David lost his Airpods inside a Qantas terminal. So began a month-long saga to get them back which travellers say highlights a major problem with the airline’s customer service

A man who lost his headphones at the airport believes Qantas customer service didn’t even try to look for them in the month they went missing.

David accidentally dropped his Airpods at Terminal 3 at Sydney International Airport in February, but only noticed they were gone when he left.

He checked the location tracking function on his phone to see that he had dropped them off at the Qantas terminal, the so-called lost-and-found airline, to tell them where they were.

The traveler was shocked when an automatic answering machine picked up his call.

“You don’t even get a chance to talk to a human or get any indication that they heard your lost and found problem. What kind of customer service is this,” he says told 7News.

David left a message with the exact location where he dropped the Airpods, but never heard back from anyone about lost and found.

He was convinced that no one was even listening to the voicemail because if they had, his item could easily be retrieved.

“Either they don’t check the messages people leave, or they just can’t be bothered to help one of their customers for ten minutes,” he added.

Two weeks after the Airpods first went missing, his phone stopped showing the device’s live location, presumably because the battery was dead.

He marked the Airpods as missing on his phone, which causes a pop-up to appear when someone else tries to use them, saying they’re lost.

The pop-up message contains the owner’s contact information so strangers can easily return it.

David took to social media to share his dilemma and several people offered to help, with one going to the airport to pick them up for him.

David put his Airpods on lost mode before a stranger eventually found them and returned them without any involvement from Qantas

An airline spokesperson said it was impossible to return every lost item, but the customer service team were doing their utmost

In a response to 7News, Qantas denied David’s customer service claim and said the team has been working hard to reunite owners with their items.

“Hundreds of items are lost and found in the terminal and on aircraft every month, including approximately 100 pairs of AirPods, and our team is working hard to reunite as many items with their owners as quickly as possible,” a spokesperson told the publication . .

However, other travelers claim to have had experiences similar to David’s.

One person claimed that a customer service representative in Canberra was told when collecting his lost property that voicemails are rarely checked.

Another person advised people to physically return to where they lost the item and make sure they speak to someone in person to resolve the issue.

A second traveler agreed, claiming that the only way they got their car keys back was by going to the counter themselves, after already waiting three days for a response.

Others argued that Qantas was doing its best and that returning every item lost at an airport was an impossible task.

The owner of a small bar explained that he often tries to return customers’ lost belongings, but the items misplaced by a hundred people every night must pale in comparison to an airport.

‘“I can only imagine what a huge rectal pain it would be, on a massive scale, for Qantas customers,” he said.

Daily Mail has contacted Qantas for additional comment.