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View Full Version : Dealers Axed over churn, poor customers



3GScottishUser
3rd November 2005, 05:55 PM
From Mobile Today 03/11/2005:

3 caused ripples last week when it called time on 37 dealers, instructing distributors not to supply further orders to the companies concerned after 5.30pm last Friday.

3’s instructions indicated they were part of a drive to weed out ‘inferior quality’ connections, but gave no reasons for the decisions.

The news hit distributors in an email sent by a 3 account executive at 5:59pm on 26 October – many distributors only learned of the list the next morning. Distributors told Mobile that with almost no notice, they were left with stock out in the market and no answer for dealers wanting to know why their accounts had been terminated.

As Mobile went to press, some dealers still hadn’t been contacted to say they’d been barred. ‘It’s the first I’ve heard of it,’ said one.

Many of the dealers terminated are believed to be outbound call centres, some of which are credited with up to 1,000 connections a month.

At the other end of the scale, independent dealer Satish Sedheva of Sat Comms in Birmingham said he was surprised by his disconnection: ‘I’m just an independent – I’ve been doing this for 14 years. I’ve had no indication that my connections were of poor quality.’

3 is believed to have scrutinised each dealership’s level of returns, non-payment, churn and other ‘poor quality’ indicators – of which one or more may have been applied to a terminated dealership.

One distributor said: ‘If companies aren’t meeting quality criteria, the network is right to do this. But they have a duty of care and companies should be told what the problem is and given time to make amends.’

Meanwhile, the disconnected dealers are said to be scrambling to find new business. Sources within Orange distributors have reported a sudden surge of account applications from dealers 3 doesn’t want.

Although 3 routinely reviews dealer performance, the scale of the termination is believed to be unprecedented.

Several distributors said they were concerned by the suddenness of the move and the lack of information about the specific reasons. However, a source familiar with the situation told Mobile that 3’s contracts contained a clause allowing termination without a stated reason. ‘It’s the easiest way,’ he said.

A 3 spokesperson said: ‘This is business as usual. 3 reviews performance on an ongoing basis; if dealers aren’t meeting the KPIs we set out we will review the relationship.’

http://www.mobiletoday.co.uk/artman-test/publish/article_894.shtml

Full List of Axed Dealers:

http://www.mobiletoday.co.uk/artman-test/publish/article_891.shtml

Hands0n
3rd November 2005, 06:13 PM
"COO01 Connect To 3 Ltd"

Now that was a really unfortunate name to call their company in the light of the terminations, and them being on the list. I guess it just goes to show that even as a dealer your alliegence to the network should be reflected only in what you sell. If this is a solus dealer then 3 have just put them out of business. It might be legal, but that is all it would be!

3GScottishUser
3rd November 2005, 06:22 PM
My biggest concern about this story is, whos fault is it really.

3 UK claim the dealers are delivering them churn and poor cutomers but surely its 3's incentive strategy and product that is the issue. They won't say anything about CPW and e2save etc because they can't afford to, but they must surely have been delivering equally fruitless customers with free handsets and free line rental etc.

Is this a case of 3 UK trying to place the blame for current woes at someone else's door?