Stupendous phone wait for Qantas makes world headlines
The story of an Adelaide businessman who waited nearly 16 hours for Qantas to answer the phone has made headlines around the world.
Melbourne’s Age newspaper recounted how Adelaide businessman Andrew Kahn waited on hold on his mobile for 15 hours, 40 minutes and one second, waiting for Qantas to answer so he could confirm his flight to New York.
He waited through the night, reading and completing a lengthy academic book on management while doing so. He told the newspaper that his decision to wait was motivated partly to avoid losing his place in the phone queue and partly to find what Qantas meant when it said that someone would speak with him “as soon as possible”.
Kahn finally gave up and hung up, describing the airline’s phone service as “just about the worst customer service any customer could ever receive”. He pointed out that he could have flown from Melbourne to Los Angeles in the time he had been holding on for Qantas to answer the phone.
Qantas said it is investigating but stopped short of confirming Kahn’s accusation. The airlines said it had no evidence of the marathon call and insisted that the average phone wait during the time Kahn complained about was under a minute and the longest was 17 minutes.
The airline said Kahn’s booking appeared to have been cancelled by a system error, a mistake that has been rectified. Qantas apologised for any inconvenience caused.
A poll conducted online by the Age and other Fairfax publications indicated that only 4% of respondents would wait as long as Kahn did. Many people would be amazed that anyone at all would hold on that long.
But the story went viral and has been carried by newspapers and websites around the world. London’s Daily Mail ran it, as did newspapers in Greece, Holland, Germany, Poland and in many other countries. A typical German headline: Qantas: Australier hängt 15 Stunden in Telefon-Warteschleife. (Translation: Qantas: Australian waits 15 hours in telephone queue.)
Written by Peter Needham
How increadibly stupid , one email to a Travel agent would have sorted the issues out and if he booked
direct with Qantas surely Mr Khan could have checked online in a few minutes obviously has too much
time on his hands and no love in his life !!
Jeez Flying to Africa in a weeks time. Maybe better get in the queue now to confirm our tickets wtf
hmmm, am I wrong I didn’t think one had to reconfirm flights anymore … I certainly have not for years .. ???
I have to agree with Roger above. We love to put QANTAS down especially now with all the deals going with the airlines who don’t have to worry about money. Does Mr. Kahn and others not remember the good Qantas has done for this country over the years? Why not praise them instead of silly chat like this. Who carried everyone out of Darwin after Cyclone Tracy in 1974? QANTAS did and that’s just one of the many things Qantas has done for we Australians. I am very proud of QANTAS, I always will be.
I am a travel agent and believe me, I have much better things to do with my time than hang on the phone to wait for Qantas’ res to answer! I had the same problem when I called Qantas res international bookings during business hours on 11 April 2012 to have a ticket revalidated after a schedule change. The first time I called at 12:18pm and held for 2hrs 40mins then hung up, the second time I called at 4.11pm and held for 4hrs 39mins before the call was answered – here is a copy of the calls from my phone bill:
11 Apr 12:18 pm 08131313 02:40:37
11 Apr 04:11 pm 08131313 04:39:57
When the call was finally answered, great customer service skills were used – res said that the wait times were totally impossible (which of course inferred that I was lying and totally mistaken). The call duration was clearly showing on my phone handset! By this time, I was so over the whole thing that all I wanted was the ticketing issued sorted so I took a deep breath and advised res not to say anything further, I knew how long I had been holding and just get the ticket fixed. What should of happened is that my wait times were referred for further investigation. My suspician is that because my client did not have a frequent flyer membership somehow I went into some queue loop. I can accept Qantas’ average phone wait being under a minute and the longest was 17 minutes for res queue for frequent flyer members (I now use other frequent flyer membership number if I have to get on the queue for clients with no membership – problem sorted!)
“Without a travel agent, you’re on your own.”
I worked in a call centre for many years and am aware that this can happen. It is a fault in the telehone system, which no doubt Qantas contracts out the upkeep and maintaince. On rear occasions a call will enter the queue and remain at the bottom of the queue – every income call jumps past it. The call will not be answered until such time as it is the only call left in the queue. I recall one instance where a travel consultant phoned in at about 0800 hrs. He kept the line open while he did other transactions. At 1800 hrs when the call centre closed, his call finally came up to be answered. Unfortunately he was on another call using a different line and could not get to the ansered call quick enough. The call centre operator heard only silence and assumed that the caller had hung up, having no idea how long the call had been on hold. Sometimes life just sucks!
“Who carried everyone out of Darwin after Cyclone Tracy in 1974?”
Ah… memories…
How things change…
I’m waiting on this existing bookings international flights line right now. 17 mins is the longest wait? I’m already up to 27 mins and no sign of any human interaction yet…