Jetstar told me lies and won't give my money back until it's ready.

I have posted the following on Jetstar Australia facebook, JETSTAR SUCKS, Jetstar Complaints and here! And I am going to the media as well. I do not like being lied too or stolen from.
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I have a complaint about Jetstar Australia and your company won't deal with it - so I am making my complaint public.

I found a good deal for a trip I wanted to make & booked it on the 5th January. It was an online booking which I had never done before with Jetstar and because my internet connection is dodgy at best, I hurried the booking, put my name in the money transfer instead of the flight reference and hit the button.

I realized almost instantly I might have made an error, so rang the Jetstar help desk, who told me that booking WOULD NOT BE ACCEPTED and that I should RE-BOOK the flight to take advantage of the deal.

So I did, assuming (never assume folks) that my money would be refunded immediately the booking was refused.

2 days later, the second booking was accepted but no money had been returned to the account from the first one, so I rang and was told to contact another department that only operated through online written communication.

No person to talk to and a response that stated someone would contact me within 15 days.

Tried a couple of ways to talk to someone living, but no good.

2 days later, the first booking - the one I was told would NOT BE ACCEPTED, was accepted, so I had 2 bookings on 1 flight.

I rang the help desk and sorted the bookings out, but when I asked about my refund, the response was cagey and I was again directed to the online written communication department - so I went through that process again - getting unhappier by the day.

I got a call on the 20th January telling me the refund had been approved and processed and here was my receipt number. Yay!

However the next day there was still no money back in the account, so I rang AGAIN and was told the money HAD TO BE THERE - CHECK WITH THE BANK. I also asked them to give me the banking details as a double check and that was ok. So back to the bank.

The banks's response was for me to ask Jetstar when the money was REFUNDED - NOT JUST APPROVED for a refund.

Seems clear to me this was a relatively common issue from their response and I could conclude that other people had been through the same rigmarole because......imagine my surprise when I was told by Jetstar staff, that the refund takes 15 day AFTER THE APPROVAL PROCESS!!!!!!!

This is not about the money folks - although I believe that Jetstar are using my money to make interest for themselves at my expense.

Yes, I made the original error - but every single time I have contacted Jetstar I have learned something new about this process, which means each help desk person has withheld info from me, which means Jetstar have been lying to me and have essentially stolen my money as they will not return it to me until they are ready to do so.

Remember Jetstar -
* YOUR staff told me to make the second booking.
* YOUR staff fobbed me off from getting correct, complete answers.
* YOUR staff told me my money was in my bank.

I finally got very "annoyed" and asked to speak to a supervisor so I could lodge a complaint. They were busy! So I made sure that I stated that I wished to have them call me.

Which a supervisor did, only to tell me that
* sometimes the flight is accepted, sometimes it is not.
* the money had to be found and identified as belonging to me before it could be returned !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

More stories, for heaven's sake!

Was any of this information available for me to read on their website? Not that I could find. Was it given to me at any stage during the process of trying to retrieve my money before speaking to a supervisor? No - and I am a person that states the situation and my questions very clearly.

All up - my experience with Jetstar is filthy. They owe me compensation and I stated that very clearly to the supervisor, because they have used my money for their own purposes, despite telling me originally that the flight would not be accepted- which in anyone's terms would mean nor would my money be taken out of my bank account.

It is now the 1st February. In 4 days Jetstar will have had MY money for 1 month and I have had nothing but grief in this process.

That Jetstar, is dirty business.

Not long ago I flew with QANTAS and Virgin - them I would recommend!
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Domestic
Australia-Sydney
Australia-Sunshine Coast

Comments

Don't fly Qantas either as

Don't fly Qantas either as they own Jetstar. Fly Virgin

Hi Sue, What you have

Hi Sue,

What you have experienced is a perfectly normal business practice for Jetstar. It’s important to understand that from Jetstar’s perspective nothing has gone wrong with their processes and the call centre has worked exactly as Jetstar management requires it to do so.

From Jetstar’s perspective there is be no problem here.

I’ve had a similar frustrating experience dealing with them in regards to a refund. Like you, I was told multiple different stories, each of which contradicted the previous. Mentioning the contradictions simply resulted in the call centre staff telling another story – no acknowledgment whatsoever of how illogical the situation was.

The whole process is designed to make you give up.

Now, before the regular Jetstar apologists start furiously banging away a response to that, consider the facts:

a) a call centre that has no power at all to assure anybody of a refund, yet talks to the customer as if it has. The actual decision to refund (or not) is made in the Melbourne office. When the call centre staff says “you will get a refund”, it really just means he / she will tick the refund box on the screen.

