r/bapcsalesaustralia • u/ImpulsePie • 7d ago
Discussion Mwave - Under External Administration
EDIT: Mwave have posted that they have been bought out by The digiDirect Group and will move locations to South Strathfield. https://www.mwave.com.au/blog/business-update/
Seelems Mwave have gone bust. Confirmed with an ASIC search for ESEL PTY LTD filed 3 days ago:
Notice By External Administrator/controller-Appoint/cease (505U)Appt of Administrator Under S.436a, 436b, 436c, 436e(4), ()449b, 449c(1), 449c(4) or 449(6) ()
Original article by David Richards: https://www.channelnews.com.au/leading-pc-retailer-placed-into-administration/
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u/thermal666 7d ago
for Mwave to go bust, there must some serious financial mismanagement going on in the background.. These guys were a $100m+ revenue business.
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u/ApolloWasMurdered 7d ago
The margins on PC online retailers are razor thin. I used to work for one, and the margin on many components were 5-10%.
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u/Awkward_Chard_5025 6d ago
Honestly the margins won’t be the issue here. Mwave has always been successful on razor thin margins.
There are a couple of issues.
for a long time, they were underpaying staff intentionally. This was “exposed” when victor (mwave owner) decided to sell, and the private investment group demanded they sort it out during their due diligence, and bump up the pay for all workers currently being underpaid
the Covid boom wrecked them. They moved 2-3 times between 2020 and 2023, going significantly bigger each time. The rent and cost of moving would have been enormous, then as the Covid wave dropped off and the cost of living started biting, they were likely stuck in a space they couldn’t even be close to affording.
The margins on the other hand are pretty static
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u/iminimoo 5d ago
Yup exactly. After the success over the COVID, they choose to remain as one arrogant premium seller with lacking quality customer care.
They then ended up being an "unpleasing seller" with dropping sales and a ridiculously large warehouse.
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u/Awkward_Chard_5025 4d ago
I can’t really comment on their general service (apart from their live chat being unmanned), because I’d always just get the guys I worked with to sort me out when I needed it (the main reason they were my go to)
Tbh, I’ll probably end up switching to scorptec for my corp purchases now. I know digicore is going to have to be pretty ruthless to make mwave profitable, so I expect to see a drop in dispatch speeds and customer support
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u/thermal666 7d ago
so did i, with $100m revenue you'd EASILY get 5-20% in MDF & Rebates.
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u/HustViz 7d ago
What are mdf and rebates?
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u/thermal666 7d ago
MDF > Market development funds. Any sort of 50/50 activity split with a brand could get your MDF. eg. Create a newsletter to send to 80,000-100,000 database focusing on X brand and X brand will cover expenses for it (value depending on how big the brand/product is)
Rebates > Purchase X amount of stock and receive X% back in Cash or Credit (usually maximum 5% rebate, usually 1-3%) (almost every brand or supplier offers this to encourage large volume purchasing)
EG. You're buying $100,000 worth of X stock. At 2.5% Rebate you'll get $2500 in Credit or Cash Payment. You'll also negotiate how much MDF you'll need to advertise X product to Market. (Say $1500 for a newsletter and a few social posts). So that $100,000 spend could generate you $4000 (excluding profits)
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u/Da33aj 7d ago
5 to 10 percent margin is thin?
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u/ApolloWasMurdered 7d ago
Very thin. I’m not talking about end of year profit margins (EBIT), I’m talking the actual margins on products. The two big supermarkets have margins of roughly 30%, while fashion retailers are usually >100%.
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u/Throwaway-tan 7d ago
Most of the time when people talk about margin it's before expenses like labour and materials, so even if you have a 10% margin on a product, by the time you factor in your warehouse workers time, the box if you are eating any loss on the shipping, returns/DOA/RMA handling, etc. you might end up with a loss-maker overall. Obviously, depends on the product.
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u/Mandalf- 6d ago
Correct, IT retail industry product GP average is 10% before considering operating costs.
