It’s been a tough couple of years for Optus.
Last year, the telco experienced a major data breach, an October report revealed complaints about the company had risen by 30 per cent, and this week, it faced an unprecedented phone and internet outage which impacted more than 10 million customers.
Many of those customers say they want to leave. Others are calling for compensation. Some might want to sue.
Optus has offered customers some free data to use over the holidays, to thank them for their patience during Wednesday’s outage.
Many consumers would argue their losses are worth much more. However, legally speaking, Optus might owe you nothing.
So, what rights do you have? And what are Optus’s obligations?
What rights do I have?
Under Australian consumer law, businesses must pay for “loss or damage that is caused by the failure to meet a consumer guarantee”.
However, as law professor Jeannie Paterson explains, there are a few caveats.
One is that many telco contracts may promise to provide a service, but don’t promise that service will be uninterrupted. So, a temporary outage may not technically be in breach of your contract.
The other issue is that in order to make a legal claim, a customer would need to establish that Optus failed to provide its service with “reasonable care”.
And until we know what caused the outage, Professor Paterson says, that may be hard to prove.
“The provider of a service actually isn’t liable for a freak accident — a provider of services is liable when they fail to provide the service properly and effectively,” Professor Paterson, a co-director of the Centre for AI and Digital Ethics at the University of Melbourne, says.
“Until we find out how and why the breach occurred, it’s unclear whether that obligation to provide the service with reasonable care has in fact been breached.”
Optus says “a network event” was to blame for triggering the “cascading failure” that shutdown its services across the country, but has given little more detail.
Can I claim compensation anyway?
Yes you can.
Here’s what you need to do:
- Keep all receipts, bills or bank statements that prove what you spent
- Work out how much compensation is needed based on the money you lost during the outage — this could include missed work, lost business, or other expenses you incurred
- Then contact Optus directly and make a claim
If you find Optus’s response unsatisfactory, the telecommunications industry ombudsman Cynthia Gebert recommends getting in touch with her team.
Some small businesses might have insurance covering interruptions, so it’s worth checking your policy just in case.
How do I cancel my Optus contract?
And for those who want out? It will depend on your plan and device.
If you’re a prepaid or month-to-month mobile customer it’s pretty simple: you can request to transfer your number to another provider, or start afresh with a new sim and number.
But if you’re on a long-term internet plan or paying off a phone, it might be a bit more complicated.
Even at the best of times ending a plan with Optus can be laborious, as an Australian Reddit user documented last month.
As mentioned above, advocates have advised customers to estimate what the outage cost them when making their claim with Optus. Part of your claim could be asking to end your contract early.
However generally speaking, most contracts will have clause saying you need to pay out the remainder of your contract period if you want to terminate it early.
Can I sue Optus?
For the reasons mentioned above, it might be tricky to prove your case in a court of law.
The ombudsman recommends approaching Optus directly about compensation.
“Obviously everyone’s always within their right to pursue their legal options. It would be a tough case to be able to establish that you might not get up with,” Ms Gebert said.
“We’re really asking Optus to look beyond what the law requires.
“What’s the right thing to do in the circumstances should be the guiding activity for them.”
Will Optus offer anything to customers?
After pressure from politicians, consumers and advocates, Optus made an offering to affected customers yesterday.
Eligible customers will have access to 200GB of bonus data to activate before the end of the year.
“We know that there is nothing we can do to make up for [Wednesday] and what customers want most is for our network to work all the time – which is our number one priority,” chief executive Kelly Bayer Rosmarin said in a statement.
“But we also want to acknowledge their patience and loyalty by giving them additional data to help during the holidays, when so many people consume more data with friends and family.”
Optus urged businesses with any concerns to get in touch with the company directly.
ABC News: Cathy Border
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Advocacy groups like the Consumer Action Law Centre want the telco industry in general to face more direct regulation and be forced to provide stronger protections for consumers.
“The telco industry and the service they provide is … the technological backbone of the economy and society,” Tania Clarke, the policy and campaigns director of the Consumer Action Law Centre, said.
“We would say that it [consumer protection] needs to be set in law and that we need stronger regulation, so it doesn’t just rely on the telcos to do the right thing.
“So, I think this hopefully will be the line in the sand just to show how important this service is to all Australians.”
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