Optus customer bombarded with almost 50 messages meant for someone else

An Optus customer has shared the ‘absolutely useless’ response from the telco after it wrongly sent them 48 text messages.

An Optus customer has been sent almost 50 text messages from the telco that weren’t meant for them in yet another example of the company’s recent failings.

The customer shared a photo that included 48 texts from Optus wrongly telling them dozens of times their “new Optus service” was in the process of being activated.

Other messages contained “one-time” codes to access an account, and others claimed an account had been successfully activated and asked the user to download the Optus app.

The person who received the huge volume of texts said they ended up having to spend hours on the phone with Optus to work out why they were being bombarded.

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An Optus customer received 48 texts like this. Picture: Reddit

“Four hours on the phone with Optus and I’ve been going back and forward. I did not activate a single one of these,” they wrote to social media on Monday.

The stream of messages began on October 13 and continued to pour in at all hours until stopping on October 17 at 1.34pm.

Almost 400 people responded to the customer’s post, with many slamming Optus for the error in the wake of the telco’s recent data breach and reports of unprofessionalism from workers.

The customer later revealed that after four hours dealing with Optus, they were told the matter would be sent to its “highest escalation team” for them to receive a reply in 10 business days.

Until then, they were told to prepare for more text messages telling them services belonging to other people were being activated.

They described the response as “absolutely useless” and said they filed a complaint with the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman.

The customer spent four hours on the phone trying to make them stop. Picture: Reddit

Optus told them their number was being used as a test. Picture: Brendon Thorne/Getty Images

The customer updated the post Tuesday morning revealing they had earlier received a call from Optus and was told their “number was accidentally linked to Optus test accounts”.

“Fortunately none of my info was disclosed and they will be removing my number from their tests. Definitely not a fun experience but it’s been resolved,” they wrote.

Among those to respond were several people who thought 10 days was far too long for a “highest escalation” matter to be investigated.

“It takes them 10 business days to look at something in their database, check the logs of the service activation, and determine the cause? That’s bonkers. They should have a decent idea of what’s going on after 15 minutes,” one response read.

“They breached my info and I’ve been getting spammed non-stop via text and email,” someone else said.

Others urged the customer to get a credit check in case the services had been linked to his number.

“Get in touch with the credit reporting agencies and make sure they are aware that you didn’t open any of these accounts and that Optus ‘are investigating’,” one wrote.

Optus refused to provide comment on the matter.

“We are not providing comments on individual customer’s circumstances. If customers have concerns, they should contact us,” a spokesperson told news.com.au.

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