Voyages
Member
- Joined
- Apr 5, 2009
- Posts
- 420
Though admittedly I have never flown JQ domestically, I’ve undertaken a few 3K flights between HKG and SIN, and SIN and SGN, which were satisfactory. I’ve currently got a *class booking with JQ and another Y booking with BL.
I’ve never been a Jet* basher. My recent experience in dealing with JQ staff has left a lot to be desired. One word: “inconsistent”, or two words: “service failure”, or three words: “frustrating at best”. Ok that’s a total of 6 words. This is not to bash Jet*, but to vent a bit of steam from this unfortunate situation, and share a little pain.
The situation
On Sunday 20th March, I planned to make an ASA booking for a KUL-SIN flight. Of course the QF site directed me to the JQ site. At the payment page, I entered the wrong expiry date of my credit card. Wouldn’t you normally expect an error message? Yes I sure did, and even better (or worse), I received a bit more from the JQ website… An error message alerting the credit card error, PLUS a deduction of 20,000 points from my QFF account, whilst no actual itinerary was issued!!! Within a few minutes of the error, the points were taken out of my account. What’s with that?
This was something I guess rather unconventional. And other AFF members might take into account for their future redemptions.
Dealing with QF Platinum desk and JQ agents
JQ agent 1: no idea what was going on
I immediately got on the phone with a JQ agent, who claimed that no booking was actually made and that JQ had not taken any points from me. Doh! It’s obvious in my QFF activity statement, with a reference number and all.
QF agent 1: a Platinum treatment
The next call to the QF Platinum desk on the same afternoon, Sunday 20th March, put me at ease. The QF agent was (i) surprised by the situation (ii) understanding and (iii) went beyond my expectations. She told me that there were 3 different QF agents working on resolving my issue at the same time, and she personally dealt with the JQ desk.
After what must have been a 15 minute conversation and waiting, the QF agent assured me that it was a technical error of the JQ website and transferred me to the second JQ agent.
JQ agent 2: understanding and promising
This second JQ agent appeared to be in the know. She was very apologetic and promised that the 20,000 points would be refunded back to my account within 15 business working days.
JQ agent 3: apologetic for the delay
On the 13th business working day after the experience, I made another call to JQ on Wednesday 6th April. I was in no rush to get the points, only wanting to make sure JQ keep their promise. Yet another disappointment… The JQ agent 3 was first not sure what I was talking about. After checking and reading the existing record of the situation at my request, he had me wait for a while, then came back to apologise, stating that there had been a delay for my refund, and that I would get the points within the next 5 days, i.e. Thursday 14th April the latest.
JQ agent 4: true lies?
On Easter Sunday 24th April, 5 weeks after the initial cough-up, I called JQ for the 4th time. Same story line from me: explaining the situation, not yet refunded, what’s going on etcetera. This agent first said there was no record of my situation. Second, at my insistence to double check, he admitted its existence. Third, he made a very bold statement that “too bad, this is NOT a Jetstar problem, and you have to deal with Qantas. We can’t help you” :shock:
What the???
You know, I rarely get pissed off on the phone with customer service people (the only time I raised my voice with a telco agent (out-sourced staff) who was extremely persistent in luring me to change my home phone and mobile contracts). Boy I got a little bit peeved, but remained polite for the rest of the conversation. I then requested he let me talk to his supervisor, which of course he wouldn’t and instead put me on hold for a good 15 minutes. He came back and asserted that “Jetstar has no points to refund you and we cannot do anything about this situation. You have to deal with Qantas, sir” He was right in that it’s Qantas that would do the point refunding to me, I thought, maybe.
So I said, alright, I’d like a written and official statement from Jetstar confirming what he had just said, and that I was not satisfied with how JQ handle the issue at all. After another long wait on the phone, he told me that a JQ rep would contact me over the next 5 days.
QF agents 2 and 3: an Easter treat
I double checked with QF. QF agent 2 agreed that QF was the refunder of the points, but only when officially dealt with/informed internally by JQ (this has not happened). He himself would like to help by calling JQ directing from the Platinum desk, but unfortunately the nominated Jetstar agent(s) was/ere not working during Easter break. He asked me to call QF again on Wednesday 27th April, quoting the reference ROQ6561. It’s not the reference of my issue, but rather the procedure reference for the Platinum agent to search and get the Jetstar contact and hopefully solve the issue.