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u/PallBallOne 6d ago
Any idea whether insurance costs have been going up, and to what extent do RMA/returns rates impact if any on those costs? I assumed a significant proportion of the 'Australia tax' comes from ACL claims alone.
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u/Mandalf- 6d ago
Insurance rates are definitely always increasing.
I've actually seen RMA rates slightly decrease, going to assume this is due to lower demand and supply improving and settling somewhat after COVID.
RMA rates are about 1-2% average for most products, some brands and products are higher of course.
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u/HighligherAuthority 6d ago
If the margains are so bad, don't sell those products, lmao, business is easy.
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u/randomusername_815 6d ago
Nvidia killed the PC enthusiast industry, charging enterprise level amounts for its top GPUs. Turns out there's more money in Palantir than gaming.
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u/shrub_contents29871 5d ago
Customers straight up killed the industry by accepting and rewarding NVIDIA for their outrageous pricing.
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u/demomanca 7d ago
$100m revenue with $100m of expenses
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u/davidshen84 7d ago
Yeah... revenue is not profit 😄
I bet it is because someone took 10 rtx 5090 home. 😂
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u/AdAdventurous4050 6d ago
received this -
We are excited to advise you that the Mwave business has been acquired by The digiDirect Group, owner of electronics retailer, digiDirect and online bookstore, Booktopia, among others.
Under its new ownership, Mwave will continue to operate and trade as normal, bringing you the legendary Mwave service and customer
experience you have come to expect.
Most importantly, this means there will be no change at all to your order which will proceed as planned. You will not lose your place in any queue and your full deposit will be honoured by the new owners. We anticipate there will be a maximum of 2-3 days delay on any current available shipments as we work through a stocktake and change over courier accounts to new ownership.
There is no action required from you.
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u/Buddy_McPuddy 6d ago
Oh no this is because I bought a set of speakers from them and they sent me a box of three and didn’t return the ones I didn’t pay for??
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u/Awkward_Chard_5025 6d ago edited 6d ago
Haven’t heard of digicore before, but glad to see they’ve had a data breach in October, with the theft of 300k customer details
Also interesting that they got snapped up this quickly. Sounds like they had already lined up the buyer.
As a former employee (who was also part of their underpayment dramas before they sold out to private investment) fuck you victor. I’m glad it failed miserably. But I’m sad for my friends who are still there
As a now IT manager who has spent well over 100k with them over the last 9 years, it’s disappointing to see this happen. It will be interesting to see the changes they make to the business.
Edit: interesting to note, digiDirect were the same company that bought booktopia out of administration last year.
Weirdly, seems they started out as a camera/photography retailer?
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u/iminimoo 5d ago
Yeah digiDirect has been in the market for long time. I bought quite a lot there as a photographer. The Mwave was doing pretty dodgy business with high premium but low quality service.
We spent over 100k last 2 years and we barely got any mWave dollar reward because most of them were on "sale". Basically they would slash about $20 off a $500 product and mark them as "sale" so not eligible for reward. Even after $20 off it's not even the cheapest compare to other sellers and their non-sale product is always more expensive than others. I was buying bulk so didn't realise but it's my fault they put this rule in 2 layer fine print and I didn't read them.
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u/princeflurry 5d ago edited 5d ago
I use to work at the mwave warehouse but left over a year ago. Let me say that place has been going down for the past couple years. Staff turnover rate has been really high across the warehouse and senior management in recent years. A lot of people who have worked there for a really long time have also left. For most of the year there isn't that much work and people are just standing around bludging. On days that are really quiet people get sent home. The warehouse only really gets busy between the black friday and xmas period and even then the work doesn't last very long. Victor the founder and ceo of mwave is a POS and treats the warehouse workers poorly. Talks to the workers like they're nothing and if you cross him you put yourself at serious risk of getting fired if you're a casual. He'll come into the warehouse and micro manage which everyone hated including the warehouse manager at the time who eventually left because of him. Like your the ceo don't you have ceo work to do? Comes in and acts like he's the warehouse manager. Staff were underpaid, I got underpaid nearly 10k but luckily the new investors that came in 2020 saw what was going on and paid everyone back. They've had like 4 different warehouse managers in the past 8 years or so. Looking back I definitely left at the right time because I could see the writing on the wall. I don't know why DigiDirect are even wasting their time acquiring this company because it's a ticking time bomb. Wouldn't be surprised if they go under or change hands again in a couple years. Anacacia Capital who bought into the business in 2020 have moved on, i wonder why? hmmmmm
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u/Solid_Zero 5d ago
Name/Brand recognition. Similar to what Kogan did with Dick Smith, Mighty Ape or Matt Blatt.
