Phones4U in administration

[clonmult]

surveyor said:

clonmult said:

surveyor said:

alfaman said:

gpo746 said:

HTP99 said:

I avoided them like the plague, there was just something about them that screamed old school and can't be trusted, I think it was the sales guys that would stand outside in their crappy, ill fitting suits and spiked up hair, trying to grab anyone that wandered by to shout at them about their latest "great deal" it was all a bit amateurish and dodgy salesman and very unprofessional.

They had the very aggressive style and it was very in your face. I seem to remember that one of their directors went to CPW and they started to adopt a similar style (this was several years ago)

I recall some documentary about P4U a few years ago .. where they were recruiting young managers / future leaders... had very tough sales targets to hit during recruitment, requiring a pushy/ aggressive style to hit .. and keep your job.

Caudwell seemed to think his business and staff and his leadership were way ahead of anyone else in the industry .. going as far to say 'most senior execs just ride a growth trend.. dont really create value'.

some truth in that .. but what would he be saying now ?

I remember watching that. They did appear a bit ttish.

I've spent time in the distant past with their property team, who are or were nice people. The senior team were a little aggressive and I'm glad I was a minion then with no client responsibility. Arms regularly twisted to cut fees and fork out for tables at Caudwell foundations annual dinner.

If Apple want to expand their retail portfolio this could be a great lead for them.

Won't happen; most Apple stores tend to be fairly large spaces. Whereas most P4U premises tend to be fairly poky little dives.

Maybe. But if they were to expand their stores so massively they would not need to be so big everywhere.

When it comes to marketing, Apple only does "big", and the Apple Stores are a huge part of the overall Apple image. I can't see them watering down their retail design language into something as small as a typical P4U outlet.

Although by the same token, I didn't' expect Apple to be releasing something as ungainly as the Apple Watch either.

[maddog993]

gpo746 said:

Star Trek think it was the first Next Generation one wasn't it where the planet turned out to be a space blob and floated away
I haven't googled this BTW as it would be cheating
My wife bless her thinks you are a folkie as she misread it and thinks it said "fairpoint" as in fairpoint convention

A dyslexic folkie perhaps, as of course it's Fairport Convention

[Sheepshanks]

PorkInsider said:

Cauldwell is having a good moan about voda pulling out.

That's a bit rich considering he pulled out himself a few years ago.

[gpo746]

maddog993 said:

gpo746 said:

Star Trek think it was the first Next Generation one wasn't it where the planet turned out to be a space blob and floated away
I haven't googled this BTW as it would be cheating
My wife bless her thinks you are a folkie as she misread it and thinks it said "fairpoint" as in fairpoint convention

A dyslexic folkie perhaps, as of course it's Fairport Convention

I said she missssread ittt I mean mis rede it I mean errrr

[Adrian W]

If the networks have buried F4U in favor of CFW, is that entirely legal, or pushing toward a cartel, I heard on the radio this morning that F4U is sitting on a heap of cash, if i was a creditor I would be all over them before it evaporates.

You have to wonder about CFW, it is effectively the same business model.

[HTP99]

Are dialaphone.co.uk part of Phones4u?

The reason that I ask is I've have just gone on to their website to be greeted by a message stating that they are offline due to the Phones4U issue, there are a few contact numbers and it is finished with:

"Thank you for your custom, the heartbroken Phones 4u Team "

[Justin Cyder]

HTP99 said:

Are dialaphone.co.uk part of Phones4u?

The reason that I ask is I've have just gone on to their website to be greeted by a message stating that they are offline due to the Phones4U issue, there are a few contact numbers and it is finished with:

"Thank you for your custom, the heartbroken Phones 4u Team "

Yes they are, P4U acquired them a few years ago.

[DoubleSix]

Pints said:

Justin Cyder said:

They were a trade supplier to O2, Voda & EE. O2 bailed in January, Voda last week & EE were the last contract remaining. It therefore sent them into last ditch crisis talks with EE, which I imagine will be revealed to have broken down over a takeover bid.


