Unbelievably disgraceful service

[Lazyload]

Hi guys, I know you won't believe this, so I post a screenshot. I've hung off the phone for over 3 hours in the " Your call is very important to us" queue to talk to QF. All I want to do is make an international booking for 2 and spend about $10K.Why the phone call and not internet booking? Because for the last 2 years I've been trying to get a credit from QF for cancelling a flight due covid and I need to talk to them. They've got my money already! Maybe I've answered my own question. I know you guys fly at the pointy end, but don't forget that your job is paid for by the minions that sit behind you. If this is the best that QF can do to attract business, then ... I don't know what to add. What do you think?
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/780x438/screen_shot_2022_02_26_at_8_21_53_pm_11c6744304549e59ff4b295 deb78af0e8f86c5b5.png

[finestkind]

Not surprised. Years ago after many calls and ineffective responses rang and asked to speak to ther Customer Manager. Was informed the manager does not speak to customers.

[gordonfvckingramsay]

The house leaks from the roof

[Capt Fathom]

I know you guys fly at the pointy end, but don't forget that your job is paid for by the minions that sit behind you.

So what exactly can the the guys (and girls) at the pointy end do to help you exactly, besides getting you safety to your destination.

Your beef is with reservations?

[tail wheel]

It is a "fashionable commercial, cost effective trend" in Australia. Telstra, Optus and many other large organisations are no better. I prefer to pay a little more and deal with an Australian company providing Australian based service centers.

[43Inches]

So what exactly can the the guys (and girls) at the pointy end do to help you exactly, besides getting you safety to your destination.

Your beef is with reservations?

Put in a 'suggestion' or 'report' that you have witnessed significant customer dissatisfaction, they are your bread and butter. Piss off the customer enough, you lose their business, you sustain losses, you lose your job. Pilots are pretty much the representatives of an airline, why do you think the cheesy smiling faces of crew with the pilots up front. If you think you are just there to fly the planes and play no part in customer service then you are sabotaging your own livelihood.

[Lazyload]

Don’t mean to imply any fault of aircrew. No offence intended. But (a bit like the Boeing thread) the reputation of an airline with an excellent technical operation can be destroyed by bean counters who minimise every other aspect of customer service.

[Bull at a Gate]

Did you ever get through Lazyload? If so, how long did it eventually take? Our local ABC radio station asked for people to call in with stories of waiting in a phone queue. I think the winner was 13 hours (Qantas of course).

[tail wheel]

You must have a good battery in your mobile phone. After three hours both my phone battery and my patience would be exhausted!! :mad:

[Australopithecus]

Put in a 'suggestion' or 'report' that you have witnessed significant customer dissatisfaction, they are your bread and butter. Piss off the customer enough, you lose their business, you sustain losses, you lose your job. Pilots are pretty much the representatives of an airline, why do you think the cheesy smiling faces of crew with the pilots up front. If you think you are just there to fly the planes and play no part in customer service then you are sabotaging your own livelihood.

What makes you think that QF listens to pilot input? Or pays any attention at all to crew reports? The only customer service we can effectively do is one planeload at a time, or sometimes on an individual basis. We certainly cannot offset a corporate culture of indifference to our customers.

[ScepticalOptomist]

Put in a 'suggestion' or 'report' that you have witnessed significant customer dissatisfaction, they are your bread and butter. Piss off the customer enough, you lose their business, you sustain losses, you lose your job. Pilots are pretty much the representatives of an airline, why do you think the cheesy smiling faces of crew with the pilots up front. If you think you are just there to fly the planes and play no part in customer service then you are sabotaging your own livelihood.

I think you may be confused as to what exactly we can do. Our “reports” for this type of complaint would be ignored at best.

You would have more luck reaching out directly via Twitter or Facebook.

[Lazyload]

You must have a good battery in your mobile phone. After three hours both my phone battery and my patience would be exhausted!! :mad:
Yes. iPhone. And just left it on speaker while having dinner etc. Had to endure 3 hours of stupid music and repeated messages saying abuse to staff won’t be tolerated. And therein lies the root cause of the problem, a repeatable pattern, and the bean counter solution. Rather than improving response they shift blame to the customer and imply that it’s our fault. And no, never got thru. 3 hours is enough.

