"Verizon, and (Verizon channel executive) Rose Kirk are acting like jerks. It's amazing to watch this group in action. I've been in this business thirty years and I've learned you don't make money by making enemies," a seventh legacy MCI agent said.
"I don't know if I'm going to sign (the 2007 VSPP contract) yet," the sixth legacy MCI agent said.
Some legacy MCI agents are considering working underneath uber-Verizon master agents such as Venture Group Enterprises (VGE) or Intelisys in order to survive. VGE and Intellisys are extremely large master agents who many sources say have been given "sweetheart deals" by Verizon that allow them to do business more independently than the legacy MCI agents being offered the 2007 VSPP contract will ever be.
Working as a sub-agent under VSPP 2007 means accepting exclusivity if the master agent is exclusive. But accepting the trappings of exclusivity as a sub-agent below a mega-Verizon master agent like a VGE or Intelisys in exchange for the commissions level of volume sales is a survival tactic in the face of the current VSPP contract offering, sources said. But the trade off is humiliating, sources said. "Working under someone else is something I never thought I would ever consider doing," the first legacy MCI agent said.
With the contracts out there waiting to be signed, or not signed, by the chosen legacy MCI agents, only one thing is certain - a confrontation between Verizon and the MCI agents it won with its purchase of the carrier is practically inevitable.
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