SAA fails to refund full Business Class fare
Dear SAA Sucks!
Great website and I am happy to contribute my story for you to publish about these criminals at SAA. Here it is: On 23-Nov-2008 I made a booking on SAA (JNB – LHR – JNB) for Business class flights in March and April 2009, and paid ZAR51,510.00 (approx. USD4,920) with my personal credit card.
My travel plans changed and, on 16-Feb-2009, I cancelled the above booking and made a new booking on SAA (JNB-LHR), for a on way Business class flight for 10-march-2009 and paid ZAR36,827.00 (approx. USD3,800) again with my personal credit card, the same one used for the cancelled booking.
In both cases, the cost of the tickets was “immediately” charged to my credit card.
On 8-April-2009, even after THREE calls to customer services, (which I personally made from London to your SA service number – twice in March and the last time on 1-Apr-2009), and each time I was assured that the refund was being dealt with, I have still NOT received a refund for the cancelled booking!!!
I am well aware that it says in the small print that refunds can take up to 14 days (which I think in this day and age is TOTALLY RIDICULOUS) but it is now close to 2 MONTHS since I cancelled the ticket.
They take money “IMMEDIATELY” from a person’s credit card and they should refund the money “IMMEDIATELY”. How can they expect a person to book another flight when they do not receive a refund for the one they are cancelling!!! People have limited finances and their booking and refund policy (14 days and a cancellation fee!!!) does not help anyone!
SAA are a disgrace to the industry, a disgrace to the Star Alliance and have non-existent customer service!
I will NEVER fly SAA again and will NEVER recommend SAA to anyone.
Eventually, after a complaint to the Star Alliance (who responded immediately) I received this e-mail:
QUOTE
I refer to your e-mail of 17 April 2009 regarding your refund and I must apologise for the lack of communication from South African Airways.
Please note that I have followed up on your refund. As it is a huge amount, there is a process that has to be followed. Your documents are with the Head of our Finance Department and I will keep you updated as to when you will receive your money.
I will give this my priority.
Kind regards,
Denise Hendricks Executive Office South African Airways Telephone: +27 11 978 2916 Fax: +27 11 978 9567 Email: DeniseHendricks@flysaa.com
UNQUOTE
My first reply:
QUOTE Dear Ms Hendricks,
Apologies are not enough. SAA were quite happy to take a “huge amount” instantly from my credit card on 23-Nov-2008, without any time-wasting decisions and SAA has had that money in its bank account since that time. When a customer applies for a refund the amount should be credited “immediately” to the credit card without any question, delay or lengthy procedure. This is normal practice for any company, shop or any other law-abiding business. There are NO valid excuses.
I used to think that SAA were a reasonably good airline but now they rank, in my opinion, as one of the worst in the world. I shall NEVER fly SAA again and I shall pass on my experience and opinion to everyone I meet whilst travelling.
It is a TOTAL disgrace that this can happen and be allowed to happen in ANY business.
UNQUOTE
No response (surprise surprise!) so I wrote again:
QUOTE
Dear Ms Hendricks,
Could you please ask your “Head of Finance Department” how on earth he/she expects a customer to book another ticket (like I had to do at a cost of almost ZAR37,000) when they do not receive the money back for the cancelled one???
The SAA small print states that it “takes up to 14 days” to make a refund (which is already TOTALLY ridiculous). It is now 22 days since I was told that the refund process was started and almost 70 days since I cancelled the ticket via your website. Please ask your Directors to give an explanation of this and how much financial compensation I am going to receive.
At the end of this week I am going to take this matter up with the Air Transport Users Council, I will make a second, and much stronger, complaint to the Star Alliance and I will be contacting every possible Newspaper with a copy of this fiasco and how totally unprofessional SAA are in their operations. Nothing but a bunch of crooks and thieves!
UNQUOTE
I have now asked the Star Alliance to investigate further and am in the process of writing to The Air Transport users Council (recommended by a friend who had a similar problem – different airline – that was apparently resolve very quickly once he wrote to them) and as many newspapers I can find I will also be looking for the names and addresses of the Directors of SAA and writing to them also. I know most will never even read the letter, let alone reply, that is why I think publicity is the best way to hit the thieving bastards!
It is now 24-April-2009 and I have still NOT received a refund or any further communication from SAA.
Thanks and regards, Leon Rustecki
Tags: Complaints, SAA
September 29th, 2009 at 4:51 pm
PLEASE CAN YOU SEND ME THE CONTACT DETAILS FOR THE STAR ALLIANCE, PREFERABLY AN EMAIL ADDRESS
January 15th, 2010 at 6:04 pm
My SA Airlink flight(SA 8635HY) was cancelled on the 24th of December that left me stranded for Christmas and totally ruined my holiday. I paid +-R5000 for flight tickets to George. I bought the tickets end of November 2009. After numerous attemps to phone the refunds department I was directed back to SAA’s refund department who told me that they can only refund me in 8 weeks!!!!! So my money sits in SAA’s account gathering interest for 3 months yet they took the money out of my account in a matter of seconds. I have sent them my banking and credit card details. All they need to do is put the money back in my account. They ruined my Chrismas and holiday completely and thus far the beginning of my year is a consatnt battle and wait for their call center staff to answer the phone. Numerous e-mails were sent and all I want is my money back!