Subject: Re: The AirAsia scam. Warning on AirAsia online bookings. AirAsia takes customers for a ride.]
If this should happen to you, don't waste your time trying to get your refund from the merchant. Go directly to Visa or Mastercard and report it. The card company will refund your money within days and grab the money back from the merchant. All merchant agreements give the card company the right to claw money back from the merchant's bank account in the event of a dispute with the customer. And unless the merchant can prove otherwise, the cardholder is always right.
On 10/02/11 1:58 AM, Tan Seng Khoon ++ wrote:
The AirAsia scam on refunds exposed
Serious allegation about the bad business practice of AirAsia.
|
Most people are not aware of the dangers they put themselves in when they book their tickets online with AirAsia. This is even more so for those experienced travellers who have always booked online with confidence because they had never encountered any difficulties. After reading all these first-hand accounts by victims from all over the world who had their Visa Cards debited a second time, you might begin to have second thoughts about booking your air tickets online with AirAsia. Scary because you cannot turn to anyone for help to get back your money immediately as is the usual practice in such cases.
|
(Tuesday February 08, 2011) VICTIM NO. 1 (from France)
Still waiting for refund of cancelled double booking. Do you know what happens if, due to the AirAsia website's often-faulty online booking system, you should incur a double booking and have your Visa Card debited two times? According to them you will have to wait for up to two months for them to refund you the money that they have wrongly taken from you. This happened to me with my booking on November 21, 2010 (yes, last year) and up to today (Tuesday February 08, 2011) they have still not refunded me the sum of 2,292.72 euros (equivalent to 9,483.42 MYR at today's rate) that they debited from my Visa Card on November 21 last year for a double booking (same dates, same 4 passengers) although the refund has been approved for payment and the superfluous tickets cancelled. Hey,
this is daylight robbery. How can the Malaysian government just close an eye to this? More here.
VICTIM NO. 2 (from England)
http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g293915-i3686-k4008847-l29237421-Air_Asia_bookings-Thailand.html
VICTIM NO. 3 (from Australia)
http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=18801397386&topic=16140
VICTIM NO. 4 (Dutch entrepreneur in Shanghai)
http://www.marc.cn/2009/05/bad-air-asia-experience.html
...More here
VICTIM NO. 5
http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=18801397386&topic=16306&post=93386
VICTIM NO. 6 (from Malaysia)
http://www..mmail.com.my/content/45824-long-wait-double-charged-airline
(From Malay Mail report dated August 10, 2010.)
VICTIM NO. 7 (from Australia)
http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=18801397386&topic=16979
VICTIM NO. 8
http://www..mmail.com.my/content/45824-long-wait-double-charged-airline
VICTIM NO. 9
http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/116849-becareful-with-air-asia-credit-card-bookings/
VICTIM NO. 10 (from Singapore)
http://www.topix.com/forum/world/philippines/TTU6D60JNTC7UIV6V/p7
VICTIMs NO. 11 and 12
http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=18801397386&topic=16306
VICTIM NO. 13 (from Australia)
http://www.thailandqa.com/forum/showthread.php?22854-Air-Asia-credit-card-charges-warning/page2
VICTIM NO. 14 (from USA)
http://www.thailandqa.com/forum/showthread.php?22854-Air-Asia-credit-card-charges-warning
VICTIM NO. 15 (from France)
http://www.ciao.fr/Air_Asia__Avis_1307401
VICTIM NO. 16
http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/100903-air-asia-online-booking-problems/
VICTIM NO.
17
http://www.bizclaims.com/2010/11/air-asia-its-still-a-pain-to-call-air-asia/
French customers expose AirAsia's fake advertising. Click here for more.
(continued from above Victim No. 1) How is it possible that an airline can take such a long time to refund in this internet age and get away with it. The customer just cannot do anything because under the "terms and conditions" refunds can only be made within one to two months. You need two months or 60 days to make a refund to a customer for
helping yourself to his money a second time? This is what it all amounts to. How can this be allowed to happen in modern-day Malaysia? (I know it's Bolehland, hehe, but still...isn't this going too far?)
Something is wrong somewhere when the victims are completely at the mercy of AirAsia's couldn't-care-less attitude and have no one to turn to for justice. And yet AirAsia has the cheek to use the slogan "The airline that cares".
But thanks to internet they will be exposed for their abuse of public confidence. The whole world should now be aware of the dangers of booking their air tickets online with AirAsia. You can give your confidence in making your online bookings with other airlines but certainly not with AirAsia. It is an airline without any scruples as it couldn't care less about the tight spot it has put you in with your bank because of this (as it was quite a big sum, the bookings payment being for four persons). Anyway why should you
beg them to return you the money that they have no right to take from you in the first place? If they have any scruples at all they would apologize immediately and try to make amends right away.
Yet each time you are able to contact them (after a long, long wait) you can only talk to someone who "understands your position but cannot do anything to hasten the refund for you". Talking about Kafkaesque bureaucracy and situations! - GPJ (France)
(continued from above Victim No. 4) Looking back I should have immediately canceled the booking on my credit card, but I made the mistake of contacting the airline about it (or actually, my travel agent helped me and did this for me). They asked us to send them some materials to prove that there was a double payment and they would take care of it. After waiting for two weeks or so we did not hear anything, so we called them again. The reaction: we never received your email… What can you say? So we sent them the info once more, and this time they received it. When we again did not hear anything and informed what was going on, we were told we had to wait 30 working days to get a reply. I was very unhappy with this, but decided to play it nice and wait.
