Optus Home Phone

Avoid Optus. Landline not ported for 2 months. Only resolved with escalation to TIO and ACCC – Optus failed to complete the porting of a landline number held for over 20 years, despite repeated requests. Multiple Optus staff provided incorrect information, stating porting was "not possible" to the new carrier, even after being reminded of Optus' Local Number Portability Code obligations. Optus' suggested solution was to create a new… Read more

landline number! Escalation to Optus' Customer Resolution Team (sic) was ineffective. The inability to receive and make calls persisted for two months, creating immense stress for an elderly customer and the landline was only ported after escalation to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (failure to comply with the Code) and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (anti-competitive behaviour), along with follow-up by the new carrier.

Sales Team Deficiencies – After signing up to purchase a landline phone service we discovered our internet (from another provider) had crashed to 0.5% of the download speed. The Optus sales staff denied any responsibility by Optus, but the ISP verified that our internet had been disconnected. Not surprising, and all fixed easily by the ISP, but I found that the Optus sales… Read more

team were confused about any effects on our internet and they eventually said that there would be none. While they would not necessarily be expected to know potential effects, I would expect them to enquire of Optus technical staff when unsure, rather than just fobbing it off.

Nightmare – Well I don't have a clue what's going on with Optus. Called them today about an email enquiry and was stuffed around with new plans etc. I didn't want a new plan but apparently their putting me on one. Apparently my mobile is going up as well by $15 a month. I had no knowledge of this and wouldn't have if I had not of called about an email issue.… Read more

I'm also told everything is now going to be direct debit . No thanks ,you guys just had a data breach why would I want to give you any more information. Oh and direct deposit debit only by credit or debit card won't allow it through bank accounts. We have been with Optus for years and now they want my driver's licence and all this other stuff . I almost felt like I was being scammed, their staff can hardly speak English so you have to repeat yourself 15 times. Their really not listening to you, I'm stating I no longer want the mobile phone plan just internet and they keep telling me that was already discussed and that we're going to give you this mobile plan. You have to drag every piece of information out of them cos they're not going to tell you anything. I have had the mobile , home phone and Internet all on the one plan for years. I no longer use the home phone and don't want to pay another $15 a month for the mobile plan. I don't know what's so hard for them to understand.

Professionalism and compassion combined! – I very surprisingly received acknowledgment and understanding from my usual honesty about our circumstances and limitations regarding a late bill It was a refreshing experience to have telling the truth being acknowledged Thank you Optus

Excellent – I have had my Home Phone and Internet with them since 2011 but I recently got YesTV by Fetch in 2015 because I enjoy having to record and watch live TV. The staff have been helpful and the service is amazing.

Good Service All Round – Generally a Good Service. Internet never drops out. Definitely better then Telstra. They have up the prices so I'm considering changing over to TPG for a better deal. The sales department are not the best to deal with. Over all no regrets. Optus is a good product, has some flaws but go over yourselves! A note to Optus - Get rid of the non… Read more

English speaking phone operators, they are hurting your busness! Reliable Service, has never let us down. Non English speaking phone operators , expensive - they have up the prices.

Absolutely horrible customer service – i have waited since 28/9/2022 to have my Optus landline ported and as of 7/1/2023 i used the 133937 at first was lied and told different answers so experts gave a different answer i complained and got a senior expert in sydney but to date problem is still there optus internet and nbn landline connected internet is ok after dropouts new modem… Read more

fixed thati have had two techs come out and they both said its a porting problem but the senior expert is unable to get a porting team to look at it i am a 78 year old person and have been battling cancer for four years Optus how about picking up the ball and running with it it is hard to recommend optus after this

Elderly Mother left without phone for 6 days – Hey Optus, First you compromise my elderly mothers security by cutting corners on your web security, now you have left her without a land line for 6 days and counting. My mother has dementia and her home line is all she has ever known. Calls to your offshore "technical support" have resulted in nothing but more angst, lack of understanding,… Read more

distress, fear and being hung up on twice. My mother has COVID she needs to have access to emergency services. Your CEO appeared on TV crying and apologising for the security breach and now this happens to our elderly parent, you have caused my 89 year old mother undue distress, fear and confusion. Are you going to apologise and address your delivery of service????? Your Transparency,Customer Service are not even rateable.