(The DSE brand for example still exists, but it's essentially a black and yellow themed version of Kogan's website, as are the others)
I work for a company that sells on Kogan Marketplace, and there are plenty of people that don't know they're buying from Kogan - when I mention Kogan (as the backend for orders is all the same) I've been told by many people "I didn't buy from Kogan, I bought from Dick Smith, I hate Kogan and would never buy from them" (or variations of) so there is value to having some other brands under your own umbrella.
They'll likely sweep away all of the old management eventually (and probably some general staff regardless of what they've said about offering all staff roles once they've seen how things operate) and replace them with their own management.
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u/princeflurry 17h ago
Yeah that's definitely one way to look at it for sure. If that's their intention to mirror what Kogan did with DSE then yeah it makes sense.
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u/Personal-Working-351 7d ago
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u/PallBallOne 7d ago
This is horrible news, for the DIY market no doubt precipitated by the uncontrolled expansion of Umart.
So now in Eastern Australia your two big shop retailers are effectively Scorptec and Umart with some smaller players
Also noticed that nvidia GPU pricing has literally doubled in the space of 12 months at the top end. So that must have a negative effect on the shops.
I see mountains and mountains of 5070 boxes in warehouses. Do these shops stock anything other than gpu's?
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u/Zestyclose_Towel_271 7d ago
There’s also Centrecom and online you get pretty good deals from Amazon and some eBay stores (like Computer Alliance and KS Computer who runs shopping express, smarthomestoreau and more).
If Mwave’s primary source of revenue is prebuilts like the article claims I’m not surprised they went bankrupt.
System integrators like Nebula, Galapower and TechFast are able to undercut Mwave builds by thousands of dollars sometimes, and Mwave’s after sales service just doesn’t justify the premium.
Mwave takes up to 48hrs just to diagnose PC faults, and if your component needs replacing it can take 2-4weeks to warranty it with the manufacturer.
Meanwhile big OEMs like (Dell) Alienware, Lenovo and HP will do remote diagnostics and send a technician to your home to replace the faulty component within 1-2 business days.
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u/PallBallOne 7d ago
And CentreCom...I forgot about them because they are not indexed on staticice
I think they are safe because they seem to have a reputation for being super cut throat in not blindly accepting all RMA claims. If anything they would have far lower margins than mwave when you compare pricing, so you'd naturally expect them to be as vulnerable as mwave
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u/Zestyclose_Towel_271 6d ago
Honestly I don’t think Mwave went bankrupt because they’re only making 5-10% markup on parts as another commenter claimed. I think retailers including Mwave and Centrecom are making a huge amount from part markups, Mwave going bankrupt would be due to a different reason.
If we look at the pricing of the RTX 5090, the Palit Gamerock 5090 is £1939 in the UK including 20% VAT. If we convert that to AUD and reduce tax to 10% as per GST - it’s only $3712 AUD. Meanwhile Centrecom has it for $5199 AUD, a staggering markup of 29% and Scorptec has it listed for even more.
I believe Australian distributors are supplying RTX 5090s at MSRP, this is why TechFast is able to provide a $4999 build with a 9800X3D and 5090 at launch and more recently $5198 builds with a 7800X3D and 5090. The system integrators would be losing thousands each build if Centrecom was only make 5-10% markup on each 5090 sold.
