Crazy John's

Crazy John's opened its first store in Brunswick, Victoria, in 1991. By 1998, there were fifteen store locations in Victoria, and the retailer was ranked in the top ten of Telstra's mobile dealers. {{As of|2013|1}} they had 61 stores.

The name Crazy John's came about through people constantly telling Ilhan his marketing ideas were "crazy", and the name stuck. Crazy John's came to prominence when it was the first company in Australia to offer $1 mobile phones.{{cite web | title = Crazy John's Company Information | publisher = Australian Business Case Studies | url = http://www.afrbiz.com.au/page.asp?3648=417806&E_Page=416432 | accessdate = 8 January 2008 | url-status = dead | archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20070829005310/http://afrbiz.com.au/page.asp?E_page=416432&3648=417806 | archivedate = 29 August 2007 }}

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.

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 {{AUD}}131.3 million loss for the six months to 30 June 2012. The remaining 21 Crazy John's premises are to be re-branded as Vodafone Australia stores.{{cite news| last=Bingeman |first=Mitchell | title=Vodafone hangs up on Crazy John's brand| url=http://www.theaustralian.com.au/australian-it/vodafone-hangs-up-on-crazy-johns-brand/story-e6frgakx-1226554648209| accessdate=16 January 2013| newspaper=The Australian| date=16 January 2013}}

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,{{cite news | last = Barker | first = Garry | title = Crazy John's plans to abandon Telstra | work = The Age | date = 8 September 2005 | url = http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2005/09/07/1125772584218.html | accessdate = 8 January 2008 | location=Melbourne}} 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.{{cite news | last = Barker | first = Garry | title = Crazy costs still haunt Telstra | work = The Age | date = 15 June 2005 | url = http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2005/06/14/1118645813144.html | accessdate = 8 January 2008 | location=Melbourne}} 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.{{cite news | last = Barker | first = Garry | title = Lawsuit calls Telstra to account | work = The Sydney Morning Herald | date = 24 November 2004 | url = http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/11/21/1100972258964.html | accessdate = 8 January 2008 }} 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.{{cite news | last = Barker | first = Garry | title = Fees case may put Crazy John's deal at risk | work = The Age | date = 26 September 2005 | url = http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2005/09/25/1127586746230.html | accessdate = 8 January 2008 | location=Melbourne}}

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". 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.{{cite news | last = Sainsbury | first = Michael | title = Twixt Shangri-La and Crazy John's | work = The Australian | date = 30 October 2006 | url = http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20666191-643,00.html | accessdate = 8 January 2008 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20061130024109/http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20666191-643,00.html | archive-date = 30 November 2006 | url-status = dead }}

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.{{cite news | last = Sainsbury | first = Michael | title = Crazy John's hopping mad | work = The Australian | date = 26 October 2006 | url = http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,20647150-15306,00.html | accessdate = 8 January 2008 }} 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.{{cite news | last = Leyden | first = Fleur | title = John now Crazy for Vodafone | work = Herald Sun | date = 2 July 2007 | url = http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,21998597-664,00.html | accessdate = 8 January 2008 }} The deal allowed Crazy John's to deal directly with mobile phone handset manufacturers and offer its own competitive mobile phone plans. 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.{{cite news | last = Sainsbury | first = Michael | title = Telstra goes Crazy in court again | work = The Australian | date = 27 June 2007 | url = http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,21976165-15306,00.html | accessdate = 8 January 2008 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071009230735/http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,21976165-15306,00.html | archive-date = 9 October 2007 | url-status = dead }} Crazy John's agreed to limit the amount of customer information it can use after its contract ended.{{cite news | last = Barker | first = Garry | title = Crazy John's takes on next big battle | work = The Age | date = 29 June 2007 | url = http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2007/06/28/1182624079869.html | accessdate = 8 January 2008 | location=Melbourne}}

Crazy John's were a sponsor of the Collingwood Football Club.{{cite web|url=http://www.crazyjohns.com.au/Sponsorship/ |title=Sponsorship |publisher=Crazyjohns.com.au |accessdate=16 January 2013}}

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.{{cite news | last = Ker | first = Peter | title = Council sees sense in derailing Crazy John's idea | work = The Age | date = 28 June 2003 | url = http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/06/27/1056683905876.html | accessdate = 8 January 2008 | location=Melbourne}}

{{reflist}}

• [http://www.crazyjohns.com.au Crazy John's]

{{Australian mobile phone companies}}

Category:Mobile phone companies of Australia

Category:Mobile virtual network operators

Category:Vodafone

Category:Companies based in Melbourne

Category:Retail companies established in 1991

Category:Telecommunications companies established in 1991

Category:1991 establishments in Australia