Wish i could give 0 stars – In May they allowed another company to disconnect all my services. It took 10 days of me continually ringing their call centres for someone to realise what hap happened. Now its August and i have been without all services for 8 days and am receiving no help. For God's sake don't touch them!

Shocking very bad – Optus is terrible and very unhelpful. painful long conversations with their overseas call centres and end up with zero resolution. They are so beyond useless it’s slightly funny. I’ll next have a service with them again.

Their Incompetence amazes me, overcomplicated processes – In the last 4 weeks they managed to deliver my new iPhone to the wrong address and keep on the phone with them for 14 hours in total with customer service with many other issues. One of my biggest issues was porting my phone number and it took 6 phone calls to resolve it and what amazed me when they were able to make it go through with the exact… Read more

same details after giving them the exact same ones every time but again and again being told I am wrong. I am also perplexed by how difficult they have to make it to change a plan. They make it so you have to call them. I had a much better experience porting a number to Woolworths mobile and didn't have to have a single phone call, it worked seamlessly. I had multiple issues with Optus before they failed my porting and delivered my package to the wrong address. What you get after going through also this hardship is decent but not an upgrade considering how much stress and difficulty it caused me. I also have an issue regarding how all they care about is selling me stuff. I called them, someone picked up and said it would take 10 minutes to go be transferred to the next department on hold. He said he would try to help me before putting me on hold and that constituted telling me how I only have a handset on one phone out of four sims. I WAS TRYING TO GET HELP ABOUT THEM SCREWING UP. Why would I want to buy more. They don't care about the customer one bit.

Worst customer service ever! If I can give 0 star I would – Terrible customer service, kick you around departments like a ball. Waited on the phone for over 3 hours and everytime they ask you to wait for the transfer please anticipate your line will be cut purposely. Talked to over 7 optus staff from different departments and nothing is solved. I lost my long used business number that I carried over… Read more

from other provider and paid the bills for nothing! Optus staff made a mistake connecting my nbn service to the wrong address and disconnect everything including the internet and phone without my consent! I also have over $300 credits in my account also gone without notice! Unbelievable!

Terrible service , and no customer support that will do anything – Poor, and consistently poor NBN reception despite numerous calls. Inept and inaccurate billing. Dreadful customers service . Their app for customers seems designed to prevent the customer getting any facts on their service. Recommend you avoid them , as once you are signed it, takes a huge effort to go through all the Optus loops to get out!

it is terrible,no one care or no where to complain – since 31/10/21 our home phone is not working, we use it as a business phone. we can't call only can live chat, after the everyday chat and they adjusted in their end, the phone is still not working, I suggest it may be a modern problem, and ask if we can change a new one. then they accept and it takes two weeks to send a new modern to make the… Read more

phone work. after changing the new model, the phone can't leave a message and only ring 3 times then disconnect it. I start to live chat again and at some points, it worked occasionally. Then after they change it again, it does not work again. they refer me to the resolution team and did not hear from anyone call me and then I raise a complaint and they give me a case number 100818744, no one called. Every day livechat different people tell me they will get someone to call me, but nothing, they ask me to download the app and can contact case manage from app, I did, no one answer. I have to live chat with them every day, go through the robot every day and answer the same question every day. still now, 16days ago, my case manager Aniruddha who is showing on my app still has not contacted me. I think they just want me to give up. because the phone number is for business, I can't change it straight away. we are a medical centre, now I have to answer the phone before the 3 rings, and the patient can't leave a message to cancel their appointment. I have to answer the phone call at later night and earlier morning.I am so stressed and don't know what to do.:(

