Optus are being taken to court over allegations they misled customers into signing up for the NBN earlier than required.
The telco giant are facing claims from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission who allege they told people to switch to the national broadband network or risk having their current service disconnected.
The competition regulator believe as many as 20,000 customers were effected by the misdirection, Fairfax reported.
Optus are being taken to court over allegations they misled customers into signing up for the NBN earlier than required
The telco giant are facing claims from the ACCC who allege they told people to switch to the national broadband network or risk having their current service disconnected
The ACCC say Optus wrote to thousands of people who use Pay TV cables, telling them the NBN was coming to the area and they were required to swap over.
Letters were sent out between October 2015 and March of this year, earlier than when Optus were contractually able to cancel the services. The ACCC allege this is false and misleading.
‘This is particularly concerning as Optus received a significant financial payment from NBN Co for each customer that moved from its cable network to the NBN,’ ACCC chairman Rod Sims said.
‘We are also concerned that Optus cut off some of its customers’ internet services when it had no contractual right to do so,’ he said.
‘Telephone and internet are essential utilities and it is unacceptable for Optus to treat its customers this way,’ he said.
They also allege between October 2015 and September 2016 Optus misled customers regarding their options for NBN plans, and may have convinced people they were the only telco that could provide the services.
A spokeswoman for Optus told Daily Mail Australia the company admit they didn’t offer the appropriate amount of time for people to change services.
‘We provided some customers with insufficient notice of their options to migrate. As a result, some customers were disconnected before they migrated to the NBN.
‘Optus aims for a seamless experience for customers transitioning to NBN. We acknowledge that this process did not deliver on our intent to provide an excellent migration experience.
‘When we became aware of customer concerns, we suspended all migration activations and reconnected affected customer as quickly as possible. We also compensated customers who had been disconnected without sufficient notice.
‘The ACCC’s action today relates to past processes that we have successfully addressed. We are working cooperatively with the ACCC to resolve its concerns.’