Are some Optus kiosks in Sydney Airport a scam?

2/9/2020 2:56:52 AM

REAL SCAM!
I think I went to same kiosk as you. I was asking for a 7-day plan with 2-3GB, and they told me the price is $20. Only when the staff inserted the sim and gave me back the card, I realized she sold me a Lebara sim. She also charged extra $2 for service fee.
When I checked online, my plan (called as extra small) only costs $16.

I used to be in sydney before, but thag time I was given a vodafone sim in my country and on,h went to their kiosk to activate it. They did NOT charge any service fee.

10/25/2019 8:40:30 PM

Not a scam in the sense that they did provide a working sim and didn’t run away with your money. But definitely some dodgy behaviour there.

  1. Not offering you the promotion when asked about the cheapest plan: technically they could have been telling the truth in that 30GB for $40 was the cheapest non-promotion plan at the time. Regardless of legality still very shady.

  2. Extra charges: merchants are banned from imposing excessive surcharges on customers that use credit cards. From the ACCC (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission) site:

The purpose of the ban is to stop businesses from charging payment
surcharges that are excessive. That is, from charging a customer more
than what it costs the business to process the payment.

…

Credit cards usually have a higher cost for businesses, and may cost
the business up to 1-1.5 per cent for Visa and MasterCard, and between
1.5-2 per cent for an American Express card payment.

It is important to note that different businesses have different costs
of acceptance. In general, smaller merchants’ costs may be higher than
these indicative figures.

Check your receipt on what the breakdown of the $38 is. I think $2 is definitely too high.

If you wish to take this further contact the merchant detailing the situation and how you want it to be rectified. Make sure your own demands are reasonable. If you and they can’t come to an agreement contact the ACCC. Let them know what steps you’ve taken to resolve the problem with the merchant. This probably won’t get you your money back but it may help other travelers in the future.

When traveling it helps to do a little research beforehand. I had some relatives come over in July and I got them $10 sims (that came with a $23 rebate!) that came with 30GB each and unlimited calls and SMS to any number in Australia.

10/25/2019 8:09:31 PM

The kiosk is real, it’s Australian cell phone pricing that’s the “scam”. Pricing plans are hideously complicated, change all the time, and it’s common for there to be old plans that are not advertised anymore, but can still be activated if you say the right magic words to the customer service rep. This thread gives you some idea of the complexity: https://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/2687103

So it’s far more likely that the people you talked to either didn’t know about the promotion you found, or were under instructions not to mention it proactively (scummy, but not quite “a scam”). Credit card fees are also legal in Australia.

Credit:stackoverflow.com‘

About me

Hello,My name is Aparna Patel,I’m a Travel Blogger and Photographer who travel the world full-time with my hubby.I like to share my travel experience.

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