This is in no way any kind of in the know schtick, just me following the story in the papers over the past few weeks.

The Telegraph said:

EE was in talks with Phones 4U about a potential contract renewal as recently as July, but the commercial terms put forward by the retailer were rejected by the operator as out of line with industry norms, sources said. Phones 4U walked away from the negotiating table and did not return.

Just sounds like they were getting greedy.

Sounds like they were being squeezed.

[SydneyBridge]

The networks must have known the consequences of them ending their respective contracts with p4u. They have spent their own money on their own shops but with no network to connect to, there is pretty much no business left.
The owners have debts of a reported £600 million so I would imagine they would want a swift exit.
Very sad for all the staff

Just reading that the owners, a private equity company, paid themselves a £200 million bonus last year despite the debts

Edited by SydneyBridge on Monday 15th September 11:33

[Magog]

SydneyBridge said:

Just reading that the owners, a private equity company, paid themselves a £200 million bonus last year despite the debts

Nice work if you can get it.

[The Don of Croy]

alfaman said:

I recall some documentary about P4U a few years ago .. where they were recruiting young managers / future leaders... had very tough sales targets to hit during recruitment, requiring a pushy/ aggressive style to hit .. and keep your job.

Caudwell seemed to think his business and staff and his leadership were way ahead of anyone else in the industry .. going as far to say 'most senior execs just ride a growth trend.. dont really create value'.

some truth in that .. but what would he be saying now ?

I remember this being on C4 - it was 'the apprentice' years before 'SrAlun M'lord Sugar' got his mitts on the format.

Please correct me, but didn't Cauldwell walk away with more cash than any other UK mobile entrepreneur? Charlie Carphone might be worth more on paper, but cash is cash...(unless he's done a Stavros and blown it on new ventures).

Brevity aside, no mention of the boys from 'Phone Shop' yet either, bruv.

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/phoneshop/4od

[Wills2]

Caudwell is a billionaire IIRC, putting that to one side. I'm surprised that they didn't have a notice period with EE or Vodafone when your eggs are in a just a couple of baskets you'd want a 12-18month notice period.

£1 billion t/o, £100 million profit, 5500 staff all gone with the stroke of a pen?

Sad.

[gpo746]

The Don of Croy said:

alfaman said:

I recall some documentary about P4U a few years ago .. where they were recruiting young managers / future leaders... had very tough sales targets to hit during recruitment, requiring a pushy/ aggressive style to hit .. and keep your job.

Caudwell seemed to think his business and staff and his leadership were way ahead of anyone else in the industry .. going as far to say 'most senior execs just ride a growth trend.. dont really create value'.

some truth in that .. but what would he be saying now ?

I remember this being on C4 - it was 'the apprentice' years before 'SrAlun M'lord Sugar' got his mitts on the format.

Please correct me, but didn't Cauldwell walk away with more cash than any other UK mobile entrepreneur? Charlie Carphone might be worth more on paper, but cash is cash...(unless he's done a Stavros and blown it on new ventures).

Brevity aside, no mention of the boys from 'Phone Shop' yet either, bruv.

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/phoneshop/4od

I think you could be mistaken ? Was it not a BBC thing ?
I remember a BBC thing about him. Pretty sure it was on BBC 2 It showed him doing doughnuts in his helicopter and had some of the "candidates" at interviews. The interviews took place on his big house with lots of Oak rooms etc.
There was also some footage of him at his charity event etc
It is probably some 10 years old now maybe longer

[gpo746]

jas xjr said:

M3333 said:

Not sure why Caudwell is even commenting on it. He sold up and ran away with lots of pots of gold in 2006. Some may question the business model and morals but you cant deny from buying in a few motorolas back in the 80's to building a fortune of apparently £2.6Billion the boy did good.

