Optus $30 Prepaid Starter Kits

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  retiredfeline on 22/12/2016 - 12:22

  +1

  There are several dates here:

  SIM expiry date, usually far in the future, unless pack is short-dated. Some SIMs don't expire, e.g. Vodafone.

  Credit expiry date, which depends on how many days the plan gives you.

  Number expiry date, usually 6 months after activation or last recharge.

  Your rep seems to talking about the last 2.

  To this Optus has started adding activation timeout, which seems to be their way of countering stockpiling. The SIM autoactivates within 30 days pf purchase unless activated sooner. It depends on whether they can get hold of the control number at purchase time. For supermarkets, they can. Also note that SIM packs are usually classified as gift cards by supermarkets and earn no points.

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    jkcat on 22/12/2016 - 13:07

    The auto-activation part if enforced, feels more like a shortened expiry date. If purchased from supermarket no personal details are recorded at time of purchase & activation apparently requires them.

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      retiredfeline on 22/12/2016 - 13:09

      For some purchases, e.g. online, they can capture this info. For others they could just invalidate the SIM and then you would lose the credit.

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        jkcat on 22/12/2016 - 13:11

        That's my point - they'll simply expire the sim. However if that's the case I don't see the need to put a separate sim expiry date on the packaging.

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        retiredfeline on 22/12/2016 - 13:14

        @jkcat: It's a different kind of expiry date. The one on the package is just to recycle old numbers (if one has been preallocated to the SIM, not all telcos do this) and invalidate very old stock. Some telcos don't feel they need to do this. This kind of expiry depends on the purchase date and has no technical justification and is only to counter stockpiling.

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        jkcat on 22/12/2016 - 13:16

        @greenpossum: It's redundant if the sim's going to expire N days after purchase anyways. The number recycling can happen at this point. Also even for online orders that record your details, they'll still need to find out desired plan / number porting needs etc.

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        retiredfeline on 22/12/2016 - 13:22

        @jkcat: Not redundant. If they put short expiry dates on the package, stores would have to refresh stock often. This way they can keep stock for longer and still counter stockpiling because once purchased the clock starts ticking. They also have to tell the buyer what to expect so the sticker.

        In some cases when purchased the telco has all the information needed, e.g. Amaysim ran some online promos, and the SIM they sent out had an activation timeout because they had collected all the activation info. In that case the period was from first use or N days afterwards, whichever happened first. That was basically a grace period to allow delivery delays.

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        jkcat on 22/12/2016 - 13:26

        @greenpossum: I would say they are more likely to put "expire after N days of purchase" onto the packaging instead of an actual date (I believe Optus already done this fineprint to supermarket catalogues). Not sure about amaysim, but Optus online channels are apparently not recording all necessary information for activation.

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        retiredfeline on 22/12/2016 - 13:30

        @jkcat: What OP reported is that the sticker says activate within N days of purchase. Nobody claimed that they it had an actual date. The expiry date of the SIM is however printed on the package, probably at the factory. Have a look at one sometime. My $10 Optus packs I got for $1/$2 have a date of 1 Jul 2018, a Woolies one has 31 Dec 2017, and the Vodafone ones have none.

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        jkcat on 22/12/2016 - 13:40

        @greenpossum: What I'm saying is that if Optus' determined to going down the way to stop people from hoarding sim kits, they'll transfer the phrase to the actual packaging to replace the existing expiry date because it no longer makes sense to have both. Also for the case of Optus I wouldn't call expiring credits as auto activation.

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        retiredfeline on 22/12/2016 - 13:43

        @jkcat: They might at some future date, who knows. But then as I said, stores would have to rotate stock faster. So it does make sense to have both. You'll understand this if you're a programmer, but you cannot replace two variables with a single one in this piece of code. :)

        Ok, so it's more like auto invalidation, point conceded.

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        Love a bargain on 23/12/2016 - 12:23

        @greenpossum:

        Optus doesn't preallocate number to SIM

      • 

        retiredfeline on 23/12/2016 - 14:31

        @Love a bargain: I didn't say Optus does, I said some telcos do, i.e. Telstra. Have a look at their packs sometime.

