Upheaval in Australia to as the ACCC has blocked the merger of TPG and VHA.

Linux:

quickymart: I wonder if the offshoring of their call centres is still going ahead now?

Why do you think that would all of a sudden change?

Quinny:

 

My resign with Vodafone was actually positive. Retentions were great. Ok it is 8 days later and no modem has turned up nor the transfer happened but hey :)

 

Resign or re-sign?! Context indicates the latter, but given these terms are kinda opposites a hyphen makes all the difference!

Personally, I went with the former (resign no re-sign) for my mother's BB/phone account - they were nothing but a nightmare to deal with for the few years that my parents were with them, and it was me that ended up doing all of the sorting of this stuff out. For hours. And hours. And hours...

I can't work out why anyone would want to buy Vodafone NZ, unless it's at a bargain price.

Don't need to worry about Vodafone being sold... i'm still here on IHUG 😁

quickymart:

Linux:

quickymart: I wonder if the offshoring of their call centres is still going ahead now?

Why do you think that would all of a sudden change?

My thoughts were if Jason was driving that but as CEO he leaves as the result of a sale (which I have seen many times before) that could change...but yes, probably not.

I can't be sure but I'd be a little surprised (and disappointed) if it was Jason driving the decision to offshore. My understanding is decisions like this are made from the parent company and was somewhat about aligning with the rest of the group. 

I believe it's somewhat possible even if they are sold Jason would probably continue as CEO. 

alasta:

 

I imagine either of two things will need to happen under new ownership; pump in a massive amount of capex to clean up the legacy systems, or bring the customer service function back to NZ and improve the CRM so that the messy back end is less inclined to impact customers. 

 

The former seems like the better long term solution but it's expensive and risky, so I'm hoping that someone can successfully execute the latter.

 

We're on FibreX, and our fixed term contract came up at the start of the year. We resigned for another 12 months, but as part of that, were told that we would need a new customer number. Upon further questioning, the chap I spoke to told me that this did involve shifting off the TC billing system and on to the mobile billing system, which would enable things like single bills for all services. So it sounds like there is at least some consolidation of the CRM systems going on in the back end.

Everybody is for sale. There was/is a rumour that the Vocus Group were looking at Vodafone but doubt if Comm Comm would wear that.

Local coverage on Newsroom: https://www.newsroom.co.nz/@boardroom/2019/05/10/578692/vodafone-nz-may-be-sold-to-private-investors

No mention yet on Stuff
Since The Paywall, I don't look at the Auckland Herald, it might be there

MikeB4:

 

Everybody is for sale. There was/is a rumour that the Vocus Group were looking at Vodafone but doubt if Comm Comm would wear that.

 

How could Vocus afford them?

networkn:

 

MikeB4:

 

Everybody is for sale. There was/is a rumour that the Vocus Group were looking at Vodafone but doubt if Comm Comm would wear that.

 

 

How could Vocus afford them?

 

That would be up to them, they are not exactly small. I believe they are number three in NZ and of course there is the Aussie parent but who knows. At last count there was three groups sniffing around VF 

I worked for roughly 4 years in the engineering teams there at VF, so I was very much on the ground working on all the CRM / Provisioning systems and consumer email / hosting platforms.

A lot of their problems started with the acquisition of the Telstra clear customer base / infrastructure. Very little was actually consolidated, merged and cleaned up.  Thus the result was a combination of three billing systems, and very messy platforms to support.  Some of the Sun equipment was limping on its last leg, and we ended up sourcing spare parts on Ebay with our managers credit card details... yes it was that bad. Then there was the massive drive to outsource as much as possible to cheaper offshore resources.  I was affected by the staff cuts and I was literally expected to train the people I had to hand my job over to.  It became clearly evident that you cant train someone with no Linux / Unix knowledge how to run a multitude of complex Unix and Linux clustered servers.  This resulted in me being hired by the offshore partner, to spend MORE time training their engineers.  I got out not long after that, but since then I could clearly see all the hosting divisions, mail platforms, and ISP divisions of the business being retired.  

I have worked @ many ISP's over the years, loads of experience on hosting / mail platforms, and I will honestly say, I have never, ever, ever, seen a company managed in such a way, where you had key decision makers with absolutely no knowledge on the products or services they sold... I feel sorry for the new CEO (Jason Paris), he got handed over other peoples mess to sort out.  This is an extremely tough situation to be in. 

I remember that, I heard that the customer services people in Chch needed two computers on their desks - one for the ex-Telstra Saturn customers, and one for the ex-Clear ones.

PolicyGuy:

 

Local coverage on Newsroom: https://www.newsroom.co.nz/@boardroom/2019/05/10/578692/vodafone-nz-may-be-sold-to-private-investors

 

No mention yet on Stuff
Since The Paywall, I don't look at the Auckland Herald, it might be there

 

There's a story on Stuff now but I had to search for it: https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/112615016/infratil-confirms-it-wants-to-buy-vodafone

networkn:

 

MikeB4: Everybody is for sale. There was/is a rumour that the Vocus Group were looking at Vodafone ... 

 

How could Vocus afford them? 

sbiddle:

 

DarthKermit: $10. That's my best offer. 

 

Jeez you're keen. I only offered $9 and got told it was the best offer so far! 😄 

Easy, off $11.01 to outbid the next autobid value.

The most interesting aspect of this for me is whether Infratil see this as a long term investment or a short term one. As a shareholder I look at it being a sector and a company that's not going to deliver quick results, and isn't necessarily going to be like Z where they can rebrand and then sell off their stake making big $$

Whether they keep the brand will also be very interesting. Licencing the Vodafone brand may not be cheap, but on the other hand rebranding isn't cheap either.