Yatango Shopping customers left out of pocket as website taken offline

Yatango Shopping customers who have been waiting months for their orders have taken to social media to vent their frustration after the retailer’s website was taken offline earlier this month.

The Yatango Shopping site is currently unavailable and SmartCompany understands the website has been displaying a white page for at least a week.  

It appears customers have been waiting for orders from the mobile and electronics retailer for up to four months.

A former employee told SmartCompany Yatango Shopping and its predecessor MobiCity would not have shipped any orders or processed any customer refunds for at least the past two months.

Customers have reportedly been waiting since August for orders for smartphones and cameras; with one customer tweeting she has been waiting since August 24 for a phone that has been paid for.

Another customer told news.com.au he ordered a OnePlus smartphone from Yatango in late August and ended up cancelling the order in late October via his credit card company.

The claims from shoppers come as two related companies, Yatango Holdings and Yatango Mobile, were placed in liquidation on November 24 as a result of a special resolution to wind up the companies.

As previously reported by SmartCompany, Yatango Mobile and Yatango Holdings entered voluntary administration in October.

Another related entity, Yatango Mobile (Australia) was placed in voluntary administration on September 29.

According to online forum OzBargain, Yatango Mobile (Australia) customers have been informed that another company called Yomojo has since purchased the company’s mobile customers.

According to a company prospectus issued earlier this year, Yatango Holdings is the controlling entity of the entire Yatango business.

A chart in the prospectus shows Yatango Holdings owns 55.29% of Yatango Mobile, which has also entered voluntary administration, and owns 100% of Yatango Mobile (Australia), which entered administration at the end of September.

According to the chart, Yatango Holdings also owns six other entities, including Australian-based companies Yatango Travel, Yatango Taxis, eTail Solutions and Yatango Labs (Australia) and Hone Kong based businesses Glotech Services Limited and Yatango HK Limited.

However, one of the liquidators of Yatango Holdings, Cor Cordis partner Jason Tang, told news.com.au Yatango Shopping customers are “not legally creditors” as Yatango Shopping is not in administration.

Yatango was founded in 2013 as a consumer-focused data usage startup. The company quickly became known for its mobile platform, which allows users to build their own mobile places to save money, however, it also expanded into the travel, banking and shopping spaces.

In March, the company announced it would be seeking to raise $6 million by listing on the Australian Securities Exchange via a reverse takeover of listed mining company Latitude Consolidated Limited.

The reverse takeover deal appears to have fallen through, with Latitude issuing a statement to the ASX on August 12 that said the “minimum fund raising required under the prospectus … has not been reached”.

SmartCompany contacted Cor Cordis and Yatango but did not receive a response prior to publication.