Dear Optus, please show us where

To describe the Optus standard customer contract as a dog’s breakfast is unkind to dogs.  We know many canines that can at least keep their food inside the bowl.

In this case, the clarity (or otherwise) of the contract documents matters more than most.  Optus is basing a controversial decision to deny Timeless or Cap plan customers access to cheap VoIP calls on a claim that its standard contract is quite clear about it.

 
No cheapie calls via our network, says Optus

Until Christmas, Optus Timeless or Cap plan customers could use their mobile or landline accounts to dial the Australian number of a VoIP service provider.  Optus carried the call as far as the VoIP service, and the VoIP service provided an IP link to an international number at low cost.

Then came the SMS from hell:

IMPORTANT:  All calls that re-route or divert to international numbers are charged at 29c per min + 27c flagfall.  See optus.com.au/international for details.

So we checked out optus.com.au/international for details

Here’s how Optus explains its purported right to block access to third party VoIP services that allow customers to use a local or national Optus call as the first stage of a cheap international connection:

Optus is concerned that some customers may be being misinformed or misled by non-Optus related entities that are making claims that Optus customers can make free, or included cap value, international calls on their Optus Plan. This is not correct. International calls within the meaning of your Optus Mobile Standard Form of Agreement for all Timeless and Cap plans includes calls that re-route or divert to international numbers.

If you are on a Timeless or Cap plan, all calls made to any number that re-routes, diverts or switches to an international number is an international call and is charged from 29c per minute with a 27c flagfall. International calls are not included as part of your Timeless unlimited offer, and are excluded from some Cap plans included value. A complete copy of the Standard Form of Agreement can be viewed at www.optus.com.au/sfoa

Now, that may be true.  But if that’s what the standard agreement says, we can’t locate it.  No surprise since the contract documents comprise a bevy of separate components.

We even googled the entire Optus site for the word ‘re-route’ but could turn up just four results, none of them relevant.

Optus had better hope its assertion is correct

Even if Optus is right about ‘international calls within the meaning of your Optus Mobile Standard Form of Agreement for all Timeless and Cap plans’, there are questions about the conscionability of its exercise of power.

And if Optus is wrong  it has made a nasty mistake indeed. 

So give us a hand, Optus

We’re not saying you’re wrong, but in the jumble you describe as ‘a complete copy of the Standard Form of Agreement’, the term that ‘If you are on a Timeless or Cap plan, all calls made to any number that re-routes, diverts or switches to an international number is an international call’ isn’t easily found.

Where is it, please ?