I received an email promotion from Telstra in mid June which stated ‘Get 3 months Binge Standard on us just for being a Telstra post-paid customer’ and ‘How to redeem your offer’ (by clicking on the ‘Redeem now’ button’).
When I tried to redeem the offer it and logged in to Telstra, it told me I had no offers.
Tried customer support multiple times, I was told the link should work, but still it did not. They would follow-up but did not. On fourth call, I was told that in fact the offer only applied if you had a post-paid mobile or internet service, not a post-paid landline service like I had!
So why did they send me the email which said I had the offer and it was ready to redeem?
If the offer that you received did not stipulate what post paid services it applied to you could submit a complaint to the TIO seeking the benefit of the offer.
You could also file a complaint with the ACCC but don’t expect much from that complaint as the ACCC do not often prosecute on a single complaint.
3 months BINGE Standard subscription available to Telstra customers who are new to BINGE with a consumer post-paid mobile or home internet plan.
Since it is for new consumer binge post-paid mobile or home internet plans, it is a marketing exercise to try and convert existing customers over to these products.
Not shonky, but a marketing exercise where all the information needs to be read to understand its application. It is no different to unsolicited marketing many businesses use to try and sell their existing customers more products and/or services.
Thinking about it now, I think it was just pure incompetence, not a marketing exercise.
When you clicked on the link, logged in and got the ‘No offers found’ message, that was all.
There was no information to say you had to be a mobile or internet customer, and no attempt to sign you up.
It was a ‘reward’ not marketing for new customers. They just sent it to old customers who would have qualified once upon a time (I had Telstra ADSL 7 years ago!) not just those who qualify now.
Did the email have ‘fine print’ down the bottom indicating where more information could be found or information about the terms and conditions (T&Cs)?
If it did (most business marketing or subscription email sent usually do), unfortunately many businesses point to their websites to find the T&Cs…as T&Cs are no longer a paragraph or two but sometimes as long as an encyclopedia or good novel. To reproduce these in an email, would make the email very long at take up considerable data (for Telstra and the recipient).
This is why they sent it to old customers which hadn’t asked for their contact details to be removed from the marketing database…
While I indicated
this equally applies to trying to get customers who have left to return to Telstra by offering ‘rewards’.
It may be worth contacting Telstra and requesting they remove you from their marketing database/email subscription lists.
