Mobilicity shuts down another dealer. Mobilicity just shut down Yaletown Wireless

[xtachx]

They had some very stupid policies that puts the loss to the dealers and many of these dealers make so little that is it discouraging to support the product and the only reason they are selling Mobilicity is that they probably cannot get WIND or anything else better so they really have no choice as getting something is better than nothing.

Then how do you explain the Yaletown wireless dealer getting closed by Mobilicity and switching to wind? He could have switched long time ago! Its not like he could not go with wind, but he went with mobi first!

How do you also explain wind dealers closing themselves and going with mobi? (I have seen several in edmonton) and some dealers closing with mobi and going wind?

[onewhofightsfoo]

Then how do you explain the Yaletown wireless dealer getting closed by Mobilicity and switching to wind? He could have switched long time ago! Its not like he could not go with wind, but he went with mobi first!

How do you also explain wind dealers closing themselves and going with mobi? (I have seen several in edmonton) and some dealers closing with mobi and going wind?

That's because all these dealers can't survive on the cut throat contracts they sign when dealers like Wind and Mobilicity - these competitive carriers try to compete with the big 3. Like I said before...the Mobilicity dealer on Main Street in Vancouver desperately tried to sell me internet TV because Mobilicity brought me in the front door. He has to survive somehow...cheesy as it was, I still have to respect the fellow for trying to survive....and I don't think the new cell companies give a **it that he's trying to make a buck. I just hope to think that the cellular consumer knows why he/she is in a Mobilicity/Wind store to begin with...LOL

Mobilicity frees Canadian cellular smartphone users - or at least - till one of the big 3 gobbles them up!

[Big Ang]

I personally think that Mobilicity has very shady practice and maybe the dealers should stop selling their product.

You buy a phone from Mobilicity (dealer cost) lets say $200 and supposed to sell at retail price of $250

A few months down the road, they dropped the retail price to $175 and do not offer the dealer any credit to take the loss on the phones. I lost thousands of dollars this way and this is very shady in my view.

THOUSANDS of dollars???

Hmm, so you lost at least $2000 selling a phone at a $25 loss. That's 80 phones at least.

That's a lot of phones to stock, especially if they are older phones, obviously near the end of life.

Last August I bought an HTC Panache when it went on sale, a drop from $500 to $300. And the dealer I bought it from had reduced it a further $50 (but then charged me $20 for a sim, and I had to pay for 2 months up front, but it still worked out in my favour). There's no way that dealer's cost was $400 on a $500 phone. And if it was, he wouldn't have reduced the price further.

And I guess that from those 80 phones you sold at a loss, many of them were new activations? So you would at least have gotten paid something from that (I hope more than $25).

Although I agree with you that Mobi should have offered the dealer some sort of credit, at least a partial one so the dealer can at least sell the phone at cost, I can't believe that you sold 80+ phones at a loss. Either you keep WAY too much phones in stock, especially ones that are nearing the end of life, or you sell thousands of phones per week to justify the large amount of phones in stock and in that case losing money on 80 phones isn't the end of the world.

Just to clarify, that's 80 phones of the models that are old, not 80 phones in total. Keeping 80-100 phones of the latest Nexus or Galaxy when it first comes out makes sense. Keeping 80 boxes of last year's Blackberry does not.

"Losing thousands of dollars" is either BS or you made a silly business mistake. Either way, I can't blame Mobilicity for that.

[DummyBuy]

THOUSANDS of dollars???

Hmm, so you lost at least $2000 selling a phone at a $25 loss. That's 80 phones at least.

That's a lot of phones to stock, especially if they are older phones, obviously near the end of life.

Last August I bought an HTC Panache when it went on sale, a drop from $500 to $300. And the dealer I bought it from had reduced it a further $50 (but then charged me $20 for a sim, and I had to pay for 2 months up front, but it still worked out in my favour). There's no way that dealer's cost was $400 on a $500 phone. And if it was, he wouldn't have reduced the price further.

And I guess that from those 80 phones you sold at a loss, many of them were new activations? So you would at least have gotten paid something from that (I hope more than $25).

Although I agree with you that Mobi should have offered the dealer some sort of credit, at least a partial one so the dealer can at least sell the phone at cost, I can't believe that you sold 80+ phones at a loss. Either you keep WAY too much phones in stock, especially ones that are nearing the end of life, or you sell thousands of phones per week to justify the large amount of phones in stock and in that case losing money on 80 phones isn't the end of the world.

