I wish to convey my healt-felt congratulations to the Jetstar administrative team. The cooperative efforts of their call centre in the Phillipines, the accounts department and the ever endeavoring customer relationships staff have come together in superb synergy, successfully driving customer satisfaction so far into the ground that it is probably sitting somewhere below the earth's crust where whatever remains of it is being burned up by molten rock. Awesome job guys.
What is surprising about this story is that despite having my payments lost, my flight reservation cancelled and being given the run around with zero communications from Jetstar, through dramatic administrative failures I actually ended up not only being refunded the entire amount of my flight, but they actually effectively paid me to take the flight. And without even realising it. Strictly speaking, I'm not a disgruntled angry customer - I'm one of those lucky 'error in my favour' cases. So why rock the boat? I might have to pay it back. I'm writing this because their ineffectiveness screwed around with my travel plans, because it amuses me greatly to do so, and because quite frankly my dear I don't give a damn (it's their money after all - they're entitled to it). Perhaps someone from Jetstar management will read this, causing them to face-palm themselves with such furor that they smash their glasses and gouge out their own eyeballs. And perhaps, just perhaps, things will change. Well, one can hope.
T-28 Days
I booked a flight with Jetstar. I paid by direct deposit directly to their New Zealand bank account in New Zealand Dollars, following their payment instructions.
Because the invoice was only in Australian dollars I skyped their call center to check if it's ok. The operator calculated the amount for me, gave me the exchange rate he used and quoted www.xe.com as his source of conversion. No problems, I made the payment and all was well.
Since I would be flying out again three days after my arrival, and since this was the first time I had paid by direct deposit (especially considering the differing currency) I decided to wait until the first flight was confirmed before booking the ongoing flight. There was plenty of time. What could possibly go wrong?
T-25-ish Days
No flight confirmation appeared, so submitted a lost payments form on the Jetstar website:
Dear Jetstar staff,
Several days ago I booked a flight via the Jetstar.com website. I opted to pay via direct transfer and transferred AU$XXX (actually NZ$XXX.XX) into your NZ bank account as per the instructions on your website. I have yet to receive confirmation that the payment has been received. Can you please confirm that you have the money? According to the website my booking XXXXXX is still awaiting payment, yet I have paid it. (Attached is a printout of my e-banking confirming the transfer details. Please note that the payee Jetstar is set up to pay into the NZ bank account No. XX-XXXX-XXXXXX-XX.) Please also note that I tried using POLI to pay it, but my bank (XXXXXXX) is not supported. Please get back to me as soon as possible as I have connecting Jetstar flights to book once this flight is confirmed.
Kind regards,
XXXXX XXXXXXXXX
T-20 Days
Following automated response from Jetstar arrives. I try to call but their skype connection isn't working.
From: Jetstar Customer Care crmcomplaint@jetstar.com
Subject: Thank you for providing your feedback - this is an "outgoing" email service only
Dear XXXXX,
Thank you for letting us know about your Jetstar experience.
We do apologise for the delay in acknowledging your feedback. This email is confirmation that we are in receipt of your feedback.
Please allow at least 15 business days for a response from one of our Customer Care analysts. If your feedback or query relates to imminent travel (within 72 hours), please contact our Customer Relationships team on 131 538 and our Telephone Reservations team will request one of our analysts to call you.
Thanks again for contacting us. To help us identify and respond to this specific issue, please clearly quote your Case ID (XXX-XXXXXX-XXXXXX) in any correspondence.
Kind regards,
The Jetstar Customer Care Team
Thanks Jetstar Customer Care Team! That was really helpful. I sure look forward to that response from your Customer Care analyst sometime after my flight has departed (15 working days = 21 days = T+1).
T-18 Days
My flight reservation has disappeared, presumably cancelled. Skype connection to Jetstar call center isn't working (busy) so I find a phone number and pay for the call (the charges are insignificant, but still annoying). I call again, resulting in the resubmition of the lost payment form:
Dear Jetstar staff,
I am contacting you for the *second* time about what now appears to be my lost direct deposit payment. The first time I sent it I was sent an automatically generated mail apologising for the delay and saying someone would get in touch *within three weeks*. Since my planned flight is on the 4th of June I'm sure you can understand how that is an unacceptable time frame for me. My original case ID is: XXX-XXXXX-XXXXX.