Optus. Yes? No – Previously an Optus customer for a number of years until Singtel decided it wasn't worth the money maintaining landlines in NSW, which in a rural area can be more reliable than a mobile. Connection issues, combined with a need to be able to reliably access medical services meant we had to find another Telco. Extracting ourselves from Optus should… Read more

have been simple, you'd think. Since paying the last account (in advance) I would have expected a refund for the period I was no longer an Optus customer, having been through this before with Optus' mobile network (I was told I had to pay for the account, only to be refunded at a later date). Not so. I continued to receive accounts for the last 2 months which have now escalated to phone calls requesting immediate payment, despite numerous emails explaining the situation (helpful hint - don't call their 'help' centre, it may leave you with deep, emotional, scarring).

Their Customer Service – Trying to get a response from Optus is very difficult. If I ring on the phone, pressing numerous numbers, I have to wait with the Optus music then get through to an overseas operator. I get passed on to different departments. More waits. It’s very frustrating indeed. If I private message them on Facebook, I never get a reply back. Ever. If I go to… Read more

the chat box on the Optus app, (when the app is not down due to maintenance),I get an automated message saying they will get back to me. When I go to the actual Optus store in my area, if I don’t find it closed, there are long waits to be served. My goodness Optus. I think you really need to lift your game. Giving you two stars out of five rating is being generous.

Appalling service for the simplest thing – Have had a post paid home Optus account for many years. Home phone, broadband, Fetch. Needed a new Fetch remote after one was damaged. 40 mins on a txt chat to then be asked for drivers licence. Why? For a $29 remote that will be billed to my acct? Said no and decided to ring. 40 mins later talking to the call centre in India and then same… Read more

request. Which I refused again. When pushed it told they have migrated their account info and they need ID again. Ok to post bill me monthly for my account for 10 years but can’t send a $29 remote and bill me. Time for me to migrate my service as well. Optus Broadband in my area is rubbish and they even sent a letter admitting they couldn’t deliver the speeds we pay for. Dreadful company and zero customer service.

Awful Company - They Lie Over the Phone & Still Send Out Bills for a Cancelled Service – Last year, our family considered getting a landline installed but although we spoke to Optus we decided to stick to our ISP for a new landline. Optus nevertheless managed to 'take over' our NBN setup as part of supposedly "helping" us get a landline with them and our ISP had to contact them to get that stopped. We phoned Optus the next day to… Read more

ensure the landline was completely cancelled. Then, just last week, a bill arrived in the post requesting $50 for this landline service, one we had never used and we were shocked that suddenly Optus was trying to get us to pay for a landline that had only been partly set up and never gone through with either the installation physically or via the NBN.

With the bill in my hand I immediately phoned Optus and got put through to around 7 different people and at one stage the phone went to a voicemail, another time it suddenly went dead, and finally I got put through to a man with who had a strong Indian accent and I asked him to cancel the landline and explained the issue. His English wasn't great and he seemed to want to get our family to return to Optus because he asked me to tell him who our ISP was and what we were paying and about the terms and conditions of our landline service. I told him I was not going to go into those details, that they were not relevant to my request to get this unwanted service with Optus cancelled once and for all, a service that I had already cancelled last year before it had ever truly begun. He became defensive and said he "ha[s] to ask those questions". It sounded like a ploy Optus uses to try to get customers to stay with them. I don't want to talk to Optus about who my ISP is if I am calling them solely to cancel a service that we never properly set up to start with. The Indian CSR did not mention any reference numbers and as that is usually what one is given at the end of calls with ISPs, that was a red flag and I told him I wanted a number to have as a reference for cancelling this landline that we had never used. He read out a number and sounded like he was making it up on the spot. Nonetheless, I duly wrote it down and thought the matter was finished with. I was wrong.

