Gabba
Qld 4102
27 June 2011

Malcolm Tait
Team Leader
Customer support
Optus

Dear Mal

If you are the team leader, it must be a sorry team -- say 6th division?

I have your letter of 22nd but it gives no evidence of your having read the letter you are replying to.

I REPEAT: optus.com.au/recharge gives details of options that expire no later than 30 days.  That's 30,  30,  30.  How often do I have to repeat it?

SO AGAIN:  where do I find a link that gives me 6 months to use the recharge?

Surely I don't have to refer the matter to the TIO simply because you are too much of a numbskull to read a letter!

Yours etc

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

Gabba,  Brisbane

QLD 4102

6 August, 2010

TO:
Customer Relations

OPTUS

Dear Sir/Madam

I know from long experience that the ability of Optus to handle anything non-routine is close to zero but I am going to give it another try with you.  I hope I don't have to write to your Singapore parent this time.

Phone 33914*** is located at my address above.  The account was opened by Judith Marjory Burgess.  Judith left these premises 5 years ago and nominated me to run the account thenceforth.  If you look back you will see that I have paid all the bills for the service over the last 5 years.

I have no problem with that arrangement continuing but I do object to the large number of time-wasting promotional calls I get from  you  -- calls which ask for Ms Burgess.  I DO NOT WANT TO RECEIVE ANY PROMOTIONAL CALLS

If you need to change the account to my name to achieve that, so  be it, though I would like the number to be a "silent" one.  I note that I do already have an Optus mobile 0423248795.

Please put in an effort

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.

Optus: A thoroughly nasty and evasive company

Knowing how they treat their customers, it is no surprise to hear how they treat their dealers. My local phone shop has broken with them. I now begin to understand why

OPTUS could face a costly backlash from its dealer network as seven parties prepare to file a class action in a bid to recoup allegedly withheld commission payments.

It is understood a draft filing has been prepared by the law firm representing the dealers and is likely to be lodged with the Federal Court in about a month.

Dealers resell Optus products and services, earning commission on the sale and a trailing commission based on a customer's monthly account.

It is understood the dealers' dispute with Optus flows from the telco's alleged failure to make ongoing commission payments over a number of years.

An Optus spokesperson said there were no court actions or class actions involving unpaid commissions or other issues.

The spokesperson did not directly respond to a question about whether commission payments had been paid in full to Optus dealers.

"Optus is committed to fulfilling its obligations to its dealers at all times," the spokesperson said.

"In the event of a dispute with our dealers ... we would generally resolve the issue through negotiation or mediation." It is believed the dealers have alleged that millions of dollars worth of payments have been withheld.

Any decision against Optus would open the door for similar actions by others in the telco's 1500-strong dealer network.

It is understood Optus has previously reached settlements with a number of dealers for payouts worth millions of dollars.

Optus did not respond to questions about whether settlements had been reached previously with dealers.

Source