Dragon-owned Expansys bemoans weak UK gadget lust

Expansys' fiscal 2011 numbers were boosted by several acquisitions and cost-cutting efforts, the firm has claimed. Sales at the London Stock Exchange listed firm for the year ended 30 April climbed more than 60 per cent on 12 months earlier to £81.8m, operating losses narrowed to £725,000 from £2.7m and underlying pre-tax …

[jason 7]

Sorry.

Mayself and many of us just dont have £400 to plonk down on the latest Smarphone that will be replaced in 6 months and will be lucky to last a year.

I have increasingly expensive food and shelter to think of first.

[Atonnis]

Perhaps it's the company...

It's more like consumer confidence is down in Expansys, who have developed a name for themselves as over-hassling, over-spamming, overpriced and generally quite dodgy.

I used to like Expansys, until they first started using placeholder release dates, then I realised just how overpriced they were, then I saw the deals they were trying to sell with network providers that didn't bear any resemblance to the providers' own deals - and then they spammed me to death (well, the death of my desire to deal with them).

[Anonymous Coward]

High prices, poor service

Expansys used to be competitively priced, and provided rapid service, but... some years ago, it started going pear-shaped, in-stock goods that weren't, but you were only told days after the online purchase, and I tried cancelling the order, they sent it two weeks later anyway, and then made it my cost to send the item back for a refund, which was going to be vouchers... (Not to mention their prices are now amongst the most exensive on the net)

Needless to say, I haven't used them again.

[John I'm only dancing]

What a fecknut

"Consumer confidence and activity has reduced significantly in the last six months," he said, "This has meant it has been more difficult and expensive to retain existing customers and attract new ones. In response we have reduced our cost base."

Earlier this summer, Expansys closed its Manchester office, laying off the majority of its staff as it relocated to Marlow.

What do these people expect, put people out of work, or in fear for their jobs, then they won't spend. They all piss in the same pot anyway, Peter Jones, Digby Jones, Scameron, Osborg etc. Next they'll be telling us the economy is booming and earth is flat.

[SteveP_UK]

Simple

Expansys prices are way too high compared to other internet merchants, who also offer better service

[Select * From Handle]

why would you by from Expansys?

You can see how expensive they are by comparing their iphones to the ones on the apple website. Expansys are £70-£80 more expensive! that is ALOT.

Expansys's is selling the iphone 4 16gb white at almost the same price as apple selling the 32gb version.

You would have to be insane to pay that.

[Anonymous Coward]

Very poor service.

As others have said - a few years ago they were pretty good - these days pricing is average at best and service is near zero. You order a product that says will ship that day - you pay to upgrade to a guaranteed next-day - it does not turn up, they ignore emails, you phone up and get some snotty French woman who basically tells you 'tough luck'.

Needless to say after my last 3 orders with them all resulted in problems they are scratched from my list of supliers.

Note: I'm not saying all French people are snotty ;)

[MarkieMark1]

have you ever lived in France?

There are loads of snotty French women; in fact there's an equation

p(speaking to a snotty French woman | calling a French number) = 1 - p(speaking to a snotty French bloke | calling a French number) - p(rain during a randomly picked day in August in the South of France) * p(a randomly picked small shop in a French town being open in August) * p(room to swing a cat at a beach in the South of France during August)

:-)

[DavCrav]

Opportunity to wipe Peter Jones's smug grin off his face

Continue not to buy from him. I'm out!

[Jonathan White]

back in the day...

I used to use them a lot when they had offices on the science park near the university in Manchester. You could buy an item and nip round to pick it up if you wanted (rather than them posting it to you) and the service was pretty good either way. Then they closed the 'desk' so you couldn't pick stuff up any more. Then they moved the office out to Salford. Then their customer service went to pot. Then they shut the Manchester office entirely.

At some point during that sequence of 'doing stuff that was really uncool' I stopped giving them money. I suspect a lot of other people did too by the looks of things.

Jon

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd rather buy from DSG

Than line Mr Jones pockets just out of sheer bloody mindedness. Just shows how much I feel about this, that I would rather torture myself in Curry's/PCWorld than give Jones a penny.

[Admiral Grace Hopper]

Please don't let me be the only one

who flashed back to the Dragon32 when I read the headline.

[Jon Press]

In a recession...

... the money's not going to be with Savile Row dragons but with St George at Asda.

[Mark Aggleton]

I disagree

The kind of people who buy suits in Savile Row aren't affected by a recession. It's the people who buy ones that cost in the low £100s that are

[A. Lewis]

Hmmmmm

I wonder why people aren't buying from expansys? Perhaps because they're massively overpriced?

[The Taft Hotel]

Not one good thing to say?

The entire thread to here and not one good thing to say about Expansys!

That really says it all.

I hope the next person on dragons den has a print out of this in their pocket next time that lanky twat gives them some grief. ;)

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes Peter

Your company is shite. Mobile Fun anyone?

[paulf]

Spammers

I ordered a few accessories for my new HTC Sensation from them. I had made sure all the "don't contact" options were set correctly. Shortly after placing my order I got spammed by them with their newsletter.

The accessories took ages to arrive - sent from France apparently and yes I got the same snotty French woman but she was more diplomatic than "tough luck!" :) I asked her to stop the spam and she said she would.

The news letters continued so I used the unsubscribe (something I wouldn't normally do) and that did work. How long for it remains to be seen...

But I don't deal with spammers - they're scratched from my "buy from" list as a result.

[Anonymous Coward]

The only thing they're still good for...

...is browsing the stock before buying somewhere else...

[Jean-Paul]

Agree with most of the post

Expansys is just not competitive, very simple. It is not the customer demand, it is the customers aren't daft enough to spend their money with them.

[Kristian Walsh]

Bought from them five years ago

... they were fine then. Since then, I've noticed:

- they list way too much stuff that they don't have, or can't get, and make up prices for it.

- their prices are way too high for the stuff they actually do have.

- their currency conversion is a little shady.

[Pot Meet Handle]

Overpriced, under serviced

It does make you wonder how the his other businesses flourish if he can't see that if things are overpriced, and if you buy you get poor service then people won't come back.

As others have said, used to be good, used to be the reg shop!

not any more, and not any good any more.

[Pete 6]

Pretty much what's already been said...

I've only ever really clicked a few ads on El Reg that linked me there. I had a browse, saw how overpriced everything was, and shopped from elsewhere.

[Anonymous Coward]

Poor attitude towards security

The unique address i gave expansys continues to receive penis pill mail, almost 3 years since i last used expansys. I alerted them to the potential security breach when the first one arrived , I stopped trading with them after the 3rd mail i sent them about the problem received no response. I concluded that a company that could keep its data secure, and failed to respond to alerts about a security problem , was not a company ot trading with. My personal spending on electronics and the number of purchases i have advised others to make has increased in number and value in that time. Maybe Peter Jones should concentrate more on improving customer service quality at his companies than arseing around on television...