VCAT action against Jetstar

Hi Folks,
There are many of you on here expressing dissatisfaction about the unfairness of your experience with Jetstar. I am proposing that we do something about this...as you can see by reading the sorry exchange below with the CEO's of Jetstar we are wasting our time waiting for Jetstar to provide a solution. If you are interested in taking this matter to VCAT as a joint action please private message me. I will cough up the $32 to lodge the application but I will need your time and experiences. This message will be posted on Don't fly Jetstar so you will be still able to read my contact details once it is taken down.

Cheers Gregg

From: Gregg Davies
Sent: Tuesday, 19 February 2013 2:54 PM
To: jayne.hrdlicka@jetstar.com; david.hall@jetstar.com
Subject: RE: Issues with Jetstar booking - Attention Ella

Jayne and David

Seriously?

You ask the same person to ring again to explain again to me your fare rules. It seems to be that you think this is a matter of me not understanding your unfair contract terms it is not. It is simply a matter of me believing that your contract terms are unfair and unlawful under the act.

I will now go onto your facebook page and post this entire sorry exchange and ask for other disgruntled customers, of which you have many, to become joined in a VCAT action to investigate whether your unfair contract charges are enforceable under law

I must say I am disappointed that the Senior Executives of a major international company are unable to resolve such a simple matter without trying to rip off the people who enable you to remain in business.

Kind Regards,

From: Gregg Davies
Sent: Tuesday, 19 February 2013 11:16 AM
To: jayne.hrdlicka@jetstar.com; david.hall@jetstar.com
Subject: RE: Issues with Jetstar booking - Attention Ella

Dear Jayne and David,

I thought I would write as a final attempt to resolve this with Jetstar to advise that if I cannot have this sorted today I intend to lodge proceedings with VCAT regarding this and all previously unresolved issues.

I would appreciate it if we could avoid going down this path.

Kind Regards,

From: Gregg Davies
Sent: Monday, 18 February 2013 4:00 PM
To: jayne.hrdlicka@jetstar.com; david.hall@jetstar.com
Subject: FW: Issues with Jetstar booking - Attention Ella

Hi Jayne and David;

Thanks for the effort, unfortunately it appears to have been little more than an a token effort and I am more than disillusioned and annoyed than ever.

The deal offered by the customer service people was laughable, although they were at least pleasant about it

We were offered a discount of a name change fee, $100 voucher and $400 to change a ticket I can buy for $190. Unfortunately, the tickets were $109 when I first started trying to sort this out so the bulk of the voucher will need to go to purchasing a new ticket which won’t arrive in time for me to use it.

I can’t understand that if the CEO of a company asks you to sort a matter out that you would bother ringing and wasting even more of mine and my wife’s time unless you had an offer that was worth making.

It has now wasted more of your time, more of mine, my wife who had to confirm that I was able to discuss the matter and more of your staff, who presumably don’t possess enough authorisation to cop one on the chin and sacrifice a few hundred dollars to maintain customer relationships.

Kind Regards,

From: David Hall [mailto:david.hall@jetstar.com]
Sent: Monday, 18 February 2013 12:42 PM
To: Gregg Davies
Cc: Jayne Hrdlicka
Subject: RE: Issues with Jetstar booking - Attention Ella

Dear Mr Davies
Thank you for the email.
I apologise that this matter has taken such a long time to resolve.
I will ask the senior leaders of the Customer Care team to review and be in contact with you.
We are working hard to continually improve our service, enhance call centre resolution and deliver more initiatives to underpin our low fares model to provide the tens of millions of people who travel with us each year, with low fares and an enjoyable experience.
Please bear with us a few more days while we review and resolve this matter for you.
Kind regards
David

David Hall
Chief Executive Officer (Australia and New Zealand)
JETSTAR AIRWAYS

Dear Gregg

Thank you for your note, and I am very sorry to hear that you have had such an unsatisfactory experience with Jetstar in working through your booking changes. We value all of our customers highly, and the service you received is not at all in line with what we seek to provide.

I have asked our Customer Care team to investigate what has happened and why, and to get in touch with you as soon as possible to resolve the situation.

Please accept my apologies on behalf of Jetstar, and be assured that we take your feedback very seriously. One of our team will be in touch with you as soon as they can.

Kind regards. Jayne Hrdlicka

From: Gregg Davies Sent: Monday, 18 February 2013 12:19 PM
To: Customer Response; David Hall; Jayne Hrdlicka
Cc: Bruce Buchanan
Subject: RE: Issues with Jetstar booking - Attention Ella

Dear Jayne and David,

I have been trying to obtain a satisfactory response to my numerous complaints (see email below) since June last year. As myself, wife and 6 children are frequent flyers who fly almost exclusively with Jetstar I am obviously quite keen to obtain some resolution to these matters.

