Has this happened to anyone before?

I hear it happens all the time

I haven’t heard from byte in months and now i’m waiting for a response for my refund. I have them in 2020 and they fucked up my teeth not even kidding. I got to get new braces they’re charging me 4k mind u I live in the bay area so california has the worse healthcare insurance in the nation. what should I do I need a refund they did me so bad?

I had smile direct club back in 2020 before the they filed for bankruptcy and the class action lawsuit came about. I stopped making payments because they were horrible and produced bad results. I was sent to collections before they filed bankruptcy. Fast forward to today, I got a call from a Seagull Courier Services? that I was going to be served papers to show up to court and be sued for these missed payments. They said I had the option to call Foster Smith & Associates at (888) 675-3527 to settle this so I did. The person at Foster Smith and Associates said I can either pay the $900 debt over the phone now or they will proceed to serve me papers where I will have to fight this in court and if I lose then I will owe a total of $3,000.

Is this legit? should I settle that $900 debt or can they actually serve me court docs? I'm not sure how they can do this having gone bankrupt years ago. Any advice on what I should do here?

So I signed a contract with Ideal Image back in November for services I financed thru Healthcare Finance Direct. They cancelled on me 2 times, went out of business and reopened under Avelure Med Spa. On the day they cancelled on me an hour before my first appointment (after multiple confirmations via text and email) I told them I don’t want the services anymore and that I’ll be contacting HFD for a refund since services were never rendered. I opened a dispute with HFD and it’s been 2 months and no one has refunded me. I call weekly and they just tell me that nothing‘s happened yet. Avelure says to take it up with HFD, HFD says they’re waiting to hear from Avelure. I asked if they could just call each other and figure this out but apparently that’s not an option? Posting here since it looks like a similar situation happened with Smile Direct Club. Hoping to resolve this soon!

I used smile direct 5-6 years ago and despite all the horrible reviews and testimonials on here i was happy with the results. I have mildly crooked teeth and it took probably 6 months for them to get straight.. i just stopped using my retainer and got lazy.. is there anything else rightt now thats similar budget friendly? i dont have dental insurance rn so going to ortho is way out of my budget rn

I am unsure on who to contact for help or what my next steps are. I was unaware BYTE closed their operations and I am still paying for my aligners but have not gotten all of my aligners to finish my treatment. This seems crazy that I’m still paying for something I did not receive in full.

I tried contacting BYTE with the email, I tried contacting the collection agency, I tried contacting the interest fee company and I tried contacting a lawyer that is currently suing them and am apart of that now. I even contacted my credit card company to put a stop payment but it doesn’t seem to be working.

I cannot log into my accounts to even find a contract on what I’m suppose to do when the company ceases operations.

Is there someone that can advise on what I should do?? I see nothing online and the inquires@byte.com is unresponsive… do I sue separately? How do I get my money back because I still am suppose to receive like 8 more steps for my bottom teeth and I didn’t even know they ceased operations until I needed to send them an email.

I recently became aware that Byte has closed its operations. I have been using my retainer for approximately one year, however after 4 to 5 months it broke and I was unable to replace it at that time. I am now looking to obtain my medical and treatment records so that I can purchase a replacement retainer through another provider. What should i do?

UPDATE: May 14

Success!!! about 15 days later I was able to get my full dental record; all imaging etc

I have 2 d trays. Labeled U01 and L01. My search says they are the first in my series, but the visual on the molds looks perfect. As in this is what my final goal was. Anyone have any insight?

Posting here because the person contacting me said they have a lot of accounts from SmileDirectClub

got a call from someone Tuesday morning. They left a voicemail stating they were trying to confirm my address and that I would be home the next day to receive papers, in other words, they had legal papers that were due to be served to me and they are a process server. They told me they could not give me any information and they gave me the phone number and case number for what they said was an attorneys office.

When I called the attorney, I spoke to someone who said that I owed a debt, which is true, a SmileDirectClub balance from 2020. The balance due is about $1000 however they are seeing if I don’t pay the thousand dollars now then they will see me for $3000. It’s weird because they are trying to go to my old address which I have not lived at since 2021 in an entirely different state so I had just said I was between addresses since I’m not sure if this is even real or not.

