Qantas rage - meager 10k 'goodwill' points for my troubles

[aleaf]

Looking for some advice about 'goodwill' points credited after a Qantas battle. This is the result of a year long adventure in trying to secure a refund.

Long story short - I booked several flights using points, had to cancel, got points back but was still due the taxes I paid. Took a full year, innumerable hours on a dozen plus calls/emails, and a whole lot of frustration but now have written confirmation refund is coming (6-8wks). Qantas credited me goodwill 10k points for my inconvenience.

Should I take my measly 10k goodwill points and be thankful this misadventure is finally over. Or is there any way to escalate and push for more 'goodwill'.

Genuinely not trying to be opportunistic over this (belied by my question I suppose) but I RAGE at the whole experience. Goodwill points or not, I'm astonished at how shoddy Qantas customer care was and would like to outline the experience to them. Not sure what purpose that would serve but it was such a trainwreck with no one particular person doing a bad job - just a process guaranteed to fail the customer.

Advice?

 

[RooFlyer]

Genuinely not trying to be opportunistic over this (belied by my question I suppose) but I RAGE at the whole experience. Goodwill points or not, I'm astonished at how shoddy Qantas customer care was and would like to outline the experience to them. Not sure what purpose that would serve but it was such a trainwreck with no one particular person doing a bad job - just a process guaranteed to fail the customer.

Advice?

Your experience unfortunately is not unique - by a long shot.

Whether or not you push for more compensation for the drawn out process and frustration depends on how much more drawn out frustration you want to undergo.

As a last gasp, maybe write an e-mail to the Chief Customer Office Catriona Larritt (e-mail format can be deduced from a browse of the internet), concisely and unemotionally recounting your experience and stating what compensation you would like. I'd ask for 30K points.

https://www.qantas.com/au/en/qantas-group/about-us/our-leadership.html#:~:text=Catriona%20Larritt&text=As%20Group%20Chief%20Customer%20and,as%20brand%2C%20marketing%20and%20technology

 

[burmans]

What’s your time worth? For me the hassle for a likely poor return and constant disappointment just isn’t worth it. Learning when to just move on and accept what you probably can’t change is probably one of the best skills in life to acquire (not easy I know but truly worth it).

 

[aikman]

Wish I got 10k goodwill points for all the times that Qantas have screwed me over.

 

[renatts]

I'd recommend doing as RooFlyer has said. A concise email to the CCO which outlines your unacceptable experience. You may get a reply, you may not. Send one email and expect that to be it.

I had a similar problem in 2022. Cancelled an award ticket to re-book a different itinerary, did this via phone to get the points immediately refunded.
The operator refunded my points, but unbeknownst to me put the taxes into a credit instead of refunding them.

I was assured for months that the refund was coming. No-one would even look into it until 8 weeks had passed. One day I pushed and started mentioning legal action, the operator dug a little deeper and found the refund was stored in a credit. He then told me I was ineligible for a refund now because credits are non-refundable.
This took another two months to get sorted. After constant promises of escalation I finally received a call from Hobart. The refund was ready to be issued, did I have an account I would like that deposited into?

I didn't get anything but a sincere apology from the Hobart staff, she was horrified at what the outsourced centres had done/told me. I may or may not have her extension saved in my phone for any future issues, not that I imagine it would work anymore.

I regret not sending an email to QF Management, but I guess I didn't think they would care - they have set this up to happen. They use poorly trained outsourced staff to cut costs, this kind of thing was guaranteed to happen and they did it anyway.

 

[Daver6]

This should also be a lesson to everyone. Pay with a credit card if possible. Means when you get the run around from QF, you simply initiate a charge back and are done with it.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Wish I got 10k goodwill points for all the times that Qantas have screwed me over.

Yes! Or if I even got *anything* from VA for my troubles. I asked for 2000 points compensation from VA after 6/8 flights in a row has no IFE or wifi … just ‘nothing’. The response was that they were sorry they didn’t meet *my* expectations, however IFE isn’t guaranteed!

10k from QF is roughly half a one way J class award MEL-SYD. So I value that at around $250 given the current J class pricing.

