Update! Reston, Va. — The shutdown this week of cellular services provider Simplexity has left some of the nation’s largest retailers without their online mobile stores.
The company, which operated branded cellphone storefronts for hhgregg, Newegg, RadioShack, Sears/Kmart, Target, TigerDirect and Walmart, among others, has reportedly filed for Chapter 7 liquidation.
Calls to Simplexity’s headquarters and its Wirefly e-tail business are answered by recordings, and the Wirefly website — like the postpaid mobile pages of hhgregg, Newegg and others, are down. RadioShack, Target and Walmart pages refer customers to their local stores.
In a statement to TWICE, RadioShack communications VP Merianne Roth said customers who purchased a postpaid phone from the retailer’s site in the past few days “may be impacted by the Simplexity shutdown. Our customer care team is working to help those customers.”
Target spokeswoman Kristy Welker told TWICE: “At Target, we’re committed to our mobile business. With the sudden closing of Simplexity, the Target.com vendor for mobile phones and plans, we are temporarily unable to offer these options on Target.com. We are actively seeking a new solution for our guests who prefer to purchase mobile plans on Target.com. In the meantime, we encourage guests to visit Target Mobile centers, located in more than 1,500 Target stores nationwide to purchase mobile phones, activate contracts from top carriers and trade-in their used, working electronics.”
In response to the outages, BestBuy.com is offering consumers a $10 e-gift card with phone purchases from March 13 through March 20. “Given the news, it may be tough for folks to buy a phone online at many retailers,” said Best Buy spokeswoman Carly Morris.
Postings on Twitter, Facebook and Google+ by purported recruiters, Simplexity employees and customer service reps referenced a bankruptcy and sudden dismissals on Wednesday.
The company, based here, also provided inventory, fulfillment and mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) services.
