Telstra is refunding customers who breached their smartphone data limits in July, after the company’s online data usage monitoring tool broke down for two weeks, leaving users high and dry as to just how much they were downloading.
The confirmation comes just after Telstra boss David Thodey said last week the company is battling a disconnect between how much data users believe they are allowed to use and their actual limits, leading to arguments and a significant amount of bad debts.
A spokesman told SmartCompany this morning customers will be refunded for breaching the limits after the My Data tool broke down.
“Last month Telstra’s My Data tool was unavailable from July 11 to July 26. We want to make sure that no customer is impacted by this outage and we have already waived all excess usage charges for customers who are on a data plan while the data meter was unavailable.”
“Refunds will be made automatically and excess charges will not appear on customer bills,” the spokesperson said.
The company also confirmed it is looking through the accounts of customers who accessed data under the “pay as you go” charging method to make sure they didn’t suffer a similar problem.
Smartphone data limits are a big problem for Telstra. Last week Thodey said the company is having to chase customers after they rack up huge debts while using the internet on their phones without realising they are breaching their limits.
Telstra has relatively low amounts of data included in its smartphone packages, compared to rival telcos Optus and VHA. Due to a combination of customers not realising how much data they use, and these relatively low caps, users often breach their limits with expensive consequences.
The Australian Communications Consumer Action Network believes Telstra should impose an actual cap on users, which would cut off their mobile internet connection as soon as they breach their limit.
A spokesman told SmartCompany last week the cap would help educate users about smartphone data and how these types of plans work.
“This is the sort of reform that customers have been crying out for, for years. Bill shock isn’t new, but the advent of smartphones has created a new wave of bill shock, not just for industry, but they have a detrimental impact on customers. We’d like to see real caps.”
Telstra confirmed it is considering such a move.
Patrick Stafford is a freelance journalist and a former deputy editor of SmartCompany.
