From mid-October, Optus will be advising customers that it has identified a system-based billing error related to the Optus SurePage answering service.
What happened?
Between July 2011 and September 2013, due to a software coding error, Optus incorrectly billed around 235,000 postpaid mobile consumer and small business customers for the Optus SurePage service. Optus has since fixed the system issue and is refunding affected customers.
Kevin Russell, CEO, Consumer Australia, Optus said, “Optus apologises to all customers who have been affected by this mistake. We have a single-minded focus to make things better for our customers, which means being honest and transparent about our mistakes, fixing them and compensating customers.”
What is Optus doing about it?
Optus is contacting all affected customers to apologise for the error and to provide a full refund, with interest. The total cost to Optus is $8.8 million, with over 175,000 affected customers receiving a refund of $50 or less.
Optus informed the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) and the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) of the issue before taking steps to notify and compensate customers.
SurePage is an alternative to voicemail. The service diverts unanswered mobile calls to a SurePage operator and the message is sent by SMS to the customer.
What do you need to do?
Optus will be sending letters to affected customers from mid-October to end of November. Customers don’t need to do anything until they receive their letter, which will have more details.
Media enquiries:
Gabrielle Crittenden / Claire Wong
Optus Corporate Affairs Tel: (02) 8082 7850
More from Optus
Customer Service
About Us
Connect with us