I logged into the Jetstar.com website this morning and was alarmed to see that my original reservation XXXXXX had disappeared. So I called (your skype contact is not working today btw) and spoke with XXXXX, who informed me that my my reservation had indeed been cancelled. Bad tidings.
XXXXX said she would put some notes on my file and advised the best way to actually get someone's attention was to resubmit this form (I guess she couldn't just tell you or anything - well never mind). So this is the second time I am submitting this form for the same lost payment.
Please get this to your accounts department pronto so they can "manually" find the payment. There's enough information here for you to track it, but I'll spell it out for you just in case it helps to grease the wheels.
Payment details:
From account holder: XXXXX XXXXXXXXX
From XXXXXX Account (that's a NZ account): XX-XXXX-XXXXXX-XX
To NZ account: XX-XXXX-XXXXXX-XX
Amount: NZ$XXX.XX
Reference: XXXXX
Please pass my thanks to XXXXX, who did a fantastic job of directing one pissed off customer to a desired outcome. I truly hope you'll do the same. Oh, btw, It's hard getting onto the right people in your organisation. You'd be wise to do something about that.
Regards,
XXXXX XXXXXXXXX
I wait, and receive nothing.
Around T-15 Days
I'm due to fly out in two days, after which point I will be uncontactable by phone. I call the call center again. The payment's still missing. The operator is sympathetic, but there's nothing she can do. It's apparent their call center is quite disconnected from processing. She puts some notes on my file and says someone should be getting back to me imminently. I continue to wait.
T-14 Days (the day before I leave europe)
I call again. By now I am quite seriously pissed off. I explain the situation and the grand extent of Jetstar's incompetence thus far. A team leader gets involved, and an email gets sent somewhere. Still no payment, but I am assured that once my payment is found I will definitely be given the flight. I take the operator's name, her ID and her word. I book the next leg of my flight - with Virgin Blue.
T-9 Days
I receive a flight itinerary per email. There is no message, no apology and no explanation. After 19 days, multiple phone calls and two lost payment submissions they managed, at long last to find my payment and confirme my seat reservation. Hurrah.
T-0 Days
I take the flight. They don't pay any special attention to my 90x20x5cm Martin Backpacker guitar which I sneak on board as extra cabin luggage (to their credit). The plane doesn't blow up. Mission accomplished.
But the madness doesn't stop there. The day after my flight I received a refund release form from the 'Customer Experience Manager' to fill out and return, with the following text (copied and pasted - spot the spelling and grammar):
Mr Dear Mr XXXXX,
Thank you for contacting us about your Jetstar booking. I am sorry to hear you had some
problems when paying for your booking using our Direct Payment method.
Thank you for patients while we investigated your case, I understand you have since been in
contact with our Reservations Team and your payment was located and applied to your
booking.
I advise that you have overpaid your booking reference XXXXX by $XX.XX AUD. So we can
return this amount to you, please provide your bank account details in the space below.
ELECTRONIC FUNDS TRANSFER DETAILS
(you must complete all sections or your payment will be rejected)
[bank account details etc etc]
Thank you for taking the time to contact us. We look forward to welcoming you on board a
Jetstar flight in the future.
Yours sincerely,
XXXXXX XXXXX
Manager Customer Experience
This is rediculous. The amount is greater because it is in NZ$. Curious to probe the seemingly infinite depths of their stupidity, I fill out the form and send it to them along with a full A4 handwritten letter explaining exactly how I came to the figure I paid, who I spoke to, and that while the refund is unnecessary they may do so if they absolutely insist. Will they read the letter and realise their mistake or simply process the form, release the refund and make themselves famous on www.dontflyjetstar.com? Time will tell.
I recently checked my online banking. Ta-da! There in my bank account history, right at the top, was a credit from Jetstar equaling the numerical difference of what I'd paid in New Zealand dollars to the invoiced amount in Australian dollars. As anticipated they hadn't even read my letter. But it gets better. It appears that back when Jetstar first sent me that automatically generated email and acknowledged my existence, they also accidentally (or automatically) refunded the entire amount of the airfare that I'd paid. Whoopsy daisy. Do you think they'll notice? Probably not.
Yes it's been quite a long winded wind-up to this point but in conclusion I really must say, with honesty, what an absolute bunch of idiots. And if they can ever be bothered to read this, and can go into their own records to confirm the mispaid payments, and can find my original contact details, then hell they can have the money. But you know, I'm betting they won't.