"Armageddon is coming and it's not too far away," a second legacy MCI master agent said of the confrontation building between Verizon and its MCI alumni. "We are hoping we can get a no-sign petition out that rallies all MCI solution partners not to sign in any form the current agreement."
Legacy MCI agents offered the VSPP contract know from experience that if Verizon gives itself the ability to end residual payments to legacy MCI agents by voiding existing MCI customer contract agreements once those customers renew with a Verizon representative or add new services with a Verizon representative, Verizon will do just that.
"I know how this game works. What Verizon may be forgetting is that most of its large master agents were successful sales or executive people in the older Bells. If I was Verizon facing the renewals of the MCI guys, I'd just set up a telemarketing organization to start selling renewals five months ahead of time," the first legacy MCI agent said.
If a legacy MCI agent does manage to beat Verizon to a renewal, the win is worth less money that it was before, sources said.
MCI renewals once paid commissions as high as 15 percent and above. Under 2007 VSPP renewals pay less that 5 percent, sources said. This reduction in renewal commissions angers agents who argue it costs just as much money, or more, to maintain and renew a customer, as it does to land a new one.
"Their posture on contract renewals is absolutely bull. It almost takes as much to renew a customer as it does to acquire a customer, and Verizon is saying to us that our value diminishes as you add customers, and we will pay you less where we have to work just as hard to keep them. Verizon can maintain their profit but we have to diminish ours," the first MCI master agent said.
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