UNAUTHORISED CREDIT CARD CHARGE from QANTAS!!!

[rsjsyd]

I have made two award bookings on 5th Oct and 6th Oct on Qantas' website.

12 OCT QF127 SYD->HKG
27 OCT QF130 PVG->SYD

By 7th Oct, I didn't receive any e-ticket from Qantas, thus I made a phone call to 131313, enquired about the tickets. On the phone I was told: The SYD/HKG ticket is ready, however, there was some problems on tax charges for the PVG/SYD sector, therefore the ticket for that sector wasn't issued yet, but nothing need to be worried, it will be fixed soon.

On 11th Oct, the day before I left Australia, I still haven't got the PVG/SYD ticket, so I made a phone call to 131313 in the morning. The operator checked my itinerary, then told me that Shanghai office could not issue my ticket because they don't have the credit card facility, so she will arrange the sydney office charge my credit card and E-mail me the ticket in the afternoon, otherwise I can collect my ticket at the airport ticket counter when I check in the SYD/HKG sector.

Later that day, I received the e-ticket from Qantas. Soon I found the problem, the tax charges displayed on the ticket was $117.81. However, when I made the booking, the tax was CNY348, which could be converted to A$57. I was overcharged by $70. I contacted Qantas immediately. Roxanne from Hobert office investigated the case and gave me this explain: Tax charges are different when ticket issued in different country. Shanghai office could not charge my credit card without my present. They Q-ed Qantas Aus head office regarding this matter, ask me pay the tax at the airport office on the departure day. However, this message didn't reach me before I made my contact to Qantas. Therefore the ticket was diverted to Sydney office. She contacted several department, then said she could not do anything for me. She could cancel my tax charges, however, the whole ticket would be cancelled at same time and the seat would be released. That means I could not fly back to Sydney on time.

Here are my points:
1. When I made the booking, Qantas website didn't display any warning or information regarding the difficulty of issueing that ticket. Instead, the website asked me input my credit card for tax charges. Once I inputed my credit card, it returned as a successful booking.

2. Qantas asked my credt card detail for CNY348 tax charges, I provided Qantas my credit card detials as Qantas' requirement, agreed the CNY348 tax charges. If Qantas could not charge it. That's Qantas' problem, not my fault.

3. Qantas never contacted me regarding the problem. Even when I made contact to Qantas, I was told there's a little problems with tax charges, but I don't need to worry anything, Qantas will fix it soon.

4. When Qantas has problem with credit card charges, Qantas neither offer me any options, nor inform me the tax difference. Qantas even didn't ask me if I wish the ticket to be issued in Sydney, but just told me the ticket would be issued in Sydney.

In conclusion, I authroised Qantas charge CNY348 to my credit card. However, Qantas charged A$117.81 to my credit card without asking my permission. And the $70 difference is due to Qantas' fault.

THIS IS AN UNAUTHORISED CREDIT CARD CHARGE!

131313 told me they couldn't do anything but provide me the contact details of the customer care department. I have wrote this complaint to Qantas via Email twice on 17th Oct and 21st Oct. Each time I got this automatic reply:



Until today, I haven't got any contact or reply from Qantas.

I want the refund of $70 from Qantas, as this is an unauthorised credit card charge!

Any comment or suggestion?

Thanks!



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Today is 23rd Nov. More than one month after I sent my complaint to Qantas Customer Care. I still have no answer from Qantas. Thus I made a phone call to 131313 again in the morning.

131313 transfered my call to the customer care department. It only took 20 seconds to locate my Email. The customer care said they got my email, they will call me back. I asked why no body contacted me regarding my complaint? The answer is: They were very busy!
It's unbelievable that the customer care department was too busy to reply a customer complaint!?

10 minutes later I got their phone call, said they can't refund any tax charges. All they can do is provide me a $100 Qantas voucher toward my next travel.

$70 cash ... $100 voucher with 12 month validity... I'm not happy with this answer, but NO OTHER CHOICES!

I'm very disappoint with Qantas' service.

