Telcos resisting customer service reforms

Note the arrogance highlighted in red

PHONE companies are resisting major restructuring saying changes will be too costly to implement and that a new voluntary code will be more effective in addressing consumer concerns.

In submissions to Australian Communications and Media Authority's Reconnecting the Customer inquiry - published yesterday - the peak industry body, Communications Alliance, said it supported the ACMA draft report but that the industry's revised Telecommunications Consumer Protections (TCP) Code would address the major issues raised in the report.

Key points the ACMA's draft report said must be addressed were: clarity in pricing, advertising and comparison between providers; improved complaints management; tools for users to monitor phone usage; and amendments to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman Scheme.

The Communications Alliance submission said many of the concerns raised by the ACMA in its Draft Report had been addressed by the revised draft TCP Code.

The draft TCP Code has yet to be released, and no spokesperson from the Communications Alliance was available to comment.

Providing more information about telephone pricing and plans would only confuse consumers, the submission said.

Teresa Corbin, the chief executive of the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network, said the industry was in denial about the threat of further regulation. "I think they're not facing up to the reality that they have to make some serious changes, and I think they're hopeful that by testing the waters they'll find that they can get away with just tinkering but they haven't really woken up to the fact that they need to make some radical changes. "

Clare O'Reilly, the project director of the ACMA inquiry, said there was a resistance to change. "Industry's view is that to try to explain pricing in a more simpler way is just not feasible.

SOURCE

Letter to Paul O'Sullivan, CEO, Optus

I am irate at a bit of systematic skullduggery you practice when your prepaid mobile phone users go online to get a recharge -- and I am thinking of drawing the attention of both ACMA and the TIO to it.

I believe in dialogue, however, so I will predicate my future action in the matter on your reply or non-reply to this letter.

I have prepaid mobile 0423 248 *** and when I last logged on to the net at optus.com.au/recharge the options presented allowed me only 30 days to use the recharge funds. I have had battles (which I won) with Optus since the year 2000 however so I was not going to lie down and take that. I wrote two letters querying the matter to your "help" staff and eventually someone rang me to let me in on the deep dank secret of how to get 6 months to use my recharge funds.

There is NOTHING on the recharge page to tell me so but if I change the default recharge from $20 to $30 an entirely new screen pops up and that screen allows a 6 month recharge. But even that screen does not SAY it provides a 6 month recharge. You just have to be "in the know" to realize what is happening.

It's no mystery what you are trying to do. You are trying to get less frequent users to waste their money by giving them insufficiant time to use their funds. In good Australian parlance, it is a RORT.

Unless you change BOTH screens to let customers know what is happening, look forward to a call from ACMA. And I think I might write to Singtel about you too.

You have just copped a $5 million fine for misleading and deceptive advertising. Do you want another one?

Optus fined for crooked advertising

BACK in July 2009, Australian Competition & Consumer Commission chairman Graeme Samuel met with the chief executives of Australia's three largest telecommunications companies.

Telstra's David Thodey, Optus boss Paul O'Sullivan and Vodafone Hutchison Australia chief Nigel Dews had met to discuss the soaring number of complaints by consumers over confusing mobile and broadband plans, reported The Australian.

"The message I gave then was that the industry was in a race to the bottom in terms of advertising practices," Mr Samuel said. "That race to the bottom had to stop, advertising standards had to increase . . . (the ACCC) was getting too many complaints."

Mr Samuel said none of the parties was keen for the regulator to litigate on the matter and recalls the group agreeing to enter into a court-enforceable undertaking to lift their advertising standards.

One of the key issues was the use of so-called headline advertising in telecoms, which could go close to misleading behaviour. This was the use of an attention-grabbing major headline, diluted by a fine-print disclaimer.

That issue of headline advertising caught out Optus yesterday, when the Federal Court imposed a hefty $5.26 million fine for a series of broadband advertising campaigns that ran over a period of five months last year.

That Optus could receive the highest civil penalty for a consumer protection breach despite signing that undertaking in September 2009 was the real issue, Mr Samuel said.

Federal Court judge Nye Perram agreed, saying that fact had been considered when assessing the size of the penalty he was willing to impose. "What is involved is hypocrisy: the saying of one thing; the doing of another," Justice Perram wrote in his judgement.

"This has cost Optus lots of money and lots in reputation," Mr Samuel said.

SOURCE

Letter to: Prepaid mobiles, Optus

Dear Sir,

I recently attempted to recharge my Optus prepaid mobile 0423 248 ***

To my surprise, on checking online I found that your offers there have a maximum life of 30 days. When I first signed up, 6 month and 12 month expiry plans were available

By dint of about 10 minutes of button pushing, however, I was able to get a 6 month expiry recharge per phone. I started out calling 555 and then got referred to 444. Option 3 seemed the most relevant choice offered by 444 but when I pushed that I got told to piss off. I eventually tried option 2 and that worked. Amazing.

Please advise the internet link that will enable me to get an online 6 month recharge next time. I am a bit deaf so phone transactions are slow for both me and your operators.

Yours etc

Dr John Ray

Optus dropouts enrage iPhone users but company says window tints are to blame

TELCO giant Optus has failed to reach 200,000 Australians while infuriating potentially millions more whose phones are dropping out across Australia's major cities.

