14 DAY TRIAL // Mobile phone operator O2 has announced that starting the first of April this year, it will no longer allow the Phones 4U retail chain to sell new mobile contracts.
Apparently, selling to customers directly through their own retail stores was part of the company's strategy and is a follow up to O2's increasing its number of retail outlets from 300 to 400 last year, by completely acquiring The Link retail chain.
"We don't discuss the commercial terms of our relationships with our indirect partners. We have already said that we expect to do less overall gross connections with independent retailers as we increase our focus on our direct channels. Generally, we continue to work with indirect partners who share our ethos of delivering the best possible customer experience and who can add value." an O2 spokesman said.
Also O2 seem to have set up a new deal with Carphone Warehouse, negotiated at the end of last year and it looks like the retailers will push larger volumes after their break up with Vodafone. Last year Vodafone announced dropping Carphone Warehouse from selling its mobile phone contracts and switched to Phones 4U.
As a result, only 5,000 O2 contracts were sold per month through Phones 4U compared to the usual 15,000. O2 will apparently continue to work with Phones 4U to sell prepay mobile phones as well as contract upgrades to existing subscribers.
Jim Slater, marketing director at Phones 4u said, 'Phones 4u is in ongoing commercial discussions with O2, and as with all of our strategic business partners, these are confidential.'
All this switching between third-party retailers will mainly affect the customers that will no longer have as much choice when visiting Carphone Warehouse or Phones 4U.