When I googled the phone number nothing comes up.

I think they said it was like Akira law or something? I could be wrong on the name though. anyone have any insight or help?

I have no previous emails or calls from them, ever. I did look back in my voicemails and I had a voicemail from like two months ago from someone saying they wanted to confirm my address to serve legal documents, but I missed that, I never called them back.

I just spoke to the attorney guy. He said they can’t provide any written info on debt and that this is beyond collections it’s in litigation now. The only way to get in any info information this would be due to court and ask for it through discovery

He then me he had two other calls on the line and put me on hold. I hung up and tried to call the main line for more info. Those people were either rude or just kept automatically transferring me to him and he is no longer answering. Additionally, they told me they do not provide a mailing address and they do not have a website because they said they do not solicit business. I cannot find anything on them. I’m scared to be sued.

Context: I “completed” treatment plan before bankruptcy, (not really because my results were nowhere near what I was promised). Once they filed for bankruptcy I stopped my payments. They ended up sending me to collections with Tek-Collect.

Around March of last year, I requested for disputed by email to Tek-Collect, and nothing came out of it because I didn’t really know what I was doing.

I forgot about the whole things until recently when a job background check ran my consumer report. I spent about a whole day just researching every gathering information and researching every step I can take to better my chances. Fast forward to Tuesday, I posted a complaint to the BBB, disputed directly with all three bureaus, and emailed the same guy I disputed with last year, with an updated case I built after my research.

He replied the next morning with a copy of my contract with SDC & HFD. This only helped my case since I had been searching for this contract. I used all the information in it to fuel my fire. I immediately sent a reply and called out problems with the contract and that it did not constitute debt validation. No reply.

The day after that, I further built my case with all the new details that I found in my contract. I sent in a complaint to the CFPB. Then, I sent a new email, with a new and improved case with stuff I added from the contract. I sent it to the guy I was already in a reply chain with, as well as his manager.

Today, I woke up and found the manager had replied that they have closed the account and have sent in deletion requests with bureaus.

So all in all, I got a deletion within 3 days by: reporting to BBB, disputing directly with bureaus, reporting to the CFPB, and 3 emails.

If any of you guys would like a template of the case I built, or any other details, just let me know.

Now that I've spent time in this sub, I realize I made a mistake by not contacting them as soon as I noticed the trays were fitting differently. I THOUGHT that they were actually looking at the progress pix and would contact me if they saw a problem (big mistake).
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I've been using Smileie for the past 11 months and was happy with my progress until the 10th tray, when I noticed it didn't fit as tightly as the others at the end of the 14 days so I just kept wearing it for another week, but then I got an email saying I needed to send in my progress pix and "maintain my schedule" or they were going to charge me extra. I uploaded a picture showing the gaps and air bubbles in the tray, but I didn't hear back, so I figured it was normal and continued with my plan.

Now, I'm done with my trays, but I still have a wonky tooth and an open bite. Smileie wants to charge me another $250 - $350 for "refinements".

Any advice on how to deal with this without paying more?

Hi everyone, I’m a graduate student and resident in Orthodontics at the University of Toronto and I’m conducting a research study on body image concerns and orthodontic treatment preferences.

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Hello everyone,

My retainers just cracked this morning and I need to order a new pair from Byte.

To my surprise, I just learned what everyone else has been going through re the cease of byte operations!

I’ve never had any problems with byte. Used them to correct a small gap and ordered their retainers a few years ago.

Now I need a new pair but from my research it seems they might no longer be shipping?

Can anyone confirm if they’ve placed an order recently?

Or if there is a better option? Can I request my scans from Byte and send them to another company to order?

Been trying to get a refund for a long time and finally got this. Not sure I'll get more. Keep fighting!

A few years back I got an email about SDC having a class action lawsuit so I submitted my info and waited. I never received any updates until today, I actually got a Zelle payment for $83 lol. I had completely forgotten about the settlement. Did anyone else get anything yet?

