Not true. EE informed phones4u that they would not be renewing their contract - they didn't renege on the existing one. Vodafone did the same - Vodafone products were still on sale right up to their last trading day.cwathen wrote:even if it's longer contracts with the networks then that doesn't seem to make any difference either as EE have breached their contract by pulling out of Phones 4U a year early
With EE's decision, the business instantly became insolvent because there would be no hope that their debt could be adequately serviced with 2 contracts which were in a run-off period; nor could the business hope to diversify suitably within that timeframe.
Frankly, I don't know why EE took so long to come to that decision. If the stores were effectively only carrying their products (plus an MVNO also on EE's network) then the store is only competition for their own operation.
I'm not sure why you feel sorry for them. It strikes me as pretty obvious that it's a case of misplaced corporate arrogance; the company did not work hard to keep the networks on-side and let them slip away expecting them to come back.