Of course after 30 days still no answer from Air Asia, so our travel agent called them again. This time the answer was that they get
hundreds of emails and that we would have to wait for an additional 30 working days starting April 17. The travel agent asked me what she should do, and I decided to make a phone call myself.
Customer support employee Mr. Loong Jian had the bad luck to get me on the phone. I calmly explained the situation and demanded to get the money back immediately. They had been sitting on USD 3000 that belongs to me for over 3 months, and I told him that I do not accept any more excuses and want the full amount back straight away. He apologized a couple of times and said he would look into it. He put me on hold for a while and then told me that finance was processing it now, and that I had to wait and check next month’s credit card statement.
I repeated that I did not want to wait anymore, I had been waiting for way too long already without any communication from their side. I asked to get a written confirmation either by email or fax that the money would
be on its way to me. He could not give that to me he said, so I asked to speak to his manager. Loong Jian told me that he was not sure if a manager was available but I insisted. So he put me on hold for over 5 minutes, but when the music finally stopped he was back on the line. There was no manager available to speak to me is what he told me…
Now I was really getting pissed, and I made that very clear to him. This is not the way you treat your customers! I told him I would not hang up until I would be able to speak to a manager. He probably thought I was bluffing but soon found out I had no intention to hang up, I had been waiting long enough. Then he said that he would end the conversation from his side. I could not believe what I heard – he wanted to hang up on me! I know a thing or two about call centers, and they do not like it if customers ask for managers. But I also know there is always a manager available in case things escalate. So I
told him that hanging up on me would only make the situation more difficult, and that I would also make trouble for him. He then said he would put me on hold again, which I did not agree to. He solved that one in a nice way by putting me on mute! Well, at least I did not have to listen to the stupid music anymore.
My strategy worked, because eventually (after another 5 to 10 minutes) I got his team leader on the phone, Ms. Lee SC. She had received better training than her employees, and with her I was able to come to a solution soon. She promised that they would send my travel agent a written confirmation today that the money would be wired back to me. That’s what I was looking for, now let’s hope that Air Asia will keep its word and that the USD 3000 will be back in my account soon. Too bad the whole thing cost me 40 minutes, but without it I may have never received the money.
I Twittered about it while on the phone and also copied Air
Asia’s Twitter account (@airasiablog) on it a few times. No reaction from them so far, it will be interesting to see how good they are at using Web 2.0 and reacting to clients. Their customers support certainly s*cks, and they clearly did not invest in training their call center staff. I’ve had it with Air Asia and likely won’t use them anymore. If a company does not treat its customers with respect they don’t deserve my money.
Update: Air Asia sent me an email that I will have to wait another 30-60 working days before I can get my money back (see my blog post about this). That theoretically might mean another 3 months of waiting for my money! Air Asia may be a low cost airline (one reason why I tried them out), but if this is the way they treat their customers in order to keep costs low they won’t see me back. Next time I will fly Malaysia Airlines again to Kuala Lumpur.
Is AirAsia making fun of its customers? Three hours
waiting time for a live chat!
http://pgoh13.free.fr/airasia/
BE AWARE AND BE CAREFUL!
-
DISCLAIMER: CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE : This message & any attachments is confidential & for the designated recipient only and may contain privileged, proprietary, or otherwise private information. It is not intended to serve as a contractual commitment or confirmation of any contractual transaction. If you have received it in error, please notify the sender immediately and permanently delete the original & any copies or printouts thereof. Any other use of the email by you is prohibited by law.
|
Don't be flakey. Get Yahoo! Mail for Mobile and
always stay connected to friends. --
This email is only for private circulation for members of the Google
Groups "MU74engineers" group.If you receive this email by mistake, please delete it immediately.
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
mu74+uns...@googlegroups.com
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com.au/group/mu74?hl=en
Please do not print this email unless it is absolutely necessary.
The information contained in this electronic message and any attachments to this message are intended for the exclusive use of the addressee(s) and may contain proprietary, confidential or privileged information. If you are not the intended recipient, you should not disseminate, distribute or copy this e-mail. Please notify the sender immediately and destroy all copies of this message and any attachments.
WARNING: Computer viruses can be transmitted via email. The recipient should check this email and any attachments for the presence of viruses. The company accepts no liability for any damage caused by any virus transmitted by this email.
/---------------------------------------------------------------------------\
Confidential and/ or privileged information may be contained in this
e-mail and any attachments transmitted with it ('Message'). If you are
not the addressee indicated in this Message (or responsible for
delivery of this Message to such person),you are hereby notified that
any dissemination, distribution, printing or copying of this Message or
any part thereof is prohibited. Please delete this Message if received
in error and advise the sender by return e-mail. Opinions, conclusions
and other information in this Message that do not relate to the
official business of this company shall be understood as neither given
nor endorsed by this company.
This mail is certified Virus Free by *ProtectNow! (InternetNow Sdn Bhd)
*Scanner Engine powered by Norman Virus
Control
\--------------------------------------------------------------------------/
|
