The Australian Communications and Media Authority has issued Optus with a formal warning for overcharging hundreds of thousands of customers to the tune of almost $9 million.
The billing errors happened before September 2012 and were in relation to Optus' SurePage and SpinVox messaging services.
Between November 2008 and July 2011, faults in an IT upgrade meant 2,600 customers were overcharged. And between July 2011 and September 2012, thousands more customers were overcharged for the same reason – this time a total of 235,000 people were overcharged by a total of $8.9 million.
ACMA's investigation also found that Optus failed to identify and fix the cause of the billing error as soon as practicable, which Optus has admitted.
ACMA chairman Chris Chapman said: “I want to note Optus' constructive engagement with the ACMA's investigation. We are now confident that Optus has rectified the billing inaccuracy and is reimbursing with interest all affected customers.”
ACMA's decision following its investigation was to formally warn Optus, given that Optus itself reported the matter and implemented a compensation program.
An Optus spokesman said: “Optus recognises today’s formal warning from the ACMA, and once again apologises to affected customers. We have been working with the ACMA since October 2013 to proactively inform them of this billing error. The majority of affected customers have already received compensation, with the rest receiving it by the end of March.”
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