Optus outage: Businesses deserve better than ‘shabby’ response, Ombudsman says

The claim by Optus that compensation would be just $2 for most firms affected by Wednesday’s outage has been rejected as a ‘shabby’ response by the small business ombudsman.

The Optus outage was not just a network failure but proof that its product “was not fit for purpose” and the telco should be held to the same standards as other businesses and provide a refund or compensation, according to the Council of Small Business Organisations Australia.

COSBOA’s chief executive Luke Achterstraat told The Weekend Australian his organisation had joined the small business ombudsman in calling for cash compensation for Optus business customers.

“We’re talking about a product here that was not fit for purpose. And in any other transaction, when a product is not fit for purpose there needs to be recourse through either a refund or compensation,” he said.

COSBOA estimates that some businesses lost up to $10,000 in trade on Wednesday during the outage, which took down the network for Optus’s 10.2 million customers.

“We’re talking about some small businesses who may have lost up to $10,000 of trade. It’s not just a direct loss – for a lot of businesses (it’s) additional work and compliance that they might need to undertake,” he said.

“Along with the small business ombudsman, we’re calling for Optus to look at significant cash compensation.”

Bruce Billson, Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman.

The claim by Optus chief executive Kelly Bayer Rosmarin that customers were only owed about $2 in compensation was slammed by the Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman, who deemed the telco’s response to customers “inadequate”.

“We reject suggestions by Optus that the loss for a small business is $2 a day. This is what Optus charges for their services, not what the consequences and loss of that service has cost small businesses in lost income and customers,” Ombudsman Bruce Billson said.

The telco’s compensation offer of 200GB of data, which needed to be self-activated, was “quite laughable”, Mr Achterstraat said.

“Without small businesses, these telcos can’t exist. There was a lot of rhetoric around putting customers first and it’s pretty hard to think of an example when that would be more important (than now),” he said.

“In terms of the communication given to small business from Optus, I can certainly say I don’t think it would pass the pub test.”

Australian small businesses, which the Ombudsman said employed about one fifth of the nation, deserved “respect” and for their losses to be acknowledged.

“Australia’s 2.5 million small businesses provide jobs for 5.1 million people and employ 42 per cent of all apprentices and trainees in training – nearly double the amount supported by a big ­business.

“They deserve respect and not to be treated in such a shabby way by Optus,” Mr Billson said.

The Ombudsman considered telecommunications an essential service that was crucial for many small businesses.

“The response by Optus is inadequate, and not sufficiently dealt with by an offer of extra data,” Mr Billson said.

“Small businesses rely on telecommunications as an essential service, but they have been poorly served by Optus throughout this event and some have suffered a significant economic cost.”

The Ombudsman has called on Optus to acknowledge the role it plays as a network provider and how an outage of its network impacts the Australian economy.

“More needs to be done to acknowledge this impact on the livelihoods of our small and family businesses with a more tailored response,” he said.

COSBOA looked forward to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman using its powers as a regulator to pursue compensation claims if necessary, Mr Achterstraat said.

Originally published as Optus outage: Businesses deserve better than ‘shabby’ response, Ombudsman says