What I would really like to see is a return to the airline of circa 2004, an airline about which I had very few complaints.

Unfortunately, the disdain with which I have been treated leaves me with little hope that this will ever occur.

I have previously, emailed Bruce Buchanan, who very kindly asked a fellow by the name of John to get in touch with me. Unfortunately John proved less than useful, apart from offering a $50 voucher which did absolutely nothing to offset the inconvenience, stress or financial impost that had been imposed upon us.

I emailed Bruce a second time, this time he asked the lovely Ella to contact me who seemed delightful, unfortunately, the complaint ended up being passed back to John, who was once again ineffective. His words to me were “ I wish there was something I could do to help” followed by not actually doing anything.

I now have something that can be done, I tried to speak to the loosely termed “customer service” people about changing the name on a ticket to Melbourne to Darwin from my daughter’s name to mine. They were unable to help without charging $700 for the privilege.

Yes, I am aware that you have fare rules, yes, I am aware that a name change fee should be due and payable, what I don’t agree with is charging hundreds of additional dollars to resell me a ticket we bought last May at current market value, particularly when it is my ticket you are reselling me.

If you can help in any way with getting this done for a reasonable fee please contact me, it may go some way to rectifying the ill feeling I have felt towards what was actually once a great airline.

Lastly, I am sure you are aware, but if not…have a look at the Facebook page.. and/or; the ‘Don’t fly Jetstar” Facebook page, there are hundreds and hundreds of complaints about the customer call centre and about inordinate charges for what in the most are simple requests. These are opportunities to actually provide some customer service and win some return customers rather than alienate an increasing number of customers with fees that are simply unfair and service that is not up to scratch.

I cannot fathom how sticking someone for a couple of hundred dollars once for changing a flight and losing future business is better than doing it for a reasonable charge and maintaining the customer .

I can be contacted on if you would like to discuss this matter

Kind Regards,

From: Gregg Davies
Sent: Tuesday, 7 August 2012 5:11 PM
To: 'customer.response@jetstar.com'
Cc: bruce.buchanan@jetstar.com
Subject: FW: Issues with Jetstar booking - Attention Ella

Hi Ella,

Thank you for contacting me the other day regarding the email I sent to Jetstar. As promised please see below the original email giving history to the complaint and apologies for the delay in getting back to you.

Thanks also to Bruce who for the second time has asked someone to contact me, the first person John who contacted me unfortunately proved to be of little assistance and maintained the same line I have previously received although he did offer up a $50 voucher.

As you can see from my letter below I was extremely grumpy at the time but if I summarise my issues with Jetstar it may be more productive.

1) As below – recent additions to the Jetstar website make it time consuming and annoying to complete a booking, as the website automatically adds options to the booking which you have to click to remove, as I understand from John, during the process of doing this an accidental brush of the scroll wheel on the mouse can be enough to reverse the bookings.

2) The additional questions prior to completing the booking – e.g. hire cars, extra leg room, carbon offset, etc. etc. makes the customer far less likely to check their actual booking before paying the final amount.

3) John assures me that there are a number of opportunities to check the booking before final confirmation but from what I can see, you are required to actually click to the side of the screen to open up booking details
4) In the event that a booking is made incorrectly, Jetstar has a take no prisoners approach. It used to be that if there was an error made you could change the booking within 24 hours without additional fees. If it happens now, the Jetstar call staff offer to change your flights for exorbitant prices with change fees and (what annoys me most) at quoted ticket prices that are about 3 times higher than the internet ticket prices I can see on the screen.
5) The previous 24 hours grace was much friendlier and left the customer happy with the service they received. The current situation, where you are repeatedly told that Jetstar is a low cost airline and there are no refunds on the tickets, leaves a sour taste in your mouth. Particularly, when you all you are asking is to swap a $35 ticket from Sydney to Melbourne for a $35 ticket from Melbourne to Sydney.