Just to clarify, that's 80 phones of the models that are old, not 80 phones in total. Keeping 80-100 phones of the latest Nexus or Galaxy when it first comes out makes sense. Keeping 80 boxes of last year's Blackberry does not.

"Losing thousands of dollars" is either BS or you made a silly business mistake. Either way, I can't blame Mobilicity for that.

I stopped selling Mobilicity a while ago,

I had over 100 phones including those garbage internet sticks they used to sell.

I had many blackberry and lots of the HTC Snap.

I still have approx 30-40 phones in stock, I have to clear those out.

We always like to keep large stock as that is the only way to survive for when WIND stores are out of phones, that is how we get most of our activations.

Also, we had the phones less than a year when Mobilicity started and it was supposed to be the best and biggest thing on the market with over 300 activations per month.
When the big price jump came and that really what started us to start selling WIND when they expected us to sell at a loss and tell customers that Mobilicity had the best reception everywhere in the area.
Also, they opened Mobilicity location everywhere when in fact they told us there was 1-2KM range that nobody could be. In September, we sold

I am glad you have some common sense as respectably, xtach keeps asking why why to easy answers and seems to not know what is going on in the real world.

Mobilicy and WIND are a dead end business right now and if you want to survive, you have to try to sell the customers other items. We really only started to sell WIND because we sell the 4G MOFI router and WIND was in contact with us so we said why not as Mobility was not going anywhere.
Wind is a bonus for us since we use that space where to ship the routers all over Canada.
I can guarantee 90% of the dealers are only selling Mobility to try to get customers in the door knowing that they are not making any real profits on Mobilicity alone.
Sadly, the same thing started to happen to WIND as they are opening as much stores and dropping the commissions to something not worth it.

If you are a Mobilicity dealer and want some really good prices on some phones (brand new), let me know as I have them packed and will clear them out cheap!

If anyone wants to buy the best router on the planet, this is what we do and we are the best at this!

[wilsonlam97]

OP must work at Yaletown because they had shady practises and at times scammed customers. What mobilicity did was right.

[Big Ang]

I had over 100 phones including those garbage internet sticks they used to sell.

I had many blackberry and lots of the HTC Snap.

I'll agree that Mobi and Wind probably don't treat their dealers as well as they should. I'm sure part of the reason is because they drastically reduce their prices in a fight to the bottom, and therefore have to cut commissions accordingly.

But it sounds like the mistake was, at least for the most part, on your end.

Every knows (or should know) that selling technology like cellphones is similar to selling milk - after a short time they are not fresh anymore, and they spoil quickly. You can't keep a large stock in the back collecting dust and expect to sell them a year later at the same price you were able to sell them when they just came out.

You bought a lot of Mobi internet sticks to keep in stock? Big mistake. Anyone looking at how Mobi priced their data ($40/mth, or $20/mth if you have a phone, but if you had a phone you could tether, so that was pointless) that the Mobi internet sticks were never going to be a big seller.

Same with the HTC Snap. No way that was going to be a big seller. I used to have the HTC s620, the Snap's predecessor, and I really liked it. But by the time the Snap came out, running Windows Mobile 6.1, no one wanted that OS. The only people that would buy a Snap were those that wanted a Blackberry-style phone at a cheap price.

I feel bad that things didn't work out for you, and at the end of the day maybe you did lose "thousands of dollars" in total, but you didn't lose "thousands of dollars" because Mobi decided to put some phones on sale lower than the wholesale price.

As far as the 1-2km exclusivity range you mention, if it was in your contract and Mobi broke the contract and caused you to lose money, then I would recommend talking to a lawyer to see if you can take legal action. If it was not specifically stated in the contract, who's fault is that?

The blame is definitely not all Mobi's, a large chunk is due to poor business decisions on your part.

[DummyBuy]

I'll agree that Mobi and Wind probably don't treat their dealers as well as they should. I'm sure part of the reason is because they drastically reduce their prices in a fight to the bottom, and therefore have to cut commissions accordingly.

But it sounds like the mistake was, at least for the most part, on your end.