This afternoon, two days after I had phoned Optus and had the landline cancelled, I received an email requesting the $50. I contacted Optus via Live Chat as it was a Sunday, and had to go through all the details again. Once again, judging from the syntax used by the customer representative, English was not their first language and they phrased their sentences and questions in a very weird way so we had to guess at what they were actually asking us. This time I told the woman I was communicating with that if I received one more request for a bill from Optus whether by phone, email or SMS, I would go straight to the TIO to get them to resolve the issue and I typed that I was fed up with this problem and that we were not the only individuals or family to experience this problem - and I sent a link to a site showing numerous complaints online about Optus where others had this exact issue, namely they had requested a service with Optus be cancelled and were told it had been but continued getting bills and Optus would lie since every time they'd contact Optus they would be told it was an "error" on the part of the last representative and they would ensure it was indeed cancelled and so on it would go. I also let her know I was making a copy of the Live Chat and I asked her to give me a reference number for it. She gave me a very lengthy string of numbers with some letters thrown in but I duly wrote them down and saved the entire chat to a file on my pc under Optus Issues.

We are fed up with Optus giving us fake reference numbers and putting us through around 7 different departments before we could get someone on the phone to get this unwanted service cancelled. I requested on the Live Chat that we be sent out a letter, via the post, indicating that Optus has indeed finally cancelled this unwanted and undesired and never used service. I was told it would arrive within the week. If that does not arrive in the next week, we will contact the TIO.

It seems Optus will do their level best to continue to bill people despite the individuals having cancelled a service well within the cancellation window. I suspect many people who either don't check their bank accounts often or who are vulnerable will be taken advantage of by this company. Optus evidently feels it's fine to have non-English speaking individuals act as customer service representatives and so who have poor English and poor communication skills with Australian customers and who they allow to lie over the phone to try to placate customers whilst they still go about setting up further bills and requests for payment behind the customer's backs. Then when you do contact Optus they tell you they need to transfer you on to someone else and then when you do reach someone the call is either forever on hold or hangs up on you. It is ridiculous.

Optus is an absolutely deceitful and exploitative company with deplorable customer service, all off-shore and with people who lack technical skills and whose English is substandard. If we could give them no stars we would. We thought Telstra was bad but Optus is just as awful in their own way. Avoid Optus and try Aussie Broadband if you're wanting a good ISP - we have been with Aussie BB for nearly a year now and are very pleased with them as our ISP. They're everything Optus isn't.

If I coud give optus a negative 100 on this review I would! The most incompetent company in the universe!!!! – I've just spent the last most infuriating 4 hours of my life on the phone with Optus talking to a minimum of 16 different incompetent customer service people all based in India. I was following up on an approval given by one of the CS people who agreed to extend the switch off date for our home cable phone service by 15 months as we can’t move… Read more

to the NBN for medical reasons at this time. We were promised an extension to be confirmed in writing and as no letter had been received I was following up. It’s been a nightmare day dealing with them, been transferred to 16 different people who have no idea of what customer service is and resolving customer’s issues.

I finally got through to a complaints person who was similar to the previous 15 incompetent CS people and told that they can't switch off "the cable service" anyway which is totally contrary to the letter OPTUS sent advising that the 'OPTUS CABLE' SERVICE will be cancelled on the 5th Oct 20. He of course wouldn't put this in writing and proved to be another completely useless time waster.

Everything they have said to me today is total and utter crap!! How Optus can employ such poor incompetent Indian people is beyond me!

I requested to escalate the matter and talk to their complaints Manager or area which is also offshored to India, manned by the same incompetent customer service staff with poor English skills unable to provide a solution to my issue. Again I've gone around is circles, achieved nothing and wasted more time with numerous incompetent idiots based in INDIA. I requested to talk to a complaints manager based in Australia and they've confirmed there isn't any.

Folks there is no higher authority to appeal to based in Australia for issues you need help with. Optus doesn't give a hoot about the services they provide and resolving your problems.

People do yourself a favor and AVOID OPTUS for ALL SERVICES, HOME, MOBILE, NBN AND every other friggin service. They really are an absolute nightmare to deal with. If you're on their service currently I highly recommend you find yourself another telco provider ASAP as there is no assistance and resolution when you need something done.