[swh]

I guarantee you if you put this onto the Facebook and/or Twitter feeds this would be resolved in 10 minutes. Passengers don’t read pprune, they don’t care what is posted on here. Post it on social medial and presto it’s fixed.

[Chris2303]

Hi guys, I know you won't believe this, so I post a screenshot. I've hung off the phone for over 3 hours in the " Your call is very important to us" queue to talk to QF. All I want to do is make an international booking for 2 and spend about $10K.Why the phone call and not internet booking? Because for the last 2 years I've been trying to get a credit from QF for cancelling a flight due covid and I need to talk to them. They've got my money already! Maybe I've answered my own question. I know you guys fly at the pointy end, but don't forget that your job is paid for by the minions that sit behind you. If this is the best that QF can do to attract business, then ... I don't know what to add. What do you think?
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/780x438/screen_shot_2022_02_26_at_8_21_53_pm_11c6744304549e59ff4b295 deb78af0e8f86c5b5.png

Nothing has changed in the last four years since I left then.

Back then, and this is night shift, we'd regularly walk in to the call centre to see wait times of 4-5 hours

[Lazyload]

And just to risk a bit of thread drift, mobile phone battery drain goes up when transmitting ie talking. Being on hold for 3 hours is actually pretty low consumption. In the old days (not now) having a mobile call of 3 hours would have cost more than the flight.

[megan]

Had to endure 3 hours of stupid music and repeated messages saying abuse to staff won’t be toleratedWonder why the staff get abuse? :p The company could always introduce a call back system, works well with a South African company I deal with if the waiting time is excessive, but that would cost QF money, stop the abuse though. Gave up on Telstra and their unintelligible/incompetent Indian and Phillipine call centres.

[Max Tow]

" All I want to do is make an international booking for 2 and spend about $10K.Why the phone call and not internet booking? Because for the last 2 years I've been trying to get a credit from QF for cancelling a flight due covid and I need to talk to them. They've got my money already!"

A cynic might suggest that a lot of airlines around the world have deliberately made it as difficult as possible to refund or use credits owed for covid cancellations in order to protect their cash flows. Requiring customers to call unanswered phone numbers only adds to this cynicism as it is presumably an easy IT fix to allow these to be used online by the customer. BA for example has gone even further in paralysing its call centres by actually turning off previous online refund capabilities. Perhaps there's a hope that you will give up altogether and they can pocket the cash (and putting expiry dates on the credits would IMHO be just that in these circumstances).

By the way, I have found American Airlines a joy to deal with by comparison.

[regional_flyer]

The company could always introduce a call back system

The crazy thing is, QF actually does do call backs, or at least did last year when I had to call them a few times. But the feature only seems to work if you call them as soon as the call centre opens in the morning. Wait until later in the day and you're SOL and stuck in an hours-long queue.

[Chris2303]

The crazy thing is, QF actually does do call backs, or at least did last year when I had to call them a few times. But the feature only seems to work if you call them as soon as the call centre opens in the morning. Wait until later in the day and you're SOL and stuck in an hours-long queue.

QF calls are "handled" 24 hours a day.

They contract to CPT and MNL

[tossbag]

During covid, you know, that period of time that means nothing now that the world is on fire, I had to cancel several flights with Virgin. The refund goes into what's called Travelbank. I'm still using the balance of it and it's EASY. Simple and honest. It lets you book the fare first, so it doesn't know you are paying via Travelbank and artificially jack the price up. Had to call them once, baggage was involved, answered within 5 minutes, nearly fell off the chair.

[ChrisVJ]

Returning from S Africa in November we spent literally days on the phone trying to call airlines. AF were worst, followed by Westjet which is sad because they try so hard when you eventually do get hold of them (after 8 hours!) Lufthansa were best, about half an hour but couldn't help anyway and they do have the very, very worst seats on their latest planes in our opinion.

[bolthead]

Telstra are advertising big at the moment about bringing their call centres back home. Imagine how much that would have cost, closing them down and bringing them back a few years later. No doubt two lots of management bonuses.

[tdracer]

Back in the early days of the pandemic (I'm thinking it was April 2020), I had to call Delta to change a reservation since taking a trip as a tourist would have been a waste of time asnearly everything was closed (I couldn't change it on-line because of the discount code I'd used). Of course, since nearly everyone was cancelling/changing their flights at that time the wait times were crazy long. Since the Delta system is 24/7, I waited until close to midnight Pacific time to call (3am in Georgia) - got through in less than 30 minutes.
A few months later when I had to call back and change my change (since Covid was still going strong six months after the "two weeks to bend the curve" Delta had instituted an automatic call-back system which worked quite nicely.

