Phones4U closed - thanks to Dixons Carphone Warehouse and mobile networks

[VR46]

One by one the networks have been withdrawing from Phones4U over the last six weeks, giving alliance to DCW, amazing how a business that made over ?100M profit last year is wiped out and something like 5,000 jobs sadly gone.
I've been a customer there for years, always gave better deals than going to the networks direct etc and had great service from them.

Don't know how other cheap deal contract sites are affected, if at all.

Is going to be the consumer who pays more over the coming years.

More details

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

[Brad]

The OFT (or whoever, I'm not clued up on this stuff but you know what I mean) needs to look at this. This is so wrong.

[Lebowski]

Sources at Phones 4U say that Dixons Carphone is now the only major place when customers can get comparisons between operators.

I'm quite surprised by this but then a lot of the other sites about are run by carphone warehouse i know for a fact e2save, OneStopPhoneShop, The Phone Spot, and Mobiles.co.uk are all just brands of carphone warehouse offering them really shady cashback deals, and refurbed phones.

[Asura]

I get really annoyed when I read these articles, saying things like "we made 100m last year, a billion between 2005-present day" and stuff like that, then "this year we've had a problem and we've decided to shut up shop, and lay everyone off".

Am I the only one that thinks there should be some legal standpoint by which the staff can say "Oh no you don't. We made you ****loads of money over the last 10 years and now you're going to spend it to keep us in a job for at least a few months while we try and weather the storm".

It seems businesses are far too happy these days to run off as soon as things go south for a bit, which is fine for shareholders but ****e for everyone else. It disgusts me beyond measure.

[VR46]

They probably could have carried on trading for six months, which would have helped the employees, but by purely being a reseller, their sole business has been taken away from them bit by bit, not quite a case of weathering the storm for a few poor months.

[Lebowski]

I get really annoyed when I read these articles, saying things like "we made 100m last year, a billion between 2005-present day" and stuff like that, then "this year we've had a problem and we've decided to shut up shop, and lay everyone off".

Am I the only one that thinks there should be some legal standpoint by which the staff can say "Oh no you don't. We made you ****loads of money over the last 10 years and now you're going to spend it to keep us in a job for at least a few months while we try and weather the storm".

It seems businesses are far too happy these days to run off as soon as things go south for a bit, which is fine for shareholders but ****e for everyone else. It disgusts me beyond measure.

Exclusivity deals have killed them off it seems phone shops want to go it alone or get massive kick backs from the likes of carphone warehouse for killing off their competitors via exclusivity deals, if you loose the big companies you haven't really got a business left selling phones.

I don't think the headline the only place selling Vodafone and EE on the High-street All under one roof is a good thing I'm quite surprised this sort of monopoly go's though without much outrage these days.

Imagine If Game and Sony centers, where the only choice on the highstreet for getting new PlayStation games.

[fuse]

I was in the mobile business for quite some time, and would just emphasise how strange and difficult the independent/network relationship is. Trying to remain competitive with, whilst also appeasing a company is a very tricky see-saw to maintain, and whilst moves like this by the networks have happened in the past (for those pointing the finger at Carphone, here's the boot on the other foot from a few years back), but EE and Vodafone being lost in one month is probably not the sort of thing that's left them with many options. I see from the BBC article that the mud slinging at Voda has already kicked off, which would suggest negotiations have broken down at the very top level - a real shame, as it's a cascading move that's going to cost many people their livelihood.