Every knows (or should know) that selling technology like cellphones is similar to selling milk - after a short time they are not fresh anymore, and they spoil quickly. You can't keep a large stock in the back collecting dust and expect to sell them a year later at the same price you were able to sell them when they just came out.

You bought a lot of Mobi internet sticks to keep in stock? Big mistake. Anyone looking at how Mobi priced their data ($40/mth, or $20/mth if you have a phone, but if you had a phone you could tether, so that was pointless) that the Mobi internet sticks were never going to be a big seller.

Same with the HTC Snap. No way that was going to be a big seller. I used to have the HTC s620, the Snap's predecessor, and I really liked it. But by the time the Snap came out, running Windows Mobile 6.1, no one wanted that OS. The only people that would buy a Snap were those that wanted a Blackberry-style phone at a cheap price.

I feel bad that things didn't work out for you, and at the end of the day maybe you did lose "thousands of dollars" in total, but you didn't lose "thousands of dollars" because Mobi decided to put some phones on sale lower than the wholesale price.

As far as the 1-2km exclusivity range you mention, if it was in your contract and Mobi broke the contract and caused you to lose money, then I would recommend talking to a lawyer to see if you can take legal action. If it was not specifically stated in the contract, who's fault is that?

The blame is definitely not all Mobi's, a large chunk is due to poor business decisions on your part.

Mobility dropped some prices on phone within 30 days of purchase to below the dealer cost that we paid.

With WIND, we do not have this issue.

For sure was a big mistake to purchase a large quantity of phones and for sure was a poor business decision to have gone with Mobil in the first place. We used to sell 30+ phones per week with WIND and that is about $10K in phone stocks per week but WIND has protection in case I did get stuck with older phones and the price went down.

With WIND, we had record sales in September for the fact we have the phones in stock while no others did not.

I cannot get into the fine details of my dealers for legal issues but there were a lot of promises and taking a lawyer to fight was not worth my time but the point I am trying to make is to not just take anyone from Mobilicity word on anything as they will always say something to the fact that the dealer did something they could not disclosed.

Again, I have no info on any of these dealers that got closed, I am just making a general statement.

Back to work, I think I spent too much time on this thread already, later.

[Cheapskater]

I personally think that Mobilicity has very shady practice and maybe the dealers should stop selling their product.

You buy a phone from Mobilicity (dealer cost) lets say $200 and supposed to sell at retail price of $250

A few months down the road, they dropped the retail price to $175 and do not offer the dealer any credit to take the loss on the phones. I lost thousands of dollars this way and this is very shady in my view.

With WIND, they offer you price protection so you do not loose.

Also, the people who work or have worked for Mobilicity are as shady as they come. They lie about everything so do not believe what they tell you.
I am sure there are some bad dealers out there but they should first maybe do a review on their employees first before starting to look at any dealers!

I personally do not know any of these Mobilicity dealer that they closed but from my experience, I would tend to be on the dealer side of this game.

Speaking of shady....

This is from YOUR OWN SITE!!!!

T Mobile G2 Android Smart Phone
$749.99
T-Mobile® G2™ with Google™ UNLOCKED
Will work on Mobilcity and Wind Mobile!!!

Price with any Mobilicity plan $479.99

If you just want the phone, price is $499.99

This is the #1 rated Android phone today that has a regular keyboard.

Item in stock!!!

Due to very low inventory, item can only be picked up at the store, call for more details!

100% brand new original (no clones or imatation direct from TMobile)

http://dummybuy.com/index.php?main_p...products_id=15

My goodness, how can you sleep at night selling this dinosaur for as much as a GNex? And if it is no longer for sale, what kind of retailer takes such little pride in their business to leave this up (and considering the shadiness of your store, I'll bet you are not above sticking a sucker with on of these expensive paperweights at full price)? Before you start accusing others of business mismanagement, put your own house in order.

[Big Ang]

Mobility dropped some prices on phone within 30 days of purchase to below the dealer cost that we paid.

With WIND, we do not have this issue.

For sure was a big mistake to purchase a large quantity of phones and for sure was a poor business decision to have gone with Mobil in the first place. We used to sell 30+ phones per week with WIND and that is about $10K in phone stocks per week but WIND has protection in case I did get stuck with older phones and the price went down.

Well, I'm glad you finally admit that it was your mistake in stocking such a large quantity of phones.

