Any Optus Prepaid users here?

[Fulvio]

Due to a change in circumstances, I now find myself in an awkward position. I must recharge my mobile regularly to avoid losing credits, but I don't make enough calls to use them in the allotted time, and there is a hard limit of $270 before you can no longer recharge at all. Which limit I'm rapidly approaching.

In the past, I simply sold off the excess to a friend, but thanks to some sleight-of-hand, they conned her into switching to a postpaid account, and that option is gone. Plus they introduced a $10/month limit on credit transfers.

So the bottom line is I need to find one or more people who need Optus credits, to the princely tune of ten bucks a month. If I can't achieve this, I'll either have to waste the excess somehow, or lose the lot.

[Goldseeker]

Ah, the price of progress.........

[interest]

Due to a change in circumstances, I now find myself in an awkward position. I must recharge my mobile regularly to avoid losing credits, but I don't make enough calls to use them in the allotted time, and there is a hard limit of $270 before you can no longer recharge at all. Which limit I'm rapidly approaching.

In the past, I simply sold off the excess to a friend, but thanks to some sleight-of-hand, they conned her into switching to a postpaid account, and that option is gone. Plus they introduced a $10/month limit on credit transfers.

So the bottom line is I need to find one or more people who need Optus credits, to the princely tune of ten bucks a month. If I can't achieve this, I'll either have to waste the excess somehow, or lose the lot.

I've got an Optus pre-paid could do with an extra $10.00 a month.

[runway]

I have nothing good to say about Optus

[interest]

I have nothing good to say about Optus

That's funny cause I got nothing bad to say about them, I have always had good service from them.
I got nothing good to say about Telstra!

[Fulvio]

I got nothing good to say about Telstra!

Once upon a time, I used to give Tel$tra ten grand a year. Then when they pissed me off one time too many, I said to the guy on the phone "I'll take my business elsewhere".

He laughed at me, and said "We're Telstra. You can't take your business elsewhere."

Took me ten years, but I moved every last service away from them, and will never, ever, under any circumstances, give them a single penny of my custom ever again. And that's in spite of being a shareholder.

Which should show just how much they pissed me off, eh?

[ausjack]

now now boys we don't want to start a telco war they all suck and all after the same thing MONEY MONEY MONEY To me they're all same bird tared with same brush, same as the bloody banks and governments and a lot of other things, yeah I love money but it breaks my heart to see it become the one and only thing that matters, with out people to spend it what use is money really :winkextra:

[Ozcoins]

Fulvio,
Changing the rules after an agreement has been made is not really acceptable.
If they introduced the $10 limit later on, I would try arguing "That is not what WE (both parties) agreed to"
The whole idea of contract law is that agreements are being reached.
While lots of contracts now say things like "we can vary fees (or other terms) later on" there is no real agreement being reached if that happens.
You can not substantially change what is being done, and say "the agreement is still the same".

[Fulvio]

Changing the rules after an agreement has been made is not really acceptable.

Couldn't agree more, mate.

But all agreements nowadays include the right of one party, and one party only, to vary the agreement at will.

And that just plain sucks, I reckon.

[JeffH]

That's the problem; you don't negotiate a contract -it is 'take it or leave it'.

I had a similar problem with Telstra. My credit kept going up but I didn't use the phone enough to deplete it and, if I let it lapse it would be forfeit (I actually prefer the word 'stolen') to Telstra.

Anyway, problem solved by the phone self destructing and I let the account lapse and have been happy not to have a mobile phone since.
That was the third Telstra branded (all ZTE manufacture) phone that did the same thing! Developed a short in the battery and went up in smoke, literally.
In one instance the phone was sitting in the console of the car as I drove along and the car filled with smoke. I stopped quickly, opened the door, grabbed the phone (burning my hand in the process) and dropped it on the ground. The phone then went up in flames and I emptied my water bottle on it to stop from starting a grass fire.
Modern batteries can store a large amount of energy in a small volume.

After this it's "three strikes and you're out". And don't get me started on bigpond internet service -ditched them some years ago for another provider, who uses Telstra infrastructure locally and provides a bigger plan, cheaper and better service.

[Fulvio]

(all ZTE manufacture) phone that did the same thing!

IMO, there are only two options for phones.

Nokia dumb phones or Apple iPhones.

Everything else is crap. Which is a perfect fit with Telstra of course. They excel at finding the crap in everything and making it theirs.

BTW, the first time I hit that credit cap, I bleated to Optus about it, and they agreed to transfer the credit to the home phone, as a one-time-only "courtesy" gesture. The theory is now I know about the trap, I should be able to avoid it in future.

And yes, its theft, like so much of what telco's do. Don't even get me started on the great SMS ripoff which is the scam of the century.

[JeffH]

Funny that; I complained to Telstra the first time I hit the prepaid wall (never explained to me when I purchased a prepaid, thinking it would be more economical than the post-paid I had previously) and they gave me back my unused credit as a once only courtesy gesture. Of course, that didn't cost them anything as it just postponed the inevitable. I requested transfer to another account but no way they would give a "courtesy" that would be useful.

Incidentally, I recommend Telstra mobile and wireless internet around here to my customers. It is the only service with good coverage. But, I do suggest buying an unlocked phone, outright which gives best options for cheapest calls.

[Fulvio]

While I haven't looked into it myself, someone was telling me that you can't beat a Vodafone hotspot and Skype, especially for occasional use. Its the use-by dates that are the killers on just about every scam the telcos pull, and apparently Vodafone have 12 months, while Skype is PAYG.

Now that I'm using skype for group text chat in a couple of games I play, I just might look into trying that setup and ditch the mobile entirely. Since I already carry around an iPod and a dumb Nokia, replacing the phone with a 3G box wouldn't be a big hassle, and I'm almost always on a WiFi network anyway, except when shopping or driving.

[trout]

As I spend about 8 months a year at remote minesites I don't really have a choice but to use Telstra as that is the only way I can get reception.
None of the other carriers work in remote areas.

[purplepennyhunter]

I am on an ancient Telstra pre-paid plan that I can text Markn for 1c and that's all I do. God help me if I had to actually make a call on my phone. Oh no I lie, I can check the forum if I have free internet anywhere. I never use the $30 I have to recharge every 2 months so I "creditme2u" to Mark. Works fine, costs less than a plan and as long as I don't have to actually ring Telstra about anything then I'm happy.

When all this stops working then me and my unlocked phone might move to Virgin mobile.