 

[mviy]

Years ago I got a small serve of points without asking for it when I had a 14 hr flight where the entertainment system was down for the entire plane. The flight was significantly delayed to try to fix it, but in the end we went anyway with it still broken.

 

[Ade]

I'd be siding with those that have said "is it worth your time". Lately, I have been dealing with a variety of issues with a variety of companies & people. End of the day, it doesn't help getting worried (apologies, if this is a poor choice of word in this instance) over something that had happened.

IME, customer service, customer support seem to be lost these days regardless of the industry. As someone who casuals as a customer support personnel, I'm sometimes stunned when I come across how certain things were handled. I can find at least 5 different positive ways on how a certain case could have been handled, but as they says not all customer service agents are created equal. Ces't la vie!

My recommendation is to move on as long as the issue is resolved & reasonable compensation has been provided (ACK that reasonable is vague and undefined in this instance). In some cases, I don't even care about the compensation as long as the issue is resolved. With the training & general mood of those working in customer service roles these days, it is an achievement to get a resolution, let alone compensation.

Even if the issue is escalated to upper management (which, in this case, I think @aleaf should do as @RooFlyer suggested) - chances are you might not hear back. Especially with QF, if someone offers a *compliment*, there is an immediate & personalized response thanking you for your good & nice words. But if someone submits a *complaint*, there is no response, just the template response "someone will get back to you blahblah". For instance, last week I submitted a compliment to a CC agent from NAN and got a personalized reply within 3 hours. Same week, I lodged a complaint and have not heard since.

In defense of those working in customer service roles - I ACK that the work we do is governed & guided by SOPs and other work instructions that is used for training and everyday use, but kindly note that it is OK to deviate from the script and apply some common-sense (apologies for the strong word here) when handling customers.

 

[DrGear]

Hell, I'm battling with them right now for messing up my rewards flight booking 2 weeks out from flying and I've had to constantly keep calling and emailing to try and get a resolution but still haven't gotten anything. Maybe I should ask for some form of gratuity points given they're currently holding over 300K of my points and I've got no flights for my fiance that were booked.

 

[Ade]

I'd ask for 30K points.

@aleaf - 30k points sound reasonable in your case. So ask for this when you email upper management. All they can say (if you get a reply that is) accept or offer something lower.

 

[Dr Ralph]

I think 10,000 is generous and reasonably unique. I've had to involve various consumer bodies previously and wait 6 months or more to get my refunds and got 0 points compensation.

 

[Gold Member]

After such a shoddy experience on this “trainwreck”, are you incentivised to remain loyal to Qantas or look elsewhere?

We’re lucky to have so many alternative Frequent Flyer Programs that offer a much better experience.

 

[tdimdad]

My recommendation is to move on as long as the issue is resolved & reasonable compensation has been provided (ACK that reasonable is vague and undefined in this instance). In some cases, I don't even care about the compensation as long as the issue is resolved. With the training & general mood of those working in customer service roles these days, it is an achievement to get a resolution, let alone compensation.

All that Ade says makes heaps sense in this context. But I'm left wondering would the needle start to move upwards if there was a constant barrage of clear and detailed messages to senior management about the abysmal failures of standard / routine service when it seems to be a pattern? E.g. all of us QF customers at AFF used the magic 8 week cutoff and sent off a message to the CCO when things have drawn out and become unreasonable for the customer. Over time, the same kinds of encounters told by a multitude of different customers should start to ring bells.

Or am I just too hopeful?

 

[Ade]

All that Ade says makes heaps sense in this context. But I'm left wondering would the needle start to move upwards if there was a constant barrage of clear and detailed messages to senior management about the abysmal failures of standard / routine service when it seems to be a pattern? E.g. all of us QF customers at AFF used the magic 8 week cutoff and sent off a message to the CCO when things have drawn out and become unreasonable for the customer. Over time, the same kinds of encounters told by a multitude of different customers should start to ring bells.

Or am I just too hopeful?

We can certainly try doing that to get more attention from senior management. This would also mean that everyone that contacts has had the same/similar issue to report.

Also, not quite sure how to put this - but essentially for a big company like QF (in this instance), a handful customers complaining might not be a big thing. If anything, I'd say big companies expect a certain % of their customers to have issues and/or lodge a complaint or be dissatisfied with their service offering.

