Sydney Morning Herald | January 21, 2011 | Lucy Battersby
LIKE an unhappy population rising up against an oppressive landlord, angry mobs of Vodafone customers are rattling pitchforks at the company and calling for justice. Or at least to be let out of mobile phone contracts.
A series of blunders has dragged a normally low-profile Vodafone into the spotlight. First, thousands of customers signed up to a class action against the company for poor service and then Fairfax newspapers revealed lax security measures for customer databases, and dodgy practices in dealerships.
Yesterday the angry mob released a detailed and well-written review of Vodafone’s failings and suggested the company just tell customers the truth about services.
So what is the truth?
Getting a clear picture of Vodafone is not straightforward. The company known as Vodafone is actually Vodafone Hutchison Australia (VHA), jointly owned by Vodafone plc in London and Hutchison Telecommunications Australia (HTA), which ran the ‘3’ brand and is owned by the massive Hong Kong-based Hutchison Whampoa.
The two operations merged in June 2009 and Hutchison’s ‘3’ brand will be phased out over the next two years. Hutchison chief executive Nigel Dews was given the top job at VHA. He has a strong business and economic background, having previously worked for the Reserve Bank, McKinsey and Fairfax Digital.
VHA’s chief technology officer also comes from the Hutchison side – Michael Young. Young took the job in September, after Vodafone veteran Andy Reeves resigned. Chief financial officer Dave Boorman is one of the few executives who comes from the Vodafone side.
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