When I thought customer service couldn't get any worse.. I was wrong. Very wrong

My parents purchased flights and made a direct deposit at a commonwealth bank branch for the flights as they did not have internet banking setup.
I called on their behalf to jetstar since they didn't receive their itinerary and was told by customer rep #1 that branch deposits were not acceptable and therefore my parents were required to go back to the branch and get a refund.
The line cut out before I could ask anything further so I called back, repeated the story and was told by customer rep #2 that a refund was not required, but a payment inquiry needed to be submitted online with evidence of the deposit for jetstar to locate the payment and apply to the booking. Since the booking was due to expire the next day, they advised that they would extend this and that my parents would receive a response to my payment inquiry within 24 hours (yeah right).
Two days later, I called back, due to no response, and again was advised to repeat the same details to customer rep #3 (deposit receipt number, date of deposit, etc). This time, I referenced the case ID of the online payment inquiry.
Again, I was told that the case would be prioritised and receive a response within 24 hours.
This time I allowed 3 days before calling again, since I doubted they would have resolved anything in 24 hours. This time, I told them that I wanted to speak to a supervisor since all three previous calls got nothing resolved. Instead of allowing me to speak to the supervisor, customer rep #4 insisted that they were able to assist with my issue. So I had to repeat my issue AGAIN and AGAIN no resolution, just advised that it will be escalated again to the finance department. This time I am told it will take 3 to 5 business days to get a response.

Who knew it would be so difficult to locate a payment in a bank account when the deposit amount, date, receipt number and reference ID have been provided? Next stop for me is Commonwealth bank. Hopefully their customer service is better than Jetstar so I can get my parent's money back.

Customer reps that provide false promises? No thanks. I learnt a long time ago never to fly jetstar again, but this time I've told my parents never to fly Jetstar again.

Domestic
Australia-Sydney
Australia-Launceston

Comments

Hi Julie, I am really

Hi Julie,
I am really disappointed to hear you’ve had such a frustrating and confusing time trying to sort out your parent’s bank deposit with us.
Unfortunately in-branch deposits are not an accepted form of payment and we do advise this on the instructions page for Direct Deposits.
I am sorry for any conflicting information you have received, you have been correctly advised by Agent’s 2 and 3 that you will need to provide a few more details so we can locate this payment in our system.
I apologise that you feel there has been a lack of urgency in attending to your issues. You’re entitled to timely and consistent service from all of our staff and I’m disappointed this hasn’t been your experience so far.
We do advise that itcan take 3-5 business days for a response to your Billing Inquiry as there a multiple avenues we need to investigate to locate your funds, but I’m concerned you haven’t received any updates.
If you are able to provide a little more information to us about your Case ID or the booking reference number in question I would be happy to chase this up for you personally.
Thanks - Juliette

This has just happened to me

This has just happened to me .. well not just. I've been arguing with them for weeks. How can it be so hard to find a payment? I gave them the date and time down to the second!!!

Cassie - my only advise is to

Cassie - my only advise is to demand escalation to a supervisor.
It was only until then that something started happening.
From my experience, it was clearly portrayed that there is either an issue with the training or the staff being trained.
When you have people within the same team telling a customer different resolutions, its a worry.
Hopefully you get your issue sorted. I managed to get my parents problem sorted but it took almost two weeks of ALOT of patience and alot of phone calls. And make note of their names and ID (the staff appear to all hav an ID to identify themselves) in case you have to reference back to them.
Online response time is an absolute joke so I wouldnt recommend you submit a case online if you havent already. They may advise you to (like one of them did to me) but looking at how they handled my call and problem, they dont even reference the issue back to the online case.
Good luck and hope your problem is resolved soon.