Qantas Account: Notice of suspension

[flighthacks]

Just received an email from Qantas:

We have identified that in the last six months you have made a number of purchases via the Qantas Online Mall and a significant number of these purchases have either:

• Used a store Gift Card for part or all of the purchase;
• Been refunded in part or in full after Qantas Points were credited to your account;
• Been for products or product categories which are not eligible to earn points

In accordance with the Terms and Conditions contained on the individual retailer pages of the Qantas Online Mall, these purchases were not eligible to earn Qantas Points.



Therefore, under clause 8.1 of the Qantas Frequent Flyer Terms and Conditions, we have suspended your account for 21 days.

Has anyone else received a similar email?

 

[cmon0005]

Never received this and hopefully never will.

Obvious question though, did you do any of the things in the list to warrant suspension?

 

[mannej]

The OP is quite vague, do you have any further information you'd like to disclose?

 

[BAM1748]

Scam maybe, why would your account be suspended when all that should happen is you don't get points on things you're not entitled or the points are reversed if you have a refund on an item.

I think a bit more detail from the OP please.

 

[flighthacks]

I use the QF mall a lot for purchases, like a lot of shoppers i return items on occasion. Or do partial refund eg. buy 2 pairs of shoes, keep the right size and send back the other.

Sometimes Qantas does credit the points for these purchases even though technically they shouldn't. However, I don't see why a technical glitch in their system should result in a suspension?

 

[Pushka]

It sounds strange. If you click reply (on a phone) what is the email address shown? If a purchase doesn’t warrant points and they’ve awarded them anyway then not your problem. And part 2 seems a strange comment as that’s what you’d expect to happen on return.

How many transactions are we referring to?

 

[opusman]

IANAL, but the Frequent Flyer T&C do not mention the Qantas Mall at all. It's hard to see how they could take action under those T&C for something you may have done that's not covered in any way by those T&C.

 

[Ansett]

Sounds strange sure its not a scam???

 

[muppet]

I use the QF mall a lot for purchases, like a lot of shoppers i return items on occasion. Or do partial refund eg. buy 2 pairs of shoes, keep the right size and send back the other.

Sometimes Qantas does credit the points for these purchases even though technically they shouldn't. However, I don't see why a technical glitch in their system should result in a suspension?

Agreed.

This is appearing more and more with loyalty program. They have poor systems and in situations where the customer benefits from these failures while using the program in the manner intended, it is interpreted as fraud by the customer rather than incompetence of the loyalty program.

 

[Hvr]

IANAL, but the Frequent Flyer T&C do not mention the Qantas Mall at all.

Do the Qantas Mall T&Cs mention what actions they can take if they suspect fraud may have occurred? I have no doubt that there are ways that both parties, Qantas FF and Qantas Mall, can retrieve points if they're not 100% satisfied that everything is legitimate.

My previous comments in no way reflect or form an opinion on why the OP's transactions may or may not be reviewed by Qantas FF.

 

[flighthacks]

Sounds strange sure its not a scam???

Yeah not a scam because I'm unable to login and get a message telling me to contact the QF team...

I tried to reply to the email but got a stock standard response from their customer service team. In total i think there are 3-4 transactions for which i either got a partial refund or cancelled the order due to better price found elsewhere.

The whole email seems very much "stock" hence I'm wondering if there are other people out there...

 

[flighthacks]

Do the Qantas Mall T&Cs mention what actions they can take if they suspect fraud may have occurred? I have no doubt that there are ways that both parties, Qantas FF and Qantas Mall, can retrieve points if they're not 100% satisfied that everything is legitimate.

My previous comments in no way reflect or form an opinion on why the OP's transactions may or may not be reviewed by Qantas FF.

I emailed back to them stating that of course I understand they will take back any points for which I wasn't eligible but I also questioned why they needed to suspend my account for that? At the end of the day they should have their system working correctly to points don't get credited when a refund or partial refund occurs...

I imagine there are a lot of people in Aus. who have returned goods at one stage in their online shopping career

 

[Pushka]

But how is it fraud simply by returning a product? You understood you’d forfeit those points so why do you take the blame if Qantas can’t provision their website properly.

 

[flighthacks]

But how is it fraud simply by returning a product? You understood you’d forfeit those points so why do you take the blame if Qantas can’t provision their website properly.

I guess they are not saying it's fraud but I feel like I'm getting treated that way

 

[Hvr]

I understand they will take back any points for which I wasn't eligible but I also questioned why they needed to suspend my account for that?

Well, hypothetically if you used all of the points in your account and they determined that you owed them points, they wouldn't have anything to take from your account.

A suspension is temporary and can be ceased at anytime once all transactions have been audited and reconciled.

 

[opusman]

Do the Qantas Mall T&Cs mention what actions they can take if they suspect fraud may have occurred? I have no doubt that there are ways that both parties, Qantas FF and Qantas Mall, can retrieve points if they're not 100% satisfied that everything is legitimate.

I don't see how it's relevant. The suspension is "under clause 8.1 of the Qantas Frequent Flyer Terms and Conditions". Those T&C's make no reference to the Qantas Mall. I can't even find any T&Cs for the Mall which prohibit the things the OP is said to have done.

To me it sounds like QF are making it up as they go along.

 

[Jack_OC]

I don't see how it's relevant. The suspension is "under clause 8.1 of the Qantas Frequent Flyer Terms and Conditions". Those T&C's make no reference to the Qantas Mall. I can't even find any T&Cs for the Mall which prohibit the things the OP is said to have done.

To me it sounds like QF are making it up as they go along.

The email doesn't say that Clause 8.1 has anything to do with the Qantas Mall. It just says the suspension has been put in place under Clause 8.1, which makes sense, as Clause 8.1 outlines their right to suspend accounts under certain circumstances.

On a more general note, I agree it's up to QFF to ensure that points are credited or not according to the applicable rules. Having said that, the wording of the email implies they suspect some kind of systematic rorting ("a significant number of these purchases ...."). I'm not accusing the OP of anything, but hypothetically speaking, if someone identifies a glitch, and then deliberately exploits that glitch to harvest a large number of points that they were not entitled to, I think a suspension might be justified while QFF investigate.

 

[mannej]

On a more general note, I agree it's up to QFF to ensure that points are credited or not according to the applicable rules. Having said that, the wording of the email implies they suspect some kind of systematic rorting ("a significant number of these purchases ...."). I'm not accusing the OP of anything, but hypothetically speaking, if someone identifies a glitch, and then deliberately exploits that glitch to harvest a large number of points that they were not entitled to, I think a suspension might be justified while QFF investigate.

In my mind the temporary suspension is no different to Velocity in how they dealt with those who "rorted" family pooling.

Allows time to investigate without swinging the axe straight away.

 

[Pushka]

So we get back to the question - how many refunds were done.

 

[basso]

What happens after 21 days?