Hi there,
If anyone can suggest whether I should accept a simple apology from Qantas for this.....or be seeking compensation, please share your thoughts;
1) I recently purchased a flight on Qantas for my sister, and in return she gave me a $200 Qantas voucher in her name she did not want
2) The Qantas Terms for such vouchers allow name transfer (i.e name in which voucher was registered, can be changed for new passenger name)
3) I tried to book a flight to book return flights for two people from Brisbane to Newcastle using the 'normal' Qantas web page, but unfortunately they do not allow a voucher to be redeemed at this point (FIRST FAIL: Poor customer experience. As a customer, I want to pay for my entire travel partly using a voucher, and partly using another method)
4) I then go to the specific voucher redemption page. I notice that my sister's details are recorded on the database (as they should be) along with the contact details of her friend who bought the voucher for her. I try (again) to book return flights for two people from Brisbane to Newcastle, only to find that the website only allows the voucher to be redeemed for a single person! (SECOND FAIL: Poor customer experience. As a customer, I want to book both myself and my companion on the one flight at the one time....too bad if we want to do seat booking at once at this time, or worse - the other seat sells out!)
(At this juncture I already have to laugh about major organisations like Qantas who present at major seminars touting their 'Voice of the Customer' approach, or in understanding 'Critical to Quality' factors, or that they now have a CXO (Customer Experience Officer). Well.....which idiot thought out the use cases (business processes) for booking tickets using a voucher? Sack them...and save the wasted CAPEX.
5) I then go into the booking in order to see how one manages seat allocation from a voucher booking...to find that the ticket has been issued in the name of my sister, not my partner!!!! (I can assure you that I updated all necessary fields, including passenger and contact details). (THIRD FAIL: IT systems design and testing has failed to notice that the original voucher recipient's details persist in the booking details, even when the User Interface is trying to pass new details into the database. I'm not an expert in database management systems, but clearly changing customer details (voucher recipient to passenger) fails to update the database!)
By the way - my sister lives 2000 klms away - the notion of flying from Brisbane to Newcastle on that date held little appeal.....
OK - so now I get to 'contact Qantas and go through the painful process of explaining BOTH their poor IT design and their defective technical (systems) function, and asking them to resolve their own errors, so that I am not out of pocket.
a) Call 131313 and leave number as I am told to wait for 90 minutes. I leave my call back number (actually, my partner did this)
b) In the interim, I speak with a fellow by the name David, who promises to chase up and resolve the situation for me. An hour or so later, David calls back, and tells me that reservations have everything sorted, and he will transfer me through immediately. Only problem is.....there was no resolution.....and he just cold transfers me into a general queue...where I wait for 45 minutes.....
c) In the interim, I get that call back from Qantas (the 90 minute wait one), and start explaining the situation, only for the girl on the phone to say 'oh, we can resolve that'......and then hang up on me! No call back either.....this was a deliberate, malicious attempt to simply absolve herself (and thereby Qantas) of any need to act.
d) Eventually, the cold transfer (line 2 - lol) is answered, by a woman in the Brisbane office. By now, 3 hours after trying to book, I am exasperated. Which is why I sought her contact details. Perhaps misunderstanding procedures on working with difficult (exasperated) customers, Ellen suggested that I not be so sarcastic and unfriendly. To which I explained that sarcasm was neither a breach of the Telecommunications Act, nor part of Qantas policy for terminating a call (a guess...but a reasonable one). So she would have to endure my frustration. She eventually tells me she needs to call my sister and get her permission to change the ticket details. Concerned, I then said 'wait, you do not even have my contact details' - to which she said 'Yes, your number is 0447 xx_'...etc. I advised her that this was not my contact number, but possibly the number originally recorded in the database for the $200 voucher (i.e my sisters friend), further substantiating my point that Qantas systems are failing to process updates
....long and short of this is;
After 3 hours, as the unwitting victim of 2 instances of poor system design and 1 of defective systems function (3 of poor customer experience), then being made to wait, hung up, and generally given a very lax attitude to resolving my concerns - I am pretty irate.
Do you think that merely updating the booking details is sufficient apology for the failures to design, function and customer service, as well as the fact that I am helping to identify and address their own issues?