At least you didn't wind up in Jail like me. See posting on Qantas Kiosk

 

[petcar]

They charged my card for 2 x $2500 tickets instead of 1. only ing

 

[Hudson]

Had you booked SYD HKG // PVG SYD then the taxes for the whole booking would have been quoted in aud. As you made 2 sep bookings then the second booking Ex PVG was quoted in CNY. You must have missed the text online when you were putting in your credit card on this booking that says

"Within 24 hours of completing this booking you must visit the Qantas office in either Beijing or Shanghai for credit card and signature verification, or if you are not in China you must call your local Qantas office as payment cannot be processed online."

Obviously you never called them to pay the tax so they have processed in AU for some reason???? perhaps that's because you are here in AU????

On calling the airline both options should then have been offered. Pay the higher amount, due to additional taxes that apply to the ticket ex AU and have ticketed immediately, or go to the Shanghai or Beijing office and pay the lesser amount of CNY348. Your pick.

Getting a $100 voucher when you didnt' even read the conditions of purchase is pretty good going don't you think??- you could say money for nothing! Don't tell them though that you didn't read the conditions properly otherwise they will probably want the money back!!!!

 

[sng1971]

Not sure if this will make you feel any better, but if they charged you $117, when it should've been $57, then you've only been diddled $60, not $70.

Still, a $100 voucher isn't too bad. And you'd get FF points on that extra 60 bucks!

 

[casp]

"Within 24 hours of completing this booking you must visit the Qantas office in either Beijing or Shanghai for credit card and signature verification, or if you are not in China you must call your local Qantas office as payment cannot be processed online."

Obviously you never called them to pay the tax so they have processed in AU for some reason???? perhaps that's because you are here in AU????

On calling the airline both options should then have been offered. Pay the higher amount, due to additional taxes that apply to the ticket ex AU and have ticketed immediately, or go to the Shanghai or Beijing office and pay the lesser amount of CNY348. Your pick.

Getting a $100 voucher when you didnt' even read the conditions of purchase is pretty good going don't you think??- you could say money for nothing! Don't tell them though that you didn't read the conditions properly otherwise they will probably want the money back!!!!

I was suprised after 2 years I still got reply on this topic. Thanks for everyone who paid attention on my post!
Hi Hudson, back to 2005, this condition wasn't showed on the website. There was not any kind of caution or warning by that time. This condition wasn't even there in 2006 when I made another redemtion ticket. But this time Qantas office in Beijing called my office in Sydney to let me know the tax problem. I think probably Qantas just posted this condition recently.

 

[Hudson]

What a pain! If you had booked the whole thing, ie Sydney to Hong Kong, then Shanhai to Sydney all in the one booking and obviously you were paying with an Aussie credit card then you wouldn't have had any probs.

 

[Brettmcg]

I booked an Award Flight recently using a Visa Debit Card. As soon as the booking had been processed my account was debited $525.00 in taxes and surcharges however, just yesterday the $525 reappeared as a credit! The booking hasn't been cancelled so I just hope against hope they have mistakenly refunded my dough

 

[serfty]

Perhaps you should have satred a new thread:

:evil: UNAUTHORISED CREDIT CARD REFUND from QANTAS!!!



If I were in your place I would keep a very close eye on your reservation, both on qantas.com and www.checkmytrip.com, keep a record of the ticket number(s), and
finally, not spend that $525.

 

[one9]

I booked an Award Flight recently using a Visa Debit Card. As soon as the booking had been processed my account was debited $525.00 in taxes and surcharges however, just yesterday the $525 reappeared as a credit! The booking hasn't been cancelled so I just hope against hope they have mistakenly refunded my dough

Don't get too excited.

Qantas sometimes do a pre-authorisation when you do the booking which places a hold on the funds. After about 5-7 days, if Qantas take no further action, the bank will cancel the pre-authorisation.

I think Qantas will then complete the pre-authorisation closer to your flight, which will result in the funds going again from your card.

There is a small chance it wont be charged again, but I doubt it.

 

[serfty]

Don't get too excited.

Qantas sometimes do a pre-authorisation when you do the booking which places a hold on the funds. After about 5-7 days, if Qantas take no further action, the bank will cancel the pre-authorisation. ...

That would be very strange way to do a pre-auth.