We know (because of our participation in forums like AFF) of the issues that happen, but has everyone one of us had the similarly reportable/big enough issue? I'd think no (happy to be corrected). I also take into account that many will be time poor to invest the time required to take up the issues with a big company.

What might make a difference is if when the complaints are made (emails sent to upper management), the upper management is able to (time-wise, skill-wise) identify/recognize the underlying issue that is causing such complaints to soar. From what I have seen so far, I'm not sure if a big company would take notice. Providing a solution to a problem/service gap/failure may not fix the problem, unless someone is able to investigate and find the underlying root cause.

QF has done some changes - I have been experiencing/noticing an increase in the knowledge or communication ability of offshore CC staff. As we all know QF had a lot of bad press over the past few months and is working to repair those issues. Will this repairing activity be enough to close some of the rudimentary service issues? Something to wait and watch. For complex issues, I'd give QF the benefit that only a few agents per CC may be able to assist or handle, which is fine. But the rudimentary once, such as the issue OP had must have been closed off without any issues.

ACK that the OPs issues have been a while ago (1 year or so from the OPs post). Chances are if such an issue were to reoccur QF might have put some measures in place to fix it quickly? One can hope ...

sidebar - slightly OT - Talking to a few business owners that I know, they often say "We have trained all our staff to do the right thing, but sometimes there might be lapses/human error". Even I, as a small business owner, train my staff (personally, we are not a big company) and when I look at the way they handle some customer requests, I'm doubtful if they even understood what I trained them on. My mind goes "were you even listening when I showed you how it is done?" This is by no means supporting when someone does not do the right thing, but just a point of experience that when there is human-in-the-loop mistakes happen. Even the best trained might slip sometimes. And this is why we have a layer of damage control, where (in the example of my company) I take over the discussion and clarify before handing it back to my staff to proceed.

 

[aleaf]

Wow, thanks for all the responses. I had not expected so many or such thoughtful replies.

I'll send an email to the CCO outlining my experience. Then I'm done. Don't care if I get more points or even a response. I'm letting it go. I just feel the need to outline (concisely and dispassionately) the situation to someone in management.

I hate that the customer service teams take the heat for a situation in which they - and I - are set up to fail.

• No ability to resolve something a bit more complex like my situation (rejected refund to a closed credit card)
• Once that was apparent - this part kills me - no way for either of us to escalate to anyone who knew any better.
• Inability of agents to review any of the history of preceding interactions meaning I had to start each conversation from scratch. What f*ckery is this? Groundhogs Day?
• Comparison - had to call AA a few times before a recent flight. Experience with AA's outsourced team night and day. Thru to a live person, questions answered, call concluded w/in 4 mins each time. A trained team with autonomy.

@goldmember asked if I were incentivized to remain loyal to Qantas. Truth be told, if there were any other game in town, I'd be done with Qantas. It's only due to lack of competition that such a mickey mouse organization maintains the market share they have.

Again, thanks so much for all the responses. They've really helped me clarify what I want to do, why I want to do it, how to frame it and then to let it go. Cheers.

 

[Gold Member]

@goldmember asked if I were incentivized to remain loyal to Qantas. Truth be told, if there were any other game in town, I'd be done with Qantas. It's only due to lack of competition that such a mickey mouse organizations maintains the market share they have.

If you’re not already familiar, I recommend you read some AFF and Pointhacks articles about non-Australian FFPs and how to best use them. Many non-Australian FFPs can be used on Qantas domestic and International. In most cases, much better earn, burn, carrier charges, customer service and overall experience.

 

[Guvner]

I'd wait for the refund to appear in my account before I did anything.
Writing/emailing complaints is just more noise in the process.
Once the funds are in your possession go for it. Provide them with a factual summary of your experience and what you expect to receive.
Until you get the funds, it hasn't ended.
You'll probably have tempered your rage by then as well!

 

[bussyboy]

SQ offered me 7500 KrisFlyer points a couple of weeks back as "goodwill" for an issue in 2022.

Though I realise now this hasn't been received :|