MobilePlanet Bought By eXpansys Group

[Jon Westfall]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://davesipaq.com/news/004766/expansys_acquires_mobileplanet' target='_blank'>http://davesipaq.com/news/004766/ex...es_mobileplanet</a><br /><br /></div><i>"The UK based eXpansys Group today announced that they have acquired MobilePlanet Inc., the leading US multi-channel reseller of mobile computing and wireless products. MobilePlanet posted revenues of USD $21 million in 2004. The Acquisition will help to secure the groups position as the premier specialist online retailer of mobile devices in the world with a forecast turnover of $200 Million for the next financial year. "</i><br /><br />Well, for 3.75 Million in cash, eXpansys has a new company to ruin... I mean run.... :roll: <br /><br />Honestly, this deal sounds like it will work out well for eXpansys. Perhaps now they'll get the whole US market thing right. If I sound sour, its because I don't really like eXpansys (After all, these are the people who swore to me multiple times they had an item in stock and ready to ship the day I ordered, and then were suprised that after a month and a half I decided to cancel my order). I've had good dealing with MobilePlanet, so I sincerely hope that this doesn't kill their service. Anyone else had good/bad dealing with either of these two? Is this a good thing? Bad Thing?

[Jonathon Watkins]

Well, so far, Expansys have been good to me. Everything has turned up when they said it would and everything has worked. Maybe things will work out better for you guys in the US now that Expansys actually have a US presence.

[SHC]

Diito
I have used expansys extensively in the UK without problem.

[Jon Westfall]

I had suspected that when "in their home country" they probably had a lot better service. I guess I hold grudges when companies lie to me...

[DaleReeck]

Expansys's biggest problem is their inventory - or lack of it. The University I work at bought me a spare cradle. Their web site said three days to ship and took a month. Expansys's problems with accurate inventory are legendary :) But they are one of the few places to go to get hard to get stuff not normally sold in the US.

[Jonathon Watkins]

I guess I hold grudges when companies lie to me...

That's quite a strong statement Jon. If someone honestly believes that a device will ship by a certain date, it's not exactly lying is it? Likewise, poor customer service does not necessarily indicate they are telling deliberate untruths........

[mpaque]

I've purchased several items from Expansys US site. Order normally shipped the day I placed the order. However, I did only order items that were listed as "in-stock."

[WolfUK]

When Expansys were still a relatively small company based in Manchester here in the UK they were really good and had great customer service people and exceptionally low prices. Over the last few years I have stopped using them when possible (sometimes they are the only place to have things in stock) because their inventory levels are somewhat innacurate, emails to their sales and support people are sometimes ignored and they tend to adjust the prices depending upon demand for a product meaning that some products' prices can change several times a day. I have to applaud them for growing so quickly and being so successful but they are one of those companies that have succeeded by throwing much of what originally made them great out of the window.

[jgrnt1]

I haven't used Expansys, but I've had nothing but good dealings with MobilePlanet.

Isn't Expansys the company which puts items up for pre-order before pricing has been set, or even before the products are officially announced?

[Jon Westfall]

I guess I hold grudges when companies lie to me...

That's quite a strong statement Jon. If someone honestly believes that a device will ship by a certain date, it's not exactly lying is it? Likewise, poor customer service does not necessarily indicate they are telling deliberate untruths........

On October 30th of last year, I placed an order for a PDA2K from Expansys. They listed 45 in stock and ready to ship, so I figured that even if the number was WAY off, they might at least have 1 or 2 lying around. My order went through, and every few days I kept checking the status. The "in-stock" amount gradually decreased from 44 - 20 over the course of the next 3 weeks, and my unit still hadn't shipped. So I emailed Expansys. About a day later someone replied to me telling me that my unit would ship very soon and that it was just logistical problems getting the unit from one warehouse to another. So I waited. 5 days later I emailed again (When the status still hadn't changed) and was told that they were out of stock and I would have to wait until the next shipment arrived. I pulled up their page for the PDA2k and it still listed 11 in stock. I emailed back and asked how they could be out of stock when their page stated they had units available. I got a terse reply stating that the numbers on the pages weren't updated "correctly". I cancelled my order, and weeks later when I visited that page on expansys it STILL said they had 11 in stock.

They knew about the problem on their page with inventory numbers. They told me my unit was shipping when in fact it wasn't in stock. How can this not be interpretted as lying?

