automatically merged: Aug 22, 2023

After a finite number of attempts I plan to escalate the issue to the aviation consumer commission.

That would be a waste of time.

You might want to check who funds this body.

 

[Growing Older]

The Airline Customer Advocate is the body where you should lodge this complaint. Home

It is technically funded by the airlines and does not make a judgement, per se, like an Ombudsman would. However, this avenue will get your case in front of someone who is equipped to review it properly. Make sure that you have a case number for your complaint(s) with the airline and provide evidence of all correspondence with them during your submission to the ACA.

My gripe with Qantas was much less than yours and it took 6 months before I was driven to the ACA out of sheer frustration. That process then took all of 4 weeks to have the issue resolved and my QFF points refunded. My drama is here: Qantas cancels flight, refuses paid upgrade, refuses points refund

I would advise that you take screenshots of your ACA submission as you go, as they did not e-mail me any copies or acknowledge my submission, apart from providing me with a reference number once I had finished lodging the complaint with them. You can check the progress of your case on their website by using that reference number, so make sure that you note it down, if nothing else. Good luck!

 

[TraumaMonster]

Just adding my 2c to this, had a similar issue with a flight credit refund recently. Called multiple times to have it sorted, also got the your flight credit has been "used" earlier on.

Eventually was able to get transferred to someone who seemed to be in Australia and seemed to know what they were doing. Found out that the previous agents had entered incorrect refund details and those after didn't check the details either, just palmed it off as it'll take X amount of time, so the refund was just sitting in limbo.

Your issue might not be the same, but that was a couple of hours wasted over a few weeks for me, glad that headache is now over and the money is back in my account finally.

 

[Seat0B]

Qantas class action

Just saw this item on my news feed. Qantas hit with lawsuit for treating customers 'as providers of $1 billion in interest-free loans' Qantas hit with lawsuit for treating customers 'as providers of $1 billion in interest-free loans'

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

You might want to join this class action.

 

[sqrt()]

If the call center cannot resolve your issue, QF executive contacts are listed here: Qantas Airways Customer Service Contacts

 

[NM]

Just adding my 2c to this, had a similar issue with a flight credit refund recently. Called multiple times to have it sorted, also got the your flight credit has been "used" earlier on.

Eventually was able to get transferred to someone who seemed to be in Australia and seemed to know what they were doing. Found out that the previous agents had entered incorrect refund details and those after didn't check the details either, just palmed it off as it'll take X amount of time, so the refund was just sitting in limbo.

Your issue might not be the same, but that was a couple of hours wasted over a few weeks for me, glad that headache is now over and the money is back in my account finally.

In my mind, that is a completely unacceptable situation. If a company fails to complete processing a refund and the process has stalled or "gone into limbo", they should both morally and legally obliged to identify the failure to complete the refund and contact their customer to ensure the process is completed in a timely manner. Leaving it sitting in limbo without any follow-up is just wrong. It should not be up to the customer to continually call back, be giving incorrect information and still not receive the owed funds.

 

[drcam]

As of this morning, after three transfers and holds, eventually got through to a department where the lady actually spoke English as a first language, and FF points were refunded. Whoopee!

Was advised the credits were processed on August 10th and that it would take 1 week from today to receive on Amex credit card. I will wait for 1 week before calling Amex.

 

[AIRwin]

Qantas class action

Just saw this item on my news feed. Qantas hit with lawsuit for treating customers 'as providers of $1 billion in interest-free loans' Qantas hit with lawsuit for treating customers 'as providers of $1 billion in interest-free loans'

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

You might want to join this class action.

Isn't it on an opt out basis?

 

[tdimdad]

...the lady actually spoke English as a first language, and FF points were refunded. Whoopee!

Sorry to query but what's the correlation between the language and refund?

I mean, the QF call centre competency should never be related to the first language spoken. Admitted, the agents need to have enough skills in English (given we are servicing an company HQ'd in an English-majority country and most customers speak it more or less) but whatever action needs to happen should happen regardless of what languages the agent speaks (or doesn't). It's up the service provider to confirm each agent can perform adequately, both verbally and using their systems.

 

[N860CR]

Wouldn’t waste your time with the ACA. I lodged a complaint about a refund that was overdue from November 2021 (in about October 2022). Never got a confirmation, never heard a word. About 6 months later got a call from a Filipino call centre claiming to be Qantas Customer Care responding to my ACA complaint. Didn’t believe them at first… but details were right. Agreed to process the refund. Didn’t hear a word. Got an email months later saying it’s been processed. That was about 2 months ago. Nothing.

 

[TraumaMonster]

In my mind, that is a completely unacceptable situation. If a company fails to complete processing a refund and the process has stalled or "gone into limbo", they should both morally and legally obliged to identify the failure to complete the refund and contact their customer to ensure the process is completed in a timely manner. Leaving it sitting in limbo without any follow-up is just wrong. It should not be up to the customer to continually call back, be giving incorrect information and still not receive the owed funds.

Oh fully agree, they sent e-mails saying we need more details to process your refund, however calling would result in the spiel that the refunds had looked to be processed from their end and to ignore it as it might be an IT issue... hmm, not quite the case in the end. Would not recommend that again.

 

[Seat0B]

Isn't it on an opt out basis?

Yes its opt out - but at some point I think you have to register to get any compo that is achieved.