[nivsy]

I guarantee you if you put this onto the Facebook and/or Twitter feeds this would be resolved in 10 minutes. Passengers don’t read pprune, they don’t care what is posted on here. Post it on social medial and presto it’s fixed.
I'm still waiting for a Twitter response after one week....😒🤔

[The Golden Rivet]

Can you go to the airport service desk and organise it directly there?

[blubak]

I guarantee you if you put this onto the Facebook and/or Twitter feeds this would be resolved in 10 minutes. Passengers don’t read pprune, they don’t care what is posted on here. Post it on social medial and presto it’s fixed.
You will most likely get a response along the theme of how this is a very isolated case & they are very confident the wait time is usually very minimal.
They will also tell you they have 1 of the best customer service records according to their own research,blah blah blah!

[nivsy]

Can you go to the airport service desk and organise it directly there?
I had often wondered that? Not tried it myself.

[SRFred]

Telstra are advertising big at the moment about bringing their call centres back home. Imagine how much that would have cost, closing them down and bringing them back a few years later. No doubt two lots of management bonuses.
Surely you mean closing the overseas call centres and not replacing them at all.

One thing covid and WFH has demonstrated is that 75% of public servants could be got rid of with no loss of service.

[Over]

Crap airline for pax service, always has been, probably always will be.

[CafeClub]

If they don't value your business, why waste another minute? Book on another carrier, and write off the 'covid credit' as a loss, and don't give 'em any more of your money, ever.

[gordonfvckingramsay]

Can you go to the airport service desk and organise it directly there?

Wouldn’t the parking cost you more than the credit is worth?

[Derfred]

Hi guys, I know you won't believe this, so I post a screenshot. I've hung off the phone for over 3 hours in the " Your call is very important to us" queue to talk to QF. All I want to do is make an international booking for 2 and spend about $10K.Why the phone call and not internet booking? Because for the last 2 years I've been trying to get a credit from QF for cancelling a flight due covid and I need to talk to them. They've got my money already! Maybe I've answered my own question. I know you guys fly at the pointy end, but don't forget that your job is paid for by the minions that sit behind you. If this is the best that QF can do to attract business, then ... I don't know what to add. What do you think?
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/780x438/screen_shot_2022_02_26_at_8_21_53_pm_11c6744304549e59ff4b295 deb78af0e8f86c5b5.png

For what it’s worth, I think I can speak for the majority of the pilots, cabin crew, and other front line QF employees, that what you experienced as a customer (I prefer the term “passenger”), is disgraceful, and it embarrasses us as front line employees. We do our best to offer a good service, and when we are undermined by our cost-cutting management in this way it tends to lead us to despair.

It was already heading that way pre-pandemic. Stand-downs and associated staff reductions, outsourcing, and just staff choosing not to come back to work (found a better job) have made it much worse. In fact, the only segment of Qantas that appears to have survived the pandemic unscathed is the executive-level management.

Now, I understand that it is bloody hard to run a large business through a pandemic with high fixed costs and virtually zero cash flow for 2+ years with a constantly changing outlook for the future. That Qantas has managed to continue with solvency is actually a feat, and maybe executive management deserve their credit (credit, yes, multi-million dollar pay, no). But it has come with a cost - particularly a huge loss of good employees - will Qantas ever be the same airline again?

[nivsy]

Surely you mean closing the overseas call centres and not replacing them at all.

One thing covid and WFH has demonstrated is that 75% of public servants could be got rid of with no loss of service.
Does it? Care to elaborate with specific examples?

[Chris2303]

Can you go to the airport service desk and organise it directly there?

Didn't QF close the airport service desks?

Very few of them could do what the OP wanted anyway, that was our job in reservations

[morno]

I don’t understand why you don’t just go onto your frequent flyer portal, go to “Bookings”, click on your credit and then redeem it. :rolleyes:

[Sector3]

Try this priority phone number

1300 024 715

[vancouv]

Telstra are advertising big at the moment about bringing their call centres back home. Imagine how much that would have cost, closing them down and bringing them back a few years later. No doubt two lots of management bonuses.
I suspect a big bonus for the brilliant idea of moving them abroad and then a big bonus for the brilliant idea of moving them back.