[numb]

I had nothing but good service from Expansys in the UK...stuff delivered on time, helpful and knowlegeable people on the phone (and actually getting a real person on the phone these days is pretty rare), and they're always the first place I go if I'm looking to buy something

[Wojo]

I've had mixed experiences with Expansys. Their biggest issue is that their stock levels are very misleading. I ordered an iMate JAM from them (which they listed as instock) and requested overnight delivery. Well 3 days later the item still did not ship so I decided to make a few calls, here in the states and to the UK. Well I was a little annoyed to find out that my JAM was being shipped from Sweden to their US location and then overnighted to me. So when you view their stock levels they're not based on the your location even if you're viewing the site in your language and currency :?

When I ordered my PDA2k it was delivered as promised :)

I hope by purchasing MobilePlanet they'll have more stock available for US customers.

[Darren Behan]

Not for nothing, but I'd really rather have the news be the news. If I want people's opinion on a particular item then I'll head to the forums...Just my two cents.

db

[johncruise]

I've done business with both (actually, the latest WM device I have was from MobilePlanet). Base from my experience and observation, eXpansys always put an outrageously high prices on the stuffs they sell. MobilePlanet seems to price theirs reasonable. Actually, that's where I can find the cheapest ASUS A730W anywhere around before (online stores of course). That said, it might drive away MobilePlanet's customers if eXpansys pull the prices of MobilePlanet's to match their own.

Good thing about eXpansys however, this is almost where you can find most (if not all) unavailable-anywhere/seldom-found products.

[Duncan]

Not for nothing, but I'd really rather have the news be the news. If I want people's opinion on a particular item then I'll head to the forums...Just my two cents.

You've rather missed the raison d'etre of Pocket PC Thoughts - this is a news and opinion site and has always mixed news/rants/opinion etc. together. Long may it continue!

[Duncan]

My own experience of Expansys has been of silly errors, blatant lies, misleading text, deceptive advertising, overpricing and a complete inabilty to respond/return phone calls/e-mails. Hell would have to freeze over before I would trust them with my business again.

Sure - if they actually have something in, and you buy it, then they are as good as anyone at sending it to you (thus there will always be those who report good experiences) - god forbid you should have a problem though - and you can't trust any infomation you find on their site (whether it be stock levels or product descriptions).

[beq]

I'm just surprised that Expansys is apparently a much larger company/operation than Mobile Planet (the latter always seemed to maintain a very established and professional presence).

I did buy a PDA2k from Expansys (as well as previous original BlueSpoons, etc). The experience was adequate I thought...

[Jonathon Watkins]

My own experience of Expansys has been of silly errors, blatant lies, misleading text, deceptive advertising, overpricing and a complete inabilty to respond/return phone calls/e-mails. h-ll would have to freeze over before I would trust them with my business again.

Now Duncan, tell us what you really think and don't hold back! :lol:

When they have good prices, I have gone with them. Recently they have been been offering the best prices. *Shrug*. May the market decide.

[biglouis]

I think they are an excellent company but there again, I may be a bit biased

LouisB

[Duncan]

Hey who stole my 'e'? 8O

[Jonathon Watkins]

Hey who stole my 'e'? 8O

?Pardon?

(Nice new avatar there btw. Are you enjoying the new series?)

[Duncan]

Hey who stole my 'e'? 8O

?Pardon?

My 'e' in 'hell' disappeared.

(Nice new avatar there btw. Are you enjoying the new series?)

Absolutely - best TV series in the world y'know - and tomorrow it's the return of the Daleks...! :D

[alex_kac]

My own experience is that Expansys US did a very good job of shipping what I ordered on time and at a decent price.

[Gerard]

At the beginning of March I placed an order with Expansys.ca, the supposedly Canadian branch of the company, which turned out to be misleading because there is no Canadian office and I was in fact dealing with Expansys in the USA. No matter, same sort of thing anyway and they quoted the price in Canadian funds and included Canadian taxes and duty so it should all have been fine. Only... I never got my FlyCam CF 1.3Mp camera with flash. Their site had it listed as in stock and available for delivery within 6 days. That changed regularly from 4 days to 10 days, and we went through some phone calls and emails for a while before it eventually became clear that they were 'expecting' a shipment soon... So they had one shipped by courier from Hong Kong for me, to their office and then to me. Only it arrived broken, apparently an electrical problem caused in assembly, so I had to pay to ship it back to them.

They promised shipping on or close to April 3, a month after my initial order. That date came and went, I never got my camera, and my inquiries with LifeView Taiwan and USA eventually uncovered the fact that the camera was in fact "temporarily discontinued due to lack of chipsets available." Expected manufacturing resumption sometime this summer...

So I asked for a refund and this was wire-transferred to my account. Fine, done. My money was gone for a month, I spent an extra chunk on shipping a defective unit, and off I went to... MobilePlanet. I ordered on a Thursday afternoon, arranged that they'd hold one of the last two in stock for 3 working days, and on Friday at 1p.m. I paid $29 for a courier pouch to send them a USD postal money order for the device plus shipping. This arrived in time, half a day before the three-business-day limit for holding.

