Dragons' Den badboy's Expansys burns sales, profits up in smoke Marlow-based online smartmobe dealer Expansys - owned by Dragons' Den moneybags Peter Jones - issued a profit warning this morning citing weaker-than-expected trading conditions. The AIM-listed wireless tech web retailer, which also distributes SIM cards for mobe networks and operates ecommerce and other software projects on …
They're in prime position to exploit one of the hottest retail markets of a generation, and yet I would never consider buying anything from them now or in future. Their brand stinks as far as I'm concerned, they acquired a bad reputation from years ago, and are frankly uncompetitive on pricing and so lose out to smaller, friendlier and more nimble retailers such as Clove.
They've got all the infrastructure to run a successful online business, but their approach to actually doing business is all wrong.
'There may be trouble ahead
But while there's music and moonlight and love and romance
Let's face the music and dance
Before the fiddlers have fled
Before they ask us to pay the bill and while we still have the chance
Let's face the music and dance
Soon we'll be without the moon, humming a different tune and then
There may be teardrops to shed
So while there's moonlight and music and love and romance
Let's face the music and dance
Their time in the market is over. A few years ago we had dozens, perhaps hundreds of suppliers all offering PDAs and semi-smart phones of various flavours. Expansys was the #1 shop to find unusual creatures such as the HP iPAQ, the O₂ XDA, the Dell Axim, or the lesser-spotted offerings from HTC, Dopod, Qtec, Fujitsu, Palm, etc. They also sold sat-navs from a myriad of companies. (In fact I look back on such times fondly, when Windows Mobile was the dominant OS.) Today everyone just wants an iPhone or a Samsung Galaxy, and they can buy those from their local Phones4u. Expansys no longer offer anything different.
Been buying electrical goods for over 15 years online now.
Never once bought from Expansys. Just too expensive. Companies like dabs.com and dialaphone.co.uk are far cheaper. Companies like Comet and DSG are in a somewhat different situation. People will go in to try and buy a product unless there is an Argos next door.
The great thing about Argos is that the customer services will show you a product from the warehouse before you buy or you could just return product within 30 days.
Good. I can see why.
I bought a Nexus One from them, they sent me a German phone despite it being "SIM free, unlocked" (unlocked yes, but sourced from Vodafone Germany).
When the power button died (common defect) HTC UK wouldn't help me as it was a German phone, and it took Expansys months to look at and fix it.
When it happened a second time they didn't even do that - just claimed it was out of warranty (it wasn't, 2 year warranty) and then said it had water damage (despite being in an Otterbox and not dunked in water at any point). I gave up and bought a new phone - not from that shambles of a company.
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