The fallout from the catastrophic Optus data breach continues as the company tries to quell the mass exodus of angry customers who are facing exit fees as they look to switch to another carrier.
And Optus is telling customers whose passport information was part of the leak that they do not need to replace the travel documents, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
More than three weeks after 10 million Optus customer details were hacked and stolen, the company is still lurching from crisis to crisis with barely a word from CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin.
Tech Guide has been contacted by furious Optus customers who are facing exit fees for attempting to take their business elsewhere.
Optus has said customers on month to month plans without a device can quit at no cost but customers on fixed contracts will be held to their agreements and would be forced to pay an exit fee for ending the agreement early because they were concerned for their safety.
To make the matters even more farcical, some Optus customers have only found out in the last day or so – 22 days after the hack – that their personally identifiable information like a drivers licence or passport had been compromised.
NSW Minister for Customer Service Victor Dominello has told 2GB’s Jim Wilson communication between Optus and its customers has not been clear enough.
“There has been too much mixed messaging from Optus. This is going to bite them where it hurts, and that’s with their balance sheet,” Mr Dominello said on Jim Wilson’s Drive programme on 2GB.
The Australian Financial Review is reporting the Commonwealth Bank is being hit with more than 5000 additional calls a day from worried customers following the Optus data hack.
Commonwealth Bank chief executive Matt Comyn told an Institute of Public Administration Australia conference in Canberra: “Companies and individuals don’t rise to the occasion. They fall to their level of preparedness.”
