The following issue was listed in Whirlpool forums earlier today. I am not into carrier bashing but I do think the guy that posted this issue has some relevant points that should be addressed by Optus. No doubt some other carriers may also have similar policies and many of their clients don’t realise they do, or they do realise but don’t speak out.
Before you read the post, Optus offers a 30 day expiry of credit for most of its prepaid mobile plans. This is clear on their site. They also have the following in their T/Cs regarding other types of credits provided by their prepaid mobile plans “All credits expire within 30 days. Exclusions apply to MyBonus, MyData, Pre-Paid Messaging Money & Pre-Paid Money.”
What this means is that some credits will rollover as long as you keep on recharging. If you don’t recharge, then everything gets zeroed. I think this is common policy for most carriers though, you need to have an active account for the credits to stay active.
Customers should be aware that they may be losing some value by recharging early. That would amount to 1/30 of whatever was not being rolled over eg free talk and text and would also be relevant for plans such as Talk & Txt 4 Less.
I am an optus prepaid user. They are a fine carrier, customer service is very good. There is a blemish however, a serious one as far as I’m concerned, that I would like to see eradicated.
The charges:
1. Optus tell customers via its 555 service to recharge their phone one day earlier than the expiry date. EG if the actual expiry date is 29th Jan 2010, the voice message says ‘service will be suspended unless you recharge the day before 29th Jan‘. The day before is 28th Jan 2010, ONE DAY EARLIER than the actual recharge deadline. If you were to follow their instructions, you may potentially lose $1 (1/30 of a 30 day $30 prepaid service). Optus has confirmed to me that I am correct.2. Alternatively Optus misleads its customers by presenting them with an expiry date on the internet which the unwary user is unlikely to realise is ONE DAY LATER than the actual expiry date. EG if the actual expiry date is still 29th Jan 2010 as above, the internet account will display ‘expires 30th Jan 2010 00:00 AM.’ The inexperienced user will think that that means they have until MIDNIGHT 30th Jan, whereas in fact ’30th Jan 2010 00:00AM’ means expires ’29th Jan 2010 midnight’ (or 29 Jan 2010 23:59′ according to Optus customer service to be exact). Therefore your prepaid balance would be ZEROED WITHIN 60 seconds BEFORE DATE 30th JAN even clocking in!. Optus has confirmed to me that I am correct.
I have advised Optus to amend their recharge expiry date voice message to ‘ON OR BEFORE 29th Jan’, and to display the expiry date as ‘expires midnight 29th Jan’.
The matter was escalated to managerial level on a number of occasions but they have never contacted me as they had promised.
ofe you
