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Hundreds of thousands of Optus customers have been incorrectly charged on their phone insurance policies.
TELCO giant Optus has been forced to compensate hundreds of thousands of customers after they were overcharged on their phone insurance policies.
Poor training, monitoring and supervision of staff was among the reasons blamed for the telco’s failure to sufficiently supply customers with correct information when they signed up to phone insurance.
More than 175,000 Optus mobile customers will be refunded approximately $2.4 million and the telco will write to at least 500,000 customers who may have been incorrectly charged on their policies.
Hundreds of thousands of Optus customers who were incorrectly charged for phone insurance will be refunded by the telco giant.Source:Supplied
The disaster comes not long after rival telco giant Telstra has left customers experiencing seven outages this year and has repeatedly offered them free data days to ease the pain.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission found Optus customers were left out of pocket after the telco operator hit them with the incorrect costs when they took out policies between December 2008 and August 2015.
Customers purchased these policies in store or by telephone.
The corporate regulator outlined four key breaches affecting customers which included failure to provide customers with one month’s free insurance under a promotional offer, incorrectly charging a premium for insurance during a “raincheck†period, not providing sufficient insurance information and issuing them with the wrong cover.
ASIC has ordered Optus to write to all customers who may be affected — letters will be sent by post tomorrow.
An Optus spokeswoman said the telco has “taken a number of steps to prevent future mistakes†which includes additional training for staff who deal with or sell insurance products.
ASIC chairman Peter Kell said it was important all affected Optus customers received a refund.Source:News Corp Australia
Current customers will be reimbursed with a credit to the customer’s account and compensation will include interest.
They will pay amounts to former customers that they cannot make contact with to a charity focusing on financial literacy.
ASIC deputy chairman Peter Kell said it was important Optus compensated affected customers.
Anyone who is affected should contact Optus on 1800 854 349.
sophie.elsworth@news.com.au