Ben Fordham called Qantas customer service “awkward,” and some people waited about seven hours to answer their calls.
The waiting time for Qantas at 4am on Wednesday was two hours, and Fordham said the situation was “terrible”.
“It’s not customer service, it’s gaslighting,” Fordham said at 2GB on Thursday morning.
“You can really fly to Sydney from Perth faster than getting someone to pick up the phone at Qantas.”
Qantas lead customer Stephanie Tally appeared on the show and said the problem would be fixed.
“I want to apologize to our customers, the waiting time is completely unacceptable, and this is our top priority,” said Ms. Tali.
But she revealed that despite these delays, Qantas had more customer service staff than ever before.
“There are actually more people working in our contact centers than before Covid. This is one of the areas of business where there were no cuts or cancellations, we actually grew, ”Ms. Tali said.
She said Covid is still affecting travel logistics, and one customer had to make 11 changes to his flight on Wednesday.
“There is a record high number of calls, and calls take longer for a variety of reasons,” she said.
“We also need to understand that Covid has hit us hard. Many customers are calling, they have changed due to the beginning and opening of borders, they are canceled, everything is changing quickly.
Fordham responded that after Qantas received about $ 2 billion in taxpayer support during Covid, “you’d think you’d be in good shape to have staff ready to answer calls.”
He also told Ms. Tully that Qantas “should be careful” because customers were leaving and listeners were texting to say they were now flying other airlines.
As to when customers can expect improvements, Ms. Tali said the airline’s customer service is constantly improving.
“Every week it will get better for our clients as we hire more and more people in our centers,” she said.
She also encouraged customers to use the Qantas website to find answers to their inquiries.