Unfortunately QF agent 3 couldn’t help when I called on Wednesday. He was astounded by the situation but couldn’t get to the right JQ staff. Turned out the phone number as the result of the ROQ6561 procedure search was a landline (03) 8xx_ xx_x (can’t remember), which was no longer valid. Qantas should update it to (03) 9347 0091 or simply 131 538. I don’t know whom this QF agent 3 talked to, but he was advised that I would need to deal with 3K, not JQ. But aren’t 3K and JQ the same, at least in their customer service departments?!?!?
An experience of service failure: Missing-in-action heroes that can lead to potential customer rage
I worked in retail when I was doing my undergrad, and I now work in a service provision environment, so I understand the pressure that customer service agents get from unhappy customer. But some consistency would have been nice!
The servicescape theory clearly states that managers, employees and technology are some of those factors affecting the customer’s service experience. This experience, to me, is a complete service failure from Jetstar.
So what now…
1. Simon Westaway: Mr Simon Westaway is an (official?) JQ rep on AFF. I was very impressed by the way he and his CRM team handled my OH’s Star* class booking not too long ago. However, Mr Westaway has been MIA. I sent a message directly to his official Jetstar email and to the CRM email on Wednesday 13th April but received neither acknowledgement nor response to date.
2. JQ agents: I sympathise with their lack of knowledge on how to solve the issues. Do they need training? Do they need to up their game? I am patiently waiting for their CRM agent to call me back.
3. JQ website: The fact that the website took my points without charging me or issuing me with an itinerary (which I am no longer interested) is a complete rip-off.
4. The battle goes on: I want to get those 20,000 points back. I might send this to some friends/colleagues who might want to turn it into a case study for their Business students. I might also ask for the $50 customer service guarantee from Jetstar.
There you go. Hope you’ve been patient with the long post.
I am following Msdrron’s footsteps, and I am not letting it go until I get a favourable outcome (after all, those points were hard earned). More updates in due course.
Voyages.:!:
I’ve never been a Jet* basher. My recent experience in dealing with JQ staff has left a lot to be desired. One word: “inconsistent”, or two words: “service failure”, or three words: “frustrating at best”. Ok that’s a total of 6 words. This is not to bash Jet*, but to vent a bit of steam from this unfortunate situation, and share a little pain.
The situation
On Sunday 20th March, I planned to make an ASA booking for a KUL-SIN flight. Of course the QF site directed me to the JQ site. At the payment page, I entered the wrong expiry date of my credit card. Wouldn’t you normally expect an error message? Yes I sure did, and even better (or worse), I received a bit more from the JQ website… An error message alerting the credit card error, PLUS a deduction of 20,000 points from my QFF account, whilst no actual itinerary was issued!!! Within a few minutes of the error, the points were taken out of my account. What’s with that?
This was something I guess rather unconventional. And other AFF members might take into account for their future redemptions.
Dealing with QF Platinum desk and JQ agents
JQ agent 1: no idea what was going on
I immediately got on the phone with a JQ agent, who claimed that no booking was actually made and that JQ had not taken any points from me. Doh! It’s obvious in my QFF activity statement, with a reference number and all.
QF agent 1: a Platinum treatment
The next call to the QF Platinum desk on the same afternoon, Sunday 20th March, put me at ease. The QF agent was (i) surprised by the situation (ii) understanding and (iii) went beyond my expectations. She told me that there were 3 different QF agents working on resolving my issue at the same time, and she personally dealt with the JQ desk.
After what must have been a 15 minute conversation and waiting, the QF agent assured me that it was a technical error of the JQ website and transferred me to the second JQ agent.
JQ agent 2: understanding and promising
This second JQ agent appeared to be in the know. She was very apologetic and promised that the 20,000 points would be refunded back to my account within 15 business working days.