I have been increasingly frustrated over phone service from Jetstar over the past 5 years and it seems to be getting much worse, unrelated to the matter above here are my major concerns:

1) My wife and disabled daughter were rushing for the check in counter at Newcastle when my daughter fell some 10 metres from the check in counter, despite watching this happen and watching my wife struggle to pick up my daughter, bags etc without any offer of help. The check in staff decided to close check with my wife and daughter in full view, necessitating an overnight stay, hotel room and more expensive plane ticket to return to Melbourne
2) On a flight from Brisbane to Melbourne, we had checked in but were running behind time for boarding. I was then pulled out to be bomb tested where I could physically see the plane had departed early and pulled away from the terminal, with the plane 100 metres from the boarding gate, my phone rang in my bag, a check of the messages stated it was Jetstar stating that if I was not at the airport soon the plane would leave. What is the point ringing when the plane is already gone?
3) On a recent trip to Fiji (with Jetstar flights all the way, from Melbourne to ) I rang concerned that I would have insufficient time to make the domestic transfer from the plane in Sydney at the international terminal to the domestic flight to Melbourne, after 3 phone calls, I was told the only way I could get a response was to file a written complaint…. I did so and got no response….with time getting closer I rang the number it said to phone…..they told me they couldn’t help I would have to write another complaint which I did….. I received no response despite stating clearly the timeframes that were involved and the urgency of the matter. On the return leg from Fiji, the Jetstar international flight was late, we were called by Jetstar whilst waiting in the line at customs, we explained the situation to no avail. We had deliberately brought back no items that needed to be declared and had only carry on baggage and had checked in whilst in Fiji because we were aware time was of the essence. When we arrived at the domestic airport there was not a single Jetstar staff member to be found. So 350 dollars for a hotel/taxi and 3 hours on the phone later. I had ranted and raved enough that our flights were transferred to the following night. 2 weeks after returning home I received a response to my initial complaint stating that Jetstar would not be responsible for other airlines running late ………..aaaarrrggh

Anyway it used to be my favourite airline, now it is not, I guess that is the way it is going to be…. The off shore call centre is a nightmare. The inflight staff are still great, as are most of your check in staff, with the exception of the grumpy one in Hawaii

Over and out thanks Ella…..let me know if anything changes

Oh and one last thing if my bag is 1 kilo overweight and my wife’s is one kilo underweight, is it really necessary for us to move one kilo from one to the other?

Cheers 
Kind Regards,

From: Gregg Davies
Sent: Friday, 29 June 2012 2:12 PM
To: 'customer.relationships@jetstar.com'
Cc: 'bruce.buchanan@jetstar.com'; 'michael.mirabito@jetstar.com'; 'alan.joyce@qantas.com.au'; 'eileen.burnett-kant@jetstar.com'; 'baggage.services@jetstar.com'; 'customer.relations@jetstarasia.com'
Subject: Issues with Jetstar booking

To whom it may concern

On the 28/06/12 I booked online to fly from Melbourne (Avalon) to Sydney on the 7th September and returning on the 9th September (N4RP9V).

On the 29th June 2012, I opened the itinerary with the intention of booking a ticket for my wife to join me on this trip. I was surprised to learn that the itinerary listed the flights in reverse, which was of no use to me as I live in Melbourne.

I immediately rang the customer service centre who attempted to charge me over $200 to try and change the booking. I spoke to a supervisor: Jona Tolentino Id: xjto08 who also refused to assist without charging me booking change fees in excess of the tickets actual value. In frustration, I rebooked the tickets for my wife (C9HPGG) and I completely online as the cost for two new tickets was $140 and significantly cheaper than the change fee for one ticket online

Apparently I am now stuck with one useless ticket that I cannot use, I am increasingly frustrated with Jetstar’s lack of understanding and customer service. I am very confident that I selected the correct destination and departure city after having booked hundreds of domestic and international flights with Jetstar for myself and my family.

However, even if I was at fault, I believe your customer service is woeful and the effort to resolve issues a complete waste of space. I have previously lodged complaints via the online complaint centre only to be completely ignored or find that the respondent has absolutely no concept of what is being requested, nor the nature of the complaint.

Yes I am aware that Jetstar is a low-cost airline, but it is only over the last few years that you have started to act like one.

This may be only a matter of $70, but as a Jetstar member, Qantas frequent flyer member, Jetstar Mastercard holder and as someone who has booked many, many airfares for myself, wife and 6 children I would expect some more assistance from an airline even remotely interested in return business.

I have previously been a staunch advocate of Jetstar and recommended them far and wide, including completing your surveys and entering your photo competitions. I now intend to publicise my disdain equally as wide. To be fair, if you can actually get on a plane your air crew are still pretty good but the so called customer relationship team is a particularly unfunny joke.

I will leave it to you folks to decide whether it is worth $70 to your company to continue with the low– cost airline, no refund policy that was sprouted to me 50 times in the 1 hour of my life I will never get back dealing with your complete lack of service department.

Please contact me on if you wish to discuss this matter