[RodH]

FWIW I have been in contact with VA to change my bookings and waited for no more than 1 minute. Very quick indeed.
These waiting times with QF are pathetic. Thank goodness I'm flying VA.

[SHVC]

QF more pax more calls longer wait. VA less pax less calls less wait.

[tossbag]

QF more pax more calls longer wait. VA less pax less calls less wait.

Yeah/Nah. Don't think that's the reason.

[runway16]

The flight was held up due weather.
I wanted a snack. I tried THREE times to flag down the cabin skirt. She looked straight ahead and ignored me.
I got her attention when I tapped her on the arm.
The coffee came in two minutes. The microwaved pie and sausage roll took all of twenty minutes. Just in time to shovel it down and then prep for the landing.
J* you can do better - I hope !

[unobtanium]

The flight was held up due weather.
I wanted a snack. I tried THREE times to flag down the cabin skirt. She looked straight ahead and ignored me.
I got her attention when I tapped her on the arm.
The coffee came in two minutes. The microwaved pie and sausage roll took all of twenty minutes. Just in time to shovel it down and then prep for the landing.
J* you can do better - I hope !

There are no microwave's in jetstar aircraft's

[RodH]

SHVC
I don't think your analogy is very valid!
A more correct statement would read :
QF more pax , more calls , long wait - " MORE STAFF NEEDED "
VA less pax " ,less calls , less wait- sufficient staff to answer quickly.
Seems like VA have got the staff to call ration needs correct.
Time for QF to lift their game.

[Uplinker]

.........the cabin skirt.

Lovely attitude, they are just there to look pretty and serve you coffee, right? :ugh:

Can the OP get to the Head office and demand a refund and cause a scene? Or do you have any television "watch dog" type of programs where they investigate bad service and bad companies, which might possibly embarrass the company into giving you your refund as a 'gesture of goodwill' ?

Piss-poor treatment of the customer, but sadly nobody will listen to the pilots. I was physically assaulted by a baggage handler once, after I remonstrated with him because he was throwing the customer's suitcases out of the hold and missing the conveyor belt, so the cases were all dropping 8 feet onto the concrete. My management could hardly have cared less about me.

Aviation seems to have gone past the point where airlines care about anything other than profit.

[Foxxster]

I guarantee you if you put this onto the Facebook and/or Twitter feeds this would be resolved in 10 minutes. Passengers don’t read pprune, they don’t care what is posted on here. Post it on social medial and presto it’s fixed.


i doubt that .. plenty more similar cases there already. Unfortunately I can’t post urls to give a direct link but simply open Facebook and search for Qantas. Go to their homepage and scroll down. I have only scrolled down a few pages and already three similar cases.

[Chris2303]

Social media is not going to persuade Alan to spend more money on call centre staffing

[lucille]

Not sure why the culture at the Qantas group is so toxic to it’s paying passengers. But it is. I cannot remember many journeys where I did not have a disagreeable experience in the time between checking in and collecting my bag off the carousel.

By way of comparison, I cannot remember ANY journeys where I had a disagreeable experience travelling on SQ and EK.

QF has been my airline of last resort. I am aware that there are many worse than QF, mostly all third world LCCs which I flatly refuse to travel with.

Qantas management need to ask themselves why their staff are unable to conceal the joy they feel in treating paying passengers with such contempt. FWIW, I speak as a J traveller.

Could it be the heavily unionised workforce? Does anyone ever get fired for bad attitude? I feel that all check in staff and cabin crew are CFMEU thugs-in-training.

[Potatos_69]

It's definitely not the fact that the workforce is unionised...

Probably the fact lately that most of their crews have been screwed sideways by management has morale low with the roll on effect of lowered service standards.

I have flown Qantas a few times and have never had a bad customer service experience from them, even at the tail end of long haul flights where everyone is ready to finish up.

Perhaps you should look at your attitude and just see if it is being mirrored back at you...

[tossbag]

The microwaved pie and sausage roll took all of twenty minutes.

You'd actually eat that ****? You mustn't value your medical.

I doubt even Warnie would eat that garbage.

[Bull at a Gate]

You got a pie AND a sausage roll!

Has Jetstar introduced a first class cabin?