One problem - MobilePlanet apparently has monkeys working in the mailroom, as they didn't bother opening my courier envelope for another 6 days, at which point they finally entered the amount into my account. By that time they had already sold their last 2 FlyCams.

Now I had spoken very clearly with Ian, the sales rep at MobilePlanet, regarding a) my bad experience with Expansys, and b) the fact that LifeView was no longer able to make them because a supplier had stopped making the chipsets and so MobilePlanet would certainly not be getting any new shipments. He had pretended to listen, had twice assured me that the camera would be held for my money order, and that there would be no problem.

I have now spoken with several people at MobilePlanet about this. The latest has been a supervisor, who told me two days ago at 8:14a.m. that their entire system was down while being integrated with the new owner company's data and servers and that until further notice he'd not even be able to look at my order or pursue it further. He did a flashy job of trying to convince me that everything under the sun would be attempted to remedy the situation... and how would I like my refund cheque sent? Oh. But I ordered a camera. I most certainly did not lend MobilePlanet my cash, nor did I pay a courier company $29 for my health.

I am having a lot of trouble believing that this has all just happened. I am first lied to by Expansys about the item being in stock, though to be fair they did make a special effort to make it good and no doubt paid extra for the special broken camera to be shipped from a Hong Kong warehouse. Then I am lied to by MobilePlanet who assured me in no uncertain terms that if my money order arrives on time the camera will be shipped immediately. Ian, the sales rep, even took the trouble to spell out that "since it's going by FedEx 3-day service I should have it within a week of my initial telephone order!" (enthusiasm; Ian's, not mine)

So now lying company #2 has been taken over by lying company #1, and I am going to get precisely nothing for my trouble. Oh, and I've so far spent $87 in various fees for the MobilePlanet money order purchase, the wire transfer to Expansys, and return shipping to Expansys. I wonder what other clever ways I can cook up to lose even more money while in my futile search for an honest company who just want to sell me a product, not borrow my money for a while and tell me b.s. to keep me happy? Excuse me for not having a whole lot of faith in web stores at the moment.

I did purchase a Casio EG-800 from MP back in the fall of 2000, for USD$1149. That took 4 days to get here, which was nice, and probably went without a hitch because at the time I was using a credit card. Apparently instant transfer of cash gets their attention. Only... when the unit turned out to be defective they couldn't do anything for me, no replacement allowed, so they called Casio and got me to arrange it with Casio USA, which took a few weeks of me threatening anti-Casio comments online and other emailed and telephoned gymnastics before I actually got a replacement device. Fun fun fun.

I'm off to my 'official not-purchasing a FlyCam thread' on Brighthand to put this tasty bit of news into the mess there.
http://discussion.brighthand.com/showthread.php?s=&amp;postid=766890

[jimski]

Actually I have Expansys to thank for my first PPC. After being a Palm guy for many years I tried ordering a Bluetooth Memory Stick for my Sony nx(something). When I first placed the order, Expansys said the item would be available in something like 3 days. Six weeks later I was still waiting and checking every day. After repeated emails asking for status updates I finally told them to cancel the order. I ordered my iPAQ 3870 (with Bluetooth built-in) from Mobile Planet the same day and had my first PPC the next.

Two weeks later my Bluetooth Memory Stick showed up (I had already sold the Sony by then). It then took repeated calls to some Expansys branch in Chicago where I was treated like crap and then several more emails to the UK to get a return authorization and then another month or so to get the credit on my credit card. All totaled with checking status and then trying to return this $159.00 item, I think it cost me around $600 of my time and several new gray hairs.

I have never had a problem with Mobile Planet, but now may only be using this newly merged firm as a last resort.

[mr_Ray]

Bad experience with Expansys UK here. Ordered a few bits for my old 2210 and each one went in and out of stock a couple of times and I never got my order. Cancelled after about a month, ordered what I could elsewhere and reordered the one thing I had to get from them and it went through in a few days. Another experiences with them had the same result, but two single item orders went through fine. It appears that if they're waiting on stock for some items, they don't reserve what's in stock for you, so multiple item orders can leave you in stasis forever as they don't reserve stock for you.

I never order from them nowadays unless there's literally no other choice.

Going from this and what others have said in the thread, they seem to have absolutely pathetic stock handling.

[ctmagnus]

Hey who stole my 'e'? 8O

?Pardon?

My 'e' in 'h-ll' disappeared.

(Nice new avatar there btw. Are you enjoying the new series?)

Absolutely - best TV series in the world y'know - and tomorrow it's the return of the Daleks...! :D

1) afaik the forums software watches for little things like h-ll with an e instead of the - and censors it appropriately.

