Qantas fraudulent lies about refunding airfare - who to complain to?

Which government authority does someone complain to when a huge company like Qantas fraudulent lies about refunding airfare to your account? Not only did it take them 3 months or more to refund but when they emailed saying it's been refunded to my account there was no such payment. They don't respond to my emails I've sent after that & I've given them a final notice email that I will report them to the authorities for fraud, but who exactly to report them to? Is it the ACCC or another organisation?

 

A quick search of the AustralianFrequentFlyer forum, seems like a lot of other people are also experiencing issues with getting a refund. They are not keen on giving people their money back!

 

Phone the Dept of Fair Trading in your state.
They should be able to give you advice.

 

Qantas direct or through a travel agent ? If booked through a agent Qantas will not be party to any refund arrangements.

I work with someone going through this and the generally accepted view is they will first acknowledge a refund will be paid. Then you will wait.
Then MONTHS AND MONTHS later it will be paid. So far his at at 5 months and they offered him all sorts of deal but he said no to each increasingly higher offer. He says they likely will pay within 4 weeks now. They have kept him (infrequently) updated. He says its a LONG wait on the phone. But with flights back they do have slightly better service.
When they advise it will be credited to the original card it can take many (10?) days to appear.

Its isnt fraud. The ACCC has an action with Qantas about misleading refund policies.
Qantas passengers fuming after refunds delayed five months

 

Directly through the Qantas website. They got me to confirm my bank account details 3 months ago & said payment would be 8-10 weeks later. Beginning of this month they sent an email saying refund has been processed. Now it's been nearly 3 weeks since that email and still nothing in the bank account. Pretty ridiculous how long it all takes and still no money in the account.

Thanks, I'll do that next week.

 

That article basically sums up what a bunch of jokers that company is.

 

Fair Trading would assume you have raised the missing refund with Qantas directly.

I do know that the processing of refunds is a very seperate exercise to actual payment and from media it seems the two do not talk. If they say "it has been paid" v "it has been processed for payment" then it should be followed up direct with Qantas as they may have had a returned amount or its not actually paid yet etc. I suspect its approved for payment - a nice stalling tactic since it doesnt say when.

They cant print money and need to manage their payments around fare sales and cashflow. They could have the $$$ to pay the lot today but wont if it places the airline without reserves.

 

Crap, I guess I'll be going through the same with Fiji Airways. They said 90 days about 30 days ago. We'll see.

 

I’ve just received the refund I requested in April, you have to keep ringing. From confirmation e mail to payment was 6 weeks. There is an aviation complaints ombudsman also - apparently they are swamped with complaints.

once I use up my points I’m never flying Qantas again.

 

Oh yeah heard that a lot. You think you would have fared better with a US airline ? Cathay ? AirNZ ? Every airline is using the "travel bank" system developed by Sabe and there isnt a airline that gave wholesale refunds or one that is just handing out immediate cash. What's yet to be seen and heard as a massive global complaint will be expired flight credits and inability to rebook limited credit-worthy seats and routes. Its going to be one of those post-covid effects. And use of FF points is going to harder than ever to redeem. Imagine the uproar by the point privileged former flyers.

We all need to consider how we may travel in the future. I would argue flying a locally staffed and owned and managed carrier supports industry, jobs and Australian economic activity. SIA and even Lufthansa etc have a high reported risk of failure and they are solid airlines so imagine what Air Asia or another stretched business could look like. And you think they will think about the aussie taxpayer ?

I'm not FF devotee at all but I like to support aussie firms and their workers. That little guy who runs Qantas can grate some people but he is fighting for recovery. I know a qantas workers he met at the airport early on her first day back after 6 months. You wont see the CEO of Air NZ at the gate in Sydney doing that.

 

Grammatically speaking would a fraudulent lie actually be the truth?

 

I'll be happy just to see my money again. What I'm worried about is the airline going bust before I get my cash.

 

Same BS issues with cruise lines.

We paid all our money for an Azamara cruise back at the end of January 2020. They didn't cancel the cruise until just before it was due to sail which was in June.

Requested a refund under their rules as they cancelled the cruise and still don't have a refund and it will be 5 months at the end of November.

We received our airfare refund from Lufthansa, less some bs booking fee, at the end of August.

The cruise was $8500 and the airfares were $13200.

 

Keep ringing (the call back service is good so you don't have to listen to off key "call Australia Home" 100 times). They can process the claim manually while you are on the phone.

 

I have travelled Qantas for decades for the above reasons. To terminate all their call staff so there was nobody to answer calls from stranded travelers was unconscionable.

 

I'm not getting any refund from Tiger but it's small change for a domestic flight

 

Ahh tiger. The airline that you fly when the bus doesnt go somewhere or hitchiking is too far. Cant say its demise upset many except staff who must have been wondering when anyway. Virgin did wipe for of the grime off but replicating barnds is not cost efficient.

 

Call don’t email.
Ask if for some reason the payment has failed as per Paul’s advice above, as taking it further to ombudsman or ACCC would require you to have raised the missing payment issue with Qantas first

I had one refund earlier this year caught up and not paid when all others were processed ( I cancelled 4 bookings that day) was told there was an issue in the process and then the refund showed up after it was chased up and manually processed (whatever that means)

 

Yes ask for it to be manually processed while you wait on the line.