Carl Garson fights Qantas and Flight Centre for refund after cancellation

In his quest to get a refund on a cancelled business flight from Sydney to Coffs Harbour, Carl Garson once spent 13 hours on hold, and he is still waiting.

His first job was picking beans as a six-year-old and Carl Garson estimates he’s had more than 40 different jobs over the years and the golden rule has always been - the customer comes first.

So when a business flight from Sydney to Coffs Harbour, that he was booked on in April last year was cancelled, he expected some kind of refund.

Carl is from Dorrigo where he says he has lived “on and off for about 40 years”.

His wife had purchased the ticket as a surprise but at a cost of $735 Carl wasn’t too impressed when he found out.

“I had been in Sydney for a thyroid operation and my wife wanted to spoil me with a business class ticket but when she told me the price I nearly fell over,” Carl said.

When he was told the Qantas flight was cancelled due to a lack of staff and that he must wait for the next available service which didn’t offer business class he assumed he would be up for an automatic refund.

His first port of call was Qantas and he pursued them with dogged determination.

“The minimum waiting time (on the phone) is three to four hours. The longest I waited one day was 13 hours. I kept my phone close by so I could hear it if they picked up,” Mr Garson said.

“When it got to about 8 or 9 o’clock I knew they weren’t going to answer.”

Rather than put him off, it just made him more determined.

Initially he was told he would not be eligible for a refund at all, but he kept calling and was told he could apply for a $350 refund but it was never about the money for Carl.

He was then told Flight Centre, through which the flight was booked, would have to apply to Qantas for the refund.

So then he turned his attention to Flight Centre and after more calls and marathon hold times he started ringing the local offices.

“The Flight Centre at Toormina has been the best and they have tried to help me.”

Flight Centre applied for the refund but after a few months Qantas replied saying the wrong refund category had been sought so the process would have to begin again from scratch.

The longer it went on the more determined and frustrated he became.

“I’ve worked as a river guide and have gone without food when a group smoked dope and got the munchies and ate all the food; or slept on rocks so clients could be comfortable.

“Customer service is key. I’ve operated a bakery and once a customer said there were rocks in the pies they ordered so I sent a new batch over straight away even though I knew there was no way there were rocks in the pies.”

Carl has been in contact with high profile consumer advocate Adam Glezer from the organisation Consumer Champion.

Adam Glezer became a consumer advocate helping hundreds of people to get money back from cancelled holidays during 2020. Picture: Wayne Taylor

Since the outbreak of Covid-19 Adam has worked with consumers across the country, including Bellingen man Christiaan Dolislager, to obtain refunds for travel plans that were cancelled by their supplier.

“In Australia, there is no protection under Australian Consumer Law for consumers to receive a refund when a service is cancelled due to factors outside human control,” Adam said.

And he says that Carl’s situation should be an “open and shut case for an automatic refund” but instead he has had to “spend a crazy amount of time on the phone to try and track down his own money”.

So far Carl estimates he has spent around 70 hours on the phone to both Qantas and Flight Centre. He has been told his refund has been approved but no payments have been made into his wife’s account from which the original booking was made.

The Coffs Coast Advocate contacted Flight Centre Toormina and after sitting on hold was asked to leave a message but was told, via a recorded message, that the mailbox was full.