Optus customers have slammed what the company calls a “token gesture” after a nationwide blackout left users without phone or internet access for more than 12 hours.
Payment, transport, and health services were thrown into chaos on Wednesday after operations at Australia’s second-biggest telco suddenly went dark about 4am.
With millions of users impacted by the outage, Optus revealed that customers on eligible plans would receive 200 GB of internet data for their “patience”.
The move, billed by Optus CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin to acknowledge customers’ “loyalty … to help during the holidays”, was immediately slammed.
“They’d know a huge percentage of customers have data left over each month,” a user on social media site Reddit said. “This is a token gesture that really is an insult.”
Others called the promised data package a “kick in the balls” and pointed out it had little impact on Optus, stating that: “Like, isn’t it free for them?”
“Utterly ridiculous. I’ll make sure that’s not all that I get. I’m no push over,” Leanne Helle-Broe said.
Gabrielle Higgs added: “Pay my bill, or I’m switching.”
Customers will have until the end of the year to use the 200 GB data packages, while eligible prepaid plans will get unlimited data only on the weekend.
In a statement, Optus acknowledged the outage had come at a “busy time” for many businesses in the lead-up to Christmas, providing them with the same 200 GB package.
Technology expert Trevor Long told Today host Karl Stefanovic that the telco, in doing so, “essentially overlooked” businesses not being “big enough” to be on their radar.
“What they‘ve said is if you have an Optus business manager, give them a call. Most local cafes don’t have an Optus business manager,” Mr Long said on Friday.
“They need to admit that the ombudsman and regulators will look at rebates and compensation for businesses, and they will have to keep those receipts.
“They should have made it clear that they understand the financial losses that businesses had … number one thing all the other telcos are doing is learning not to react if they have these issues.”
Among those impacted was a Reddit user from Perth who said their IT company had 13 services with Optus under a business account when the outage set in on Wednesday.
“The most data we have used on it is around 120GB in a month across all services. 200GB for a whole day outage is a slap in the face,” the user wrote on Friday.
“I’ve just started porting all the services to one of the wholesale carriers we have other business with. Optus knows damn well that no one will use that extra data.
“I already have over 1TB of data, and I don’t even use 15 per cent of it. Extra data has zero value for me. What the hell are they offering NBN customers who have unlimited usage?”