Cheers,
Foibles
If anyone can suggest whether I should accept a simple apology from Qantas for this.....or be seeking compensation, please share your thoughts;
1) I recently purchased a flight on Qantas for my sister, and in return she gave me a $200 Qantas voucher in her name she did not want
2) The Qantas Terms for such vouchers allow name transfer (i.e name in which voucher was registered, can be changed for new passenger name)
3) I tried to book a flight to book return flights for two people from Brisbane to Newcastle using the 'normal' Qantas web page, but unfortunately they do not allow a voucher to be redeemed at this point (FIRST FAIL: Poor customer experience. As a customer, I want to pay for my entire travel partly using a voucher, and partly using another method)
4) I then go to the specific voucher redemption page. I notice that my sister's details are recorded on the database (as they should be) along with the contact details of her friend who bought the voucher for her. I try (again) to book return flights for two people from Brisbane to Newcastle, only to find that the website only allows the voucher to be redeemed for a single person! (SECOND FAIL: Poor customer experience. As a customer, I want to book both myself and my companion on the one flight at the one time....too bad if we want to do seat booking at once at this time, or worse - the other seat sells out!)
(At this juncture I already have to laugh about major organisations like Qantas who present at major seminars touting their 'Voice of the Customer' approach, or in understanding 'Critical to Quality' factors, or that they now have a CXO (Customer Experience Officer). Well.....which idiot thought out the use cases (business processes) for booking tickets using a voucher? Sack them...and save the wasted CAPEX.
5) I then go into the booking in order to see how one manages seat allocation from a voucher booking...to find that the ticket has been issued in the name of my sister, not my partner!!!! (I can assure you that I updated all necessary fields, including passenger and contact details). (THIRD FAIL: IT systems design and testing has failed to notice that the original voucher recipient's details persist in the booking details, even when the User Interface is trying to pass new details into the database. I'm not an expert in database management systems, but clearly changing customer details (voucher recipient to passenger) fails to update the database!)
By the way - my sister lives 2000 klms away - the notion of flying from Brisbane to Newcastle on that date held little appeal.....
OK - so now I get to 'contact Qantas and go through the painful process of explaining BOTH their poor IT design and their defective technical (systems) function, and asking them to resolve their own errors, so that I am not out of pocket.
a) Call 131313 and leave number as I am told to wait for 90 minutes. I leave my call back number (actually, my partner did this)
b) In the interim, I speak with a fellow by the name David, who promises to chase up and resolve the situation for me. An hour or so later, David calls back, and tells me that reservations have everything sorted, and he will transfer me through immediately. Only problem is.....there was no resolution.....and he just cold transfers me into a general queue...where I wait for 45 minutes.....
c) In the interim, I get that call back from Qantas (the 90 minute wait one), and start explaining the situation, only for the girl on the phone to say 'oh, we can resolve that'......and then hang up on me! No call back either.....this was a deliberate, malicious attempt to simply absolve herself (and thereby Qantas) of any need to act.
d) Eventually, the cold transfer (line 2 - lol) is answered, by a woman in the Brisbane office. By now, 3 hours after trying to book, I am exasperated. Which is why I sought her contact details. Perhaps misunderstanding procedures on working with difficult (exasperated) customers, Ellen suggested that I not be so sarcastic and unfriendly. To which I explained that sarcasm was neither a breach of the Telecommunications Act, nor part of Qantas policy for terminating a call (a guess...but a reasonable one). So she would have to endure my frustration. She eventually tells me she needs to call my sister and get her permission to change the ticket details. Concerned, I then said 'wait, you do not even have my contact details' - to which she said 'Yes, your number is 0447 xx_'...etc. I advised her that this was not my contact number, but possibly the number originally recorded in the database for the $200 voucher (i.e my sisters friend), further substantiating my point that Qantas systems are failing to process updates
....long and short of this is;
After 3 hours, as the unwitting victim of 2 instances of poor system design and 1 of defective systems function (3 of poor customer experience), then being made to wait, hung up, and generally given a very lax attitude to resolving my concerns - I am pretty irate.
Do you think that merely updating the booking details is sufficient apology for the failures to design, function and customer service, as well as the fact that I am helping to identify and address their own issues?
Cheers,
Foibles
