Qantas Club + Customer Service = FAIL
My bad experience with the Qantas customer service 0800 line over the past week is a story that needs telling. They clearly can’t be feeling the effects of the current recession as they don’t seem to want to retain customers.
I’ve happily been a Qantas Club member for the last 12 months. I’ve found it an invaluable service having somewhere to sit, relax and grab a bite to eat prior to taking my usual weekly flight from Wellington to Auckland and back.
To my surprise and delight at the end of April, Qantas sent me a letter indicating they had bumped me up to silver frequent flier status which coincided with my 12 month Qantas Club membership expiring. At the end of April I did not instantly renew my Qantas Club membership as I flew with my CEO on a couple of occasions and he was able to grant me access to the lounge using his club lounge membership. Times are tight and this seemed like a sensible option to me and the business.
Near the end of May (25th to be precise) I decided it was time to renew my Qantas Club membership for $475. I dutifully completed the form and payment online and then received an automated email saying that my updated Qantas Club membership would expire in just 11 months at the end of April 2010!!@!#
How could this be?? That meant I’d just paid full price for a 12 month membership that would only get me access for the remaining 11 months!?
This seemed more than a little strange so I called their customer service center to see what could be done. After a lengthy explanation of my situation to the (not-so-helpful) help desk I was politely informed there was absolutely nothing at all that could be done. The overly polite and cheerful elderly dear at the other end of the phone could not comprehend that I had been short changed by a month and did not seem even slightly convinced I had been short changed. Her not-so-helpful suggestion to my dilemma that she enthusiastically put forward involved me paying the full ‘new member’ price difference over and above my renewal fee in order to restart my membership from the 25th of May. This would then grant get me 12 months of access. However she personally commented that it wasn’t a very good idea to pay more than I already had. I suggested to her that I’d clearly been robbed of a month of service that I could never retrieve and that I was considering cancelling the service and changing carrier to Air NZ. She was only too happy to consider my request on the spot and told me that I could cancel the service, send back the Qantas Club membership card and get a full refund within 14 days. She even charmingly informed me that she had made a note on my account to that effect. They seem to be employing smiling assassins at Qantas.
To my total surprise she did not make any attempt to keep my business or raise the issue with a supervisor to see if the membership could be extended by a month! To make matters worse and even more evident that Qantas clearly didn’t want my custom, she called my mobile only 15 minutes later cheerily with ‘great news’ that my card had not yet been sent out so she would cancel it on the spot and reverse the credit card charges.
The moral of the story is Qantas clearly didn’t want my business or at least attempt to make a concession for my missing month of service. I foolishly thought that simply adding a month was a common sense solution to the problem. Given the current competitive climate for air travel you’d think they would have taken a minute to question their internal processes and give the customer fair treatment. It seems not.
Have you had a similar level of bad service from your airline or supplier? Has your complaint fallen on deaf ears?
P.S if a marketing manager from Air NZ should read this I’m open to offers!
HTC Magic/G2 Android coming to NZ
I found a video released by Vodafone UK for the official unboxing of their new HTC Magic, otherwise known as the G2 (the second Google phone). The Magic is reportedly arriving in NZ sometime soon although I can’t yet find an official date. It looks great and comes packed with useful and not so useful features. It appears very similar to the iPhone which should make a great three horse race vs the Palm Pre and next gen iPhone. Check out the video link below although it seems like they’ve gone to an awful lot of effort to make it look like a home handycam job.
Gizmodo have done their own review with a direct comparison to the iPhone.
Welcome back + new XT network
I’ve decided to fire up my blog again and start recording all things useful in the mobile/digital space that I stumble across.
As a welcome back post I thought I’d lead off with this little beauty…
I signed up in eager anticipation of Telecom’s new XT network featuring the charming Hamster. I thought Telecom did a great job of their launch TVC and have since come across this fantastic spoof version although I think the ending takes the micky a little too far.
