Misleading advertising by Optus means contract customers from 2014 can cancel without any cancellation fees

neil on 22/04/2014 - 18:21

If you go to the Optus website you will see a correction on their frontpage after the Supreme Court of Victoria found that their advertisement they ran on TV was misleading.

Interesting part:

The Court has also ordered Optus to write to all customers who entered, or may enter, into a post-paid mobile plan from 26 January 2014 to 16 May 2014 (inclusive) informing them of the outcome of the Court proceeding, and advising them that they are entitled to cancel their contract with Optus without any early cancellation fee being payable.

This may be useful for anyone who may want to get out of their contract.

The other interesting part:

the Optus mobile network and the Telstra mobile network cover 98.5% and 99.3% of the Australian landmass respectively, when in fact the Optus mobile network covers about 1 million square kilometres, that is approximately 12.6%, and the Telstra mobile network covers 2.356 million square kilometres, that is approximately 30.6%, of the Australian landmass;

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Comments

  • grasstown on 22/04/2014 - 18:49

    Why does it go until 16th. Surely that leads to rorting/ ozbargain ing?

    • Daabido on 22/04/2014 - 19:04

      Probably because people may have already decided to go ahead without checking back at this stage. So, how to Broden this thing? Joking.

  • endotherm on 22/04/2014 - 20:00

    …cover 98.5% and 99.3% of the Australian landmass respectively…

    I always thought those numbers represented the percentage of the population that was covered, not the landmass. Looking at coverage maps, they only seem to overlap major cities and populous areas. Those figures suggest the majority of the outback and deserts are covered.

    • grasstown on 22/04/2014 - 20:39

      The whole ad was dodgy. Comparing the Telstra and Optus 60 plans' excess fees but with Optus' excesses based on having a $20 bolt on and a specific favourable daily call limit and call duration. The ad said "when it comes to the percentage of australians the optus mobile network reaches" the difference between the two was less than 1 percent. I think it mislead.

  • unity1 on 22/04/2014 - 20:21

    Good way to try out the Galaxy S5 for a few weeks

  • eatwell365 on 22/04/2014 - 23:42

    Also, dodgy - add 10% GST on the bill. Made it nearly same price as Telstra which has better coverage and service.

  • modsec802 on 23/04/2014 - 21:47

    You'd probably still be liable for all handset payments which probably add up to the price of the handset

  • CCDee on 23/04/2014 - 22:06

    Argue that the advertisement induced you to sign up with an Optus MVNO? Too remote?

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