Qantas law unto themselves - don't waste your time with ACA complaint

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Quite simply to reimburse me the day's pay that I was docked by my employer as a result of missing the flight due to their equipment failure. This was all documented with an exact figure easily justified.

LOL good luck with that one. In what world do airlines compensate you for a lost day's pay even when it is clearly the airlines' fault (eg a delayed aircraft)? Not Planet Earth. That's what travel insurance is for. You should have bought it.

Also, perhaps you should have gone to one of the other 7 bag drops machines that were working after you realised yours was not working?
 
The pointless Trump slight saw you lose almost every right wing reader here (the majority) , why would you do that when you were looking for sympathy ?

Interesting insight. If that is true, doesn't that say more about forum members here than the OP?

Sure it was an unnecessary addition in the OPs post and arguement, but I would think this forum is mature, worldly, and open minded enough to see it was a tounge in cheek comment.
 
No it really makes zero difference to any complaint.
I can see you're really struggling with the logic of this. Qantas departed a plane 3 minutes early that was missing one checked-in passenger. Fact. They also closed baggage check-in rigidly at the appointed time in spite of a failure of their ground equipment that prevented one passenger at least from being able to check their bag within time and in the subsequent knowledge that there was no pressing urgent need to close baggage check in that rigidly by virtue of the fact they had at least 3 minutes of slack in required loading time proven by departing the plane 3 minutes early. Fact.

This is a simple case of bloody mindedness by Qantas rigidly applying rules that make no sense and are unjustifiable, and then lying to the customer afterwards as to the reasons why when they are called out for doing so.
 
Especially so given that he was still land-side at the Qantas service desk when the flight departed. What he needed was for the flight to be delayed half an hour!
Except they where there because of a failure of Qantas equipment. Should the OP have fixed the bag drop machine?
 
LOL good luck with that one. In what world do airlines compensate you for a lost day's pay even when it is clearly the airlines' fault (eg a delayed aircraft)? Not Planet Earth. That's what travel insurance is for. You should have bought it.

Also, perhaps you should have gone to one of the other 7 bag drops machines that were working after you realised yours was not working?

Correct, that's consequential loss and no business covers that.
 
Except they where there because of a failure of Qantas equipment. Should the OP have fixed the bag drop machine?

No he had 15 minutes to go to another one (im assuming like the other pax unfortunate enough to encounter the faulty machine had done)

That he wasted 15 minutes mucking around with a faulty machine when there were 7 others functioning was his own doing.
 
Assuming your employer booked and paid for the flight - why not seek satisfaction directly from them?

You were within the allotted check-in time, the bag was initially accepted, then rejected, their (assumed) preferred carrier failed in service. Based on all of that - your employer should not be penalising you.
That was the first thing I did. I did not jump straight into Qantas/ACA. They are always the last resort because of the difficulty in dealing with an organisation who's standard strategy for all customer complaints is stonewalling. Unfortunately the employer just takes Qantas' word as gospel and believes them first and foremost over their own employees. I have no control over this. I can understand why though. It is incredibly easy for them to just dock one day's pay from me and for them… case-closed. If the employee complains, just blame Qantas. Easy.
 
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What I have found when heading into an arguement with a company or govt authority is get the names of the staff you spoke to. Even when in a rush I note the name and put other details in later.

When you start naming the staff with the chain of events companies often want you to go away and it gets sorted.
Did this, made no difference. It makes no difference when the staff are so junior and insignificant or probably even just contractors with multiple uniforms shared amongst many airlines, that the company concerned doesn't care at all about their reputations.
 
As brief as I can this is what happened.
Regular weekly silver QFF flyer for work - charter flights. Arrive at airport 45mins before departure (as per recommendation) same as always - done this many, many times. Step up to the bag drop (QFF bag tags) to check single bag and machine can't read the tag. Readjust the tag orientation. Still can't read. All other bag drops occupied with queues. Readjust tag to point bar code at camera, still won't read. This goes on and on. Same tag as always used and used subsequently with no problem. Manage to attract attention of disinterested ground staff, who proceed to try exactly the same things. Eventually after many attempts, the bag drop machine decides to start working again and the bag is accepted. It starts being carried away on the conveyor, then stops, reverses and a message comes up on screen saying "Bag cannot be accepted at this time - see ground staff". It is now a few seconds less than 30mins before the schedule flight departure time.

I proceed to the ground staff and ask them to manually check the bag as the bag drop clearly doesn't work. They don't do this, but instead tap some keys and pick up a phone and call someone before telling me I should present myself at the Qantas service desk. Stand in a queue at the service desk operated by a single staff member (it is before 6am) for another 20mins during which my flight has now departed without me 3 minutes early at 5:47am (confirmed via Qantas app data). Service desk staff member has no idea why I've been sent there and appears extremely frustrated that I've been palmed off onto her by the baggage ground staff when she can't help me and has no idea what to suggest beyond "come back again tomorrow".

