Optus Quietly Puts Caps On Bill Shock

Optus customers who go over their “cap” limits will only be charged up to a certain pre-set point, which is a major victory over bill shock. Optus, though, has implemented this in a very quiet fashion.

ZDNet reports on the move which Optus actually put in place last year without informing customers. According to the report, Optus CEO Kevin Russell announced at an Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce lunch in Melbourne last Thursday that customers who go over their domestic caps by more than $200 are only charged the $200 limit, while those who exceed global roaming limits wouldn’t be penalised any more than $500. He did note that since undertaking those measures, Optus had seen a dip in revenues, but that it was worth it in terms of customer loyalty.

“As an industry, we have become increasingly reliant on non-core revenues; revenues that come from breakage fees. I don’t believe you can move forward unless you address those decisions head on. And if you have unsustainable revenues that are upsetting your customer loyalty, then I think you have to address it head on.”

It’s an interesting step for a mobile carrier to take; while the $200 and $500 fees aren’t exactly chicken feed, they pale next to some of the roaming horror stories that have emerged over recent years.

Naturally, you’ll still be better off keeping within your caps, and for that you should check out our guide to the Top 10 ways To avoid global roaming rorts.

Optus seeks bill shock breaker [ZDNet]


The Cheapest NBN 50 Plans

Here are the cheapest plans available for Australia’s most popular NBN speed tier.

At Lifehacker, we independently select and write about stuff we love and think you'll like too. We have affiliate and advertising partnerships, which means we may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page. BTW – prices are accurate and items in stock at the time of posting.

Comments


3 responses to “Optus Quietly Puts Caps On Bill Shock”