Word of warning about Expansys...
 

In the past I've always enjoyed using Expansys, and spent any 1000's with them.

Recently things have turned for the worse, they seem to be growing too fast in the US (they recently purchased Mobileplanet).

My previous order was the final one for me, they have become totally useless.

It took them 8 weeks to send the product, one item was out of stock when we placed the order so the whole thing was put on hold, when the first item came back into stock the other three were now out of stock. I called and complained so they promised a partial shipment; 3 weeks later still nothing. I called again, and some yahoo actually said OH, so you want the partial order SHIPPED?

Finally got part one of the order. Part 2 was a big problem, as they sent the wrong thing. It took me 35 minutes on the phone to convince them that it really was wrong, they tried everything they could to shut me up, but after I faxed them the manufacturers information on the product they agreed to let me RMA it. We are now 4 weeks down the line and I still don't have a refund, I called them today and was promised they would work on it, IF their email was working again :mad:

Shame to see such a good vendor go downhill this fast :(

yes
 

Yes, having a bad order with a vendor can suck, and can make one react as you have stated - don't want to do business with them again.

But, I would suggest, let's not throw out the baby with the bath water just yet. I just had a nice experience with Expansys again, have used them and MobilePlanet for about five years now, maybe a bit less.

Having done many M&A in my past, I know exactly what they are going through, systems wise, personnel, logistic, inventory, etc. I actually called the MP number the other day since it was on speed dial, and they answered MP, not Expansys.

If I was going to stop doing business with a vendor, whenever I had a bad experience or interaction with a call center/CSR, I would have stopped flying UA years and years ago. As well, just yesterday, I got so much WRONG information from Fedex, just WRONG and INACCURATE - I even left the window open gently for the CSR to say, "yes, that is what my protocol is but there MIGHT be some other way if I send you to a supervisor or differant dept." But nope, she just held strong.

What did it take - another phone call.

Why not wait a few weeks, month and then try a new small order? My guess, ScottC, is that you were ordering the latest, greatest whizz bang new mobile phone with EDGE and live video and BT, 802.11a/b/g/n, and it probably wasn't even released from the manufacturer yet, and they hadn't built it enough into their system or trained their people?

:-)

You'd think so :)

But it was a case for my wife's SDA and a headset adapter for a Dell Axim. I needed a case for the SP3i, and they sent one for the SP3. The sales guy kept going on and on that these 2 are the same yadda yadda yadda.

Of course I'll order again in the future, perhaps after 6 or 7 months but my problem was that they messed up over and over again. I run into bad vendors every single day, they mess up once and fix it. Expansys messed up, and then messed up again and repeated this process 5 times. I like the fact that they are growing, but they need to understand that you can never grow if you piss off your existing customers...

yeah,
 

personally, I think I liked it better when there was MP AND expansys. I have the feeling that we are going to lose out a bit on this merger, compared to "we can make pricing more competitive with lower overhead across the enterprise"

Have you checked out their JAM prices, I cannot imagine you bought the sp3 there.

I didn't buy it from them, I almost never buy devices from them :)

I bought my Jam in Europe...

My phones come from Indian stores here, I only use Expansys for hard to find stuff and accessories.

An M&A situation is no excuse for poor customer service, lousy supply chain management, and shipping the wrong parts/not doing split shipment. If they can't get that stuff right through a M&A they don't deserve to be in business. It's called proper planning and should be done pre-merger not post.

Against better judgement I placed another order with them. Website stated "in stock, ships today". Now a week later it still hasn't arrived, they have no idea where the product is, when it will arrive and when I'll get it.

Sad to say they are still totally useless :(

Same thing happened to me. Infact I called to verify and was told that it will get shipped the sameday. Never went out and 3 days later I cancelled it.

Yeah, I gave them till Monday. Problem is of course, a project is just stuck waiting on this one stupid thing from them.

Thats a shame. Ive gotten several things from them with no trouble but I know people with similar stories to what Im hearing in this thread. Ive been getting stuff recently from ecost and been delighted at the service and prices.

Thanks for the heads-up. I haven't used Expansys much since got the SE P800 that I got through them but I was about to use them again and appreciate the insight again.

Any alternative provider that is like the Expansys of "old"?

For phones I have read good things on HowardForums about Mobilebee but I havent used them myself. For Bluetooth headsets, etc. I have bought several times (maybe 4) from www.blueheadsets.com and gotten stuff very fast. Just bought a Plantronics 640 for my wife and a Motorola Bluetooth speakerset for myself from them last week. Ordered in the evening, it shipped the next day and I had it like 2 days later.

Oh Expansys are now HORRID. Some things I can't find elsewhere I simply leave on order and take on faith that someday they'll show up. The record to date is 6 months! At least they don't charge the card until they're ready to ship. But yeh, they're about worthless now. They wouldn't know a ship date if it bit 'em in the .... IMO the problem is that they don't keep stocks anymore and order everything in via the cheapest method possible. Thus, you get it when you get it.

Yeah, it seems like EVERYTHING now comes out of the UK. Their order tracking system it horrendous. I can check a product, refresh the browser 10 times and get 10 different stock levels.

A real shame, because for the longest time they were amongst the best of the best.