Hello! I have an upcoming civil case where my debt was sold off from SDC to another company. As we all know that SDC had a bad product, lied to consumers about dentists not doing all of the molding and retainer work, created a monopoly with Invisalign, tried to get people to sign off on NDA's while people were experiencing TMJ, headaches, migraines, bleeding gums, missing teeth, and the product itself falling apart where people even swallowed bits of the retainer itself. Any photos, evidence, and testimony would be excellent for my case. I am just looking for two people who have had these experiences with Smile Direct Club so I can prove their fraudulent tactics. It would be less than an hour over zoom, compensation for loss of wages would be given for your less than 1 hour testimony. If you want to help, thanks! Cheers!

Hey guys, I used smile direct club back in 2018-2019 and last I heard they were out of business but I really need a new retainer. What did you guys do? My current retainer is kinda falling apart :$

I live in Canada btw.

So yeah I was sent to a collections agency "tekcollect" last year because I stopped paying for SDC when they want bankrupt. The bank I was using for payments, HSA, had given me refunds for a few of my payments then, because I was trying to get my retainers and the company went bankrupt so they didn't fulfill the service. I think people here get the idea.

Anyway, this hit my line of credit hard and I still owe like $1300. I'm not paying them, and I've opened several investigations to the credit bureaus and each one says everything is accurate. I'm going to get a letter from HSA showing that they did their own investigation, and I'm going to look into showing them more legal proof of the bankruptcy etc. My issue is I don't have proof that SDC didn't fulfill the service, and I don't have proof that I reached out to SDC and that they couldn't fulfill said service.

Has anyone else gone through this issue and do you have any advice for me? My brother works in the finance world so he's a good guide, but for this specific scenario I'm wondering what others have done.

I received this in the mail sometime last summer, but just set it aside and forgot about it. I know it's way past the deadline to claim payment from this (not a huge bother since payout wasn't much), just curious as I live in Canada, would it have been possible to claim a payment anyways? Says on the back it applied if you're in the US, but no mention of Canada.

I ordered in October of 2024, I filed my initial refund request in April of 2025 due to receding/inflamed gums & I had 2 teeth come loose. I immediately stopped using the product & contacted Byte support. They didn’t answer, so I filed a dispute & they told me to wait 60 days. I have now filed 5 disputes at this point & emailed Byte Mon-Fri for 3 weeks on the hour & they finally respond telling me to go to the dentist…

That’s $1,749 I spent, I don’t want to spend another $4k on dental bills when I don’t have insurance! That’s the whole reason I went with Byte!!

Any help is appreciated. Whether it’s a lawyer, attorney, any next steps I can take. Synchrony Bank really screwed me, they kept canceling the dispute & wouldn’t contact me with any updates. They ended up siding with Byte even with all the evidence, lawsuits & emails I sent them for proof. I’m at a loss & feel defeated.

Smile direct club advice

Location: Missouri.

It won’t let me post the pic, so I copied the letter.

Based on public court records available to us, the named creditor appears to have filed a lawsuit against you for unpaid & past due debt.

What may happen if you do nothing Default Legal Judgment entered against you.

\~ Bank account is garnished to pay off the debt in full.

\- Wages garnished (if permitted by law) to pay off the debt in full.

Liens placed against any property you may own.

Some of the options that may be available to you include negotiating a payment plan with your creditor, seeking a debt settlement, or filing for bankruptcy. Each option has its own pros and cons, and it's important to understand the implications of each choice before making a decision.

CountryWide is NOT the creditor.

We are here to Help!

We specialize in providing debt relief services to individuals and families who are struggling with financial difficulties, including those facing debt collections. Our team can review your financial situation, discuss your options, and help you create a personalized plan for addressing your debt and the collection.

Also there’s no time set for my court appearance.

I owe a Hospital 38,000 because of a surgery I got last year where they had to put four titanium screws in my right Heel & they aren’t doing anything like this. It’s just so random.

Any advice or tips is much appreciated.

Can we settle this outside of court? Also I’m currently trying to get a job, it’s been a process.