Simply Mac bankruptcy: Who to call, what happened, and why

Simply Mac logo

On June 9, Apple dealer Simply Mac abruptly closed. Here's what happened, how service customers affected by the sudden shutdown can get help — and how to buy assets from the shuttered company.

Based in Salt Lake City, Simply Mac was founded in 2006. It provided Apple device repairs for consumers and sold accessories such as cases, cables, and chargers.

Gamestop acquired the company in 2013 to bring Simply Mac to areas that didn't have official Apple Stores as a Premier Partner. Eventually, Gamestop divested Simply Mac in 2019, and Cool Holdings, Inc. acquired it in September 2019.

Many Simply Mac stores were closed during the pandemic, although in 2020, Cool Holdings announced reopenings of stores in Oregon and Florida. That wasn't enough treading to keep the company afloat, and in 2022 Cool Holdings announced the shutdown of all Simply Mac stores.

Court records reveal that proceedings started on June 28. Creditors are being added to the case, including CB&L & Associates Management, Gamestop, Sunrise Mills Limited Partnership, and others. Creditors may begin to file claims.

The trustee in the bankruptcy case is George B. Hofmann in Salt Lake City, Utah. Trustees in a Chapter 7 filing perform duties such as collecting and selling the debtor's property, distributing proceeds to creditors, and other legal roles.

Simply Mac Saga

In a letter to staff members seen by AppleInsider in June 2022, Cool Holdings CEO Rein Voigt said the company was blindsided by the start of the pandemic in December 2019. As a result, it filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and will be liquidated.

Voigt also wrote in a statement that the company was helped with $5.1 million in PPP loans from the U.S. government, but new funding wasn't available after that.

The pandemic wasn't the only thing affecting Simply Mac, however. It has faced controversies in the past and some argue that these helped contribute to its demise.

In one instance, store manager Thomas Lotz filed a lawsuit [PDF] against Simply Mac in 2017, saying the company committed payroll fraud by classifying store managers as exempt under federal overtime laws and not paying overtime compensation.

Additionally, some AppleInsider readers claim that Simply Mac didn't shut down because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Rather, the assertion goes, it was because of payroll fraud, with sexual harassment also included in the accusation. These readers say they were employed by Simply Mac or knew someone who was.

Customer Compensation

The company cannot pay its employees due to its bankruptcy, but Voigt said they will receive a notice from a court and can submit claims.

Simply Mac notified employees of their termination and ordered them to turn in their keys to the retail stores. However, store managers weren't told how to return devices to customers, only that they had to lock the store and leave.

Customers of Simply Mac are frustrated that stores are closed. In Idaho and everywhere the chain operates, stores were closed despite having multiple device repairs in progress.

Simply Mac store in Oregon. Credit: localdatabase.com

In Waco, Texas, one customer got the local police department involved, with officers saying the situation could rise to theft of property. The woman, Sharlene Reyes, was finally able to get her laptop, and Simply Mac refunded the diagnostic fee.

In Tennessee, Simply Mac customer Anna Teeples left notes on the storefront. Her MacBook Pro was in the shop for repairs and was her sole means of running her business. Other customers of the store did the same.

Even landlords of Simply Mac properties were left hanging. One mentioned that the court proceedings forbade him from entering the store or showing it to future tenants.

There is some hope for customers of Simply Mac who have devices stuck inside the company's retail stores. In an email sent to AppleInsider, an Apple spokesperson said that the company has notified people who have devices stuck in Simply Mac's repair process.

"The customer very likely has already heard from Apple," the company said to us on July 5. "If they have not, they should call 1-800-MY-APPLE and let the team member know they're calling about SimplyMac."

Stores being auctioned off

As of July 21, 2022, the US Bankruptcy Court has begun auctioning off Simply Mac stores. "This auction is for the entirety of the store," say all of the listings published so far, "fixtures and all assets within."

Interior of Simple Mac's Waco, TX, store. (Source: auctioneer Dudley Resources)

On July 21, the Simply Mac store in Charlottesville, VA, was sold for a bid of $8,100. On July 27, the store in Hillsboro, OR, seemingly went for only $550, though it's not clear how much stock was the store.

