3GScottishUser
26th October 2005, 06:44 PM
From Mobile Today (25/10/2005):
Distributors have started feeling the pain over disappearing cashback dealers, sparking a growing anti-cashback feeling running through the channel. Some distributors are even footing the bill when irate customers seek money.
Operators have told some distributors that if a dealer on their books disappears with cashbacks still owed to the customer, the distributor will have to shoulder the cashback responsibility and pay out what the dealer had owed.
A spokeswoman for 3 said last month: The distributor owns the relationship with [the dealer]. She added: 3s agreement is with the distributor. The distributor will be liable to 3 for any penalty.
While some distributors actively encourage dealers to start offering cashbacks in order to generate larger volumes, many distributors and long-standing dealers have voiced concern that the prevalence of cashbacks over the last year has attracted shady individuals into the industry.
Asked about fly-by-night dealers, one senior figure at a distributor said: This is happening all the time now. There are lots of dealers disappearing.
New dealers will build a bit of trust in the first couple of months steady and reliable. They then start banging on big numbers with some big cashback deals. They can easily build up £500,000 in a year with some silly offers and do a bunk with the cashbacks and commissions.
However, some say cashbacks are inevitable given the volume-led customer dash of the network operators. The MD of one major distributor said: Its all driven by the networks if they change things dramatically, the dealers change things dramatically.
At the moment every distributor would deal with [a dealer] putting on a few thousand connections a month. If the networks cut their commissions or if they changed their model to a revenue share one based on Arpu rather than a volume, we would have to look at things completely differently.
Separately, 3 is concerned that its reputation is being tainted by cashbacks. In a bulletin to its dealers last week, the operator said: 3s contact centre receives a high volume of calls from customers who are unsure how their cashback offer works.
http://www.mobiletoday.co.uk/artman-test/publish/article_859.shtml
Distributors have started feeling the pain over disappearing cashback dealers, sparking a growing anti-cashback feeling running through the channel. Some distributors are even footing the bill when irate customers seek money.
Operators have told some distributors that if a dealer on their books disappears with cashbacks still owed to the customer, the distributor will have to shoulder the cashback responsibility and pay out what the dealer had owed.
A spokeswoman for 3 said last month: The distributor owns the relationship with [the dealer]. She added: 3s agreement is with the distributor. The distributor will be liable to 3 for any penalty.
While some distributors actively encourage dealers to start offering cashbacks in order to generate larger volumes, many distributors and long-standing dealers have voiced concern that the prevalence of cashbacks over the last year has attracted shady individuals into the industry.
Asked about fly-by-night dealers, one senior figure at a distributor said: This is happening all the time now. There are lots of dealers disappearing.
New dealers will build a bit of trust in the first couple of months steady and reliable. They then start banging on big numbers with some big cashback deals. They can easily build up £500,000 in a year with some silly offers and do a bunk with the cashbacks and commissions.
However, some say cashbacks are inevitable given the volume-led customer dash of the network operators. The MD of one major distributor said: Its all driven by the networks if they change things dramatically, the dealers change things dramatically.
At the moment every distributor would deal with [a dealer] putting on a few thousand connections a month. If the networks cut their commissions or if they changed their model to a revenue share one based on Arpu rather than a volume, we would have to look at things completely differently.
Separately, 3 is concerned that its reputation is being tainted by cashbacks. In a bulletin to its dealers last week, the operator said: 3s contact centre receives a high volume of calls from customers who are unsure how their cashback offer works.
http://www.mobiletoday.co.uk/artman-test/publish/article_859.shtml