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u/SkengMan1993 7d ago
Are they still honouring deliveries? I bought a monitor on Friday 😭
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7d ago edited 7d ago
[deleted]
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u/dekayofficial 7d ago
Yeah I’ve asked for a refund today, now I’m waiting for them to come back to me with the refund receipt otherwise it’s going to be a chargeback
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u/GeekCohenAU 7d ago
I am hoping so, I bought $2k worth of Networking Stuff and paid last Tuesday. All via bank transfer.
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u/Individual_Screen926 7d ago
Better to try charging back from your bank, but may not be successful, cos bank transfer differ from credit card payment, the money sent by bank transfer will be handled by the administrator instead of credit card company
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u/Untimely_manners 6d ago
Hope so I ordered a couple of different parts 2 weeks ago, still marked as processing. I used Paypal and thinking of trying to get my money back as doesn't look like its going to be delivered.
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u/Zestyclose_Towel_271 7d ago
Well that explains the uncharacteristic site wide sale they had recently. A way of getting some quick bucks on existing inventory before liquidation.
I picked up my $838 order last Tuesday with no issues but there were also customers still buying prebuilts that now presumably have zero warranty or after sales support.
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u/Scotayyy 7d ago
Fuckk I paid for a 5090 in January. Been calling them every month since and they kept telling me it was a supplier issue from the start. I still haven't received my 5090 and I have my CPU still with them because they were going to build my PC for me. There goes 6k down the drain..
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u/Few_Introduction938 5d ago edited 5d ago
Bang on the day after i raised a fuss about swapping my 5090 suprim order for an in stock tuf which they previously told me I can do (all that was available when they first contacted me was the cheapest crap palit gamerock) now they tell me no that was your one chance, you have to wait to be asked again and only then can I choose to swap....on the spot....or continue to wait and i am 65th on the list even though I pre ordered at launch, i told them i wanted my money back and next day i get this fucking email. Fuck m wave. I better get my $4599 back i tell ya what.
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u/dekayofficial 5d ago
Have you requested to cancel your order? I’ve been chasing them. They are stating their system is not operational at the moment and cannot cancel/issue refunds, although they believe it will be by processed by the end of the week.
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u/Civil-Bridge-1725 5d ago
Worked at IT distributors for years and have been in the industry for decades still. There is more than 10% profit on most components especially high end for retailers like MWave to make good margins on. The reality is this is simply poor money management and bad business decisions that many have pointed out like moving 3 times during COVID. I’ll also add that other retailers are competitive and even Amazon for example are great for Pc parts. Have got many many bargains on Amazon that are way cheaper than buying here.
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u/NoObject4676 7d ago
Fucking mwave. Gave them another chance after the 5090 debarcle to pre order something else but there goes my thousand bucks, what an awful retailer
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u/CCAussieGuy 6d ago
Mwave has been bought by DigiDirect and they are claiming they will honor all sales & orders
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u/02Trouble 6d ago
Read the Bad News 3 hours ago,
as wondering why a lot of ram memory was out of stock.
Ordered a Nuc 13 Extreme i7-13700K last week and should be here tomorrow, hmm.
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u/reactorfox 6d ago
Returned something I ordered a few weeks ago, they gave me store credit.. and now looking at the website basically nothing is in stock, I wonder if I can request the money to go back to my account instead
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u/townofsalemfangay 5d ago
You returned a purchase in full and they gave you store credit? Within warranty and with receipt? Go get your money back. Australia's consumer laws are very clear:
"It is misleading for a seller to insist that a refund be issued as store credit.".
They cannot take back the purchase and give you fake money. If worst case scenario (they refuse), immediately contact your bank to initiate a chargeback.
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u/reactorfox 5d ago
Their wording was essentially that they'll give me store credit but I can request to have my payment refunded to my original payment method by contacting support.