He was not too fussy about how he earned the money . He was once arrested for a £70 million VAT fraud . When he sold all of his companies , at least one of them was found to have been involved in carousel fraud .

And of course we won't make mention of Stu Baillie taking the rap for anything

[The Don of Croy]

gpo746 said:

...It is probably some 10 years old now maybe longer

I can barely remember what happened on Friday, so 10 years ago...

Are the visitors coming today? More tea please nurse.

[spats]

CPW might have started out similar to f4U but they are much broader now.

For some years they've had Talktalk home phone service, then broadband service and now internet tv aswell.

Plus they used to run a few pay as you go services including calls abroad on the cheap, not sure if they still do that though.

I doubt whether CPW or DCP will disapear as quickly as p4u did.

Sad days for the staff!

[toppstuff]

I just think of Phoneshop whenever I see phones4U.

Boom ! The end of the Elite Selling Krew.

In a way, we will miss the shiny suits and hair gel.

[gpo746]

The Don of Croy said:

gpo746 said:

...It is probably some 10 years old now maybe longer

I can barely remember what happened on Friday, so 10 years ago...

Are the visitors coming today? More tea please nurse.

Haha thanks for not getting all "huffy" over it some other posters would have ripped apart the spelling mistakes, grammar and taken a self important stance
Reason I remember it is that I was ion that game back then well on the sidelines with an investment in a shop. I can't find it on You tube but I'm sure its around somewhere. Cauldwell was regarded by a great many in the industry as a bit of a tt really. Dunstone was better regarded. Martin Dawes was well regarded I also think that originally there were 2 brothers that set up cauldwell's company initially.
We used to connect a few phones via 4U airtime they were no better at billing or worse than the others we used. His shops were something else though- poor to middling customer care. I remember one shop on a Monday trying to send a customer to a Nokia Service Point with a faulty phone. The phone had only been bought on the Saturday ! There were also some issues with their Nokia stock as some could not be serviced at Nokia Service Points as when the imei's were entered on the Nokia NSP site they came back as foreign stock. In all likelihood they had simply bought some foreign stock and imported it to make money but it was a big high street chain at that point.
Can also remember a close friend eyeing up my Nokia 8800 Scirocco and wanting one. the sim free price was way too high for us to be bale to get bone for him but both CPW and 4U shops could. CPW had a 3 day lead time 4U had them in. Despite being warned he went to 4U and was fully prepared to hand over his £650 I think it was on a debit card. The girl just wasn't interested and was more interested in getting him onto a contract despite clear instructions he already had a contract he was happy with. He did walk and go to CPW after a while. She may have been a good salesgirl but she just didn't get the customers needs and lost the sale.
At least whoever bought 4U got something of value. When the Pocket Phone Shop was sold off by Simon Jordan the real value was found to be wanting.

[miniman]

Wills2 said:

I'm surprised that they didn't have a notice period with EE or Vodafone when your eggs are in a just a couple of baskets you'd want a 12-18month notice period.

£1 billion t/o, £100 million profit, 5500 staff all gone with the stroke of a pen?

Sad.

They did - the EE contract ends next September. But having declined to renew it, what point would there be in continuing? How could you recruit and retain any people into a business that was doomed?

[The Don of Croy]

spats said:

CPW might have started out similar to f4U but they are much broader now.

For some years they've had Talktalk home phone service, then broadband service and now internet tv aswell.

Plus they used to run a few pay as you go services including calls abroad on the cheap, not sure if they still do that though.

I doubt whether CPW or DCP will disapear as quickly as p4u did.

Sad days for the staff!

Charles Dunstone has done very well indeed, but he's not averse to errors (so he's human!!) aka Best Buy (and 1100 jobs). Also the TalkTalk home phone/broadband offer seems to attract some of the lowest satisfaction ratings available - although this may largely be down to growing too fast etc.

Given that this entire business sector is only just out of nappies, it's another stage of the development and shake out as the demand changes. What will happen next?