cdgbear

Hi all.
I have been trying to get in touch with Qantas customer service as I needed to cancel my RTW tickets booked with FF points.
I have been asking for a refund and points reinstatement as most of my flights are cancelled. I have been writing to [email protected] but there have been a lot of issues communicating with them (questions not answered wrong answers etc). Very frustrating. Are they located in a foreign country?? It is 2021, and I understand that outsourcing is unavoidable for corporates but I hope they train their staff better.

p.s. Am I the only one experiencing the lengthy wait time on the phone??

minz56

Yes - I spoke to someone in South Africa a couple of weeks ago and I believe I have also spoken to someone in the Philippines. At that time the wait times were between 1-2 hours. That contrasted with AA customer service where they picked up on the second or third ring. QF had also removed the "callback" option for NZ callers.

BD1959

I believe there is a mix, which unsurprisingly - and typically QANTAS - results in inconsistent outcomes for customers.

The South African call centre - which answers when the local timezone centres are closed - is outsourced and has a shocking reputation for rude, incompetent staff.

There is a call centre based in the Philippines which is also outsourced but with a fairly competent staff if all you want to do is enable a voucher, make flight changes etc.

There remains some call centre staff based in Hobart. These used to be the first touch point for the Premium call lines and were inhouse, very knowledgeable, capable staff. Unfortunately for the WPs (and above) amongst us, QF recently revamped their IVR such that it became a lottery as to where Premiums were routed. When I queried my last call with the Philippines based CSR (call wait times had also gone the way of the masses too, so I knew something was amiss) I was offered the opportunity to have my call transferred to Hobart - I declined because I just wanted to action a voucher and didn't want to drop into another queue having waited for 25mins.

There used to also be a call centre based in New Zealand where the CSRs were pretty good, but I think that was an early victim of COVID (or may have been the cost-cutting just prior).

The advice used to be to Hang Up and Call Again (HUACA) if the CSR you encountered was not up-to-scratch but I don't think I'd provide that advice to anyone these days with the protracted wait-times.

Regards,

BD

minz56

I can concur with this. The agent I spoke to in South Africa was clueless about the Fly Flexible options and about the fare rules of the flights I was booking.

clarrkkent

Edit: Oops. Wrong FFP!

wendyc12

Being a NB, call wait times have been horrendous. The only viable way to do a HUCA recently is to make two calls using two phones ~30 mins apart - so if the first agent is a dud, you hang up and wait for the other call to be picked up. You'll otherwise be on the phone all day...

This method has the added advantage of increasing the call count + potentially the call abandonment stats, which they surely can't ignore forever...