Today I have phoned Optus to cancel my account as we have decided to go completely mobile. I had a really bad experience just trying to talk to them. They have this voice response system where you have to speak to a computer.

On the first call after answering all the questions the computer asked I was connected almost immediately, but there was no one on the other end. So I hung up and tried again.

Second call, I answered all the questions again, but when it went to connect I was told I had dialled the wrong number. It was a number their system had dialled.

I was rather frustrated by this time, so I dialled again but tried to tell the computer it was a complaint. The computer kept asking questions which I was not enthusiastic about answering. Eventually I got put through to a person. They were sympathetic, but after asking lots if identifying questions advised were unable to help me. They (hopefully) recorded my complaint about the voice response system and then put me through to someone else. They also gave me a “direct” number.

Second person I spoke to asked me the same questions. She was also unable to help me and put me through to yet another person. She gave me a different “direct” number.

As you can imagine, by this time I was incredibly frustrated. So when, for the 5th or 6th time I was asked “Why do you want to cancel this service?” I exploded. “No I am not going to tell you why. I have just told that 5 times.” Eventually I said, “OK. Say that I am dissatisfied with the service.”

So hopefully there ends my story with Optus.

I must say all the people were professional. It is their systems that let them down.