Another quick Optus fail to talk about this morning, this time to do with being disconnected after not paying a bill. Problem is, I did pay it! Budda-boom!
So here’s the situation: last week I had an overdue bill which I couldn’t pay not because I didn’t have the money but because my Aussie credit union Visa debit card was being rejected. I used internet banking and confirmed I easily had the required balance to make the transaction, but Optus kept informing me otherwise.
After several days of trying I gave up and used my Singaporean bank card which cost me extra in foreign exchange fees but it did the job. I thought it was all over, but as of today my iTelephone is telling me I don’t have a data account with Optus which I’ve been told means I’ve had my account suspended.
According to the Optus website, I don’t have any outstanding payments due nor do I owe any late fees or other fees of any kind, and yet a full business day after I make the payment they disconnect me. Makes perfect sense!
I originally went with Optus after going to Telstra and Vodafone because the people at TeleChoice (an Optus retailer) were the most down to earth and honest, but I’m starting to regret the decision. I had a Vodafone account last time I lived in Australia and aside from not being able to use it when I went into rural areas on trips it was fine. Now that my 12 month contract with Optus has expired it might be time to move.
I used to be with Optus but I escaped at the start of the year after tons of frustration and to get more data quota.
I can’t say much for Virgin post-paid service because I’m prepaid all the way. But what I do know:
Virgin Mobile Australia is Optus owned now. They have seperate customer service staff though…. Australian based! I’ve talked to them about the weather in Sydney while we waited for the computer to load my details…
I only have incredibly rewarding interactions with Virgin. They keep sending me bribes for being a good customer :P When I first signed up, I needed to port my number but my internet connection was all flaky so the request didn’t get through. Called them up the next day and they did it for me again although they mentioned I could have just done it on the website…
The customer service website is fantastic compared to the Optus ones. I had to use Zoo and My Account concurrently to get all the functionality and Zoo had the ability to consistantly crash Firefox 1.5 if you used a certain login page.
It’s still Optus so the 3G is just as err flaky. Vodaphone are supposedly better inside buildings and Telstra are supposedly better in rural areas but it’s usually subjective experiences rather than coverage problems. I have a mobile broadband account and that’s okay but on my normal account I can sometimes get HTTP Error 402 Insufficient Credit unjustifiably. My low level problems with Optus base stations deserve their own post :P
It’s also Virgin. They act “cool” like that there’s an iPhone tethering tutorial on the website! That’s so much cooler than tethering being frowned upon. You can buy better data packs/quota than Optus ($10 = 300MB/30 days rather than 200MB) and most tiers include mobile internet data these days. They’re about to launch Rollover Caps Plus which all have that 300MB/30 days built in. Calls seem to be 90c/minute so that’s probably where they make their money.
Hey Reuben,
So sorry to hear about the issues you experienced with paying your bill.
I’d be more than happy to look into your account and get back to you with an update if you’d like to send me your details via our online form – https://www.optus.com.au/portal/site/aboutoptus/menuitem.26a56e3a0149a03327b868108c8ac7a0/?vgnextoid=f7fccd2cb6272210VgnVCM10000002cd780aRCRD
Cheers,
Robbie Bayros
Optus