Optus’ free data offer ‘not enough’ as complaints from small businesses soar

The telco ombudsman says small businesses have told her Optus’s free data offer doesn’t compensate for the damage to their profits by last year’s national outage.

Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman Cynthia Gebert.

New figures have revealed the hit to small businesses from Optus’s catastrophic outage late last year, and that many have rejected the telco’s offer of free data as being “not enough” to compensate for lost profits.

The Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman’s latest quarterly data, released on Thursday, shows telco complaints soared in the aftermath of Optus’s outage last November. In the three months to December 31, complaints surged 13.4 per cent compared with the previous quarter, and 919 people lodged grievances against the nation’s second biggest telco.

Small businesses accounted for 20 per cent of Optus complaints. Most sought financial compensations, credits, a refund or discounted services, or to exit from their contracts early.

As well as wiping out small businesses’ profits, almost 2700 Australians could not dial triple-0 for emergency services during the daylong outage.

Optus attempted to assuage aggrieved customers by offering $100 of free data. Optus managing director for customer solutions Matt Williams insisted at the time that this was fair, but the offer sparked criticism and anger.

Telecommunications ombudsman Cynthia Gebert said: “Whenever there is a disruption in the telco industry, we see complaints increase – and this is exactly what has happened with the Optus outage.

“For some people, the offer of free data to compensate for a full day outage is fair and reasonable. But businesses who lost profit, people who couldn’t call triple-0, or who experienced other significant losses told us that free data is not enough.”

Some small businesses lost as much as $10,000 after the outage crippled their operations, including their ability to accept payments and bookings.

The telco suffered further reputational damage when former chief executive Kelly Bayer Rosmarin – who resigned after a bruising Senate inquiry into the outage – appeared to not understand the consequences of the outage on small businesses.

Former Optus CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin resigned after appearing at a Senate inquiry.

“I’m disappointed that a barber couldn’t do haircuts today,” she said told Nine News on the day of the outage. “That seems like one of the few things you can do without connectivity.”

But telecommunications has become a key part of the nation’s economy, particularly as more people go cashless and businesses digitise services. During the outage many small businesses, such as hairdressers, could not accept bookings or receive payments, resulting in lost income.

Although complaints surged quarter on quarter, overall they fell 17.9 per cent year on year.

Apart from complaints about a network outage or no internet or phone service, the biggest increase was from people lodging a grievance about a delay in establishing a telecommunications service, which rose 25.8 per cent.

This was particularly the case in Queensland, where the Gold Coast recorded a 43.7 per cent increase in complaints about a delay in establishing a service. Moreton Bay and Logan recorded 16 and 72.7 per cent increases respectively.

Overall, small businesses accounted for 12 per cent of all complaints – an increase of 7.2 per cent compared with the previous quarter.

As for the actual telcos, Ms Gebert said complaints about Telstra comprised 36.8 per cent of all complaints, while Optus accounted for 31.4 per cent. She said nine of the top 10 telco providers recorded increases in the past quarter.

Only Southern Phone showed a decrease; its complaints fell 28.9 per cent to 209.

But industry group Communications Alliance, which represents the major telcos and some of the device makers – including Apple and Google – said the number of complaints was low by global standards.

Communications Alliance chief executive John Stanton said there was one TIO complaint for every 3226 services in operation.

“The sustained low level of complaints is testimony to telcos’ efforts to compete on customer service, reliability and value,” he said.

“It is particularly pleasing to see the industry maintain low complaint levels given the significant rise in complaints in a number of other industry sectors.”

So far this quarter, 451 people have contacted the TIO about financial hardship or repayment arrangements. Ms Gebert said of these, 331 were raised as complaints which was a decline of 5.7 per cent compared with the previous quarter.

“Despite the increase in complaints this quarter on quarter, it’s really pleasing to see that financial hardship complaints have decreased, along with the continued year-on-year decline,” Ms Gebert said.

“If consumers or small businesses need help resolving a phone or internet problem with their telco, they should contact us on 1800 062 058 or make a complaint online.”