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        Love a bargain on 23/12/2016 - 14:33

        @greenpossum:

        I know Telstra does. But that's not relevant to the current discussion about Optus.

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        retiredfeline on 23/12/2016 - 14:39

        @Love a bargain: You still can't smoosh the two expiry dates together, they are for different reasons. I don't agree with Optus's kiasu stance but I understand the reason for two different kinds of expiry dates.

        What I'm seeing in some posts is denial of the possibility that Optus will make good on their threat to invalidate the SIM after 30 days. "The expiry date is far in the future so I'm OK", or "They're bluffing". I expect there will be whinges if that happens.

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        Love a bargain on 23/12/2016 - 14:48

        @greenpossum:

        If there is no pre-allocated number and the credit has a separate expiry date, then there is no reason for an expiry date for the SIM.

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        retiredfeline on 23/12/2016 - 14:51

        @Love a bargain: Stock rotation. I know Vodafone doesn't care, but I'm not here to defend why Optus does things that way, I'm just describing the way things are.

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        Love a bargain on 23/12/2016 - 16:28

        @greenpossum

        Not disputing what you said about the definition of what those various dates mean but there is no logical reason for there to be an expiry date for the SIM. What you call stock rotation is a cost to the business, not a cost savings.

        And the matter of the fact is that the requirment to activate a SIM within 30 days of purchase effectively means that the it expires (i.e. is rendered useless, is no longer valid - however you want to describe it) at the earlier of (a) 30 days after purchase and (b) the expiry date printed on the back of the pack - simply because it won't work after that date - which is the point that jkcat makes.

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        retiredfeline on 23/12/2016 - 16:48

        @Love a bargain: Stock rotation also includes being able to discontinue various packs tied to plans. For example do you see any $10 Coles packs anymore? They discontinued that product. And Coles is in a better position to ensure that all their stores don't carry it anymore even in the absence of an expiry date. Optus would have to honour or refund a pack tied to a plan that was dredged up in some obscure store years later. You'd have to convince Optus, not me, that they don't need two dates, but there it is. Perhaps someday they will simply issue generic value packs with expiry 30 days after purchase. But they would have to be able to be notified of every purchase.

        I'm not in disagreement with jkcat, he corrected me and I acknowledged that the way they invalidate it is not by auto-activation, which is against the legal requirements, but simply by auto-invalidation. So your last paragraph is in fact a good summary of the situation. Caveat emptor.

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  Rggmcl on 22/12/2016 - 15:58

  I purchased the $30 Optus for $10 at Coles on Monday. No sticker on the pack re activivte within 30 days of purchase. She asked how many I wanted so no restriction it seemed.

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  shadowangel on 22/12/2016 - 19:49

  I normally buy a few, and use them for the data. telstra $9 phones with 5gb data is good value.

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  ndagudbargain on 23/12/2016 - 22:59

  Hmtk, what's the best way of going about switching from one optus starter sim to another? Is there a magic word we need to use? I wasn't aware it was possible….

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    hmac on 24/12/2016 - 21:09

    +1

    I've done it 3 times in the past. All I do is either call them up or go into live chat and say that I have an Optus starter kit, but I am already with Optus. I would like to activate that starter kit but keep my number. They then do a sim swap which usually takes 5-15 minutes. Never had a problem with this and I will continue to do this for another 4 months

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      ndagudbargain on 25/12/2016 - 10:45

      Sounds awesome, thanks. Will give it a go

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  LiMaaa on 25/07/2017 - 02:45

  +1

  The credit does not expire within 30 days. The expiration date is the date the sim card will expire (usually 6+ months). The 30 day disclaimer advises that once a plan is activated on that sim card it will general expire after 30 days (as most pre paid plans are 28 days or less).

  I have spoken to optus head reps who have provided this information to me. In layman's terms The disclaimer is there to give additional warning as well is misguide the user into thinking they have a deadline to use their service, so that customers user their credit / services faster.

  More information on my deal, and some links to optus help desk information answering queries regarding sim expiry: https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/318047