Dodo, Commander, iPrimus are very sorry about 100/40 NBN plans

Regulator secured refund/exit deals for 16,000 unhappy customers this week

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's push-back against internet service providers making over overly-optimistic download speed claims on the national broadband network has seen Dodo, iPrimus and Commander agree to refund their customers.

The ACCC's announcement says more than 5,000 customers will get refund/exit offers: “3,384 Dodo customers, 1,912 iPrimus customers, and 565 Commander customers”.

The penalty relates to 100 Mbps/40 Mbps services the three brands offered between 2015 and 2017. Once separate companies, the three are now subsidiaries of the Vocus Group.

The numbers are, as they have been throughout this saga, depressing:

• 100/40 Mbps plans – 70 per cent of Dodo customers on the 100/40 plans, 70 per cent of iPrimus customers, and 83 per cent of Commander customers couldn't receive the advertised speed.
• 50/20 Mbps – of the customers short-changed on 100/40 plans, nearly half on Dodo plans (1,037), more than a third on iPrimus plans (396), and more than a third on Commander plans (104) couldn't get the next speed tier down.

On March 20, the regulator secured the same remedy for more than 11,000 customers of TPG-owned iiNet and Internode brands.

Previous deals covered Telstra, Optus, and TPG, and the ACCC says 75,000 customers are now covered by retailer undertakings. ®