Qatar Airways Refund…doesn’t exist?

11 Feb, 2009  Annoyances

qatarairways-logo_booking_engine_flightsI just wanted to share a couple of bad experiences that happened yesterday. This is an example of how something going wrong can be resolved quickly :)

I’m all pro-technology and simplifying life, however it seems that it only takes one mix up to mess up your whole day. I was booking a ticket online at Qatar Airways as usual after reaching the final page I get an error telling me that the page is down and that I should try again later. I give off a little *sigh*. As I’m about to start over my phone rings. I received an SMS. I look at the screen to see that I’ve been charged for the ticket! Nice! I’ve always wanted to be charged for nothing! Dream come true right now. Thanks to QNB’s sms system too for even letting me know!

I make a phone call to e-commerce sales which redirects me to a call agency in MUSCAT. Guess labour is cheaper over there.  The woman gives me a Qatar switch board number in order to get in contact with the right guy. I call it. The guy on the phone, (who incidentally is also runner up to be Mr. Grouch of the Universe), gives me another number to call. I call it only to get connected to the FIRST woman. I’ve been given the run around.

Now I usually don’t get that stressed about a refund but this happened two weeks ago as well. I’m still waiting for a refund on both. I went over to the bank who told me no refund was initiated and in fact the payment two weeks ago was TAKEN.

My solution? Wait for a confirmation of reservation before charging the card. Yep, it’s that easy. The site just needs to wait if there are any errors before sending out a trigger to charge the card. That way, we don’t have to waste precious life minutes trying to chase up the refund.

On a side note, there are some friendly QA staff that are assisting with this as I type this but the point is, I should have never entered into this mess in the first place nes pa? That’s alright, I’m helping them out by providing a detailed list of suggestions to fix/change the site.

Time for a *BIG SIGH*

4 Comments so far »

  1. me. said,

    Wrote on February 22, 2009 @ 11:41 am

    hahahaha :D

  2. me. said,

    Wrote on February 22, 2009 @ 3:32 pm

    On a more serious note, I sent it off to my manager.

  3. me. said,

    Wrote on February 22, 2009 @ 3:32 pm

    On a more serious note, I sent it off to my manager.

  4. Kei said,

    Wrote on February 22, 2009 @ 5:35 pm

    thanks. I think it’s sorted now (I’ve spoken to a bunch of people who assure me it’ll be fine, but lets see :P )

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