Simply Mac stores in Myrtle Beach, Waco, Orlando, Tallahassee, and Lubbock are due to go under the hammer

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18 Comments

Beats

said about 1 year ago

Makes me think either Apple supports these partners more or build more Apple Stores.

Partners closing don’t help Apple in any way unless Apple replaces them.

MacForce

said about 1 year ago

We certainly sympathize for those who have struggled before and during the pandemic. SimplyMac originally had three locations here in the Portland OR area. MacForce is now the only independent Apple Authorized Service Provider anywhere in the area. We are here to help with any warranty and non-warranty service in the Portland area.

danox

said about 1 year ago

JP234 said:

I worked as a service writer and later purchasing manager for an Apple authorized VAR named MacSpecialist for 12 years. It wasn't pandemics or payroll fraud or any internal issues that caused our demise in 2014. It was the relentless pressure on margins by Apple, Inc. As a B-level reseller, we received 7% margin on consumer Macs, 4-6% on iOS devices, and 10% on pro level Macs, which started out as Mac Pros and MacBook Pros. Then Apple dropped the margin on the MBP to 7%, and made iMacs powerful enough that the really expensive Mac Pro was almost impossible to sell. Consider that virtually ALL our consumer sales were by credit card, and our processing fee was 3.5%, and you can see that it became impossible to make a profit on hardware. Additionally, any business loans we had charged greater interest than our margins. We held on for a while with our training classes and service department. Then Apple started soldering memory on the logic board, making profitable upgrades impossible, and proprietary SSD storage, thus removing our ability to upgrade hard drives. They charged us the same rate a customer would pay, to send in Macs that were no longer under warranty. You'll notice you don't see that network of small-business Apple sellers anymore, and this is why.
Of course Simply Mac and almost all VARs went bankrupt. Apple wanted all of us gone, and they had the resources to make it happen. As is their right. That's capitalism, and for every penny I lost in salary, I made back $100 by buying Apple stock every week since the return of Jobs. Was it insider trading? Not exactly, but certainly I was privy to directions Apple was heading before the general public, and believed in that direction.

All that said, I believe Apple is the greatest company in the world, and being even peripherally involved with the ascendancy was the greatest time of my career.

Pretty much explains why Apple doesn’t want to sell servers and why they made local dealers (at the time) refer all school districts directly to Apple for sales.

At the time Apple started to open their own Apple stores, there weren’t that many independent die-hard Apple retail stores left around to begin with, and Apple then when on to screw them.

I also when on to buy Apple shares lots of them, a Commodore Amiga survivor…..

Guitar Center was a great place to buy Atari, Mac, and Amiga products under one roof.

sconosciuto

said about 1 year ago

Cool Holdings was involved in a pump-and-dump on their sketchy AF penny stock a few years back. I looked into it (there was a bit of a hype about CH being a great way to play Apple without paying the then-nosebleed price of AAPL shares)... hoo boy. It was very clearly a company with no legitimate future and zero prospects, especially with Apple making it very clear it didn't care for little guy resellers/service shops.

Do a web search on "cool holdings pump and dump", you'll see what I mean.

Of course they screwed all their customers and employees (many - but clearly not all of them - legally, sadly). It was nothing more than a typical late-stage capitalist loot-and-flee scam scheme.

darkvader

said about 1 year ago

Beats said:

Makes me think either Apple supports these partners more or build more Apple Stores.

Partners closing don’t help Apple in any way unless Apple replaces them.

Apple does not care AT ALL.

They're trying to make it impossible to operate as an authorized reseller or repair provider. The only way to survive long term at this point is to go unauthorized. The Apple store repair price including labor is typically identical to the part cost for authorized repair providers. For dealers, the margin on a lower end Mac can be under the credit card percentage. Warranty repair rates have been cut.

You have to drive farther to an Apple store? Not their problem. You can always mail it in. Data preservation? You should have had a backup. Weeks without a computer while it's shipped off to Pegatron? You're too poor to have a spare? Not their problem.