JQ agent 3: apologetic for the delay
On the 13th business working day after the experience, I made another call to JQ on Wednesday 6th April. I was in no rush to get the points, only wanting to make sure JQ keep their promise. Yet another disappointment… The JQ agent 3 was first not sure what I was talking about. After checking and reading the existing record of the situation at my request, he had me wait for a while, then came back to apologise, stating that there had been a delay for my refund, and that I would get the points within the next 5 days, i.e. Thursday 14th April the latest.
JQ agent 4: true lies?
On Easter Sunday 24th April, 5 weeks after the initial cough-up, I called JQ for the 4th time. Same story line from me: explaining the situation, not yet refunded, what’s going on etcetera. This agent first said there was no record of my situation. Second, at my insistence to double check, he admitted its existence. Third, he made a very bold statement that “too bad, this is NOT a Jetstar problem, and you have to deal with Qantas. We can’t help you” :shock:
What the???
You know, I rarely get pissed off on the phone with customer service people (the only time I raised my voice with a telco agent (out-sourced staff) who was extremely persistent in luring me to change my home phone and mobile contracts). Boy I got a little bit peeved, but remained polite for the rest of the conversation. I then requested he let me talk to his supervisor, which of course he wouldn’t and instead put me on hold for a good 15 minutes. He came back and asserted that “Jetstar has no points to refund you and we cannot do anything about this situation. You have to deal with Qantas, sir” He was right in that it’s Qantas that would do the point refunding to me, I thought, maybe.So I said, alright, I’d like a written and official statement from Jetstar confirming what he had just said, and that I was not satisfied with how JQ handle the issue at all. After another long wait on the phone, he told me that a JQ rep would contact me over the next 5 days.
QF agents 2 and 3: an Easter treat
I double checked with QF. QF agent 2 agreed that QF was the refunder of the points, but only when officially dealt with/informed internally by JQ (this has not happened). He himself would like to help by calling JQ directing from the Platinum desk, but unfortunately the nominated Jetstar agent(s) was/ere not working during Easter break. He asked me to call QF again on Wednesday 27th April, quoting the reference ROQ6561. It’s not the reference of my issue, but rather the procedure reference for the Platinum agent to search and get the Jetstar contact and hopefully solve the issue.
Unfortunately QF agent 3 couldn’t help when I called on Wednesday. He was astounded by the situation but couldn’t get to the right JQ staff. Turned out the phone number as the result of the ROQ6561 procedure search was a landline (03) 8xx_ xx_x (can’t remember), which was no longer valid. Qantas should update it to (03) 9347 0091 or simply 131 538. I don’t know whom this QF agent 3 talked to, but he was advised that I would need to deal with 3K, not JQ. But aren’t 3K and JQ the same, at least in their customer service departments?!?!?
An experience of service failure: Missing-in-action heroes that can lead to potential customer rage
I worked in retail when I was doing my undergrad, and I now work in a service provision environment, so I understand the pressure that customer service agents get from unhappy customer. But some consistency would have been nice!
The servicescape theory clearly states that managers, employees and technology are some of those factors affecting the customer’s service experience. This experience, to me, is a complete service failure from Jetstar.
So what now…
1. Simon Westaway: Mr Simon Westaway is an (official?) JQ rep on AFF. I was very impressed by the way he and his CRM team handled my OH’s Star* class booking not too long ago. However, Mr Westaway has been MIA. I sent a message directly to his official Jetstar email and to the CRM email on Wednesday 13th April but received neither acknowledgement nor response to date.
2. JQ agents: I sympathise with their lack of knowledge on how to solve the issues. Do they need training? Do they need to up their game? I am patiently waiting for their CRM agent to call me back.
3. JQ website: The fact that the website took my points without charging me or issuing me with an itinerary (which I am no longer interested) is a complete rip-off.
4. The battle goes on: I want to get those 20,000 points back. I might send this to some friends/colleagues who might want to turn it into a case study for their Business students. I might also ask for the $50 customer service guarantee from Jetstar.
There you go. Hope you’ve been patient with the long post.
I am following Msdrron’s footsteps, and I am not letting it go until I get a favourable outcome (after all, those points were hard earned). More updates in due course.
Voyages.:!:
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