Wirefly, the online mobile device retailer, has apparently filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. The website is down, and various employees of their parent company Simplexity have taken to Twitter to note they’re out of a job. Overnight, the company went from busy to bust for many consumers — and seemingly every employee.
Simplexity employees have expressed shock at their sudden lack of employment, with one person noting he had been there over a decade, and now finds himself suddenly unemployed. Others echo similar confusion at the situation, but none seem to have a good idea of what happened. One employee took to Google+ to cheer on his fellow former colleagues, but nobody seems to be saying that trouble was looming.
One lucky consumer got a representative to admit, via Facebook, the company had filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. Other customers are wondering what will come of their purchase, as those with outstanding orders have no idea where their money or products are now. Via the Facebook conversation, it seems as though refunds will be issued, but it doesn’t seem everyone is getting that message. More often than not, customers are screaming into the wind and getting nothing back from Wirefly.
It should be noted that Chapter 7 is a lot different from Chapter 13, which is the bankruptcy filing we typically see a company go for. With Chapter 13, debts can be reassigned and deals can be worked out. Chapter 7 is liquidation, and essentially means a company has thrown in the towel. We can say goodbye to Wirefly and their oddball rules, but they should at least give customers their orders or money before they slink off into the shadows.
Via: Twitter, Facebook, Google+
So you guys pull an image a customer provided to Droid Life and you don’t cite them as a source? smh
As a former Wirefly and Simplexity employee yesterday was a shock. Customer concerns should be directed to versa capital partners of Philadelphia. This is a real shame for the customers and employees.
I empathize with the employees, who never saw this coming; and now are out of work. Their deals were really good and all they ask you is to keep the phone active with the phone number assigned to it for 181 days.
That’s rather shocking. Wirefly seemed like a promising startup carrier.
I think they also bought Inphonic?
Is their affiliated prepaid business Pincheap / vhctechnology dot com part of this ?
I just returned a phone I bought to them. They’re supposed to process my refund and undo my contract extension with Sprint. FedEx made the delivery to them yesterday. Today, they’re out of business! WTF?!
That sucks I used to enjoy watching their cell phone reviews on YouTube back then when Noah used to be with PhoneDog.
Maybe I’m the last one to actually get a phone from them – an HTC One was just delivered today but now I can’t activate it via their normal (well, normal for them) method. I guess I’ll be paying a visit to the local Verizon store to activate it.
I have been waiting 2 weeks for my $620 order from Wirefly and now find this out. I have all my order info but how could I go about getting my refund? I never received a FedEx # but do have emails and copies of reciets. I just want my phones.
Well, I took my new HTC One down to a Verizon store, and since I had all paperwork including the receipt in hand, they activated the phone no questions asked. I guess I got really lucky – I ordered it on Tuesday, it was delivered on Thursday – after Wirefly shut down.