For subscribers to Australia Post (AP) Mobile monthly plans (pre-paid) having trouble buying a recharge voucher at a post office (PO), it’s because there is a national cap of the number of vouchers on offer each business day. What a shonky - keep selling pre-paid SIM-only plans, but limit how many recharge vouchers can be sold each day.
Is this restrictive trade practice even legal, especially since it’s NOT clearly stated in the advertising and the plans’ descriptions?
It seems this quota system also discriminates against AP Mobile users outside of the Eastern time zone, since the daily quota is sold at POs under a ‘follow the Sun’ model.(E.g. the limited number of vouchers are on sale in NSW and Victoria 30 mins before POs even open in SA, and two hours before WA.)
What is the source of that information? Is it not possible to recharge an existing SIM using an online account? Auspost also appear to have auto -renewal assuming one is happy to provide them a source of funding and authorisation. Why would one chose to go to a PO for a physical voucher each month?
FWIW for a reference, Aldimobile has ‘value’ plans that can only be purchased in-store and are thus inventory controlled to the numbers of ‘SIM and plan boxes’ distributed to each Aldi store, but once purchased can be auto or manually renewed online indefinitely.
If the information came from an Auspost employee have you confirmed your understanding about caps via their help lines, and if so it would be valuable if you could post the reply here.
G’day PhilT,
You asked several direct questions, here are my answers.
Q1. What is the source of that information?
A. The AP Mobile support line, via the senior customer service officer at Gawler PO, Gawler SA.
In the past week, I have tried three POs in my region, each on a different day, for $10/2Gb monthly vouchers. The first two (licensed POs in nearby villages), even after ringing the AP Mobile support line as PO staff, couldn’t explain why the monthly $40/70 Gb and the annual $150/100 Gb renewals were the only options displayed on their system. At the third (the PO of a town of 25,000 people), the AP supervisor fought for information from the AP Mobile helpdesk, reporting the “ridiculous situation” that each type of monthly plan has a daily cap which, when reached, results in that plan’s renewal vouchers not even being displayed on the system. The supervisor kindly recommended I try another day as early as possible.
I followed up that night with a query about this cap on renewal vouchers, via email to AP Mobile. I am still awaiting a reply, but it’s only been two days.
Q2. Is it not possible to recharge an existing SIM using an online account?
A. Yes it is.
References:
Regarding payment for renewals:
a. The “Critical Information Summary - Australia Post Mobile – $10, $20, $30, $40 and $150 Plans” makes it clear there are three payment methods: “…Payment can be by auto renewal or manual payment via credit card (Visa/Mastercard) or by a voucher (purchased in store at a Post Office).” [emphasis added]
The T&C document “Mobile Service Description” also states:
“6.5. Automatic Renewal
6.5.1.If you have selected automatic renewal, your credit card will be charged on the date of expiry and your plan extended based on your selected plan.
6.5.2.In order to use automatic renewal, you need to have registered a credit card to your Service. [emphasis added]
6.6. You can renew your Service by purchasing a Voucher from a Post Office and applying it to your Service via My Account…”
Q3. Why would one choose to go to a PO for a voucher each month?
A. I’m unsure why anyone’s preference of the offered methods of purchase concerns other people, but some obvious reasons include:
- Don’t have a credit card.
- Don’t have a Visa or MasterCard credit card. (May have Diners, Amex, etc.)
- Credit card has insufficient credit remaining at the time.
- Prefer to use a debit card.
- Prefer to use cash.
- Attend/go past a PO at least monthly anyway.
- Enjoy interacting with humans in day-to-day transactions.
- Enjoy interacting with humans in person in day-to-day transactions.
- Live in a regional/rural area where the local PO is a key social ‘touch point’.
- Wish to also buy vouchers for other family members, without knowing their online account details.
- To minimise the threat of identity theft and/or credit card fraud by not linking one’s credit card with an online account which already has most of one’s personal data. Note, AP Mobile doesn’t offer intermediary services like PayPal.
Remember, mobile service providers record and store most of each subscriber’s personal data which, by law, must be verified. So no alias, alternate address or fake contact details. As Australia Post’s Identification Verification Policy states:
“For Mobile services Our policy for performing identity verification checks is outlined in accordance with the Telecommunications (Service Provider – Identity Checks for Prepaid Mobile Carriage Services) Determination 2017. You can refer to the full legislation at https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/F2017L00399 It is a legal requirement that any person wanting to activate a prepaid mobile phone service in their name must have their identity verified before the service can be activated. This applies to all carriage service providers in Australia.
…In order to activate an Australia Post Mobile service in your name, you will need to provide the following personal information:
• Your full name
• Your residential address
• A contact number
• An email address
• Your date of birth, and in some circumstances,
• An identifying Government document number for either an Australian Driver’s Licence or Medicare Card or Australian/Foreign Passport in your name.”
Given the cyber threats out there, I liked AP Mobile’s option of being able to pay for each renewal off-line. (Especially after the effort to seek a refund each month from my previous mobile service, for spurious charges over five months to my automatically debited account.) However, I don’t like the reality of the ‘luck of the draw’ whether a recharge voucher is actually available at the times customers get served at local POs.
Thanks for that very complete response.
I can understand your feeling.
We look forward to seeing that reply. Joining your amazement and that it seems as wrong as you posted, once you have it in writing (or after a few weeks if you are stonewalled) your local MP, the Minister for Finance, and the Minister for Communications, Urban Infrastructure, Cities and the Arts might be helpful if only to ellicit a ‘please explain’ response from AP.
Another avenue that might be useful is lodging a formal complaint to Auspost.
If you have a Visa or MasterCard Debit Card, it should work. These debit cards function similarly to credit cards, albeit you need funds in your account to cover the payment, rather than having sufficient credit below the card limit.
In relation to personal details, these would have been provided at the activation of the SIM. It would be interesting if they asked for the same details when setting up a login fir your online account.
Thanks PHB. You may be right about debit cards, but it’s odd that AP Mobile didn’t phrase it more clearly as ‘credit or debit card’ then. As a current customer though, I still want to be able to use the supposed option of buying offline at a PO.
In their FAQ (select the topic Pay in the drop-down menu) state:
Credit or debit card can be used through your My Account to make renewal payments. You can save the card details for easier future payments and select Auto Renew for automatic payments each renewal period.
While it might not be your preferred recharge method, it removes the exacerbation of not being able to do it in an AP agency.
Final update. Still no response from Australia Post Mobile. Not responding to uncomfortable queries or complaints is on par with AP’s postal and parcel services.
Recently, when I was at my local LPO to collect mail (yes, there is no home-delivery mail service in my town) at 0915 CST/0945 EST, I was able to buy four AP Mobile $10 vouchers. Interestingly, the new cashier commented that he’d done the AP Mobile training last week and there was no mention of the daily cap process.
I won’t bother chasing this issue further, it’s just another win for businesses forcing consumers to comply. As PHB (Food Champion - Community Moderator) recommended above, we all need to learn what is easiest for businesses and ‘go with the flow’ for less agro!
I’ve been reminded of the Serenity Prayer:
…grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference…
To me the most important part is …wisdom to know the difference… because it can happen that we either accept too easily things that could be changed or get aggro taking up avoidable disputes 
