After a certain cross-border e-commerce platform collapsed, the seller’s backend was completely closed!

A few months ago, VOVA, a cross-border e-commerce platform that was once well-known in the cross-border circle , suddenly "collapsed", and news such as sellers being unable to withdraw payments and VOVA running away were exposed one after another.

For platform sellers, the road to rights protection and payment recovery is long and arduous. Although many sellers have not given up on pursuing payment, they have not received the desired results. Some sellers still insist on logging into the backend every day to check, hoping for new progress, but they did not expect to receive "nothing". At the same time, the incident of VOVA laying off employees and withholding their wages was pushed to the " hot search " in one fell swoop...

VOVA backend is inaccessible, and merchants are owed tens of millions of yuan in loans

Some sellers said that recently, VOVA's mobile terminal and website pages have had problems, and the backend is no longer accessible. Previously, after the news of many platform sellers' stores being closed, the platform still had products on sale, but now all of them cannot be displayed, and all pages are in loading status . The editor searched and checked the website pages and found that the same is true . The website had a small number of products on sale before, but now even the pages cannot be opened ...

Many platform sellers tried to log in through the VOVA merchant platform link, but all they saw was a blank page or a page security warning and could not be opened.

Once upon a time, this cross-border e-commerce platform, which attracted countless domestic sellers to join, had millions of downloads and became an important driving force for many cross-border sellers. However, since VOVA's "explosion" a few months ago , many platform sellers have suffered losses to varying degrees, and their deposits and payments have not been recovered...

" There are many sellers like me who have deposited a lot of money for goods on the platform, ranging from hundreds of thousands to millions or even tens of millions. " An ordinary seller said that he had deposited about 100,000 yuan for goods on the platform, which is very common on the platform, and there are many sellers like him.

In fact, in September, some sellers whose stores were banned received emails from VOVA. VOVA stated that it had upgraded the algorithm and improved the review standards in the most recent product review, and automatically removed products and stores that violated VOVA platform policies.

The VOVA platform also stated that the historical orders and deposits of the banned stores will be settled or returned to the stores in accordance with the corresponding platform rules.

After receiving VOVA's email, many sellers were willing to believe this explanation. After all, the products were still displayed on the front desk and orders were placed from time to time. Although these sellers who were unwilling to say goodbye to the VOVA platform were worried about the payment, they did not take any action.

Some sellers reported that although they did receive the deposit returned by the VOVA platform later , it was just a drop in the bucket. The key was the backlog of payments for goods, which had a huge impact on their daily operations.

In addition, an industry insider revealed that this platform, which had long been rumored to have run away and senior executives resigned, had posted recruitment ads on a certain recruitment website a week before the "thunderstorm", and the salaries were very considerable, with some positions offering salaries between 16,000 and 50,000 yuan...

It has vigorously recruited investors through multiple channels, attracting a large number of sellers in a short period of time. Some sellers said that the amount of money involved in this once "model student" platform has even reached tens of millions, and many of its peers are still on the road of defending their rights and recovering their money...

VOVA is suspected of criminal offense for owing tens of millions of employees wages!

Behind VOVA's collapse, hundreds of millions of yuan in payments to thousands of merchants were in arrears, and a large number of sellers organized to defend their rights, but with little success. When they went to the company, they couldn't find any contacts; when they went to the office building , it was empty. All these signs made the merchants who were waiting for emergency payments want to cry without tears, and the deposits returned to some sellers were just a drop in the bucket!

"VOVA is really good at playing tricks. Modern blood-sucking actually happens in such a harmonious society," a seller said in pain. He was really chilled by VOVA.

It is not only the merchants who have suffered hard, but also the employees of VOVA.

On October 17, someone who was suspected to be a former VOVA employee left a message on People's Daily Online to the Secretary of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee, saying that Shanghai Grove Information Technology Co., Ltd. owed September wages and layoffs . The specific content is as follows ↓

Shanghai Grove Information Technology Co., Ltd. encountered operational difficulties in September 2021 and laid off more than 200 employees. The severance agreement stated that the severance pay, September salary, annual leave benefits, etc. would be converted and paid out on October 15, 2021, but they were not paid out. The company did not have any personnel to handle the matter and was unable to contact the relevant personnel of the company. Please ask the relevant leaders to pay attention to this matter.

Regarding the message, some sellers have verified with Grove's HR department and confirmed that VOVA's internal employees were indeed owed wages and are currently going through the arbitration process. The Shanghai Changning District Human Resources and Social Security Bureau also responded to the above message on November 10, and made a determination that "the company is suspected of criminal offenses" , leaving employee contact information and assigning assistance lawyers, but not filing or registering a case for the time being.

At the same time, blogger @别凶妍 posted a long article on October 18, "I hope Shanghai Grove Technology Co., Ltd. can quickly give us employees an explanation." Blogger @皮卡黄萌萌哒 followed closely, reposting the article and saying that Grove Company of Greenland Business Building laid off employees and abandoned them, and could not be contacted at all, and owed employees wages and business funds, hoping that the Shanghai Labor Arbitration Agency would pay attention to it.

The blogger also revealed that he was offered the job by Eitalai and the third party was Mocan Network Technology, and he hoped to investigate the connection between the three companies.

However, based on earlier feedback from sellers, the companies associated with VOVA are mainly the following: Shanghai Grove Information Technology Co., Ltd. and Suzhou Lebei Network Technology Co., Ltd., which are responsible for operations; Wow Technology Co., Ltd., a Hong Kong company responsible for payments; and Suzhou Feile Network Technology Co., Ltd., which is responsible for logistics.

Now it seems that everything is not that simple, and companies related to VOVA are being uncovered step by step.

Another seller revealed that Lebei has begun to mobilize all employees to sign resignation agreements and terminate their labor contracts with Lebei. Lebei has found a third-party human resources company to sign contracts with employees. If they do not sign, they will not receive their October salary and their social security will also be suspended.

Some sellers even said on social media that VOVA was suspected of commercial fraud and was challenging China's laws and regulations. According to the sellers, VOVA was a shell company registered in Hong Kong by Suzhou Lebei Network Co. , Ltd. Lebei signed an outsourcing contract with itself. In this way, even if VOVA was shut down, it could avoid legal risks and not have to pay the corresponding loans and other related fees of the merchants.

Life goes on, and stopping losses in time has become the choice of many sellers. Some sellers choose to give up recovering the payment, some sellers are still consulting lawyers, and some sellers choose to switch to mainstream platforms such as Amazon. The law is long and there is no loophole. No matter what, I still hope that this incident can be resolved as soon as possible, and the sellers’ payment, deposits, and employees’ wages can be recovered as soon as possible!

VOVA

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Backstage shutdown