Today I recieved from Telecom an update via email as I registered on the website, the email reads “After a minor distraction earlier in the week, we are pleased to report that we will still launch in May. The new date is 29 May”
I think ‘ minor distraction’ is a little light on the fact that Vodafone took them to the high court and they’ve delayed the launch in order to fit new filters to stop network interference. While I don’t think Vodafone are entirely blameless in this whole fiasco I think that delaying the launch is a massive admission of guilt.
My only plea is that somewhere amongst the creative and attention grabbing advertising it actually includes an element of Mobile Marketing. Wouldn’t it be a shame if Telecom just stuck to its knitting and only ran TV, web and billboard advertising in an effort to demonstrate their awesome new mobile technology?!? We’ll find out over the coming weeks no doubt.
Aussies Bond with QR codes
Sorry for the corny title, but I couldn’t help it. Plus, it wasn’t my idea originally so I can’t take all the blame. Check out this story in the Australian IT News “Retail marketers set to Bond with mobile QR codes”
Also this link explains more about the promo and links to the campaign website and the related facebook spy page of Constance Newlove. Plus they have a dedicated mobi site for the non telstra QR handsets here. I was able to enter my NZ mobile number into the form and recieve an SMS. Interestingly the message came from “QuantomCode” so I can’t reply and also makes me think it’s a backdoor gateway to Vodafone NZ.
The Ad Agency is Euro RSCG, I can’t say I’ve heard of them but great to see that big agencies are sitting up and taking notice of this new technology.
The short version is that punters find codes and complete a mini treasure hunt. By scanning codes found in store or on products purchased they get more entries in the draw.
60 Million SMS per day…
…that’s how many more messages per day Britons are sending on their mobile network since this time last year. That increase takes them to a whopping 217 Million SMS per day as reported by the Daily Telegraph in the UK.
In comparison I believe Vodafone NZ send around 16-18Million per day with a peak of 19 Million on Fridays. Telecom NZ would also have similar figures. The article also goes on to say that “16.9 million people in the UK used their phones to get online” showing that demand is there for brands to have a mobile internet presence or at least a mobile friendly presence.
It just goes to show that even with the release of iPhones, Blackberry Storms and Nokia N96’s that people are still flocking to the good ol’ SMS.
Air NZ embraces mobile innovation
Air NZ have finally announced a new self service check in system that centers around mobile technology.
In an extract from Business Day…
“About 100,000 frequent flyers will be issued radio frequency identification tags, commonly used for office access cards. The small tags can be stuck to the back of a mobile phone.”
They have also made some noise about a paperless check in system which uses 2D barcodes on the screen of the mobile.
I hope this makes other NZ organisations sit up and take notice that mobile technology can be adopted and used for the masses not just the iPhone elite. I suspect we’ll hear more about the technology over the coming days and weeks which will no doubt include customer feedback. Their principle objective appears to be cutting check-in times for customers so it will be interesting to see the results. As a bonus for Air NZ the new technology will no doubt create a lot of discussion and positive attention as positioning them market innovators.
It’s been a slow month on the blog with so much on at work but I’m hoping to be back with the latest industry news in November. Stay tuned.
Meet Gina
This has nothing to do with mobiles sorry, but it’s too cool not to post.
Mon – 18th of Aug
What a weekend! Michael Phelps wins his 8th Gold medal. NZ hauls in 5 medals, the AB’s dominate SA and on the mobile front Ralph Lauren launch their mobile commerce site complete with QR codes that link to it. The guys at mobithinking.com published a great article “A Three Step Guide to Usability on the Mobile Web”. It’s a great read if you’re considering launching a site made for mobile. On a personal note, it’s less than 3 weeks to the 12hr Day Night Thriller in Taupo. I can’t wait.
More here on the Ralph Lauren site with witty commentary, with some equally valid points though. Interesting to note the feedback about the decision to use QR codes and the major barrier of getting users to download the software to the phone first.
I’ve also noticed that their site loads poorly in the 3G iPhone with the default width set way too high. The experience on the iPhone looked similar to that on Firefox.
It also seems that Ralph Lauren are no stranger to digital innovation with this clever touch screen display which included a ‘Minority Report’ interface and m-commerce features.
