Mobile leases a wrong number
GRAB a handful of money and flush it down the toilet. Sounds crazy, right? Well, that is how I interpret phone-leasing deals.
They were appalling offers the moment they were released and it is no surprise they have come to the attention of Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman Judi Jones.
Telstra and Optus rolled out these offers in the past couple of years, giving customers the opportunity to lease a phone and be left with nothing at the end of the deal.
Rival Vodafone never offered them.
The offers were different to traditional phone contracts, where at the end of the term you end up owning a handset.
And that is a good thing — even if you do not want the device — because these little pieces of technology are worth something if they are looked after.
I have sold so many unused mobile phones sitting in my drawer in exchange for some quick cash.
But what made me cross was the telco giants, for a period, defaulted customers to leasing options when they searched for a phone deal online, ahead of standard mobile phone contracts.
And for the oblivious consumers, this could easily go unnoticed.
Before you know it, you are locked into a phone leasing deal that requires you to hand back the device at the end of the term.
While the telcos have put some serious spin on why they suddenly dumped these deals, I smell a rat.
Telstra said it was no longer selling leasing plans “as we launched a new range of radically simplified postpaid mobile plans, offering customers greater flexibility with no lock-in, customisable plans”.
Optus told me it dropped leasing plans because it was “the first step in us simplifying our offerings to deliver exceptional value and service to our customers”.
In my view, these deals should have never been offered in the first place.
They simply left customers in a revolving position that would see them constantly being able to upgrade their phone but never actually own their handset.
Dozens of confused customers have recently contacted the TIO, unclear on why they are receiving demands to hand back their handsets.
On the deals, customers usually paid $10 less a month than the cost of a traditional contract. They could then upgrade to a new smartphone 12 months later for an additional $99 or buy the phone at the end of the contract.
And if the phone was damaged at the lease’s end, they could be hit with charges up to $499 if they handed back the device in poor condition.
It was a win for telcos: Get customers on deals where they never own the device and keep rolling them on to new leasing deals.
Thank goodness these offers have disappeared, and those customers who are still on these deals can be assured they will not be stuck on them once they finally end. Sophie Elsworth is a personal finance writer at News Corp.