A Sydney woman has spent three months locked in a battle with Qantas after a simple transaction saw her bank account hit with multiple rounds of double direct debits and frozen funds, which at one point totalled more than $40,000.
Carol Johnson’s three-part struggle has ignited questions over how the airline bungled the transactions several times
Speaking to news.com.au, Ms Johnson said the process to reverse the errors was “torture”.
“It was like Groundhog Day over and over again. Every single day,” she said.
“People say: ‘How can we get stressed and upset about doing that?’ but until it happens to you, you don’t understand that it’s just slow torture and you don’t know if you’re ever going to get an answer.”
Part one: Account left $16,357.33 in arrears
Ms Johnson’s struggle began on March 15 of this year when she booked five flights at a cost of $16,357.33 for herself, her husband and United States-based son.
Two days later her bank account was double-debited 11 transactions ranging from $30 to $1996.92, totalling $6363.73. Two days after that, on March 19, she was debited another $9993.60, bringing the total to $16,357.33. She didn’t make the discovery until her card was declined while she was buying coffee.
News.com.au understands the double charge was caused by an external issue, which also impacted Qantas as well as other merchants.
It would take five days for the $16,357.33 double debit to be reversed, meaning the family’s “everyday” account was frozen, and they were unable to access their funds or cover living expenses.
However, Ms Johnson says her key gripe lies with Qantas’s “stress-inducing” customer service processes.
“I was on the phone for days. I was getting up at three or four o’clock in the morning to be put on hold for four to five hours,” she said.
Part two: Accounts frozen by $40,294.44
After delaying and cancelling her initial overseas holiday, Ms Johnson made a second attempt to purchase two business class tickets to Honolulu, Hawaii on July 26, spending a total of $13,431.48.
Nine days later, on August 4, she received an email from Qantas stating that the company was “having difficulty processing” her recent payment.
A call to the airline revealed the payment had been declined, and that she would have to pay again, or risk losing the tickets.
Following the airline’s instructions, Ms Johnson paid for the flights one more time using her husband’s debit card, which was processed while she was on the phone with a Qantas customer service representative. Although the payment appeared to have been completed, Ms Johnson was again told it had been declined a few days later.
Ms Johnson would make another two attempts to purchase the tickets through different debit accounts. At one point she had three lots of $13,431.48 pending across three different cards, totalling $40,294.44.
Finally, on August 19, one set of the transactions cleared and the frozen funds were returned to her account. This was after a period of seven to eight days, Ms Johnson estimates.
Although Ms Johnson was able to shoulder the financial burden of not being able to access more than $40,000 in her bank account, she acknowledges that not everyone is so lucky.
“If the same thing had happened to my son, they would not have survived. They would have been in such big strife,” she said.
“Luckily we had money and we would have got our money back eventually, but it was stressful.
“Why should the onus be on us to fight for our money when they took it out without our authority?”
Part three: ‘Cherry on top’ 44 days later
While Ms Johnson and her family thought that their strife had ended when the Honolulu flights were finally issued, her debit account was double-debited again by $13,412.68 on September 8. An email confirmation indicated this amount was in respect to the original flights she made on July 26.
Once again, the couple were unable to access their everyday transaction account and this time it would take another 12 days for the funds to be released.
Ms Johnson described this as the “cherry on top”. Although she got in contact with Qantas “straight away”, she says she still hasn’t received an explanation.
“It happened out of nowhere. I woke up and our account was overdrawn by $13,000,” she said.
“I got on the phone from Qantas straight away. I still don’t know why it happened.”
In a statement to news.com.au, a spokesperson for Qantas said the airline had apologised to Ms Johnson for the booking issues and admitted to the error. News.com.au understands that incidents involving double charges are very rare.
“She should not have been charged twice in August and September and we returned the funds to her as soon as we became aware,” they said.
“Authorisations for purchases sits with the credit card provider, and Qantas has worked with them to resolve the issue and reimburse the customer.”
‘They put us through hell’
Although Ms Johnson is no longer out of pocket for the double-debit payments, she believes she is entitled to lifetime Gold Status in Qantas’ Frequent Flyer Program.
The Sydney woman says she would like “a little bit of luxury for all the pain” Qantas has caused. The upgrade would also give her access to priority telephone service in Australia, which she views as a major benefit, given her recent experiences.
As it stands the negotiations remain unresolved and Ms Johnson says she is prepared to cancel her return flights with the airline.
In correspondence seen by news.com.au, the airline refused Ms Johnson’s Frequent Flyer status request. However, Qantas was prepared to honour a complimentary flight change request made by Ms Johnson, reimbursement for interest fees and offered the couple a “goodwill” of a $2000 Qantas Travel voucher.
“I’m not asking for money. I just wanted them to acknowledge that they buggered things up big time,” she said.
“They put us through hell and we would like something substantial in return.”
Shame at Australia’s national carrier
Ms Johnson isn’t the only person enraged at Qantas booking system. In September, Sydney man Robert Manning shared with news.com.au that it took 31 calls to the carrier to resolve two mystery unauthorised transactions totalling $718.82.
Over the next two weeks he spent nine hours on the phone in an attempt to reverse the transaction, with the longest call lasting more than two hours.
“Nowhere along the line was there a hint of make good or compensation for the headache or the financial stress it could have caused,” he said.
Reflecting on the experience, Mr Manning said his experience has tarnished the Qantas brand, which he once cherished.
“I gave them lots of opportunities to just fix it. All I wanted was my flights and what I thought the customer was entitled to and it turned into a 12-day fight,” he said.
“They talk about being the ‘spirit of Australia’ but it’s like they’ve lost their personality.”
In response to this publication, Qantas said the amounts help by Mr Manning account was “an authorisation only, not a payment”.
“This was an error made by an operator during a complex booking process and we are investigating what went wrong and how we can make sure it doesn’t happen again,” they said.
Continue the conversation, email jessica.wang@news.com.au
