dealers get anger about the o2 revenue share

O2 direct dealers have thrown their support behind fellow dealers angry at O2’s revenue share scheme and threatening to churn customers and even cease trading.

O2’s Advance dealer and distributor partners are to meet for talks in Prague this week with head of business sales Ben Dowd, head of indirect David Plumb (pictured) and head of dealer and distributor sales Maggie Kennedy this week, and certain partners will look to hammer out a resolution.

In a letter to O2’s senior channel managers last week, O2 dealers expressed their frustration with the revenue share model, declaring it unworkable for them in terms of budgeting, forecasts or commercials.

O2 is currently paying out around £90 on a lead handset in a sharer tariff, compared with £170 from Vodafone, £250 from Orange and £320 from 3 typically. Dealers claimed O2 has not recorded the volumes of connections early this year it did last.

One dealer said: “I would be shocked if there are any dealers that were in favour of this scheme. The packages are centred around O2 and not the dealer channel. We have to stand our ground and fight this.”

Another dealer said: “The changes have meant we have had to alter our finances, how we operate and how we train our staff. We also need to educate our customers that a handset is an expensive piece of equipment.”

“If I had customers with ARPU south of £30 I would be nervous right now. It’s a specialist channel and you have to sell secondary items to push up your ARPU or you are knackered,” said another.

O2 refused to comment.