Firstly there is no Australian support of any kind. They have no local Australian staff who can help with your issues and actually understand your issue. You can't even get through to a human after 7 or 8pm which is critical if you have an internet fault service like I had a few days ago. Lack of support on every level is unacceptable in today's customer service focused world. I've now been informed that it will take 24-48 hours for a complaints manager to call me which is a complete joke and who will turn out to be very similar to the previous useless 16 people I've spoken to today unable to resolve my issue. This level of treatment is totally unacceptable. I'm ditching all the services we purchase from them and highly recommend you do the same.

Optus is not capablle of getting our internet to work – We moved into our new house in June last year and we still don't have reliable internet. I have spent hours on the phone and live chat and they keep saying they will send someone from their team or the NBN team out but they are always cancelled to so "troubleshooting" as the "back end". It took months to get connected (sent our 5 technicians from… Read more

the NBN but were all from the wrong department) and when we eventually got it connected it drops out many many times a day.

Your a joke!! – Not worth rating!! Countless phone calls to get my internet working after organising my relocation to another address prior moving and was assured there will be no issues. STILL NOT WORKING. Don’t ever go with Optus.

Too time consuming to try to talk to someone – My concern is not with the product but the service (or lack thereof). It is simply too time consuming to try to get a simple answer to a simple problem.

Too many issues to list – Don't go with Optus, it's just not worth it. The amount of issues we have had with Optus is obscene that I don't have the energy to list it all. The main points are having constantly been overcharged, disconnection of phone line for no reason, constant drop outs and countless hours spent dealing with their "customer service". Just don't do it. We ended up having to go to the TIO.

NBN Nightmare – Trying to get inbound calls to home of my elderly parents. Transferred to Optus to be part of bundle arrangement with NBN. Home phone was not disconnected but not connected either. Then Telstra and Optus decided to squabble over it. Took 3 weeks to be able to make and receive calls. since the squabble can make calls but all incoming calls go… Read more

straight to voice mail . My father is incapacitated so they wont check anything without seeing him, we have had technician out all he did was check that the phone rang. Sick and tired of all drama associated with this - why we have to go on to NBN God only knows! A nightmare for my parents

Optus -Ask the call centre for a call reference that you can give the telecommunications Ombudsman (180 0062 058) – Optus website states "Listed below are the porting times / days, between providers. It can take 15 min to 4 hours for a port to complete during these times: •Mon–Fri: 8am–8pm AEST •Saturdays: 10am–6pm AEST (except national public holidays) For requests outside of these hours, your service will remain active with your existing provider until… Read more

the next porting day."

However after the NBN was installed . A 88 year old with angina and breathing problems, who lives by herself , who was on priority assistance with Telstra is still waiting for her number to be ported.

The paper work was received by Optus over 2 weeks ago and as yet the 88 year old has the NBN but no telephone number. No one can contact her and she can't ring out.

When we rang Optus the Phillipines call centre said that although the Optus website says 15 mins to 4 hours, it actually takes 10 days, even after we told them that it was lodged 2 weeks ago (Optus also confirmed that it was lodged over 2 weeks ago) and that the elderly lady lives on her own and is not of good health. In her case, it's life threatening, we have told them this. We are not asking for any special treatment, we are asking for them to port a number they should have ported over 2 weeks ago. They want us to wait another 10 days! and who knows what will happen in another 10 days.

We threatened them with the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman 1800 062 058.

The ombudsman asks you to resolve it yourself, so try and do this and ask the Phillipines call centre for a call reference that you can give the ombudsman.

This is what we are doing now.

Optus - simply the worst – Being forced to switch to NBN. Optus sent a nice letter with a link that asks you to commit to their NBN service BEFORE you can see what you are committing too. Only an idiot would agree to that. So forced to do everything via the phone (way to go Optus making your phone numbers to easy to find on your webpage) - chap at the call centre gets… Read more

everything wrong all the time, even when you politely point out the errors he still can't amend them correctly. Never encountered a company so clueless and with such a poor approach to customer service.

