Vodafone lies in order to obtain sales

Australia’s telecommunications industry is technically a monopoly held to ransom by Telstra.

Even though other companies are allowed to enter the market, e.g. SingTel (Optus), Vodafone, etc their operations are ultimately stifled by (the previously government owned Telecom), Telstra, which still functions on the old government mentality.

As Telstra’s profits soar over $6 billion dollars annually, telecommunications service decreases across the board by blame put on the public for using, for example wireless broadband services.

Companies are rather reluctant to reinvest into the infrastructure, as this takes away the dollars from profits, but rather are on the road to oversubscribing customers, resulting in severe degradation of services.

Vodafone is no stranger to this kind of business model. Rather than investing in tower structure upgrades and expansion Vodafone neglected much essential upgrades which resulted in customers in the hundreds leaving every day.

In disaster recovery mode, Vodafone then embarked on an aggressive marketing campaign to inform the masses that there is a huge upgrade  in place, in order to win back customers.

The road to recovery is a slow process, as Australia’s two largest telecommunications companies Telstra and Optus are significantly ahead of tower placement and population coverage.

Companies are just about willing to do anything in order to obtain sales, which includes breaking the law.

Misleading customers or false advertising or incorrect product placement or specification claims are against Australian laws, which can result in (steep?) fines.

Prior to the expiry of a contract, a sales team is given the heads up to call the customer in order to obtain another locked in contract, usually for two years. The sales team then offers the customer a deal that will entice them to continue with the service provider. These deals may not be available to the ‘off the street’ customer.

Vodafone have been caught out providing false information in order to obtain a sale. 

The manner in which it is done is as follows. 

In order to keep the customer locked into another contract (for 2 years), the hot ticket item currently is the iPhone 5, Vodafone stated that they will be able to provide the handset to customers for $7 per month. This was confirmed by Vodafone staff on two separate occasions. Once the customer decided to take the offer, which was still valid and proceeded to realise the agreement, Vodafone then falsely stated that no such offer was given, and no such record was ever taken. Vodafone records all conversations with customers (for quality and assurance purposes only).

The authorities whether it be the Telecoms Industry Ombudsman (TIO) or the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission) are biased (some say spineless) government institutions that generally favour corporate enterprise. There may be a win for Mr. Joe Average in terms of annulling a service contract to the telco, for poor service, which incidentally is a miniscule financial transaction, but when it comes the large scale transactions the corruption can be seen from towers away.

Optus was only fined $2 million for providing false information in order to obtain many more dollars in sales. A penalty well worth it.

An example of the Masonic brethren looking after their ‘kind’.