SmileDirectClub Goes Bankrupt But Still Expects Customers To Pay

It's all frowns for Smile Direct Club.

If you're unfamiliar with the company, it's like a remote Invisalign. Due to their DIY nature (customers must make their own mold to send back to Smile Direct Club), they're not as reliable.

Last Friday, SmileDirectClub announced they were shutting down months after filing for bankruptcy protection. In a statement, the company made an “incredibly difficult decision to wind down its global operations, effective immediately.”

The news comes after founders Jordan Katzman and Alex Fenkell offered to take over SmileDirectClub when they failed to win over a buyer. The proposal called for Katzman and Fenkell to extend a whopping $30 million of debt to the failed company on top of the $20 million they gave in searching for a rescuer. Court papers show they put as much as $25 million of new equity into the company.

Along with the cessation of operations is their customer service. Those who used SmilePay – a Cali-based firm offering buy-now, pay-later options to consumers – are still expected to pay up. “SmilePay customers are expected to continue to make all monthly payments until payment has been made in full per the terms of our SmilePay program," SmileDirectClub states on their website.

People who bought items from SmileDirectClub but haven't received their shipment won't receive their order. They've yet to give the latest info on refunds. Check-ins will no longer be offered either, and if you want treatment, they suggest seeking another professional instead. "If you wish to continue treatment outside of our platform, please consult your treating doctor or your local dentist with any questions around future aligner treatment," they wrote in their FAQ.

Cosmetic dentist Dr. Joyce Kahng has dubbed the company the "biggest modern scam."

Other TikTokers have come forward to detail their experience with SmileDirectClub, and, yeah, they weren't good.

A woman named Hannah wrote on the platform, "I was an orthodontic assistant for several years, and we would get quite a few smile direct patients a year that were a MESS."

"I used Smile Direct, and it really messed up my bite! They said I would need to pay and go through the process again!" someone else added.

A dentist added, "As a dentist, I've seen so many SDC destroy [patients'] mouths. You might feel like they're straight, but they could be causing bone loss and excess mobility."

"I finished all my stages of aligners, and they didn't fix my misalignment issue at all," another disgruntled customer said. "So $2k later and I still need braces! so frustrating!"

These complaints aren't unheard of. In 2022, the District of Columbia Attorney General's office filed a lawsuit against SmileDirectClub, alleging that the business prevented affected customers from reporting complaints to regulators or law enforcement. As part of a settlement earlier this year to resolve this legal action, SmileDirectClub agreed to release over 17,000 customers from their agreements and pay $500,000 to the district. Although the company stated in the settlement that it hadn't broken any laws or practiced unfairly or deceptively, it complied with the settlement terms.

Like many companies, SmileDirectClub profited from their customers' insecurities, offering cheaper options with no guaranteed solution.

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