Welcome back to Platinum (not)

[RooFlyer]

[rant]
As I posted on some other threads, I'm doing (actually, just completed today) a oneWorld RTW trip in J, with ticket issued by Qantas. With it, I re-qualified for WP

There were 2 legs on QR and the points and SCs failed to credit (as is common), so I lodged an on-line claim for both. E-mail reply from QFF says action within 3 weeks. Nothing happened after 4 weeks, so I e-mailed the same QFF address and attached BPs for both flights.

Checking my account today, I noticed that the claim for one of the QR legs had been denied (the other leg still not there, either way). So I called QFF WP line, explained the nature of my call and was immediately transferred somewhere else. That place said I had to talk to the same lot who transferred me ... so I was sent back .

Person who took the call this time was basically clueless. Couldn't seem to understand that it was a QF ticket (not Qatar) and that I gave the Qantas 081- ticket number in the original claim (as it was asked for) and the BPs in my follow-up e-mail. "Its not a Qantas flight, so we don't have access to the Qatar flight details".

Really?

Then said I had to wait 28 days for the claim to be processed, ignoring that one claim had been processed and rejected ....

And on it went. Told I had to submit a copy of the physical e-ticket and the BP, together. I mean, isn't there a reason why its called an "E-ticket" and issued by Qantas, no less.

Finally, after repeating herself, she said "I'm disconnecting this call", and actually hung up on me. I've read about this happening to others here on AFF, and whilst not disbelieving it, always thought there must be more to the story. No, they actually do hang up on you. Platinum service line.

I naturally called back the WP line to lodge a complaint. First told to e-mail the QFF e-mail, but I declined that. Then told I could call back on Monday when someone could take an escalated call. Although I think that's pathetic for a 24/7 airline, I accepted the reality, and then, fortunately, asked the agent if they could look into the issue.

Guess what? After taking the details of the date, flight numbers and PNR from me, she went away to 'reservations' and after a few minutes wait, came back and said she had manually processed the points and SCs and voila! They were there, problem sorted!

Which only re-iterated to me the incompetence of the first agent.
[/rant]

Yes, Welcome back to Platinum Mr RooFlyer.

 

[Austman]

You definitely had an issue!

I'm not sure if it's anything much to do with being Platinum.

It can be hit and miss on the WP line to Qantas as well. Just a bit quicker hit and miss.

 

[juddles]

It is really bad that depending on who answers your call, you can get great help or rubbish. I spent three hours last night trying to book a "simple" flight through Avianca and eventually just gave up. I hate call centres, VOIP, inexpert telephone staff, and generally anything that is not simply and succesfully done through the internet, without engaging an insufficiently trained human being.

 

[RooFlyer]

Update.

I called the Plat line yesterday (Monday) late morning, saying I'd like to lodge a complaint via an escalated call, per the advice given to me on the weekend. The person who took the call was the second person on the weekend (the helpful one), so they knew what I was about . Tried to get a supervisor type, but none available, promised a call back within an hour.

Of course that didn't happen.

Am currently (Tuesday afternoon) on a hold now (just went over 10 minutes), while the agent who took this call is doing something (she didn't say what). I strongly suspect I'm on a going-no-where hold and will have to hang up and call again.

Platinum service line. They'll find out that I can outwait them and I will lodge a complaint. I've been down this route before, with banks. the more difficult they make it, the harder I follow up.

 

[Pushka]

Update.

I called the Plat line yesterday (Monday) late morning, saying I'd like to lodge a complaint via an escalated call, per the advice given to me on the weekend. The person who took the call was the second person on the weekend (the helpful one), so they knew what I was about . Tried to get a supervisor type, but none available, promised a call back within an hour.

Of course that didn't happen.

Am currently (Tuesday afternoon) on a hold now (just went over 10 minutes), while the agent who took this call is doing something (she didn't say what). I strongly suspect I'm on a going-no-where hold and will have to hang up and call again.

Platinum service line. They'll find out that I can outwait them and I will lodge a complaint. I've been down this route before, with banks. the more difficult they make it, the harder I follow up.

They just hope you will give up and go away. Don’t. Although we know you won’t. .

 

[RooFlyer]

After abut 12 mins, I got someone in the Hobart call centre. I'm not sure exactly where she was sitting organisationally, but she was one of those lovely empathetic people who can disarm the crankiest caller . I wasn't cranky on this call, but she listened to what I said and by all accounts took it all seriously, wrote it down, read it back to me so I could correct/clarify and apparently some-one in 'customer care' will call me back within 2 days. I also put in a good word for the agent who did ultimately help me.

I was careful to put the complaint against the line management, as I believe they are ultimately responsible, and there was a little resistance to that - she said, no, we should never just hang up on people. I asked if call centre agents had authority to hang up on abusive etc callers and she said the protocol there is to warn abusive people that if it continued, the call would be ended. In my case, I most definitely wasn't abusive and the call was ended with the statement that the call was ending. So it seems that the agent in my case acted wrongly no matter how the call was interpreted, but I still had the line management in the complaint.

At the end, I asked as an aside if they were getting a lot of calls about the mis-functioning web site. The answer was a bit vague (as you might expect) but in essence, no ... not aware of any particular problems.

So, at the moment I'm mollified. The person who took the call today was very good at their job

 

[CMA222]

Qantas accepts all feedback - along as its complimentary. Are you asking for the names of the people who provide you with the road block non-service?

 

[RooFlyer]

I have the phonetic spelling of them, but I'm usually reticent to complain about front line call centre people - I know I'd last about one call in that sort of job before I had a meltdown against the customer! Its usually the line management that I have in my sights - its their responsibility to ensure properly trained and resources call centre agents.