Phones4U in administration

Author
Discussion

9.3

Original Poster:

1,133 posts

191 months

Sunday 14th September 2014
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/me...

£100m to zero overnight almost, spooky....

BigsimonY

616 posts

124 months

Sunday 14th September 2014
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down to the network operators wanting more of the profit. No 3rd party sellers. Possible fire sale ???

Edited by BigsimonY on Sunday 14th September 22:24

Butter Face

30,191 posts

159 months

Sunday 14th September 2014
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Ex P4U employee here, still know people who work there! Dark days for them.


Not really shocked, it was a sinking ship when I was there!

BlackLabel

13,251 posts

122 months

Sunday 14th September 2014
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With all the networks having their own shops in pretty much every city and town centre this isn't really a surprise. And the number of new customers must be on the decrease too with many folks simply upgrading through their current supplier.

Could carphonewarehouse be next or are they too big to fail?

lamboman100

1,445 posts

120 months

Sunday 14th September 2014
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Butter Face said:
Ex P4U employee here, still know people who work there! Dark days for them.


Not really shocked, it was a sinking ship when I was there!
Why?

bazza white

3,550 posts

127 months

Sunday 14th September 2014
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I believe the phone companies are working with CPW more from next year but how long this will last is anyone's guess. I wonder if logistics is in the car phone deal.


Pretty shocking though this can happen from a fair competition point of view.










Justin Cyder

12,624 posts

148 months

Sunday 14th September 2014
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Vodafone pulled the plug, £70m revenue gone, goodnight & god bless. Lesson there on the 80/20 rule, applies if you're small, medium or massive.

gpo746

3,397 posts

129 months

Sunday 14th September 2014
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Wonder how that affects branches of PS World that have the 4U section in them
To be blunt I never rated the 4U shops and their selling style. Don't really rate CPW either.
It will just be Network owned shops and small independents soon. A lot of Network shops will close as well as they look at the economies of having multiple shops in one town. An example of that is EE with some towns having an EE shop and an Orange shop too.
Unless I am wrong and EE and Orange are totally independent of each other

sa_20v

4,108 posts

230 months

Sunday 14th September 2014
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Justin Cyder said:
Vodafone pulled the plug, £70m revenue gone, goodnight & god bless. Lesson there on the 80/20 rule, applies if you're small, medium or massive.
Yup, and another reason to not be content being a middleman.

HTP99

22,441 posts

139 months

Sunday 14th September 2014
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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.

Sheepshanks

32,519 posts

118 months

Sunday 14th September 2014
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Justin Cyder said:
Vodafone pulled the plug, £70m revenue gone, goodnight & god bless. Lesson there on the 80/20 rule, applies if you're small, medium or massive.
They seem to be blaming EE (or least that was the straw etc...)

Hard to avoid the 80/20 split if you have a massive customer. And on the supplier side, it's not like they could diversify there.

They did always feel dodgy though.

gpo746

3,397 posts

129 months

Sunday 14th September 2014
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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)

Justin Cyder

12,624 posts

148 months

Sunday 14th September 2014
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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.

Quhet

2,409 posts

145 months

Sunday 14th September 2014
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They were never competitive when I went there, no great loss...

Sheepshanks

32,519 posts

118 months

Sunday 14th September 2014
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HTP99 said:
there was just something about them that screamed old school and can't be trusted,
Not sure what you mean there? "Old school" is a phrase more usually associated with people you can trust.

Justayellowbadge

37,057 posts

241 months

Sunday 14th September 2014
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Quhet said:
They were never competitive when I went there, no great loss...
6000 employees might feel differently.

PorkInsider

5,877 posts

140 months

Sunday 14th September 2014
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Cauldwell is having a good moan about voda pulling out.

To be quite honest, what sort of business was it if it was so reliant upon what was effectively a competitor, at least in terms if high street sales outlets?

B17NNS

18,506 posts

246 months

Sunday 14th September 2014
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Quhet said:
They were never competitive when I went there, no great loss...
5,600 people might just disagree with you.

davepoth

29,395 posts

198 months

Monday 15th September 2014
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PorkInsider said:
Cauldwell is having a good moan about voda pulling out.

To be quite honest, what sort of business was it if it was so reliant upon what was effectively a competitor, at least in terms if high street sales outlets?
They're always going to be reliant on some competitors, but it seems a bit crazy to be that undiversified. I'm amazed they didn't set themselves up as an MVNO so they could have something of a unique offering.

king arthur

6,538 posts

260 months

Monday 15th September 2014
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BlackLabel said:
Could carphonewarehouse be next or are they too big to fail?
It's now Dixons Carphone so probably is too big - perhaps CPW have seen this coming which prompted the merger.