Foxtel to make further layoffs in call centres to compete with global counterparts
Foxtel is to make another round of layoffs with an undetermined number of call centre staff to lose their jobs as the subscription TV operator moves further into providing web-based customer service.
Mumbrella understands the latest redundancies are not related to last year’s merging of the Fox Sports and the Australian News Channel news rooms, the write downs announced by parent News Corp earlier this week or the recently finalised merger between Fox Sports and Foxtel.
Foxtel’s rebrand was met with mixed reactions
Saying the changes allow the subscription TV operator to “be better able to compete with global competitors who employ virtually no Australians and therefore have a significant cost advantage”, the latest round of retrenchments follow a round of sackings announced in late 2016, following the company announcing an $11million loss.
Hi team, maybe you want to Do a little more fact checking before trumpeting the Foxtel spin. 90 % of the redundancies are to off shore call centres. No wonder nobody believes the media anymore.
Companies are getting the message that offshore call centre upsets consumer. David Thodey from Telstra promised it would not happen and 12 months later it did in the early 2000’s and now Corporates are reevaluating cause it is a definite turnoff when you talk them and the people on the phones are Sgt Shultz’s. They know nothing and productive time is wasted.
Best way to improve the customer numbers – reduce call centre staff.
You can’t cancel your account or downgrade you package if you can’t get through!
I’ve actually never had too much of a problem with the Indian call centers (or wherever they are) for straight forward requests, however when someone has a technical issue that’s where it starts to get maddening.
I’ve had nothing but HELL with their Philippines call centre. The latest came when I heard that World Movies had been moved into On Demand, but I was still being charged the old monthly fee for having World Movies in my package. Call centre operator said “oh no dear, it’s not in your package”. I asked why I was still paying for it. “You’re not dear, it’s not in your package”. So I suggested she check my account, as I could clearly see that I was still being charged. Five minutes on hold, she finally came back and said that the charge would be removed. And my refund, for having paid for something that was no longer available? “Oh no dear, no refund. We don’t refund.” I suggested she speak with a supervisor so she could better understand how the system works. Another five minutes on hold and she finally came back and told me that I would get my money back.
Total call time: 40 minutes. Ridiculous.
We just had a similar experience with the Philippines call centre. OMG, what a disaster. The poor girl was clearly trying to fit our technical issue (intermittent signal loss every night) into a script or formula, and her suggested solution was so ridiculous (“add 5 minutes to the start and end of the recording”) that I nearly fell off the chair. In the end, her “solution” was that they would perform a factory reset on the IQ2 (thereby erasing everything). Er, no thanks. We just hung up the phone as it was becoming too painful to continue. We still have no solution 🙁
What a load of BS Foxtel call wait times can blow out to 40+ minutes….so neen more staff not less..or maybe staff who can speak the queens english.
Really? There are actually people in the call centres? The last time I called Foxtel was to cancel my Foxtel Play subscription following their big GoT fail. When I did, it seemed to me that the only person working in their call centre was a Mike Hammond recording.
“Press 9 if you think that Foxtel Play is garbage”
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A truly terrible organisation – every facet of how they’re run is poor. No wonder they’re laying off staff. If they didn’t have the NRL/AFL rights, they’d be out of business.
Completely agree. Wait till these codes wake up and develop their own apps, keep the rights to themselves and broadcast their own games under a subscription model. It is only a matter of time
Build such an amazing offering that you do not need to receive calls, like Netflix…
Another bizzare unbelievable thing about to happen in the land of Financial stupidy after spending 25mil on opening and closing retail kiosks australia wide sacking staff were about to open a Foxtel kiosk for Sydney Easter show, flying in staff from melbourne and QLD to staff it…WTF !
For packaging up of sports content, nothing compares to Foxtel in Australia; or perhaps even the world.
For $39/month you can get about 20 different live sports 24×7. That’s unheard of in the rest of the world.
As for their other content packages, truly horrendous. Amongst younger demographics Foxtel is solely relied on for Sports content. Everything else about it, the technology, the support, pricing, services, is 5 years past it’s expiry date.
I’ll keep my subscription no matter what, for the sport only.
FOXTEL is sacking call centre staff to save costs . Nothing else . The call centres are so busy you can’t get through . Wait times are horrendous. FOXTELs customer service went out the window years ago …
Could quite easily see Foxtel going under with the 2020 pandemic shutting down the only golden egg they have, sports.
They were already struggling and had to cut staff, this event will pretty much end it, with people unsubscribing or expecting discounts.