I've been an Optus prepaid user for the past 7 years or so to manage my call spend. I only just recently switched to post paid when I bought my new phone.
I recently went travelling to India and Singapore. Now, I know global roaming is expensive, but I thought what the hell, I've got a little bit of money now and I want to enjoy the convenience. I made some calls and checked a few emails. Given that my regular phone bill is around $80 per month, I was expecting a phone bill of perhaps $300 or so (i.e. more than triple).
I was roaming with Optus's preferred ‘bridge’ partners in each country, which in Singapore is SingTel (which owns Optus). Optus told me to avoid high costs by roaming with their partners.
My bill was over $1500.
I was charged between $5.30 and $6.65 per minute for calls and $15 per megabyte of data (which is over 10 times the price of the cost here). SMS's were 55c (which to me is reasonable).
Did I make the calls? Yes. Am I an idiot for not finding out exactly how much they would cost first? Yes, however... surely 10x the price is simply unjustifiable, excessive and unreasonable? It’s not 1980, a seven and a half minute phone call should not cost $49.90 when made from a capital city.
Singapore is not a poor country with tacky Telco infrastructure, and in India the locals pay 1p per minute (43 rupees to the $1 AUD, and 100p in 1 rupee, i.e. a fraction of a cent).
I’m going to take my complaint to Optus.
Has anyone experienced any success in a similar situation?
Failing a satisfactory outcome I will consider taking this to the Telecommunications Ombudsman.
I recently went travelling to India and Singapore. Now, I know global roaming is expensive, but I thought what the hell, I've got a little bit of money now and I want to enjoy the convenience. I made some calls and checked a few emails. Given that my regular phone bill is around $80 per month, I was expecting a phone bill of perhaps $300 or so (i.e. more than triple).
I was roaming with Optus's preferred ‘bridge’ partners in each country, which in Singapore is SingTel (which owns Optus). Optus told me to avoid high costs by roaming with their partners.
My bill was over $1500.
I was charged between $5.30 and $6.65 per minute for calls and $15 per megabyte of data (which is over 10 times the price of the cost here). SMS's were 55c (which to me is reasonable).
Did I make the calls? Yes. Am I an idiot for not finding out exactly how much they would cost first? Yes, however... surely 10x the price is simply unjustifiable, excessive and unreasonable? It’s not 1980, a seven and a half minute phone call should not cost $49.90 when made from a capital city.
Singapore is not a poor country with tacky Telco infrastructure, and in India the locals pay 1p per minute (43 rupees to the $1 AUD, and 100p in 1 rupee, i.e. a fraction of a cent).
I’m going to take my complaint to Optus.
Has anyone experienced any success in a similar situation?
Failing a satisfactory outcome I will consider taking this to the Telecommunications Ombudsman.