Vodafone shuts Egypt call centre

Vodafone has increased contact centre capacity in Auckland by around 100 following political unrest in Egypt, where it houses one of its contact centres.

A media briefing has just been held to confirm that the contact centre had been closed temporarily following the rapidly deteriorating political situation in Egypt.

The company is also advising its roaming customers in Egypt to return toNew Zealand and has sent texts and made calls to around 30 customersadvising them of the situation.

"We are currently aware of 31 Vodafone New Zealand customers roaming in Egypt and have been contacting them to check they are safe and to give them contact details for local support services at the NZ Embassy and MFAT in Wellington. All of their roaming charges have also been waived," Moore said.

Director of Service Kelly Moore couldn't confirm if all customers has received the messages.

Moore said Vodafone had increased contact centre capacity by 100 extra staff in Auckland to cover the closure of the contact centre based in Egypt.

The Egyptian call centre is one of Vodafone New Zealand's four contact centres and handles on-account and prepay mobile customers calls.

Vodafone New Zealand has three other contact centres based around Auckland.

Vodafone told us last week that it was intent on leading the customer service space in New Zealand.

Earlier today 2degrees said it would create 80 new jobs in Christchurch by opening a contact centre later this year.