Foxtel sacks more than 100 staff as it implements ‘Command Centre’ project

I have only called Foxtel a handful of times over the past decade but the call centre staff and service have always been excellent. Foxtel has one of the best call centres in Australia. Happy staff and a casual but professional attitude. “A reduction in staff numbers to free up other resources” sounds a lot like “sacking staff to increase profits”. Pay TV customers often have complex issues that want sorted and if these call centres are moved overseas (I know that some of Foxtel’s call centres are already located in Asia – you can tell as the staff at these centres try to solve your problem with a script and if you don’t fit the script expect a look phone call) then calling 131 999 is going to end in tears and frustration rather than a smile. I have nothing against overseas call centres but they are not optimal when a customer has a complicated problem to do with billing, technical issues or a question about the content of a subscription package.

I’ve had the complete opposite experience, it’s almost impossible to get onto an actual person if there’s a problem (upgrades or orders that’s an entirely different story of course) so when I read the way to better customer service is to fire more people, I’m a more than a little dubious.

shamed they’re owned by an American asshole who pays no tax but sees fit to use all his platforms to prop up right wing extremism.

Australians need to remember who they are and teach him a good lesson.

Hey @pugwash, never let the facts get in the way of a good rant. Foxtel is a joint venture between Telstra and News Corp.

The last days of the empire as streaming services and cheap VPNs blowup the business model.

Pass me the popcorn.

It has certainly started. Fox introduced a 12 month pilot last year of having their own in house technicians similar to a UK bskyb model. It failed miserably due too no cohesion within internal Foxtel departments. Work was consistently being given to sub contractors instead of their own staff. Own staff set a benchmark of customer service, completion rates and OHS, this wasn’t good enough according to the ex Telstra bean counter mentioned in the original topic. The in house technician pilot is now redundant, 120 call centre jobs gone from Robina QLD office, 60 plus from Melbourne, more to come from Sydney. Call centre works offshored too South Africa despite CEO claiming no offshoring. May it come back and bite them.

This does not surprise me with their Exec Director, who is only there for self gain, this is why they are called the terminator!!

6 jobs for around 100 people to apply for in Robina. Staff who have been with the company for 15+ years shown the door. No loyalties. Jobs sent to South Africa. Absolute disgrace. Foxtel said that all off shore would come back to Australia. Lies, Lies, Lies. Don’t sign up for Foxtel. And if you have Foxtel Cancel, Cancel, Cancel.

Bump

The bigs boys are at it again filling their pockets stamping on the working class only to shatter their life’s and dreams. Big boys receiving bonuses for putting others life’s and way of living on hold. SHAME SHAME
NOT VERY AUSTRALIAN NOT HAPPY JAN!!!
Cut your salary’s and bonuses big boys and then may be sacking staff would not be on the agenda. No need to sack people to give their jobs to those over seas because it’s cheaper.
Sacrifice some of your pen pushing, finger pointing pocket filling and caffeine filled rolls big boys and have a heart. Get back to reality and be Australian. Keep the working class people of all Australian Nationalities on the work force – if it wasn’t for them there would be no need for you to begin with, ironically really big boys you would have no job, sacked even, redundant maybe and defiantly live shattering OMGosh what you going to do now life on hold.
Final message to all of you BIG BOY on behave of the WORKING CLASS PEOPLE
KARMA – Has such a wonderful way of sorting events out

It has started, the call centre at South Africa are taking inbound and outbound calls. The amount of money that Foxtel will save by paying The call centre in South Africa compared to the call centre in Australia is massive. These people who were made redundant were on good incomes with (some) in high commission rates, they also needed to hit aggressive targets which were also met, so it wasn’t like they didn’t work hard. Look forward Foxtel customers, you will now be speaking to first source India -basic tech and Durban South Africa – customer service, social media and upgrades, sales and soon to be retention. This bull crap letter about improving customer experience haha what a joke. Better technician times ?? They are pushing for self install kits so they don’t have to send a technician out now. Don’t believe a word they say with this letter. Rant over. Foxtel eyes and ears everywhere !!

I previously worked for Austar which was taken over by Foxtel a couple of years ago and I remember being in ameeting and being told by Richard Freudenstein that the overseas call centres in India and the Phillipines which Foxtel and Austar used would be ending when the current contracts ran out and all calls would be handled by Australia based staff I guess he got confused when he signed up a call centre in SA he may have thought it was South Australia and not South Africa.

At the time of the merger we were told all the usual good things that would come from the merger and I am sure there have been some good things but from what I hear from people that still work there a lot of things have changed for the worse.

Business be business
This is not a new story, and wont be the final type of cull
Sucks, yes. But thats the world we live in.

I heard another 100 jobs to go this week at Foxtel….any news on the job losses to offshore, what and why Mumbrella? Further financial pressures for Foxtel?certainly continued erosion of any type of decent service for premium paying customers like me