Normally, the nett (obvious) effect of a pre-auth is one's credit limit drops by the amount of the pre-auth - no transactions appear (online or paper). For my ANZ Visa pre-auths generally disappear after 3 working days (It used to be 10) and my available credit increases correspondingly.

Qantas ALWAYS do a pre-auth when I book online (I feel it's automatic). It's a bit weird with Qantas and my Qantas ANZ Visa as the actual CC debit does not happen until about 12 calendar days after the purchase, well after the pre-auth has cleared.

 

[one9]

That would be very strange way to do a pre-auth.

Normally, the nett (obvious) effect of a pre-auth is one's credit limit drops by the amount of the pre-auth - no transactions appear (online or paper). For my ANZ Visa pre-auths generally disappear after 3 working days (It used to be 10) and my available credit increases correspondingly.

Qantas ALWAYS do a pre-auth when I book online (I feel it's automatic). It's a bit weird with Qantas and my Qantas ANZ Visa as the actual CC debit does not happen until about 12 calendar days after the purchase, well after the pre-auth has cleared.

This is the way most banks do it (excluding NAB). They don't show pre-authorisations (except the fact that it reduces your available credit). However some institutions, especially pre-paid visa debit cards etc. show everything, including things like the pre-authorisation debit, the pre-authorisation credit, an attempt to charge your card with the wrong expiry date etc. As the descriptions may not be very long, it can make it confusing for cardholders to interpret.

 

[Brettmcg]

I keep checking my reservation obsessively. In fact, I even rang up early today to change seat allocations and no mention of a cancelled booking or non-paid taxes and surcharges was made.

 

[oz_mark]

This is the way most banks do it (excluding NAB). They don't show pre-authorisations (except the fact that it reduces your available credit). However some institutions, especially pre-paid visa debit cards etc. show everything, including things like the pre-authorisation debit, the pre-authorisation credit, an attempt to charge your card with the wrong expiry date etc. As the descriptions may not be very long, it can make it confusing for cardholders to interpret.

On a debit card, the pre-authorisation reduces the amount of funds available (rather than reduces the credit available), which is why they generally show everything.

I would expect that at some point the funds will be taken from the card again - from a processing point of view, it would be better if Qantas did this before the pre-auth expired.

 

[JohnK]

In fact, I even rang up early today to change seat allocations and no mention of a cancelled booking or non-paid taxes and surcharges was made.

From my last Oneworld RTW award the taxes and surcharges did not appear on my Amex credit card until 42 days after the booking was e-ticketed and confirmed.

From the 3 week stage I thought I had I got away with not paying the taxes and surcharges. Not to be though....

 

[Brettmcg]

From my last Oneworld RTW award the taxes and surcharges did not appear on my Amex credit card until 42 days after the booking was e-ticketed and confirmed.

Which is a pain in the backside, especially when using a Debit Card, as you have to keep it topped up at all times in case today/tomorrow/whenever is when they decide to finally deduct the amount!

 

[Dave Noble]

Which is a pain in the backside, especially when using a Debit Card, as you have to keep it topped up at all times in case today/tomorrow/whenever is when they decide to finally deduct the amount!

I find that using the debit card attached to me bank account is that it is not an issue. I keep track of what is owed.

When an authorisation is taken , it shows up on the internet banking site; sometimes ( especially with AA ) a pre-auth is taken and will expire after 10 days and sometimes the real payment is not taken in this time and can be days later

The only issue is should they take the funds later and there not be enough in the account to cover it .

Dave

 

[bambbbam2]

I find that using the debit card attached to me bank account is that it is not an issue. I keep track of what is owed.

I have an ANZ Visa Debit. I can use either savings (with a pin) or credit (signing) when buying something.

If I choose 'savings' button, it seems to show up quicker on my statement than if i press the 'credit' button..

 

[Dave Noble]

I have an ANZ Visa Debit. I can use either savings (with a pin) or credit (signing) when buying something.

If I choose 'savings' button, it seems to show up quicker on my statement than if i press the 'credit' button..

That is to be expected. When you use the savings option it is a direct activity to your bank account and should appear pretty much instantly; with the credit option , it goes through the normal Visa processing system

Dave