In the process flow the case is picked up by Melbourne who more often than not simply deny the refund, regardless of what the call centre staff had said or promised to the customer (as that is of no consequence in the decision making process).

Upon Melbourne refusing to refund nothing at all happens until the customer calls again. No phone call, no email ... nothing. Eventually the customer calls again querying why the money is not in their account. Only then are they told “no refund” and you will be getting a voucher, and basically it does not matter what you think about it.

b) no publicly listed phone number for the decision makers in the Melbourne office. This is intentional – it’s designed to force all communication via the call centre. From Jetstar’s point of view, great. For the customer who has to make multiple, (read many many) phones calls and endure being mislead and straight out lied to by staff, then afterwards to find anything the staff said would happen has not it’s a diabolical situation that has no end. To compound the mounting frustration the call centre staff often have only a basic grasp of English.

If you play the game Jetstar’s way very rarely will you get satisfaction. If your case is solid and you have the facts to support it, my recommendation is to lodge a case with your state’s consumer protection body. In NSW that is the CTTT. Lodgement costs only about $30. A hearing is scheduled and each party simply states their case – very easy. (no lawyers allowed). The CTTT decision is legally binding. Given that Jetstar already have your money you have nothing to lose and all to gain.

It really is the only way to force this unethical company to do the right thing. Several days after I lodged my case, and Jetstar had been advised of it, my refund was made (after 60+ days, many phone calls and different misleading stories)

Good luck and don’t give up.

Couple of lessons here. 1.

Couple of lessons here.

1. Make sure you know what you are doing when booking the flight
2. Pay by direct deposit - this gives you time to print off & review your booking before paying. You don't have to pay for a few days
3. I've requested a refund for a cancelled booking to Japan. Yep - Jetstar stated that my refund had been approved.
4. The refund then came back into my account around 12-15 days later. This is typical.
5. Your approval was given on the 20th January. Takes 15 business days to get back into your account. I'd wait until that time is over before wasting your time here.

Tony - I agree with the

Tony - I agree with the process as you have defined it!

I have had my money returned however, as I let them know very loudly and clearly, that I was working my way through a list of complaint sites, including media, Fair Trading,etc and that my complaint included reference to "lies and theft."

They actually rang me today and asked if I was satisified and could they compensate me with a voucher. As I do not intend to use this company ever again, I refused the offer and made sure the person on the end knew that I considered the whole thing a fraud.

Peter Finch - main lesson is "if something seems too good to be true, it usually is" so no discount will be worth this again.

You also do not appreciate their process - the discount sale was only available online. I actually prefer to use cash and would have loved the opportunity to do a direct deposit - but that is not available.

You are also forgetting that at the time of booking, the STAFF person for Jetstar told me TWICE the booking WOULD NOT BE ACCEPTED and that I needed to BOOK THE FLIGHT AGAIN.

I rang Jetstar approx 7 times. On each call I learned something new only because I kept asking questions and demanding answers. in fact, a supervisor informed me in about call #5, that "sometimes the booking was accepted, and sometimes it was not" - so the information changed along the way as well. That supervisor also told me the delay in the refund involved them having to FIND MY MONEY. Come on!!! I only found out about the 15 days refund timetable AFTER the 15 days wait to have the refund approved on another phone call. So that's 30 days before I see the money Peter. The REFUND APPROVAL - NOT the REFUND, is dated 20 Jan.

Your comments sound like they come from someone that works for Jetstar, not someone that has had to go through a process of demanding a return.

The simple fact is this - Jetstar took my money AFTER it said it would not and returned it at its leisure. Never again.

There seems to be lots of

There seems to be lots of people who seem to think if you suggest some information about your experiences or procedures - that all of a sudden you work for Jetstar. I was simply offering suggestions so people do not have the same experience as you did Sue.

You are simply incorrect about not being able to pay by direct deposit online - it's clearly one of the payment options. It available on every booking - sorry to correct you Sue. If you had of booked this way, and had time to review your original booking you would have avoided being mucked around.

Yes. like the 6 phone calls I get every night from the Indian call centers - it's extremely frustrating going around and around seemingly getting no where. At the end of the day - you got your money back as I did. I know you shouldn't have to talk to 500 poorly trained call center people who don't know what they are talking about to do so.

Have to be very very careful with low cost airlines (no matter who they are) that you are sure of your booking / dates/ terms and conditions before you press that purchase button. Again and again with Jetstar most people complaining have similar stories to yours - if you want to change something - expect it to be ugly.