An investigation by The Daily Telegraph revealed Optus iPhones constantly drop out or simply do not receive calls all over Sydney.

It has prompted an angry customer revolt against an atmosphere of consumer uprising in the 22,000-strong class action against Vodafone.

In online forums, some have even suggested Optus' coverage is worse than its beleaguered rival.

Optus announced in May 2008 it would increase coverage to 98 per cent of the population by 2009 and reception speeds to 42MBps by 2010. On the back of this it sold hundreds of thousands of iPhones, even outselling its larger rival Telstra.

But its promises are now in tatters. Speeds are up to 80 times slower and the carrier reaches only 97 per cent - more than 200,000 fewer people.

And for iPhone 3G users only 80-85 per cent of people are covered - although Optus says its fourth generation coverage reaches 97 per cent.

The Daily Telegraph tested an Optus iPhone 3G in varied buildings and conditions in suburbs on all sides of the CBD, including Surry Hills, Darlinghurst, Erskineville and Balmain, in an apartment building, a house, a backyard and an office block.

In each the signal failed, the phone did not receive calls or was so distorted as to be useless. Online forums that have sprung up recently reveal the story is the same around Sydney and other capital cities.

Optus has acknowledged it is trying to improve coverage in the CBD but also blamed "environmental factors" such as window tints.

It also said "some handsets are not necessarily the best phones for coverage and performance".

The handset used by the Telegraph is a typical iPhone 3G, which Optus heavily subsidised in an effort to swamp the market. In the quarter of the iPhone's launch alone it added more than 180,000 subscribers.

The company website admits it has failed to meet this target: "Join the Network that Reaches 97% of Australia's Population Today!" it states.

As for 42Mbps speeds, the website admits typical speeds are up to 80 times slower, with a typical speed of 512kBps and 3MBps for the fastest devices. Optus said it was working to improve its coverage and its speeds were still competitive.

"We've invested $2 billion in our mobile network over five years and we have more than doubled the capacity of our network for our nine million mobile customers," a spokesman said.

"In an independent study in March the Optus Mobile network demonstrated strong and consistent performance for customers in Sydney."

SOURCE

Another email -- from a different person at Optus

Hi John,

Optus have been experiencing unexpected delays due to high email volumes recently, and appreciate your patience. We apologise for any inconvenience you have experienced in this time and expect these delays to subside shortly.

I have checked with the credit recharge and can see that the last recharge from your account was for 04/12/2010. This may appear on your bank statement as 06/12/2010. To be able to check and confirm that the payment was taken twice please reply with a copy of your bank statement. Once I receive this statement I can then investigate further and complete the search and apply credits if applicable.

Should you have any further questions please reply to this email and we will be happy to assist.

Christine
Web Servicing Team
Optus

In response I sent them a screenshot of my online bank statement -- JR

My same-day reply

Thank you for your assistance so far

I note however that one of my payments still has not been credited by your system

Westpac Mastercard confirms that Optus prepaid debited me for $20 on both 6th and 7th of December. Please get someone with computer skills to trace and remedy the fault

Furthermore, I note that the options one is given to tick when recharging are very limited and of obscure meaning. Please refer to someone in a senior position at Optus the need for each option to be accompanied by a clarifying explanation of what each option does

The options I was given were:

Recharge Type :

$20 Cap
$20 International Zone A
$20 International Zone B
$20 International Zone C
$20 RevUp Data

That was all very mysterious to me but "$20 cap" seemed nearest to what I wanted to do as I have no plans to travel overseas. So I just clicked it

You really do need to make things easier for your customers. If you had done so already, we would not be having this correspondence

Sincerely
John Ray

Email from Optus

The last recharge received on the 4th December for $20. At the time, you received $30 My Credit and $80 My Bonus.

To retain credit, a $30 minimum recharge is required. This would need to be processed in a single transaction.

Optus offers different recharges for customers with varying needs, starting from $5, $10, $15 and $20. When recharging, you will be prompted to confirm the recharge offer selected.

Your current balance is is the 19th December 2010.

When a successful recharge has been received, a confirmation SMS is sent.

On this occasion only, I have arranged to extend your credit expiry to the 14th June 2011 as a gesture of goodwill.

I hope this response is of assistance and wish you a nice week.


Regards

Wilson
Optus Customer Service

To: Customer Relations, Optus

Re prepaid mobile 0423248xxx

Dear Sir/Madam

I no longer have any faith in your online services so I am following up a complaint I submitted over the internet with this letter

Yesterday (3rd) I used my Mastercard to add a recharge of "$20 capped" (whatever that is) to my A/c. On ringing 555 however I found it had not gone through

Today (4th) I did the same thing again and suddenly found (via 555) that I had $100 of credit!

BUT the message said that I had only until Dec 18 2010 to spend the money. My recharge gave me only one extra week instead of the usual 6 months

I will raise this with the TIO unless you fix this BEFORE Dec 18. In anticipation of your incompetence, I am retaining a copy of this letter.

