ACCC takes Optus to court for ‘misleading’ customers on NBN switchover
The consumer watchdog has issued court proceedings in the Federal Court against Optus alleging the telecommunications giant made “false and misleading” claims to its customers, to force them onto the NBN by suggesting it would be disconnecting them from its network earlier than it was legally allowed to.
Optus receives a fee for each customer who switches from its previous cable service to the new NBN offering.
A good write up Abigail – I can tell you as an ex-Optus customer in a serviceable area, and having lived without home internet for 4.5 months, before giving up and going with a competitor – the spokesperson statement is a bit of a steaming pile.
“During this process, we provided some customers with insufficient notice of their options to migrate. As a result, some customers were disconnected before they migrated to the NBN.”
um… actually…. i was told that their old system did not have me in it therefore i had NO CHOICE but to take an NBN plan – and it would take up to 3 months to connect me. btw – they then didn’t turn up to the appointment made for 3 months in the future. and the next one was 1.5 months in the future.
“We acknowledge that this process did not deliver on our intent to provide an excellent migration experience.”
um…ya reckon?…it wasn’t a migration, it was a forced upsell.
“When we became aware of customer concerns, we suspended all migration activations and reconnected affected customer as quickly as possible. We also compensated customers who had been disconnected without sufficient notice”
um… After being told i would be fully reimbursed for data charges, they lost the record of that call of course, and i had to document a case outlining the 4.5 months of phone calls, where they got to think about what they wanted to reimburse me – after a long fight, i was 60% reimbursed….