OT: Optus Phone/Broadband packages

Nothing "requires" a 24 month contract (although it will be claimed as such) , offer them the chance to try it on a 6 month and see if it's accepted , if not run away

I caught a glimpse of Dave Goldfinch on Fri, 17 Jun 2011 09:51:55 +0800, writing in aus.electronics:

I'm a light user so I can't comment about their various plans.

A consideration is if Optus cable passes your front door or if you're still relying on Telstra underground cabling to receive your new Optus connections.

That is the most important thing for you to consider IMHO.

I'd be very nervous about switching to Telstra. ;-)

I don't need to call Opera customer service very often, but when I do call I find them courteous and helpful.

I am a long time Optus user of their broadband, telephone & mobile. Optus reward long time users with special rates, for example I don't pay a monthly charge for my mobile, I only pay for outgoing calls.

The Optus cable passes my front door so broadband & telephone come direct via their cable and I have excellent service.

As I said above the most important consideration is if your new Optus connections are delivered via Optus or Telstra.

Their tech support is probably just as bad as Telstra's so you are not losing out there (they both seem to accidentally hang up when you ask for a supervisor). Their internet service is pretty much the same too. I really don't see the point in paying a premium for any telstra service except mobile phone, which is definitely much better than optus. But everything else I don't think you have anything to worry about as long as you don't go wireless. I've had optus cable for 10+ years and find it excellent. I find their tech support people annoying and difficult but no more so than Telstras. :-)

I've found the door-to-door droids are instructed to NEVER vary on the options their selling. After all, if they're sending people out to drum up business, they're probably not going to want to minimise that gain.

I play with them like that, it all sounds very nice on paper (and they lie about some of the little-asked points like charged uploads on internet connections). I drag them along till they bring out the 2+ year minimum contracts. After being all encouraged about me, they turn and run when I say I don't do minimum contacts.

But then again, if you're buying something from from a door-to-door droid, you're an idiot. You can in most cases get a better deal from your present provider (be it phone, internet, power whatever) once you threaten to run away. Though, needless to say, you need to do your homework and find out if another vendor CAN actually do a better deal first.