Just yesterday, we mentioned that new consumer laws meant that items sold on a contract should be covered by a warranty for the life of that contract. Proving the point, the ACCC has negotiated a court-enforceable undertaking with Optus that means phones sold on a 24-month deal will be under warranty for that entire period — even for iPhone owners.
The ACCC already had similar deals in place with Telstra and Vodafone, which means a large portion of the market is covered by a proper warranty arrangement that lasts the length of the contract. (Note that the Optus deal doesn’t extend to other companies which use its network such as Boost or Virgin Mobile, since it doesn’t deal directly with consumers or supply phones under those arrangements.)
What’s particularly interesting about the deal is that it includes the iPhone, something which didn’t happen with the Telstra and Vodafone arrangements, much to the ACCC’s chagrin. Optus is generally reckoned to have the largest share of the Australian iPhone market (something which might be at least partially explained by the fact that it has the cheapest contract deals), so getting Apple included for the full 24 months is definitely a win for consumers. We’ll watch to see if similar concessions are extended by Vodafone and Telstra.
nick
Friday, January 7, 2011 at 2:18 PMdoes this include current optus contract customers that signed up before any of this?
Craig Baldie
Friday, January 7, 2011 at 2:44 PMwhen the Telstra & Vodafone ones were announced it was only for new contracts i believe
Ryan Wall
Friday, January 7, 2011 at 3:27 PMdoes this mean you wouldn’t have to pay for insurance every month if you bought an iphone and you could still get it fixed or replaced if broken?
Angus Kidman
Friday, January 7, 2011 at 3:45 PMNot really. A warranty only covers defects, not damage through accident or carelessness.
Ben
Saturday, January 8, 2011 at 6:13 AMThis has been effective as of the 14th of November for Optus. Bit slow on the pickup, Lifehacker…
Angus Kidman
Friday, January 7, 2011 at 7:15 PMI think I’ll believe the ACCC, which announced the arrangement today, as you can see in the link.
Trish Willums
Monday, August 1, 2011 at 9:50 AMBen is correct. Been telling this to customers since mid November.It’s for new contracts only not exixting ones.
Justin
Monday, January 10, 2011 at 3:30 PMFYI Telstra/Apple have been fixing iphones under 24 month warranties for a few months.