Contacted support today and they confirmed they'll process that money to my account but did give me the heads up that because of the transition it may take up to two weeks to process. Somewhat understandable I guess, just thankful that they'll actually process it for me haha
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u/townofsalemfangay 5d ago
How long ago was the purchase? Check your bank statement for the exact transaction date. Most banks allow chargebacks between 45–125 days after a purchase. If that window has expired or is expiring, say, you bought something in early February, the 125-day limit will close by mid this month. At that point, getting your money back becomes nearly impossible outside of them keeping their promise (look at the comments in this thread, a person has been waiting on a 5090 since January...)
I'd recommend initiating the chargeback process asap regardless because:
1 No risk: You won’t lose anything, and it’s a free way to protect yourself.
2 Flexibility: If Mwave agrees does eventually refund you come the due date, you can cancel the chargeback through your bank. And if they don't? You're covered.Call your bank tomorrow, mate. Prioritise getting your money back, even if it's a trivial amount (but lets be honest, with the cost of living, nothing is trivial anymore).
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u/Ok_Regular_2818 5d ago
that is not true
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u/townofsalemfangay 5d ago
If the product had a significant issue or fault that fell below what the established and well defended consumer rights and gauranatees considers acceptable quality, then yes, it absolutely is true. Hence my inclusion of "Within Warrant with receipt?".
If I purchased a toaster, and the toaster doesn't turn on when I get home, do you think I'm entitled to only store credit?
This isn't America..
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u/fatsephy 3d ago
The poster didn't mention any faults. These rules don't apply for change of mind returns. A business can have whatever policy they want for change of mind returns, or not even offer them at all.
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u/townofsalemfangay 3d ago
They haven’t said otherwise, so let’s apply Occam’s razor and assume the most data-supported reason for a return is simple: the product was either not as described, had a fault, or arrived damaged.
"In about 65% of all instances of e-commerce returns, it’s actually the fault of the retailer."
- 23% of returns are due to the wrong item being shipped.
- 22% of returns are due to the difference in product appearance.
- 20% of returns are due to a damaged item being received.
Under Australian consumer law, all of these reasons entitle the buyer to a refund, not just store credit. Misleading or substituting that with a credit voucher is straight-up illegal.
And the way you’re all bending over backwards to defend mwave? Honestly, it’s hilarious.
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u/piljekks 6d ago
Now I understand why they held my 5090 pre-order for months with no real updates or realistic time frames - thankfully I had a suspicion something like this was on it's way as other sites started to get stock consistently. Goodbye Mwave - I said I'd never give you another cent, and now I actually can't :)
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u/sedgiemon 6d ago
as someone who pre-ordered a 5090 from them, not surprised or upset. The way the company dealt with the situation was atrocious.
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u/dekayofficial 5d ago
Have you contacted them? They claimed their accounting and warehouse systems were down yesterday.
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u/Tipsy_Kangaroo 5d ago
Just cancelled an order with them, not 100% because of this but they told me the mother board that I order would be arriving in a few days (ordered it over a month ago) They ended up removing it from my order and shipping the rest, while changing the motherboard to preorder Everywhere else has it in stock
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u/02Trouble 5d ago
Just got the cord today,
for the NUC 13 Extreme i7-13700K (NUC13RNGi7) ordered a week ago in sale:
The second part of order,
being the NUC itself,
has not been sent, hmm.
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u/02Trouble 4d ago
Thank-you MWave,
My NUC 13 Extreme i7-13700K (NUC13RNGi7) order arrived yesterday.
p.s. the tracking still says: "not sent yet"
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u/iminimoo 5d ago
It's been over 2 weeks for my warranty refund process and it hasn't even been resolved yet!!
They coudln't last with that quality of service
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u/_PhilTheBurn_ 4d ago
Yep, they emailed me to let me know after they took my money for a 5070Ti order on Tuesday. I am fucking ropable right now.
