Voda changes dealer pay and terms

Vodafone commission on 12-month upgrades now ranges from zero to £160, a drop of around £50. Upgrades on 24-month deals have increased from a maximum of £160 to more than £400.

The move has worked through Avenir, Redstone and Yes Telecom dealer commercials already.

The changes to commission were announced in channel bulletins as the “launch of value-based retention models”.

The new structure is for “value related re-signs”, and places ARPU into seven different bandings to determine commission payable on upgrade.

Vodafone is now allowing dealers to upgrade up to 60 days before their contract-end.

O2 has already effectively removed 12-month deals from its roster by chopping down commission.

At the same time, Vodafone’s indirect partners have been barred from re-signing customers who have been connected via direct partners. O2’s own rule, exactly the same, is to be scrapped January 5 after confusion and complaints within the dealer channel.

A caveat in Vodafone’s ringfencing means customers on dealers’ books at present are open to upgrade by the dealer channel.

One dealer said: “There is little or no incentive to upgrade customers on 12-month deals now. It’s a shame because demand for 12 month deals has picked up in the economic climate.”

Vodafone-owned service provider Yes Telecom held a business partner forum last week to discuss changes in Vodafone’s commercials with dealers. Yes canvassed dealers on various channel pay structures, including ongoing revenue.

One Yes Telecom partner said: “If you look between the lines, it looks like they are trying to be careful and not repeat the issues we had with O2.”

Vodafone was unavailable for comment.