Liam's Optus Rant for the Day

[LiamR]

Okay, so...

Ordered a phone for a colleague today, to be added to our company account. Easy as I thought, she's already got an existing service with Optus, I'll just recontract her, and her iPhone will arrive tomorrow.

iPhone arrives today at my desk only to find Optus put the order through as a new number, not recontracting an existing number. Grrrr.

No problem, I've had worse problems with Optus, the phone's here, I'll just call up Optus and have them fix this.

Problem is, after attempting to explain to the Indian gentlemen on the other side of the line, he informed me that there is nothing Optus can do, they can't correct this, and I will have to take this iPhone down to Australia Post, hand it back and pay for it to be posted back to Optus. Once the phone has arrived back to Optus, add 10-20 business days for them to process the return, then they'll re-order the iPhone as a recontract not a new service and post me out a new (but identical in every way) iPhone.

At first they blamed it on me, explaing that I must have ordered a new service, not recontracted an older one. Firstly, they had no audio recording (Which has to be done for all new contracts) and Secondly, they looked at the notes and found me to be correct.

Does this seem stupid? It seems completely pointless to me, and a very inefficient way of running a business. (Oh wait, it's a Telco.)

Does anybody know the best person to contact, maybe somebody who can access the Optus systems and fix this without having to return a phone? I'm yet to speak with somebody from Optus based in Australia who can understand what I'm saying.

Grrrr!

 

[oz_mark]

I'd try popping into an Optus store and see if they can help.

(Never tried it with Optus, but have resolved a Voda issue that way)

 

[serfty]

I have just received 2 Galaxy S2's from Virgin mobile (who use the same network as Optus).¹ (Ending a 10+ year Telstra account).

Everything was done online, eliminating the different versions of English one can encounter.

(The 'phone were delivered with 48 hours of ordering after some emails to and fro)

Porting of old number was complete within 90 minutes of activation.

¹ 4K Velocity 2y signup bonus each plus 3 Velocity per $ ongoing. Also, 10% of fare component of DJ bookings as credit to account.

 

[LiamR]

I'd try popping into an Optus store and see if they can help.

(Never tried it with Optus, but have resolved a Voda issue that way)

Optus stores generally will only sell you a product, any other changes they hand you a business card and say to call Customer Support.

I have just received 2 Galaxy S2's from Virgin mobile (who use the same network as Optus).¹ (Ending a 10+ year Telstra account).

Everything was done online, eliminating the different versions of English one can encounter.

(The 'phone were delivered with 48 hours of ordering after some emails to and fro)

Porting of old number was complete within 90 minutes of activation.

¹ 4K Velocity 2y signup bonus each plus 3 Velocity per $ ongoing. Also, 10% of fare component of DJ bookings as credit to account.

If only our company could switch to somebody reasonable like Telstra.

An update...

After speaking directly with the woman from Optus Telesales who processed my order, she accused me of ordering a new service, and said I'd have to pay for this new service, as I ordered it, and then recontract the phone we wanted. Explained to her what happened, she didn't believe me, explained how every new service signed up does an audio recording of the customer agreeing to the T&Cs and parts of the deal. That didn't happen, and she couldn't find it. Eventually after speaking with her manager, Optus agreed it was their mistake.

However, they've cancelled the order, but I've still got to post the phone back and wait.. That dosen't seem like an acceptable solution to me, espically considering the amount of attitude I've recieved from Optus today.

Not a great way to treat customers when you are recontracting your phones. I've passed this info onto our ITS manager, who is now brining up the poor customer service from Optus up with the higher powers, and reconsidering doing out business with them. I honestly can't remember a order we made with Optus where it DIDN'T get stuffed up.

 

[The Rok]

Optus stores generally will only sell you a product, any other changes they hand you a business card and say to call Customer Support.




If only our company could switch to somebody reasonable like Telstra.

An update...

After speaking directly with the woman from Optus Telesales who processed my order, she accused me of ordering a new service, and said I'd have to pay for this new service, as I ordered it, and then recontract the phone we wanted. Explained to her what happened, she didn't believe me, explained how every new service signed up does an audio recording of the customer agreeing to the T&Cs and parts of the deal. That didn't happen, and she couldn't find it. Eventually after speaking with her manager, Optus agreed it was their mistake.

However, they've cancelled the order, but I've still got to post the phone back and wait.. That dosen't seem like an acceptable solution to me, espically considering the amount of attitude I've recieved from Optus today.

Not a great way to treat customers when you are recontracting your phones. I've passed this info onto our ITS manager, who is now brining up the poor customer service from Optus up with the higher powers, and reconsidering doing out business with them. I honestly can't remember a order we made with Optus where it DIDN'T get stuffed up.

Lodge a complaint online with the TIO and someone from their AUSTRALIAN Customer Resolution Team will contact you within 48 hours. They are very helpful and can do things the "overseas" agents cannot.

https://www.tio.com.au/making-a-complaint/submit-a-complaint

Works every time.

 

[munitalP]

Optus stores generally will only sell you a product, any other changes they hand you a business card and say to call Customer Support.