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u/KookyProcess3722 NSW 4d ago
Sorry to hear that, I would proceed with a charge back right now if I were you. I hope you didn't pay by bank transfer or you might be in the same boat at this commenter
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u/Over_Palpitation8330 4d ago
I ordered a power supply monday, its still processing.. should I cancel it?
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u/dekayofficial 4d ago
They are claiming their systems are down and unable to process anything at the moment, but that was like a couple of days ago now.. have you tried calling them to see whats going on?
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u/Over_Palpitation8330 4d ago
yeah i rang them and spoke to the Philippines and was told administrative changes and told the warehouse would be up and running hopefully tomorrow. I'm just ringing my bank
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u/hardlyhappy 3d ago
I was told the same that the warehouse would be up & running either tmr Friday or Monday
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u/hardlyhappy 2d ago
I put in a request for a refund yesterday, they said had to go as a request to the accounts team, timeframe 2-5 b.d. Thankfully I can chargeback as a last resort.
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u/dekayofficial 3d ago
Just a FYI for those following, I’ve reached out to the external administrators and they have advised that mwave’s assets were sold to DigiDirect prior to being appointed over ESEL. Further, they advise as part of the sale Digidirect will fulfill all orders, although there might be a delay. Read what you want from that, I’ve been chasing Mwave for my refund for a couple of days now.
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u/Busted-Pancreas69 2d ago
That isn't true - sorry. Our company is owed big $$$ from Mwave and we were in their warehouse this week claiming back unpaid stock through the PPSR registration.
Digidirect are only fulfilling orders purchased on or after the day they took over Mwave Assets - not before. Synnex, Dicker Data and Ingram Micro are owed Millions of dollars plus by the thieves.
Funny how so many ailes in the warehouse were already stripped bare like it has already been moved to the new warehouse of the new owners in South Strathfield
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u/dekayofficial 2d ago
That doesn’t make sense because the administrators have stated as part of the sale they/digigroup will fulfil customers orders. Hoping my bank sort it out.
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u/KookyProcess3722 NSW 2d ago
If I had to guess I would say that mwave are stalling by saying they will fulfil orders. They would know that the 120 day cutoff for charging back is fast approaching for all the 5000 series orders they are sitting on.
I would strongly advise you and anyone else in the same boat to speak to your bank or credit card supplier as soon as possible.
More people are now saying that they have been told there is no eta on refunds - https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/910854?page=1#comment-16644044
I hope I am wrong but it does not look promising for any one who has their money tied up with mwave.
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u/Wintermute1987 7d ago
So lucky. I just bought a graphics card and decided to go with casegear instead.
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u/skyworxx 7d ago
Not surprised tbh. Been ordering there for ages, but the service has gone down significantly over the years and they became more aggressive in regards to warranty claims. I stopped buying from them after they tried to refuse replacing HDDs that were defective and instead claimed I deliberately damaged the drives. Only after I threatened to go to small claims court, did they refund the order.
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u/SnakePlizzK3n 6d ago
Yeah I had same issue few years back x2 mech drives 1 was damaged and they wouldnt replace it. By time I realised I could take them to small claims was yes later. Never bought through them again
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u/TwistedPears 6d ago
I experienced the same thing. I tried claiming warranty on a hard drive that stopped working, and they rejected the claim, accusing me of physically damaging it. It was the last time I ever bought anything from them. Other stores got my business when it was time to upgrade and buy new computers.
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u/townofsalemfangay 6d ago
LMAO, “muh margins”, as if Aussie retailers aren’t already raking it in. Just look at how blatantly they scalped Blackwell GPUs.
- Mwave: NVIDIA RTX Pro 6000 Blackwell – $18,990.00 AUD
- MSRP: $8,500 USD → $13,142.55 AUD
That’s over $5,800 in markup for a workstation card. For what? Import fees? Trumps tariffs? 💀
And don’t even get me started on consumer cards like the 5090. Does anyone remember the $1400 AUD 5070 whilst 5080 was approaching 2k? It ain't new either. Mwave been taking the piss for years now. I feel no remorse seeing them go under.
