Tourist Refund Scheme

I honestly feel that in any organization, anyone who takes an extra effort to do all the necessary applications online should have a dedicated queue to be rewarded for creating efficiency rather than being in the same queue with others who did nothing and have everything processed on the spot and holding up the line .If everyone who does it online is in the same queue as someone else who didnt take the additional effort.. theres no incentive to do it online is there?If you did it online your whatever application finalized within 2 minutes. Versus someone elses 10 minutes..But with my example its only 8 minutes of saving.But the real bottle neck, is the hour long queue to even have your thing looked at.

Overall quick n easy process. Make sure to use the TRS app, load your tax invoices to know which of them are eligible (eg min spend of $300 per invoice).Go to gate 9 after security check in.

The worst experience ever I have faced in terms of staff attitude, deal, and behavior. Not the one after security check and immigration at gate 10 where they process for your refund, but the one before checking in your luggage where they just sight and stamp your receipts for goods. The staff attitude was very rude, she is Asian.However, if you are planning to get the tax refunded, just follow below steps for easiness:- Download the application Australia TRS.- Upload all the invoices which are AUS $300 or more, via the application.- Once you upload, you will get the claim QR Code, save it.- Go to TRS office at airport before you checked in your luggage, and recommend to keep all the goods which you claim for tax refund at one place in your luggage/bag for easy access once they ask you to show your goods.- Then, check in your bags, and proceed after immigration at gate 10 for refund process. They will stamp all your invoices. Make sure to have your passport, boarding pass, all invoices, and Credit Card with you. It will usually take between 7-10 working days for refund.

I sure hope you have enough claims to be going through this entire process, instead of a few-tens of dollars. If not, shop more, or forget about the claims, it will save you some sanity.TRS is straightforward if you've done it before, but complicated the first time, so let me simplify the few must knows for you.1) download the TRS app and fill in your purchases as they come. Keep the receipts and pack your products systematically, ready for checks by officials.2) buffer ample time for TRS related claims at the airport. We arrived at the departure hall, 3.5hrs to flight, and it ended up being just nice with 20mins to spare at the lounge (when normally I'll have 45mins).3) visit the Agriculture and Border control at level 1 near Belt G, BEFORE you check your bag in. Once you arrive at the airport, ask airport staff where can you get your tax refund stuff checked before you send your bags in.4) if there's a queue, too bad, because everyone is going to have to dig out their purchases for the officials to check visually, before they get their stamps on their receipts. This is likely a time drainer activity.5) check the bags in, at least those that have gotten stamps for. Those that the officials require as carry on, bring through customs yourself, along with the receipt.6) follow the sign boards, find TRS counter near Gate 10. Queue up (another time drainer). Have the rest of the items validated and get your stamps had. Also, pass every piece of receipt to the staff. This is the place where they'll ask you which card do you want your refund charged back into. Pass them a credit card here.7) make sure you have ample time before your flight, for the claims to be done. The counter will not entertain claim requests that are too close to flight time. The officials do have the ability to turn you away at any time.Only after everything is done, breathe, and head off to your lounge or gate, because you survived a war.

Honestly, the staff are so young, I feel like they are all still in training. Was trying to make some claims and the staff and who seem to be a supervisor were unable to explain why they can't give me cash. And while they were processing my refund, all the staff was just gossiping about each other.

Got here at 7.30pm for a 9pm flight and was pleasantly surprised at the lack of a queue. Make sure you download the TRS app and fill in details beforehand. Follow the instructions and things will go smoothly. Without the big tour groups there shouldn't be a long wait. Service was great.

After I have been waiting for 15 minutes I got served by a rude young staff. Because I did not have two items with me she did not want pay all other items and she did the calculations incorrectly. I also bought some body cream that I couldn’t take with me on the plane and she refused to refund The refund is good only for people that buy LV or others designer goods but not if you buy from a small business. I did not like the attitude of the young staff woman . Be kind and not rude miss.

I’d give minus star to this place if there was such score here. There was no line there, 3-4 officers were just chatting. I went there just to ask a question but an old unpleasant female officer looked extremely annoyed just to answer my question. The most backward thing here is that you have to show everything you bought to them to get the tax refund regardless of what kind of merchandises you bought. I spent over a thousand dollars on 4 pairs of pants and cosmetics that are 100mls so I just loaded them with my luggage. Who would actually carry all of these stuff pass immigration?!?! So basically it’s just a hoax. Australia should learn from EU or Japan when it comes to tax refund. It’s a very disappointing and depressing place to go.On a related note, I read all the reviews back in 5 years. Many bad reviews have one thing in common. Most of the reviewers’ name are Asian. I don’t know if this indicates racism in this public service in a country that is well known about freedom and no discrimination .. very ironic.

Great service today and all of the staff we interacted with were friendly and helpful.We went to the ABF Service Centre at Arrivals to get our receipts/invoices stamped for the goods that went into our check-in luggage. After security, we went to the TRS centre to get our refunds processed. In both cases, the queue was only a few people, so overall it took 15-20 minutes.The TRS iPhone app makes it a much faster process than for other countries, like UK.The bottom line is that if you want to get GST/WET refund on departure from AU, you have to do your homework on how the process works.