Optus customers have shared their strategies for haggling internet and mobile contracts in the wake of last week’s unprecedented outage.
Amid widespread calls for compensation, Optus has offered eligible postpaid customers 200GB of free data, while prepaid customers are entitled to unlimited data on weekends until the end of the year.
Lucas, from Melbourne’s south-east, told 9news.com.au he believed the compensation was inadequate and came at no marginal cost to the telco.
Frustrated with the outage and having his personal information compromised, Lucas said he managed to secure a $15 per month discount on his NBN plan, saving him about $180 over 12 months.
“I’m on the NBN entertainer plan, been with them for three years,” he said.
“I wasn’t unhappy with the product, just not impressed with the outage and my privacy details being leaked.”
He said his tip for negotiating a discount was “to separate the human from the situation”.
“Talk about your circumstances, say, ‘Look, I’ve been in a deal with you for three years, I understand and I know you’re just a regular person doing your job’,” he said.
“I said: ‘After the recent outage, you’re going to realise that it costs more to attract a new customer than it does to retain one’.
“‘I’ve been loyal, and you’ve made a few mistakes, so if you could give me a discount on my bill, I’d appreciate it, otherwise I’ll find another company with a similar product and roll there’.”
Canstar Blue utilities editor Tara Donnelly told 9news.com.au Optus customers should shop around before they attempt to negotiate their plan.
“Compare and see if other providers are offering similar data amounts or similar plan inclusions and at what prices, so that when you do approach Optus you can say, ‘Look, here’s what I can get with your competitor, can you match this? What can you do to entice me to stay when I can go over here for half the price?'” she said.
“Look around, see what else is out there, and when you do contact Optus, have facts ready, have examples ready have prices ready.”
Donnelly said customers should keep in mind they are likely to get a better deal at smaller providers who offer the same coverage, mostly at a cheaper price.
“A lot of smaller providers are having a pretty good time at the moment,” she said.
“Smaller telcos had some of their best new sign-up days they’ve had ever on the day the outage went down – it’s what you would call a churn event – so Optus definitely bled.
“It’s worth a try to see if you can get a discount with Optus or if you don’t want to leave immediately, negotiate a price.”
Optus told 9news.com.au it had offered customers “some gestures of goodwill”, with further information available on its website.
“Optus has a dedicated specialist team and a complaint handling process in place to assess complaints about the outage for our small business customers,” the telco said.
“We will look at the customer’s specific circumstances and work with the customer on what options we can take to resolve their concerns.
“We are also working with the telecommunication industry ombudsman to try and help our customers who have been impacted in different ways to find solutions that best suit their needs.”
While Lucas’ discount from Optus only applies for the next 12 months, he said he will consider giving them another chance when his plan runs out.
“I’ll give Optus a little longer to try and sort themselves out and prove to me that they’re good value and good service,” he said.
“I think that as long as it’s not a malicious error and just a human error, they should be given an opportunity to try and correct it and improve.
“They’ve had two quite large ones, this is the last chance.”
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