Even if you sold a fraction as many Mobi phones as you did Wind phones, you should have had a good idea about the marketplace you were selling in.

Looks to me like you bought way too many phones that you should have known were not going to be big sellers.

HTC Snap - nice phone, not going to be a big seller running Window Mobile 6.1. You should have know no one wants a Windows Mobile 6 when there are iPhones, Androids, or even Blackberries to choose from. This is a step up from a feature phone.

Nokia 5230 (from your website) - Also a nice phone that the average cellphone customer would have no desire in buying. Heck, I like Symbian and I never had a desire in buying one.

T-Mobile G2 (from your website) - If you are into cellphones, you should have known that the Android cellphone market changes faster than some people change underwear. Recently the HTC One-series was a really hot seller...... for a week. Then the Samsung Galaxy S3 came out. Because it's a Samsung people will care for a little longer, but in 2 months no one will care. Android phones spoil faster than milk - you got to get them out the door ASAP and make room for the next Android phone.

Mototola Spice (from your website) - Sometimes a phone looks great on paper, and you think it SHOULD sell well, but for some reason it doesn't. The Spice is a brand name low cost Android device with a Torch-like slide-out keyboard. Whatever its issues were (and I know there were many), it still *SHOULD* have sold well. It may have been a lemon like the HTC Panache, but the Panache sold well enough I think. But the Moto Spice didn't sell well. That happens in retail. When that happens you need to clear out those items before they stink up your store. You'd be lucky to get $40 for that phone on Ebay today, not the $199 you're asking for it. It's not your fault that no one bought the Spice, but it is your fault for not getting rid of it, even at a slight discount, when you could.

Blackberry Bold 9780 (from your website) - Same as the Spice, except the Bold 9780 was a decent seller I bet. But you still have some in stock. Sounds like you overestimated again. No need to give reasons for it, it happens to all retailers. You said that you had a record September because you had enough phones in stock - that's the upside. The downside is that you will eventually be stuck with some stock of a phone that USED TO BE a good seller, and now is not. Like all the above phones, this should have been sold at a discount before it spoiled. There's no way you could get the $500 you're asking for it today when a customer could buy a $150 Curve 9320 which has better specs in almost every way and is running the current OS, which the 9780 cannot.

You said "the point I am trying to make is to not just take anyone from Mobilicity word on anything as they will always say something". I agree with you - I never trust any corporation at their word. But I also like to call out BS when I see it, and I believe that you "losing thousands of dollars" because Mobilicity lowered the price on some phones to below wholesale is BS. Maybe a little of the blame is due to Mobilicity, but the bulk of the blame is on you and your poor decisions.

[janice228]

OP must work at Yaletown because they had shady practises and at times scammed customers. What mobilicity did was right.

OP was confirmed as operator/owner of Yaletown few pages back, what a useless thread.

[janice228]

Mobility dropped some prices on phone within 30 days of purchase to below the dealer cost that we paid.

With WIND, we do not have this issue.

For sure was a big mistake to purchase a large quantity of phones and for sure was a poor business decision to have gone with Mobil in the first place. We used to sell 30+ phones per week with WIND and that is about $10K in phone stocks per week but WIND has protection in case I did get stuck with older phones and the price went down.

With WIND, we had record sales in September for the fact we have the phones in stock while no others did not.

I cannot get into the fine details of my dealers for legal issues but there were a lot of promises and taking a lawyer to fight was not worth my time but the point I am trying to make is to not just take anyone from Mobilicity word on anything as they will always say something to the fact that the dealer did something they could not disclosed.

Again, I have no info on any of these dealers that got closed, I am just making a general statement.

Back to work, I think I spent too much time on this thread already, later.

Dont believe too much in this guys story, I asked my friend and he said Mobilicity and their supplier had a price protection policy regarding price drops on their end.

[xtachx]

Ok guys this thread is now just beating a dead horse. Back on topic, has anyone got anything of value to add (other than bashing dummybuy)?

[not yet]

The trouble with this kind of post is that google has lots of information.

Right after I read the post I found out that the owner worked hard to build the business up and then wanted to sell it and leave the country.

Then he cut the price almost in half.

It's non of my business what he wants to do - but Mobilicity may not have agreed with such a move and cancelled him.

I don't know - I don't care. But we don't have the whole story. Sometimes making such a post opens a can of worms.