Credit card surcharge refunds for Mac users

[chrisjrn]

Just went to book a flight on Virgin, and selected the "POLi Internet banking" option on my Mac. This screen appeared:


Call centre said that they're happy to refund anything bookings back to October 26th.

Enjoy your refunds

 

[straitman]

Just went to book a flight on Virgin, and selected the "POLi Internet banking" option on my Mac. This screen appeared:
View attachment 5174

Call centre said that they're happy to refund anything bookings back to October 26th.

Enjoy your refunds

Hi chrisjrn,

Welcome to AFF.

An interesting discovery :!:

 

[LiamR]

If I'm correct these can be backdated to October 26th?

I'll take it as a late christmas present from VA.

 

[Princess Fiona]

what if I always wanted to pay by CC?

 

[chrisjrn]

what if I always wanted to pay by CC?

Then you would still be able to lie to the call centre operators, but you would live in shame for the rest of your life, unable to repent for your stealing of a tiny amount of money from an airline that you were most certainly not entitled to?

Or something like that?

 

[simongr]

Can we update the thread title to be Refunds for OSX/LINUS/UNIX users - it reads at the moment that that OSX users have a unique problem that requires a solution.

 

[chrisjrn]

Just called up VA, the refund process is pretty simple. Just a matter of having all of your relevant reservation numbers handy - they'll process as many bookings as you like, provided they were placed after October 26.

 

[GladstoneTim]

I have avoided paying by POLI in the past because it seemed so convoluted. Thought I would take the plunge tonight, using my IPad and discovered the credit card fee refund option. I thought it was jolly decent of VA. The only thing better would have been for the Blues to win tonight!

 

[jingles]

I have avoided paying by POLI in the past because it seemed so convoluted. Thought I would take the plunge tonight, using my IPad and discovered the credit card fee refund option. I thought it was jolly decent of VA. The only thing better would have been for the Blues to win tonight!

I know this is a little old however wanted to add in my 2 cents.

I can not see the point of POLI.
POLI charges the merchant for you paying with bank transfer which is a free service, when you could simply make the transfer like you normally would from your bank account.

I know there is no direct charge for using POLI but you are going to be paying for it in the ticket price.

 

[The Rok]

If everybody were to do direct transfers to Virgin's bank account they would have to employ 50 people just to reconcile the bank statement every day!

Not worth the hassle for them!

 

[adamonline]

The point of POLI is that the merchant has some guarantee that the payment has been initiated with the correct payment reference number. That way they can offer POLI as a payment option right up to last online ticket sales of a flight.

Direct transfers is an option with Jetstar for flights booked 7 days in advance. I would imagine that there is a level of automation backed up with staff trying to reconcile payments made with incorrect reference numbers. I have no insight in to how time consuming that would be but you might argue that it would be more expensive for the merchant than credit card fees.

 

[bigbadbyrnes]

Am I to understand that this loophole for getting the $9 rip off refunded still works?

 

[Fruitcake]

Am I to understand that this loophole for getting the $9 rip off refunded still works?

If you have to lie to do it, it's not a loophole - it's fraud. And if you are a Mac user, then it's not a loophole.

That's not to say I agree with the surcharge or think that DJ's costs for processing a transaction are anywhere near $9. But I do disagree with knowingly claiming the refund when not entitled to it.

(Note bigbadbyrnes that this is general commentary - not personal accusation! I have no idea whether you use a mac or not or whether you claimed the refund.)

 

[drewbles]

If you have to lie to do it, it's not a loophole - it's fraud. And if you are a Mac user, then it's not a loophole.

That's not to say I agree with the surcharge or think that DJ's costs for processing a transaction are anywhere near $9. But I do disagree with knowingly claiming the refund when not entitled to it.

(Note bigbadbyrnes that this is general commentary - not personal accusation! I have no idea whether you use a mac or not or whether you claimed the refund.)

I did mention in another thread that DJ can actually see if you attempted to pay using Poli with a Mac. I know someone that's a regular Mac user who booked a flight on their Windows work machine and then rang to get the CC refund and was caught out with "but you used windows". They are clearly tracking the browser agent ID but of course that's pretty easy to bypass.

I don't agree either with working the system. It's just convenient that I use a Mac (Safari in particular) and prefer to use methods of payments that don't involve surcharges. A quick call to the Plat desk and I was refunded without issue as well.

 

[Fruitcake]

I did mention in another thread that DJ can actually see if you attempted to pay using Poli with a Mac. I know someone that's a regular Mac user who booked a flight on their Windows work machine and then rang to get the CC refund and was caught out with "but you used windows". They are clearly tracking the browser agent ID but of course that's pretty easy to bypass.

I don't agree either with working the system. It's just convenient that I use a Mac (Safari in particular) and prefer to use methods of payments that don't involve surcharges. A quick call to the Plat desk and I was refunded without issue as well.

I was sure I could recall old posts on AFF by someone saying they had called up and successfully achieved a refund when not using a Mac. I thought your post about the browser agent being logged might be something new they were doing to stop this. Hence when bigbadbyrnes asked if the "loophole" was still available, I assumed he was asking if one could still get away with telling fibs.

However, I can't find those original posts. Either my search kung-fu is weak, or they never existed. Assuming the latter is true then it's still not a loophole - but deliberately changing your browser user agent probably is!

 

[Deewhy]

I've used apple products to book some flights and each time they go away and check whether you have used one. So you'll get caught out if you try without actually using one.

 

[djchuckles]

I sent about 12 booking refs through by email and they went through and refunded 7, said 3 were on windows and 2 through an agent.