Incorrect costly information. Incompetent customer representatives.

Here is a letter to Jetstar I have submitted about a recent flight experience. In the letter I have not mentioned that the young man at check in was more concerned about styling his hair and flicking dandruff off his blazer that to even pretend to be mildly attentive to my partner and I when we checked in

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Dear ______

I write to you for a resolution in an unfair charge of excess baggage I experienced when I flew from Sydney to Christchurch on 26 April 2012.

Prior to my travel date I looked at the Jetstar travel website to book an extra suitcase for my three month old son. My partner and I had already booked checked in baggage for ourselves when purchasing the tickets on line in February 2012. I could not find an option to book the third suitcase on the website so my partner called the Jestar travel phone line to talk to a representative to see what solution was available. We were more than happy to pay for the suitcase and this was our intention when we made the phone call to avoid the high rates for excess baggage at the airport.

The customer representative assured us several times during the phone call placed at 11:48am AEST on 20 April 2012 that the infant had a 20kg limit with the purchase of the ticket. My partner repeatedly said that this was not one of our suitcases but a third suitcase for our infant son. The representative asked if we had a pram, car seat etc to which we replied no. The representative said that the extra suitcase would be of no extra charge. My partner seeked clarification three times during the call to make sure that this was correct. I was sitting next to my partner when he made the phone call and could hear the conversation as he had put the phone call on speaker. We had flown QANTAS a few weeks earlier and had to book and pay for an extra suitcase before our departure and expected this to be the same case as there was no mention of an infant being allowed their own checked in baggage included in the ticket.

After this phone call was made we purchased an extra 5kg on line each to my and my partner’s already checked in baggage as we knew that our suitcases would exceed the 20kg limit.

When we arrived to check in our baggage the infant suitcase was not the case. The young man who served us was not interested in our story and was quite rude but did inform us that there was no record in the notes under our passenger reference BYBUND that we had many any phone calls regarding this matter. When we asked if there was someone else that we could speak to he told us that he was the only person available to speak to. I don't belive this at all but accepted it at the time to try and not make the situation more stressful due to me carrying my infant son.

We were told to pack as much as we could into our carry on, which I believe would have exceeded the allowed weight for carry on baggage. Travelling with a young baby is stressful enough let alone having to cart around an extra 15kg while you are carrying and caring for an infant. This situation made our trip quite stressful, I won't expand on obvious detail.

I reluctantly paid $275 in excess baggage to ensure our belongings would be taken on the flight to Christchurch. The extra suitcase was full of our son’s clothes and presents received by family members and friends that we wanted to take back with us to Christchurch.

Monday 1 May my partner called Jetstar to discuss what had happened with the excess baggage charge and what could be done about it seeing as we had received incorrect information that was very costly to us. He was told to submit feedback on the Jetstar website. I ended up submitting the feedback on the website that day.

I was contacted by a representative who assured me that all calls were recorded and once they found the call we had placed he would listen to the call and discuss the outcome with me and that if we had been told the incorrect advice I would be refunded the whole amount of the excess baggage charge. I was very helpful in answering all of the representative's questions and providing themwith the exact time and date of the phone call and the number the call was made from, which I located on my phone statement.
A week later, the same representative called back to let me know that there was nothing that they could not locate the phone call placed by my partner despite the information I had provided and therefore nothing could be done about my claim.

I let them know that I would not accept his decision regarding my claim and I also spoke to their manager after being told serveral times this was the highest my complaint could go and I demanded several times that I speak to someone else as I was not accepting the decision. The manager reiterated the same information. I am a well travelled flyer and we had called to do the right thing. We were given false information and have had to pay $275 out of our own pocket because of the failings of a Jetstar representative and the fact that the ‘system’ did not record our call. It was also insinuated on a few occasions during this call by this representative that I was making the whole story up.

When speaking with the manager who let me know that there is no proof that the call was ever made I suggested that I would send in my phone statement to prove that we did indeed make the phone call. I have been directed to send my phone statement to yourself.

I was offered a $50 Jetstar travel voucher to help with the cost of the excess baggage I was unfairly charged and when I proclaimed that it was not a fair enough solution it was bumped up to a ‘generous’ $100. This travel voucher does not cover the cost I incurred due to the incompetence of the representative who gave us false information and the failure of the ‘system’ to record the phone call. This voucher would also be of no use to me as after this experience I find it very unlikely that I would choose to fly Jetstar in the future.

I would accept a full refund of the excess baggage charge or the amount minus pre-purchased extra baggage as this is what we were happy to do in the first place when we made our phone call to Jetstar on 20 April. I don’t think that it is just that I have to pay for the flaws of Jetstars system not recording the phone call and it is definitely unfair that I should pay for the representative’s failure of delivering correct information to a customer who is doing the right thing.

If I do not receive a fair outcome from this letter I am willing to take this matter further with the Australian Competition and Consumer's Commission.

Yours Sincerely....