Yours disgustedly

Dr John Ray

"Unlimited" download plans a fraud

THE competition watchdog claims slowing broadband speeds after customers exceed a download limit on an "unlimited" plan is like selling them a Ferrari with one gear.

But the judge hearing a case between SingTel-owned Optus and the regulator said throttling broadband speeds to 256 kilobits per second (kbps) was more like selling a crumbling car.

Advertising unlimited broadband gave customers the impression they were getting a Ferrari, "but what is disguised is the fact that the steering wheel disintegrates after 10 kilometres," Justice Tony North said in the Federal Court in Melbourne.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission took action against Optus in June for misleading and deceptive conduct, claiming its advertising campaign for unlimited mobile and broadband plans actually included several limitations.

Optus has stopped using the word unlimited in advertising and agreed its mobile plan included several limitations, which were not adequately disclosed.

However, there was disagreement yesterday whether throttling broadband speeds limited service, as customers could still download as much as they liked at the reduced speed. Optus would slow broadband speeds from several megabits per second to a few hundred kilobits once customers downloaded 30 gigabytes. Hence the sports car analogies.

Late last week, the ACCC sought to amend the claim to describe the throttling as "significant constraint" on a service that was sold as unlimited. "It is a very coloured word and it ought not be used if indeed there is actually a limit or restriction on access, which occurs here," counsel for ACCC Colin Golvan, SC, said.

He presented "unlimited" plans from other providers as evidence of unthrottled plans, but counsel for Optus, Norman O'Bryan, SC, claimed these also contained speed limitations and were not universally available in Australia.

Optus has been granted 10 days to investigate other unlimited plans on the market and to gather evidence of whether consumers were significantly constrained by the throttling.

SOURCE

More Optus arrogance and contempt for its customers

OPTUS has been forced to halt the planned shut down of its optushome.com.au email domain after users complained of insufficient warning.

Thousands of long-time Optus customers awoke this morning to find empty email inboxes after the telco last night flicked the off switch to its optushome.com.au email domain server.

Optus says it warned subscribers of the impending change -- a migration to a new domain, optusnet.com.au -- in an April newsletter but admitted it failed to issue any follow-up warnings.

The shutting down of the domain server meant that emails sent to customers with @optushome.com.au addresses disappeared into the internet ether or bounced back to the sender’s address.

But angry customers swarmed Optus's customer service hotline, saying they weren't aware of the closure.

One unhappy customer in Sydney expressed his disappointment that the telco failed to put in place an email redirect. He hopes Optus will learn from its mistake when it moves to complete the migration.

“Optus should have been more direct when notifying people about this change rather than hiding it in a newsletter.

“The ramifications are not just to the thousands of Optus customers but it’s a pain for any subscriptions people have, any software upgrades that are registered with that specific email address, bank statements and more," he said.

Optus refused to say why a simple domain name redirect was not put in place to avoid any disruption to customers’ email services.

An Optus spokeswoman said the migration process began yesterday afternoon but has since been put on hold while new notification procedures are put in place.

“Customers will be notified in the coming weeks regarding the date of the termination of the affected domain names. Optus apologises for any inconvenience,” she said.

The spokeswoman said the migration was implemented to reduce high-levels of spam and that only those customers who have been a customer with the telco since before 2002, when the optusnet.com.au domain was introduced, were affected by the change.

This includes all email addresses that sit on Optus’s microplex.com.au, mpx.com.au and optushome.com.au domains. All of these will eventually be migrated to the optusnet.com.au domain.

Source

Letter to Manager, Optus landline accounts

RE: 3391 xxxx

I draw your attention to the enclosed correspondence.

I strongly object to the time it took to restore my phone service. I was without use of the line for roughly a month and I advise that I will be deducting one month's rental charge from any future payments that I make. You may wish to pass an equivalent credit to the account to resolve the matter.

The other person in the building whom your technician apparently cut off (Mr. Miranda) had his service restored today by a Telstra technician without affecting my service. His experience in getting technical service that was both prompt and competent is a sad contrast with your performance in my case.

Letter to the TIO

Three weeks ago I wrote the enclosed letter to Optus. They have of course not replied.

They have however done SOMETHING. About a week ago I got a dialling tone back on my phone but the line was so noisy that the phone was still unusable.

Now today the snap crackle and pop is gone and my phone is completely "fixed"

They have fixed it, however, by cutting off the phone of someone else in the building and giving me his line. His phone is now dead.

That is so stupid that I am at loss to find words to describe it.

Since Optus will not communicate with me, would you PLEASE find someone at Optus capable of acting constructively in this matter? I fear that they will "fix" the other guy's line by cutting mine off again.

While you are talking to them you might suggest that they waive one month's line rental on my phone -- as that is roughly how long I had no use of it

Letter to Landline Accounts, Optus

Re: Ph. 3391 xxxx

The phone service above was originally taken out by Judith B**. She left these premises some years ago but advised you that I was authorized to operate the account. I have no information about her present whereabouts

Since her departure I have used the service and paid all your bills promptly.

I have however not had any service for over a week now. The phone is "dead"

Please advise whether this is a line fault or whether it is the result of some action on your part.

In either case I will not be paying any more bills unless the service is restored.