trading as crazy john s you always get more with crazy john s type subsidiary of vha 1 industry telecommunications fate integrated into vodafone brand . founded 1991 founder john ilhan headquarters port melbourne victoria australia area served australia products mobile number of employees 400 full time website www.crazyjohns.com.au crazy john s was a mobile phone retail chain in australia started by turkish australian businessman john ilhan . 2 crazy john s was the largest independent phone retailer in australia 1 employing more than 400 people with more than 60 retail stores . 1 following his death in 2007 ilhan s wife patricia sold her stake in the company to vodafone australia now a part of vodafone hutchison australia . 3 originally a dealer of telstra mobile crazy john s became a mobile virtual network operator through the vodafone australia network dealing directly with customers and offering its own competitive mobile phone deals and plans . 2 contents 1 history 2 telstra legal disputes and defection 3 marketing and sponsorship 4 references 5 external links history edit crazy john s opened its first store in brunswick victoria 2 in 1991 . by 1998 there were fifteen store locations in victoria 1 and the retailer was ranked in the top ten of telstra s mobile dealers . 2 as of january 2013 update they had 61 stores . 4 the name crazy john s came about through people constantly telling ilhan his marketing ideas were crazy 1 and the name stuck . crazy john s came to prominence when it was the first company in australia to offer 1 mobile phones . 2 5 following the death of the company s founder john ilhan in 2007 his wife sold her 75 % share of the company to vodafone in september 2008 . approximately 200 staff became redundant . 4 closure in january 2013 vodafone announced that it was to close up to 40 of their crazy john s branded stores by 20 february as part of their cost cutting restructuring vodafone s parent company hutchison telecoms australia having had a a 131.3 million loss for the six months to 30 june 2012 . 4 the remaining 21 crazy john s premises are to be re branded as vodafone australia stores . 4 telstra legal disputes and defection edit crazy john s was originally a dealer for telstra mobile australia s largest mobile telecommunications provider with 900 000 customers providing close to 10 percent of telstra s mobile revenue . in 2003 telstra sent a letter by facsimile to crazy john s demanding payment of a 21 283 642 .61 it said was for the overpayment of trailing commissions 6 a percent of customers phone bills . in the letter telstra hinted that if the demand was not paid for its contract as a telstra dealer could be adversely affected . 7 crazy john s paid the 21 million and immediately filed suit to demand it be refunded . crazy john s claimed that telstra s accounting system mica mobile integrated customer accounts used to bill its 8 million subscribers was not able to provide the information required to produce an accurate bill and therefore support their payback demand . industry analysts believed that telstra may have been wanting crazy john s to take a cut to its trailing commission suggesting that telstra believed crazy john s could not make the payment and it might be willing to renegotiate its commission percentage in lieu . 8 however crazy john s was able to make the payment and the situation reversed instead of financially forcing the dealer to negotiate telstra was in a position of being sued and required to justify its 21 million demand which crazy john s believed it could not do . in may 2005 telstra issued a second 12 million demand again for more alleged overpaid trailing commissions . crazy john s applied for an injunction in the federal court in melbourne to prevent telstra from going ahead with this second demand . this was dismissed by justice mark weinberg crazy john s paid the amount and rolled the figure into its original refund demand bringing the total to 33 million . 9 at the same time company founder john ilhan announced his intention to dump telstra in 2007 when its contract expired and instead would buy its own airtime from a wholesale source and serve customers directly rather than passing them on to telstra . ilhan said he was fed up with telstra s bullying and that it isn t competitive any longer . 6 telstra on the other hand began threatening to not renew the exclusive reseller agreement it had with crazy john s when it ended on 1 july 2007 if didn t agree to new terms that included less commission per customer . telstra did just that giving the required two years notice in july 2005 . 10 after announcing his intention to defect from telstra at the end of its contract telstra created a new company bq communications to compete against crazy john s. in affidavits lodged in the supreme court of victoria crazy john s claimed that telstra was poaching crazy john s staff to start up the company including bill asermakidis the former national sales manager and raping its customer database by taking price lists and the names of customers . 11 telstra denied many of the claims made in the affidavits but not the new company . on 1 july 2007 crazy john s made the transition towards becoming a mobile virtual network operator through the vodafone network . 2 12 the deal allowed crazy john s to deal directly with mobile phone handset manufacturers and offer its own competitive mobile phone plans . 2 just days before the switch to vodafone telstra sought a court injunction to prevent crazy john s from using confidential information in contacting telstra s customers to sign them up to new contracts . 13 crazy john s agreed to limit the amount of customer information it can use after its contract ended . 14 marketing and sponsorship edit crazy john s were a sponsor of the collingwood vfl football club . 2 15 in 2003 crazy john s bid for the naming rights to subiaco oval in perth western australia but soon lost it due to community action . 16 references edit a b c d e company profile . crazyjohns.com.au . retrieved 2013 01 16 . a b c d e f g h crazy john s company profile . crazyjohns.com.au . retrieved 2013 01 16 . sainsbury michael ; sharma mahesh 5 september 2008 . crazy john s widow sells to vodafone . the australian . a b c d bingeman mitchell 2013 01 16 . vodafone hangs up on crazy john s brand . the australian . retrieved 2013 01 16 . crazy john s company information . australian business case studies . retrieved 2008 01 08 . a b barker garry 8 september 2005 . crazy john s plans to abandon telstra . business . melbourne the age . retrieved 2008 01 08 . barker garry 15 june 2005 . crazy costs still haunt telstra . business . melbourne the age . retrieved 2008 01 08 . barker garry 24 november 2004 . lawsuit calls telstra to account . technology . the sydney morning herald . retrieved 2008 01 08 . barker garry 26 september 2005 . fees case may put crazy john s deal at risk . business . melbourne the age . retrieved 2008 01 08 . sainsbury michael 30 october 2006 . twixt shangri la and crazy john s . business . the australian . retrieved 2008 01 08 . sainsbury michael 26 october 2006 . crazy john s hopping mad . australian it . the australian . retrieved 2008 01 08 . leyden fleur 2 july 2007 . john now crazy for vodafone . business . herald sun . retrieved 2008 01 08 . sainsbury michael 27 june 2007 . telstra goes crazy in court again . australian it . the australian . retrieved 2008 01 08 . barker garry 29 june 2007 . crazy john s takes on next big battle . business . melbourne the age . retrieved 2008 01 08 . sponsorship . crazyjohns.com.au . retrieved 2013 01 16 . ker peter 28 june 2003 . council sees sense in derailing crazy john s idea . realfooty . melbourne the age . retrieved 2008 01 08 . external links edit crazy john s v t e australian mobile network operators optus mobile telstra mobile vodafone australian mobile virtual network operators amaysim boost crazy john s iinet lycamobile gt mobile lebara savvytel tpg tru virgin mobile retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title crazy john % 27s & oldid 737823389 categories mobile phone companies of australiamobile virtual network operatorsvodafonecompanies based in melbourneretail companies established in 19911991 establishments in australiahidden categories articles containing potentially dated statements from january 2013all articles containing potentially dated statements navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page 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