If only our company could switch to somebody reasonable like Telstra.

An update...

After speaking directly with the woman from Optus Telesales who processed my order, she accused me of ordering a new service, and said I'd have to pay for this new service, as I ordered it, and then recontract the phone we wanted. Explained to her what happened, she didn't believe me, explained how every new service signed up does an audio recording of the customer agreeing to the T&Cs and parts of the deal. That didn't happen, and she couldn't find it. Eventually after speaking with her manager, Optus agreed it was their mistake.

However, they've cancelled the order, but I've still got to post the phone back and wait.. That dosen't seem like an acceptable solution to me, espically considering the amount of attitude I've recieved from Optus today.

Not a great way to treat customers when you are recontracting your phones. I've passed this info onto our ITS manager, who is now brining up the poor customer service from Optus up with the higher powers, and reconsidering doing out business with them. I honestly can't remember a order we made with Optus where it DIDN'T get stuffed up.

I work for a company of 120K plus employees worldwide. Due to rebates, smoke & mirrors and a good sales person, we use Floptus in Australia. IMHO the networt is not much better than 2 tin cans and a length of string, and there is no way that while my bum points toward the ground I would ever personally sign up on any floptus mobile plan.

...Ending a 10+ year Telstra account)....

You'll be kicking yourself in the short term...

 

[djfuzz]

This is exactly why no amount of points baiting from QFF will make Optus any more attractive as a service provider. Not saying that the other mobs are much better, but at least one of them has a strong network to fall back on.

However, I did have a similar issue crop up years ago with a phone order from one of the other telcos. Ported two lines across and they offered me a fairly substantial sweetener due to a 'double welcome credits' offer they were running. I expected some sort of sweetener but was surprised by the size of it - but they assured me it was the case, and I made sure I recorded everything they said and got them to repeat it during the voice recording of my acceptance of the contract terms. I asked for them to send me some documentation confirming the terms of the deal and I was told the credits would appear on my account within 3 months. Unsurprisingly, neither of these things happened. To cut a very long story short, I spent the following 3 months regularly calling and every time speaking with a new CSR, having to repeat in detail what I was promised and each time being told that they were unable to help and referring me to someone else - suddenly, no one knew of any such welcome deal (despite the offer still being cached on their site and Google) and no one had any idea where to locate the recording confirming my acceptance of the contract and the offer of the welcome credits. Once the appropriate amount of time had passed, I contacted the TIO and all of a sudden (but not until repeating the stort 3 more times) they finally agreed to provide the full amount - but by that time, I'm fairly sure the amount of productivity I'd sacrificed chasing it up would have taken a bit of a chuck out of the real benefit of the credits.

And now I've wasted another chunk of time retyping the whole thing!

 

[eastwest101]

It seems djfuzz is on the money here, with any sort of telco and new contract I think its just safe to assume that the service provider will attempt to defraud/mislead the customer and the customer should only proceed with the use of screen catpures, written notes, hard copies and voice recordings to basicaly cover themselves off against misleading and deceptive conduct.

I agree Liam - that is truly pathetic. Maybe document costs of getting iphone back to Optus (including wages of whomever does this) and get your accounts people to backcharge Optus for this amount.

 

[ric_melb]

As one who has just moved my mobile phone from Optus to Telstra I couldn't be happier. No issues with Telstra sign up or service and now get 4 bars on my iPhone, at home, instead of the 1 through Optus. The Telstra salesman refers to Optus as Droptus. Glad I dropped Optus.

 

[serfty]

...

You'll be kicking yourself in the short term...

Probably not; I researched the networks and such, as well as doing a cost/benefit analysis.

Since I don't expect to stray outside of Oz metropolitan areas to any significant extent in the next two year I feel the bennies far outweigh the lack of reliable service outside of the more populated areas in Oz.

FWIW, I am transferring 4 services.

 

[Simo]

Liam,

Why don't you send the other phone back and just go to a Optus shop with a letter and account number and get it sorted out on the spot.

 

[LiamR]

Liam,

Why don't you send the other phone back and just go to a Optus shop with a letter and account number and get it sorted out on the spot.

That's what I ended up doing, it's just a bit of a pain in a business environment getting the right people eligible to sign up for services to come with me to an Optus store at short notice.

Or even worse, when half your colleagues are on the road travelling all the time too.

 

[Simo]

That's what I ended up doing, it's just a bit of a pain in a business environment getting the right people eligible to sign up for services to come with me to an Optus store at short notice.

Or even worse, when half your colleagues are on the road travelling all the time too.

As an opposition Telco dealer to Optus I would be more than happy to either do it all over the phone and post it to your office and it would all be correct.

I have clients with staff based all over Australia and it is never a real problem apart from one client who runs coach tours all over Aust and trying to get a replacement handset to a overnight stop and having no idea how long it will take Aussie Post when they say it is 3 to 5 days.

 

[leemin]

Glad you've got it sorted. Last time I had trouble re-contracting my phone with Telstra, I fronted the store. Wasn't happy with their response so sent a letter to the CEO that day. Within 3 days I had been contacted by the CEO's office and the problem was fixed.