NIGHTMARE OPTUS HOME PHONE – Trust me save yourself the absolute headache!!! Go with anyone but them!!! Since the nbn so many issues even wirh internet...keeps dropping out...Do not waste your money!! Absolutely rubbish and pathetic service when you call. These people don't and can't help. The only thing they are good at is brushing you off to the next person...and lying. My… Read more

home phone had no dial tone. Three times this has happened. I found out they keep de-registering my number even though i pay my bills.

I'd call optus tech support & cust service (it's all rubbish), they muck you around. Keep referring me to another person. They promise you call backs never happens. You never deal with the same person beginning to end.

I just switched providers & no issues since. No more hassles.

Hopeless – I'm pretty sure you need to take an IQ test to work on their help line and if you pass, you don't get the job. Or maybe the problem is that they can speak but not understand English. Their greatest fear seems to be that a staff member might be doing nothing for a few seconds before answering a call. That's why it usually takes at least half an… Read more

hour for a call to be answered. The most you can wait is 90 mins. At that point they will just cut your call off. Why can't I give them a lower rating than one?

Why can't I select no stars? Stay away from Optus! – We informed Optus of our move 2 weeks beforehand. They say they sent someone out to connect our new phone line which we need for internet to run a home business. A week later they tell me that the connection was done via the exchange (so they lied). Then another week passes, countless phone calls, transfers and on hold for hours still no… Read more

resolution. I lodge a formal complaint on their website, says they will be in touch in 2 days..another week passes..more phone calls still nowhere. So 3 weeks after the move still no resolution and no managers available when we call to escalate. We were told if we opened a business account we would get access to better and Australian based support teams but have never spoken to anyone in Australia, not that it would make a difference if they could help. So 4 mobiles, home phone, internet, optus sport will all be switched to another provider..

Optus Usernames – Before you could have 14 differents emails with Optus. Now you have to submit your request and go through them, I can't delete or add usernames anymore. Going through them is a nightmare, you wait almost one hour before they answer and then often they don't understand what you want.

Absolutely dreadful customer service – My debacle started in December when I received many nuisance calls on my home phone, despite being listed on the Do Not Call Register. I arranged with Optus to have a new, silent number issued. I was given a new number which was changed after I had advised family and friends of the new number! But never mind, the new number took over two weeks… Read more

to be activated anyway. But then the nuisance calls continued. I found that my new, silent number was listed on White Pages online!

So I rang again and I should mention that each call to Optus is over an hour each time while you wait to be connected, vetted, and reconnected through different departments. It is the most frustrating waste of time! I again requested another new number that was unlisted after being told firstly that my “unlisted” number would be removed from White Pages online within 48 hours. After a week I called again to be told it could take up to three months to have the number removed from publication! So I got my new unlisted number after a few more hours on the phone!

I’ve just received my monthly bill and it shows a fee of $33 for a new number!

Before this bill arrived, I requested cancellation of the service, which includes internet. I’ve had this service for many years so I didn’t make the decision lightly. I had requested for the disconnection on 8th May. This was nearly impossible to request as each time I phoned and was vetted, I was connected to the retention department! Apparently they don’t have a disconnection department. I should add here that I phoned early April to request the disconnection on 8th May, but was told that was too much notice and I should ring in the same month that I wanted the disconnection to occur. So I rang on 1st May. This bill I received today shows i’ve been charged for the service from 1st - 31st May. So another call today after 9am.....

I’ll update this review after the call.

shocking Service – I had my home phone & Fetch tv with Optus but moved to telstra The service was shocking & the staff were not very helpful The service is one of the worst

Useless – They take your money and we have no service. Switched to NBN and they said they didn't "migrate" it properly. Our old business number has gone and we can't get it back. Took them 6 weeks to give us another number. They have also over-charged me $600 for a year for a mobile service a advised in writing to be taken away. Not in the new contract I… Read more

signed which I thankfully found a hard copy of as when I tried to retrieve my contract it says deleted 3 weeks after signing. Funny that