Over the weekend Vodafone made a pitch for disgruntled Telecom customers with an offer to match XT contract exit fees with a matching credit to XT users new Vodafone account:
Looking for an easy way out? - www.vodafone.co.nz/leave-the-xt-network/
It was reported as:
Angry with Telecom? We'll pay break fee, says Vodafone - www.nzherald.co.nz
I found the reasoning that “angry with Telecom” would mean happy with Vodafone strange as most comment I’ve heard about both companies is not complimentary. XT may have tipped the scale towards Telecom rather heavily recently but not because of Vodafone love. In fact when I was considering changing to Vodafone, due to hardware rather than Telecom dissatisfaction, most Vodafone users I asked complained about poor billing, slow call centre response and, ironic this, patchy service due to network coverage.
That’s what prompted this tweet:
Think it's brave for @vodafoneNZ to assume angry with @TelecomNZ = love Vodafone 10:18 AM Feb 27th via TweetDeck
The replies from Vodafone were interesting as they implied it was offering Telecom customers escape and a choice to avoid, or offset, contract break costs;
@robincapper more about offering customers a choice they may not otherwise have.
@vodafoneNZ if it's about offering choice will you forgive exit fees for customers who want go Vodafone to Telecom? 12:19 PM Feb 27th via TweetDeck in reply to vodafoneNZ
@robincapper you'd have to see if telecom wants to do that. 12:53 PM Feb 27th via Echofon in reply to robincapper
@vodafoneNZ So Vodafone only to offer @TelecomNZ cystomers choice, not their own? 4:55 PM Feb 27th via TweetDeck in reply to vodafoneNZ
To me it wasn’t about “offering choice”, just a straight grab for market share. That’s fine but don’t pretend it’s anything more. Offering the choice of “an easy way out” (as if some sort of fair play gesture) would mean offering it to everybody, even their own customers. It’s really merely the choice to get locked in with another contract.
NOTE: I’m both a Telecom & Vodafone customer and have had no problems with the services I use from either company.