Flight missed, pay docked (> $800) by employer for "no show" missed flight. Qantas advise employer my fault for not allowing enough time to check in prior to flight. Complaint lodged with Qantas, which is never acknowledged or responded to in any way. Complaint lodged with ACA. Qantas again respond in same way as to employer. Vast quantities of evidence are presented to back the case including photographs of the error messages on the bag drop machine display and proof from the Qantas app they departed the plane 3 minutes early (which would have made all the difference to me making it in time despite the broken bag drop reader). Qantas simply ignore all the evidence and stick to the line that the customer did not leave enough time to check-in.

ACA acknowledge powerless to compel the airline to do anything, so that's the end. Ergo, Qantas and Donald Trump are the same. They can say and claim any garbage they like completely devoid of any truth and get away with it because they're unanswerable to any authority and can do whatever they wish, whenever they wish.

Moral of the story: When you eventually get screwed over by Qantas due in no part to any fault of your own (and you will, it's only a matter of time), don't bother wasting your life by complaining to them or the Airline Customer Advocate. Just book on Virgin instead. There is no point. It's as effective as reasoning with Donald Trump. I wasted 4 months of my life trying to get justice and ultimately got nowhere.
Legoman, your predicament is just another example of the arrogance of this multinational with near monopoly power. It is the reason the US Antitrust laws also referred to as competition laws, are statutes developed by the U.S. government to protect consumers from predatory business practices. ... Furthermore, consumers would be forced to pay higher prices and would have access to a limited supply of products and services.
Unfortunately, Australia is now politically dominated by the big companies and we the consumer are powerless to change the situation. It is not just Qantas but many, many other big companies. It is difficult to see any short term resolution for the consumer.
 
The only thing a hard case airline like Qantas understands is material brand damage -v- the rectification cost.
As a media neophyte you can (perhaps) now understand the power of words and the possible consequences.
The pointless Trump slight saw you lose almost every right wing reader here (the majority) , why would you do that when you were looking for sympathy ?
Feel free to point me to where I asked for sympathy. Until you do, the rest of your post is worthless.
 
Correct, that's consequential loss and no business covers that.
Correct and I was requesting liquidated damages for my consequential loss, because it was human-made and completely avoidable by staff with the required training as used to be the case. A ground staff member with the necessary experience would have taken control of the situation when the conveyor reversed and manually checked the bag instead for me (a process which is actually a lot quicker and more efficient than the bag drop machines, on the rare occasion you can find a staff member sitting there to do it).
 
Also, perhaps you should have gone to one of the other 7 bag drops machines that were working after you realised yours was not working?
This was the very first thing I looked at doing obviously. I'm not a robot. I have eyes and a brain and situational awareness in spades (unlike the Qantas equipment and their human ground staff). I can evaluate situations, make judgments and determine the most likely course of successful action by evaluating all the possible consequences. It's the same mental process that has allowed me to drive a car on public roads in traffic around other road users for the last 30 years without crashing, killing myself or anyone else. By simplifying the case down to a black and white question like you have without being there and without considering the million other considerations in play at that moment, makes you look as robotic as the controllers of the baggage check-in logic at Qantas that created the problem in the first place.
 
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Correct and I was requesting liquidated damages for my consequential loss, because it was human-made and completely avoidable by staff with the required training as used to be the case. A ground staff member with the necessary experience would have taken control of the situation when the conveyor reversed and manually checked the bag instead for me (a process which is actually a lot quicker and more efficient than the bag drop machines, on the rare occasion you can find a staff member sitting there to do it).

Even if Alan Joyce caused your predicament they aren't going to compensate you for what you had planned at the other end of the flight.
 
No he had 15 minutes to go to another one (im assuming like the other pax unfortunate enough to encounter the faulty machine had done)

That he wasted 15 minutes mucking around with a faulty machine when there were 7 others functioning was his own doing.
I disagree. The OP reported to the airport in plenty of time to drop a bag. Qantas needs to facilitate that process in a timely manner. It's not up to the OP, or any pax, to fix Qantas' equipment failures. Why didn't Qantas shut down that bag machine? They haven't taken control of their operations, which is Qantas' responsibility. Not at Pax responsibility. WTF are qantas doing when a single passenger is at a machine for 15 minutes, and they do not notice this...
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I stopped reading when I saw “Donald Trump” mentioned. At that point the post became an emotional rant and any reasonable points were rendered meaningless.

Clearly meaningful enough for you to add an off topic comment.
 
Qantas is run by arrogant bullies who don't really care about resolving customer concerns. The only way to deal with them is to take them to small claims court and win legally.
 
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