As refund nightmare stories go, this one must take the cake – an Aussie woman allegedly waited two years for a refund from Qantas.
We’ve all had pesky conversations when trying to get a refund from brands – but this one surely must be up there in terms of just how haranguing it can be.
Melbourne-based Anne Brophy, 68, claims that she allegedly had to wait two years for Qantas to refund her for a cancelled flight – two years during which she sent repeat follow-ups to the airline to no avail.
The flight in question dates back to September 2020. Brophy was scheduled to fly out to Singapore with a friend, but all flights were cancelled when the pandemic hit. Brophy was informed she would be refunded the total, amounting to $1764.64.
Thus began a tale of two very ‘frustrating’ years, according to Brophy – although she didn’t know it at the time.
“I rang up, I gave them my bank details and I was told I would have a refund within 8-10 weeks,” she said, speaking to news.com.au. On October 13th, 2020 she received an email stating her refund had been processed, only she ‘never got anything’.
Trying to reach the airline helpline did not help: “I was on the phone for about six hours at one point, or when I would eventually get through I’d get disconnected. I just thought ‘fair enough’ – no one is flying now anyway so [it] doesn’t matter.”
Brophy then tried again in February 2021, to no response from the airline. Come 2022, the airline still hadn’t refunded her. When she finally got through to someone this year, she was told that her refund had been processed and that the issue had been ‘resolved’.
Qantas, however, wouldn’t provide any details or proof of said refund: “We wouldn’t have those details.” This led Brophy to get in touch with her bank and pour over statements from the past two years – which confirmed that a refund had never been made.
Brophy – who, at this point, had tried everything, including getting a consumer advocate – filled out a Refund Request Declaration form from Qantas. That, too, was a dead-end – she was informed her ‘case was closed’.
Her refund finally came in late last week, with Qantas explaining that her refund had never been processed due to an ‘operator’s error’. In a statement to news.com.au, Qantas apologised for the delay and claimed that Brophy’s refund was processed ‘incorrectly’.
“While it was processed at the time, we have now discovered that this was done incorrectly and the funds were not released. We have spoken to the customer and we have rectified this today (October 21) and the customer will receive the funds shortly.” the airline said.
This is not the first time Qantas has been pulled up for inefficiency. In September, a Reddit thread blasted the airline for low hygiene and disappointing food.
