They claim the mobile operator has over-complicated matters with the approval process, with the deadline pushed back by a month
Dealers have accused Vodafone of ‘overcomplicating’ the accreditation process for its revamped partner programme following the operator’s decision to delay its deadline by a month.
The new platform was unveiled by the network in July and is set to go live in January next year. It will see Vodafone ditch Silver, Gold and Platinum tiering in favour of a system which focuses more on unified communications.
Dealers deemed suitable for the new partner programme are required to pay between £900 and £8,300 per year to be on it, with top tier partners being called ‘Total Communications Partners.’
An accreditation process must then be passed. This involves examinations on products such as One Net alongside an assessment on their customer service. The original date for completion was October 31, but this has been pushed to the end of November.
Complicated process
A Vodafone Gold Partner, who wished to remain anonymous, claimed the operator had over-complicated matters with the approval process. “It’s unsurprising the deadline has been pushed back. Not every dealer has enough manpower to complete the tests within the original time frame given. We’re already overworked running our own companies and the new assessment was just too demanding and over-complicated.”
Another added: “The timeline was a little too unrealistic for a lot of dealers. You’d have to complete a lot of modules, which was too much given the provided time frame. The whole programme is a little too confusing.”
A Vodafone spokesperson said: “Following constructive feedback shared with us by a number of Partners, who are in the process of completing the training certifications and gathering the evidence required to join the new Vodafone Partner Programme, we have extended the deadline for completion to 30 November 2016. We still expect to launch the new programme to the market on 1 January 2017.”