Oh my! What am I to do now?
My daughter sent me some flooz a couple months ago, and I never got around to using them. ($20)
Anyway, yesterday I received an email informing me (in legalese) that I was a creditor in a bankruptcy, and that I wasn’t likely to get my 20 bucks back.
Cool , huh?
I never even went to their website. Was this a rip-off from day one? I wonder if any other dopers got burned, and for how much. No big deal for me, but I imagine some folks could have lost hundreds.
Peace,
mangeorge
This was one in a series of startup “web currencies” that never got off the ground. (Beenz is another prominent one that comes to mind; I guess the letter ‘z’ denotes hipness). And which “e-currency” clawed itself to the top of the pile? That’s right, PayPal. They use good ol’ American dollars, instead of trying to reinvent the wheel.
On the legal front, you could presumably file a claim to be processed at the bankrupcy hearing, although I’m sure Joe Venture Capitalist who dropped 5 mill on the company would be more likely to get something back. I dunno.
But it had the celebrity endorsement of WHOOPI GOLDBERG!!!
:rolleyes:
If you had to, you could eat a bowling ball.
Sorry. It’s just that everytime I see her name it reminds me of that joke: “What’s the difference between Whoopi Goldberg and a bowling ball?”
Okay, I’m gone.
Quasi
I’m not concerned about the $20, or Whoopie. But, I’m curious now. Could I take them to small claims court? Or does bankruptcy protect them from that too?
And I feel absolutely no sympathy for a VC who lost a bet. That’s the breaks, IMO.
Peace,
mangeorge
There is little in the world more likely to deter me from using a product or service than said product or service having the endorsement of Whoopi Goldberg.
As I understand it (I just started to type an acronym for "I Am Not A Lawyer, but I didn’t like how it looked), the creditors in a bankruptcy all get to line up to be paid. Secured creditors get first whack, and then I’m not sure if it goes by date of filing for reimbursement or by some other criterion, but it seems like the larger creditors get the next chances. Regular schmoes get what’s left (nothing, usually). You can’t sue someone who’s filed for bankruptcy, since that’s the whole point of the exercise. They’re under the protection of the court, which gets to decide how to divvy up the assets (or how they’ll reorganize, depending on what kind of bankruptcy it is.
I know all this information off the top of my head because Krause’s Custom Furniture filed for bankruptcy three weeks after taking my $455 deposit for a couch and chair. That’s a long story which is better suited for the Pit, though.
I first heard of this on NPR. Essentially, what happened was that Flooz went under because someone or some people were counterfeiting the certificates, thereby forcing Flooz to honor them. Instant financial downward spiral.
Rotsa ruck on getting your $20 out of it.
Robin
Why was it called Flooz anyway?
Part of their problem could have been that their name had nothing to do with the service (unlike PayPal).
Counterfeit Flooz?!!
Now I’ve heard everything.
Start a class action on behalf of all the people out of luck with their gift certificates, based on the gift certificates not being purchases, but rather being funds held in trust, and as such then go after the directors personally for breach of trust.