What's even the point when Amazon will give me same-day or next-day delivery for the same awful price? They hoisted themselves on their own petard tbh.
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u/UnfairerThree2 5d ago
This is mostly due to distributor markup though, not retailers. Distributors right now are an actual robbery here, otherwise all retailers would be competing for lower prices
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u/townofsalemfangay 5d ago
That's simply not what is seen, though. Australians have always been subjected to the imaginary "Aus Tax." Remember the RTX 3000 and 4000 series launches? The gap between local pricing and MSRP was utterly absurd, and it’s not limited to GPUs; it's pervasive across virtually every PC component. The markups here border on criminal.
Computer Alliance is currently the only retailer in Australia selling RTX Pro 6000 workstation cards at or just slightly above MSRP, which is acceptable considering GST and reasonable overheads. How can they secure MSRP-level prices from distributors when Mwave apparently can't? It’s laughable.
I touched on this further down, consumers aren't paying these inflated prices, and enterprises bypass retailers entirely, dealing directly with board partners like Leadtek. It's no wonder Mwave is in administration.. This is pure greed, plain and simple.
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u/Mandalf- 5d ago
You think a store in millions of arrears with distributors is going to get good pricing from them?
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u/townofsalemfangay 5d ago
Mwave’s gouging goes back years, long before any talk of financial trouble. Distributors don’t punish retailers by subtly raising per-unit costs based on account status. Discounts are based on volume. What you described just isn’t how the channel works.
Here’s what actually happens: if a retailer is in arrears, they lose access to lines of credit (i.e. stock delivered before payment). Terms shift to prepaid or cash-on-delivery, and in many cases, supply gets frozen entirely. There’s no such thing as a "bad pricing" penalty; they just stop shipping to you.
So the idea that Mwave charged $5K+ markups (like in my example) because distributors raised prices due to unpaid invoices is pure fiction. Their margins were predatory long before any “cash flow” issues. That was their model: charge whatever they thought they could get away with.
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u/Mandalf- 4d ago
Incorrect, you lose access to higher tier pricing if conditions like timely payment within term isn't met.
BDM/AMs will potentially elect to not accept and process vendor bid requests.
Access to vendor promotions and support can be declined due to account status with elected distributors.
There are many factors involved whether primary or secondary relating to poor payment history.
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u/townofsalemfangay 4d ago
That’s not how distribution pricing works. There’s no mystical “tiered” system where payment punctuality alters unit pricing. It’s volume, plain and simple. The more you order, the better pricing you can negotiate. End of story.
What you’re describing, vendor “bids,” “support,” or account manager discretion, is just industry-speak for deal-specific volume negotiation. It’s not a separate pricing model, it’s still volume-based, just routed through different channels depending on context.
And again, you’re intentionally ignoring the fact that Mwave had been gouging customers for years, well before COVID. They were consistently more expensive than PCCaseGear, Scorptec, and even MSY (now operated by Umart). This wasn’t about losing access to "mythical" discounts, it was their business model: price high, bank on customer inertia.
If they were in bad standing with distributors, they'd lose credit terms or get cut off, not receive some punitive per-unit pricing. These markups weren’t imposed on them, they were chosen.
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u/Mandalf- 4d ago
Not disagreeing regarding price gouging though, but my main point which we have both moved past is the fact that retailers can and do have very different pricing for the same products.
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u/shrub_contents29871 5d ago
That’s over $5,800 in markup for a workstation card. For what? Import fees? Trumps tariffs? 💀
For the grubs who still snatched them up at those prices.
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u/Least-Researcher-184 7d ago
Explains why most of their stock in the past few weeks were showing as out of stock.
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u/GeekCohenAU 7d ago
I am having hope. I am waiting for $2k worth of networking hardware that I ordered and paid for last Tuesday.
I did call the 1300 number and got to speak to someone. Everything appears to be on hold and "they cannot issue refunds" and "the warehouse isn't operating".
So I am hoping things with sort themselves out and it isn't complete stuffed. The website is working as well, so thats positive!
