http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/29201191

sure you’ve got that right?

Is it opposite day today and everybody told me?

Hurray! People, from at least one phone retailer, are going to lose jobs!

OP was evidently so excited about this, he completely booshed the facts.

Edit: ohnoyoudont

It’s not a good day for the job market in stoke on trent. Thousands of families affected, over 4k in the head office in chesterton, very sad.

Corrected.

Given the ‘experience’ I had when I visited my local branch twice within the last ten years to price check I’m surprised they lasted this long.

Best wishes and the best of luck to all those affected.

Ninja editing 🙁

Blimey! Thats a lot of jobs. Feel sorry for the poor sods waiting to find out whats happening and expecting the worst 😥

That is bad news. I always did wonder how their business model worked for the networks as their role was basically to undercut them. I’ve had some good deals from them in the past. In fact, I was looking at their site yesterday for a new contract for MrsN – glad we didn’t sign up to anything…

Anti competitive move from the oligopolist telecoms firms.

A mobile operator doesn’t walk away from potential huge lost sales to them without a very good reason. I wonder if Phones4U was paying when it should or with long overdues on purpose etc?

In addition I avoided Phones4U like the plague. Hideously pushy and not even that competitive on their deals. Max benefit to Phones4U on payments terms to its suppliers and max profit/bad deals to customers?

Sad for the employees but I imagine alot of ex-Phones4U customers wont feel the loss.

One of their apparent complaints, listening to the radio this morning, was that Vodafone had gone out of their way to make it difficult/impossible for them to offer competitive deals on their network…

How exactly do they do that? The mobile comms business still seems like a bit of a shady one to me anyway…

Given the ‘experience’ I had when I visited my local branch twice within the last ten years to price check I’m surprised they lasted this long.

They’ve not gone because they were unprofitable it’s because they’ve had the rug pulled out from beneath them by Vodafone and EE.

Not great https://www.trustpilot.co.uk/review/www.phones4u.co.uk

but have you seen carphonewarehouse? They used to be great too. Not pushy etc but still not as bad as Phones4U but look at their reviews!

https://www.trustpilot.co.uk/review/www.carphonewarehouse.com

That’s just phone companies for you though. They all get s**t reviews.

Vodafone
EE

They’ve not gone because they were unprofitable it’s because they’ve had the rug pulled out from beneath them by Vodafone and EE.

Very weak business model being solely dependant on one or two massive customers with no long term contract in place though…..

They’ve not gone because they were unprofitable it’s because they’ve had the rug pulled out from beneath them by Vodafone and EE.

Seems they were too dependent on one or two companies for business.

I agree with that. never really occurred to me what a house of cards those businesses are. Especially when the high streets are full of shops for the big phone companies – why would they re-sell though the likes of Phones4U?

Seems they were too dependent on one or two companies for business.

Not much you can do about that in the mobile telecoms retail market, is there…

Thats quite sad news for the folks that work for them, agreed the business model was a bit lean but sometimes thats all there is out there.
I for one couldn’t stand the Adverts, dear God they were awful, but a lot of folks did.
Thats really where thier market was, people not like me.

They could have started renegotiating terms a bit earlier…..

how do you negotiate with someone who refuses to do business with you?

Someone at the supplier didn’t wake up one day and say ‘you know what lets not do business with them’.

There would have been alot of meetings and to and fro. It wouldn’t have been out of the blue- they’d have known there was issues etc.

Go into a 3mobile shop and its a total contrast to a Carphonewarehouse and then… a Phones4U. I like using/trying the features etc and being able to get the handset there and then. 3mobile win.

Dont EVER PHONE 3 though. Sheesh.

Especially when the high streets are full of shops for the big phone companies – why would they re-sell though the likes of Phones4U?

Business model exist(s) or (ed) for the consumer that couldn’t be arsed to check the different contracts from different providers and then go into the selected provider’s shop. You could go into P4U or CW and get the ‘best’ deal with the help of the assistant, who’d also help you choose the handset too.

If you weren’t available from the shop, then you’d risk missing out. But i suspect that while it is the providers pulling out that has caused p4u to go under, it’s also driven by the fact that now most folk are more comfortable at using online means to compare deals and then buy the result, and hence Vodafone, EE, etc., are not so wary that they’re missing out.

Companies often diversify in these situations.

how do you negotiate with someone who refuses to do business with you?

If they won’t then you know they’re going to drop you so you start restructuring asap….

I don’t really see how either of these companies Carphone Warehouse or Phones 4U can survive when the phone companies have their own shops.

As usual excessive debt has killed the business, they owe £600m and whilst making £100m profit they can’t do that with no phone companies to represent. Anyway the founder will be happy I think he sold out for £1.5bn

Companies often diversify in these situations.

They painted themselves into a corner with the name, tho.

You ain’t selling washing machines with a name like that.

when the phone companies have their own shops.

Franchises. As I said I imagine theres more to this. If the staff are quite hardcore/pushy what does it say about the business as a hold? Did they pay ontime etc?

I don’t really see how either of these companies Carphone Warehouse or Phones 4U can survive when the phone companies have their own shops.

Because they offer better deals than the phone companies do, which is precisely why the telcos want rid.

I dont see carphonewarehouse selling many carphones these days Jamie 😉

They painted themselves into a corner with the name, tho.

You ain’t selling washing machines with a name like that.

You reckon?

They could have just started WashingMachines4U and made clear that it was part of the same group – Like EasyJet for example (or do they still do their various Easy… brands).

Or Fones4someoneelse, specifically targeting the mobile phones as gifts market?

One less sales channel for the big networks = less customer churn = lower cost to sell = higher margin.

I guess the model work quite well before the comparison sites and whilst the market was expanding rapidly, but I reckon phones4u must have been a high cost channel to flog phones through

Who would buy instore when you can compare prices online?

I dont see carphonewarehouse selling many carphones these days Jamie

…and that’s why they are going bust according to this thread’s URL 😀

You reckon?

No. I wasn’t being 100% serious. If anything, the *****4U name gave them a decent amount of flexibility to diversify.

Or with a minor rebrand they could have formed a company that sells anything but phones:

Phones?4Q!

They could have worked on a process of recycling old phones into adhesives.

Phones4Glue

….or moved into the Israeli market.

*insert the joke here*

I don’t really see how either of these companies Carphone Warehouse or Phones 4U can survive when the phone companies have their own shops.

Well Carphone have just merged with Dixons, so they’re now into all sorts of products.

And they exist pretty well because the mobile network operators are still far more interested in selling network access than they are dealing with Joe Public. P4U had clearly come to the end of the road because it hadn’t diversified (and also was no longer lead by the talismanic* John Caudwell), whereas I doubt very much there’s any trouble at DCPW.

And, of course, the world is all about online these days. All of thes companies are driving their customers online. If you’re behind that curve, you’re out of business.

*I’ve worked for him – I usually use shorter descriptive nouns….

Xylophones4U

Or audio market..

Earphones4U 😛