Horrible customer service on the phone re: refund

[tadtv]

Why is it that SQ service is so great in the air and so horrible on the phone. Is it that fact that everything goes through India? I have been trying to get a refund since July 2 for a Singapore Holiday Stopover. It's amazing how they can charge my credit card in 4 seconds but a refund takes four weeks. I have been on the phone for two months trying to get an answer on why it takes so long. They just say" this is how long the process takes" I keep saying explain the process to me- what takes four weeks? Are you sailing it across the Pacific? Are you building a storage shed to then have a meeting in to discuss if I should get a refund?

Anyone know exactly why it takes so long?

[jjpb3]

I have been trying to get a refund since July 2 for a Singapore Holiday Stopover. It's amazing how they can charge my credit card in 4 seconds but a refund takes four weeks. I have been on the phone for two months trying to get an answer on why it takes so long. They just say" this is how long the process takes" I keep saying explain the process to me- what takes four weeks? Are you sailing it across the Pacific? Are you building a storage shed to then have a meeting in to discuss if I should get a refund?

The four week-margin is fairly standard for refunds, isn't it?

I'm not sure this was necessarily horrible customer service; seems to me the reps were just reporting what they were constrained to say. I'm not sure reps would necessarily know the operational reasons for the refund period. (I hope the bolded comments you shared with us were kept to yourself; I think the comments, if expressed to the reps rather than in a letter to SQ, would place the reps in a very awkward position.)

[KeithMEL]

This is standard practise in the airline industry, even on the most flexible of fares. The long turnaround time for refunds is supposed to act as a deterrence to speculative bookings. I have had refunds take up to 6 weeks to be processed.

[N_Architect]

Had booked a Y fare on Malev airlines [MA] early June, but had to cancel it later on. Called their call center in BUD straight away, and was clearly informed that the whole refund process takes up to 5 or 6 weeks.

Money were back in my account, though, in 2 weeks.

[oxymoron1984]

I had a refund done just recently with SQ. Was told it'll take a week but ended up taking about 4-5 days for the refund to process.

[feb01mel]

Did a few refunds over the past 6 months, some took 4-6 weeks, whereas some only 1-2 weeks.

I understand there is a cut off for them, once you miss the cut off date, you need to wait longer for the next refund cycle.

Also, the refund process internally needs lots of approvals, thus it takes long time to process it.

[Chris]

Some airlines are open for automated refunds, some are by paper, some are just slow!

[solitaire]

My experience with SQ customer service

I have had reasons to ring SQ CS on a couple of occassions and (yes the calls were answered in India) and in both cases I could not come upwith any reason to think that they were lacking on the service part.

One of the calls pertained to a refund and I was told up front that it would take 4-5 weeks; the money was in my CC account in less than a week.

Different times for ingress and egress of money with respect to any institution's accounts is a fact of life in almost all industries. A prime example is your bank. When you pay a bill electronically, the amount goes out by the time yur web page refreshes, but takes 48-60 hours to reach the payee's account.

I would not blame SQ or its customer service for this.

[TerryK]

I recently requested a refund on UA and was told it will take 6-8 weeks. SQ is just average, if not above average, in refund processing.

Horrible thread title.

[SQKevin]

I cancelled my flight in May and got my refund credited to my credit card account within a week. Quite clear that the problem lies with customer service staff. I encountered no problems as everything was done through online booking on the SQ website. Personally, I prefer to do my bookings online as I get to select my seats and save on the agent handling charges.

[Gunnar Smithsen]

Quite clear that the problem lies with customer service staff.

Pretty bold statement there SQKevin, how do you come to that conclusion?

[benlee]

I cancelled a ticket and asked for refund earlier this year. Was told also it took 4-6 weeks but got the refund in less than 3 weeks. The long time is due more to bureaucracy of a big organisation. I doubt other airlines are better and it's kind of unfair to call this "horrible"

Rather than spending time on customer service over the phone, I suggest you make a trip down to their office. Usually speed things up.

[SQKevin]

Pretty bold statement there SQKevin, how do you come to that conclusion?

My apologies. I was referring to tadtv's bad experience in his initial post. Didn't realise the implications of an out of context post.

Anyway my personal experience with SQ customer service staff over the phone was a pleasant one. They managed to reassign my seat instantly when I had a problem with an online check in some time back.

[solitaire]

SQKevin, perhaps I have not understood your context.

Given the information that tadtv has provided, I cannot see any problem anywhere; either with SQ or with the customer service.

All they (allegedly) said was "thats how long it takes". This is no different from what they said to me and other writers in this thread. The fact that, unlke all of us, tadtv still has not got his refund would hardly quaify as being customer service fault.

[SMK77]

Airlines have no right whatsoever to keep your money for so long. Common practice doesn't make it legal.

Any airline could refund within 24 hours - and LH just did a refund for me that took only a couple of days. Everything up to five working days is acceptable, everything beyond is not.

SQ is cheating on customers as any airline does, when it comes to a four to six week process. It's made up and a disgrace. Being PPS or having booked full-fare doesn't help - which is a disgrace from a service point of view.