The trading halt announced by Bill Express this morning has newsagents nervous. The rumor is that they are set to announce the loss of Optus mobile phone recharge off their Dialtime platform. I put this to Bill Express management last week and they denied the rumor. 3,500 newsagents are waiting to discover the next chapter in the Bill Express story.
Update (14:00) since posting the above I’ve received calls from three newsagents and two suppliers saying that Optus has pulled out of its supply agreement with Dialtime / Bill Express.
Update (15:00) Optus/PPS has faxed newsagents advising that Optus has stopped supplying recharge product through Dialtime / Bill Express.
Update (16:00) Bill Express has emailed its merchants advising that they do not accept the action by Optus/PPS.
Update (18:00) The ANF has advised newsagents to hold tight until Friday.
In the meantime we’re getting newsagents signing up for eziPass – with 300 products ready to go it’s a viable alternative.
Will ezipass be asking for optus business now that bill express has dropped the ball? Lets hope so
What value a bxp contract now if this is true?
The latest letter from BE stated that if we were unable to make a go of it they would do us all a big favour or two. This exit makes it very difficult to make BE work. Will they now amend their letter or will they do the right thing and do us all a big favour?
This Bill Express saga is a tragedy. Unfortunate that the webmaster feels the need to put a commercial at the end of his post for his own Ezipass. It gives him less cred rather than more.
we definitely do not hold any sympathy at all for Bill Exp.
Hurray for Optus/PPS, at last someone to treat Bill Exp poorly. I hope others follow suit, too., the more the merrier…
I hope also that any concerned authorities now have something concrete to go by and investigate this whole fiasco.
Thomas,
I’m no webmaster. I’m an opinionated blogger. My position is well documented here. Your comments and those of others make this a conversation and bring balance to my postings.
Mark
I’m a contractor to Billexpress and work with great people in that organisation who care for the business…have families, morgages and not much different to you.
If there is a demise to Billexpress it is due to vast majority of newsagents abusing what Billexpress has given them, a great potential revenue stream.
How often have I’ve seen newsagent who have the billexpress system not accepting bills or abuse free receipt rolls intended for BXP receipts for and sell them to the general public. You are the ones who will loose from what could have been a great business opportunity for YOU.
Don’t foget all…Mark’s negative comments are purely to line his own pocket and presents information in his best interest.
Withheld, Two of my shops are in the top 100 Bill Express stores nationally. The efforts investment by me and my team demonstrate faith in the system and a huge investment to grow the business. The reward is six months of poor service, confusion over rebates and, now, loss of Optus. Newsagents did not of this to Bill Express.
You can blame newsagents but to do so would not consider the evidence on the table.
and another thing withheld, you are a contractor for bill express, so that means they pay you. how would you like to paid on the same conditions as us. lets say you are a cleaner. you must lease your equipment off them for 500 a month, yet only get paid $1 per room you clean – in a 20 room building. then lets see if you’d want to continue to work for them
withheld, your claims are definatly ill conceived, for a start, the bill express rolls have the bill express branding on the back, no one in their right mind would sell those. as for bill acceptance, there is still billers who dont have any bill express branding on their bill whatsoever or dont have the minimal information. like a barcode. a quick and simple bill payment can be far from it. for example jack green, no barcode, means manual location of the biller, terminal says to enter account number which is found on the top of the bill however the account number doesnt have the required amount of digits. trial and error i tried using the post bill pay number and low and behold it worked. what kind of a mickey mouse bill payment is that, all just to get $1 taken off your $500 equipment rental
To Withheld,
Bill Express model is just a half-baked idea being marketed too early bcos it did not have core billers, most times I have to turn people away to the post office.
So naturally no one goes to a newsagent as why do they have to queue twice to pay bills?
The fall of BillExp is only due to its own incompetent and imbecile management/directors and no one else and now they are heartlessly dragging the small newsagents down.
Now we will be charged the exorbitant equipment rental for the full term remaining if we want to terminate contract earlier.
Withheld, imagine if you had the means to pay off your mortgage sooner and the bank says you have to pay the full interest they would have earned, I am sure you would have told them exactly where to go.
Curious, why don’t you include Optus for contributing to the demise of BillExp as well, or maybe you don’t know about it?
So make sure you have all the facts first.
Hey Withheld if you are so impressed with Bill Express why not put all your surplus cash into buying their shares at the bargain price of 4 cents each. This offer is to good to miss!!!!!
Neil, may be wait till next week he can even buy it for less than 4 cents.
bill express-what a legend system
click-click-click-password-click phone card
ugly as anything BenQ LCD
Check processor never used
A HUUUUGE IBM celeron box that ate my cash drawer space
I pay $500 each month for the privilege
Oh… and the contract was crafted before hand so no innocence lost here…
If this is not a bargain I don’t know what is….
I thought the internet bubble was over in 2000? not 2008
Try e-pay, we have had no problems in 5 years