2) I'm enjoying the series on CBC (a few weeks behind the BBC tho) Strangely, I was never a fan of the original series :confused totally:. Of course, Billie Piper helps with the enjoyment quite a bit! ;) (However, I tend to get "all of the day, all of the night, you do the things that make me feel so right" looping in my head the whole episode)

[ctmagnus]

Whoops, almost forgot the on-topic comment :oops:

I hope this will assist with making ordering from MobilePlanet easier for Canadians. As it is (was) Canadians had to call a non-800 number, state the item they want to order and give their shipping and CC# to a live rep, which of course means they're open to Canadians only six hours a day, five days a week. However, the shipping label for the item I ordered was quite humorous, there were digits in either my name or the city name of the ship to field :)

[Gerard]

I hope this will assist with making ordering from MobilePlanet easier for Canadians. As it is (was) Canadians had to call a non-800 number, state the item they want to order and give their shipping and CC# to a live rep, which of course means they're open to Canadians only six hours a day, five days a week.

I am sorry CT, but I'm not following. MobilePlanet is in California. Zero time zone difference between BC and California. For Canadians calling from provinces further East there'd be the need to call earlier in the day of course, but it'd still be an 8-hour day... wouldn't it? When I've called their non-800 number reserved just for Canadians they've always been in, and I've called as late as 4:30, and have had a call from them as early as 8:14 in the morning, so there seems not to be a 6-hour day in effect.

As to the digits in your name, are you sure there aren't any? ;)

[ctmagnus]

I am sorry CT, but I'm not following. MobilePlanet is in California. Zero time zone difference between BC and California.

Yeah, but I'm in south-eastern BC which is an hour off from the rest of the province.

For Canadians calling from provinces further East there'd be the need to call earlier in the day of course, but it'd still be an 8-hour day... wouldn't it? When I've called their non-800 number reserved just for Canadians they've always been in, and I've called as late as 4:30, and have had a call from them as early as 8:14 in the morning, so there seems not to be a 6-hour day in effect.

the beauty of the Internet is the ability to order something online any time of the day. Having to place a call to the company you want to order from during their regular business hours (which almost definitely are not my regular productive-type hours as I'm a bit of a night owl - looking at my e-shopping folder in Outlook, most of my order confirmations are after 4 p.m.) is a bit of a step backwards in my opinion. And for any night owl that is to the extent that I am, the term "regular business hours" means there are six or fewer hours in a day you can visit a nine-to-five business.

I'm lazy and I'm proud of it! :mrgreen:

As to the digits in your name, are you sure there aren't any? ;)

There are no digits in my name. I know that as a fact as I'm in the middle of a passport application right now and I've seen it many times in the last few days. ;) And they did not use the 1337 5p3@k version either.

[plschwartz]

Well reading this thread sort of reinforced my intuition about this company. I want a Loox 720 and they are the only retailer in US.
So I went to their system and looked at the inventory.
The Us inventory # is the same (13) for US Mex. UK and certain european countries. Other Europe had a different #. So the stories about needing to wait for international shipments seems sadly correct.
Later for these guys and thanks to all.

[Jon Westfall]

Not for nothing, but I'd really rather have the news be the news. If I want people's opinion on a particular item then I'll head to the forums...Just my two cents.

You've rather missed the raison d'etre of Pocket PC Thoughts - this is a news and opinion site and has always mixed news/rants/opinion etc. together. Long may it continue!

Darren: I'm sorry that you would rather just have news be the news here. Most of us gave up purely news sites for this site because of the flavor it gave to stories. As Duncan pointed out, people come here not for "Daily News" but for "Daily News, Views, Rants &amp; Raves".

In this case, I believe my rant was warrented as its uncovered a lot of mixed reactions about both MobilePlanet &amp; Expansys. If it causes people at Expansys to change or otherwise stop lying, then this rant was a good thing (I doubt that would happen, but who knows). If it causes people here to not put faith in stock levels on expansys, that's a good thing too. (More likely).

And this rant wasn't solely on my own volition... I vented about this in an email to the other editors and it was suggested I post it :)

[Darren Behan]

I am not looking for the 'news to be the news'. I was only trying to say that I don't always feel that the front page is the best place for the rant side of PPCT particularly when the rant itself is worded pretty strongly. I'd personally prefer a little more objectivity in the original 'reporting' of the News then let the Views, Rants and Raves go where they do from there.

I wasn't commenting on the legitimacy of your opinion, just the location. Either way it's really no big deal and I wasn't trying to make it one - which is why I only charged two cents for the opinion in the first place. I'm still waiting for a check for that by BTW...

db