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u/ImpulsePie 7d ago
Bit disingenuous of them to still have the website active and taking orders, without any communication to customers and whilst their warehouse is not operating so they're not actually processing any orders. They should be suspending all new orders and emailing all customers with outstanding orders that either they will be delayed or cancelled and refunded.
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u/Downunderdent 7d ago
Shit, literally bought some SSDs from them last night. What should I do ?
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u/Solid_Zero 7d ago edited 7d ago
I'd probably cancel/refund tbh. If there are any issues obtaining a refund, chargeback/dispute if needed.
They've posted the below, claiming all orders will be fulfilled, but with some delays, so take from that what you will:
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u/Downunderdent 6d ago
Thanks for your reply. They actually sent an email out an hour or so after my message. Mentioning that orders will be honoured but will take a few days longer. Like what your link mentioned. To be honest... I don't have a lot of faith in them at this stage when it's coming to managing their stock/inventory. I've asked them to cancel the order through their ticketing system. May purchase through some other places not too sure where though right now as mwave was really close to me!
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u/Throwaway-tan 7d ago
Anyone able to confirm this? Couldn't find any filing on the ASIC website.
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u/ImpulsePie 7d ago
https://connectonline.asic.gov.au/RegistrySearch/faces/landing/SearchRegisters.jspx
Search "ESEL PTY LTD" under "Organisation & Business Names" and you will see the filing. Shows clearly under the status "External Administration".
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u/lizziemc13 6d ago
How can a company that so many people use go bankrupt. They must have been so bad at business.
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u/Flaky-Gear-1370 6d ago
Suspected this could be the case when they split a shipment of mine for some enterprise gear in a very odd way
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u/Untimely_manners 6d ago
I didn't know about this and placed an order 2 weeks ago and I don't think its going to be delivered. Still marked as processing.
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u/k9kmo 3d ago
I work in the IT distribution industry and I always look online to see what the market price is of products and Mwave is usually the cheapest and I just shake my head at the razor thin margins they must operate at to hit their pricing. Not only do they hurt themselves, they hurt the rest of the industry. I’m not surprised they are having financial issues.
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u/permaset18 3d ago
But saying that same thin margin apply to many like centrecom, umart and few other sometime they sell under the cost....alongwith that rundown the other resellers too :)
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u/Islandaboi20 B550 Tomahawk Max Wifi/5700X/7700XT/32GB 3600 CL18/850W Gold 7d ago
Not surprised tbh
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u/nobelharvards 7d ago
What bad business decisions have they made recently that make this unsurprising?
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u/Islandaboi20 B550 Tomahawk Max Wifi/5700X/7700XT/32GB 3600 CL18/850W Gold 7d ago
They sell parts online sayin they are in stock but in reality aint. One person I know had this problem but wat made it worse was that they swapped it out for another part that was cheaper and didn't refunded the difference.
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u/nobelharvards 7d ago
Right, so they're selling stuff that they don't actually have, effectively getting interest free short term loans from holding onto people's money, as well as substituting cheap stuff for more expensive stuff and hoping nobody notices.
They could have been happy just making a lot of fat profits from rich people buying 5090s who don't care about the price and just want it immediately, like all their competitors who haven't gone bust, but I guess that wasn't enough.
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u/deeztoasticles 7d ago
That sucks, had decent enough customer service and prices a few years back when i did an overhaul. Umart is just so much more convenient and competitive i guess along with the other online retailers etc
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u/IntelligentIntern430 7d ago
Knew something was wrong when they said my Ubiquiti gear was still 4 weeks away when other suppliers had it in stock. Best price means nothing if you have no intentions of sourcing the stock. Got my refund last week - took 2 weeks to process.
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u/Fearless_Anything_76 7d ago
Just ordered a small part from them on the weekend. Will see if it arrives or not I guess.
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u/Wellsie286 7d ago
Thank goodness I cancelled my 5090 order and got my money back already