Optus today introduce a new free-month promotion for customers choosing a My Plan Plus post-paid plan, including a 30-day cancellation option.
Like Vodafone’s long running ‘Happiness Guarantee’, Optus customers will have 30 days to try a new post-paid service and cancel it without penalty. Customers unhappy with the service in the first month will be able to hand back any new phone bought on contract and have all future fees waived.
To sweeten the pot, Optus is also running a promotion offering the first month of a new service for free. Optus will cover the access fee and any handset repayment costs for the first 30 days of a new plan. The free month and the cancellation option together create a risk-free trial of the Optus network.
This promotion isn’t just for new customers switching to Optus. Existing customers can also take advantage of the free month by adding a new service to their account, i.e: buying a new phone on a plan. The free month promo will run from today through until 9 May 2016.
The cancellation offer isn't that different to what is now a standard part of all Optus phone plans. Optus introduced no cancellation fees last month, letting customers leave 24-month terms so long as they pay back the full retail cost of the phone they bought, minus what they had paid already. In effect, the 30 day cancellation offer is an extension of this, letting you avoid the handset cost and leave without paying anything at all.
Happiness Guaranteed?
The new post-paid initiative is a brave move for Optus, but one that is likely to pay off. Network performance continues to be a hot topic and point of contention for mobile customers; perhaps even more so after the recent string of Telstra network outages.
The Telecommunications Ombudsman, which tracks telco customer complaints, says that coverage issues top the disputes which customers apply to them for resolution.
Adding a cancellation policy is exactly what customers need to feel safe before signing a new long-term contract; it's just a shame that it is a short term offer. 30 days should be more than enough to get a good sense of how the network will perform where you live and where you work.
As we mentioned above, Vodafone has offered a similar cancellation option for a while now. it also has its ‘Data Workout’ feature which gives new customers 2 months of unlimited data to help gauge how much data they will need going forward, which is another excellent idea.
Joseph Hanlon
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