LEHI, Utah — A prominent online retailer based in Lehi has suddenly closed its doors with no explanation, leaving many scratching their heads and wondering what to do next.
Jane.com is a company that marketed itself as a boutique supporting women-owned businesses. But as of this week, it appears it has suddenly shut down.
"You feel betrayed," said Laura Mederos, a jewelry company owner who sold items on the site. "You feel completely betrayed."
Mederos had been selling her Laura Michelle Jewelry products on Jane.com since 2014, but lately she says been ghosted by the company.
"I want my money," she demanded. "At this point, I’m not even comfortable shipping any more orders out. I don’t even trust you guys no more. I mean, like this is not OK."
On Friday, Mederos saw the website had posted that it was “down for maintenance.”
"I was trying to contact our shipping provider who was linked to Jane and they said we don’t know anything either other than what they just posted on LinkedIn, that they are closed," Mederos shared. "And I said, 'OK,' I knew it."
Officials with the city say they currently have over 100 reports from victims of the site shutting down.
"I think because this situation happened so fast; these sellers, the buyers, they don’t know what to do," explained Jeantiel Livingston with the Lehi City.
Officers stopped by the Jane.com corporate offices Tuesday but the city said no one was there. The offices were all locked up with the furniture still inside.
"It’s a tricky situation," said Livingston. "And so, I mean, it just happened and happened so fast.
"Our detectives have a lot of work ahead of themselves, and there’s a lot of information to go through."
The city is now asking the thousands of sellers turned victims to come forward and contact the Lehi Police Department.
"They took our money and they left. They’re closed. They took our money and they left," said Mederos.
Mederos added that she’s already spent thousands on supplies for what’s typically their busiest time of year heading into the holiday season.
"Jane.com was my only source of income," she explained. "I actually ended up quitting my full-time job to do full-time Jane."
The online jewelry business was doing so well in the first few years that Medereos encouraged family members to sell on the site as well, including her niece in Reno.
"She’s also out of money. She says she’s out close to $8,000," Mederos said.
Mederos is now turning to Etsy, another online marketplace, but starting over as "MyLMstore." She said she believed in the original vision of Jane.com as a way to support moms allowing them to sell from home.
"There were just too many changes and they were moving away from what their vision was," she added. "There are many families right now that are just scrambling to figure out what are we going to do next."
Lehi officials said Jane.com was a contributing member of the Silicon Slopes community. They urged anyone affected by the business closure to call police at 385-201-1005.
