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Zulily employees received notice last week that they’d lose their jobs in February. But many of them were surprised Wednesday to get an email notifying them that today would be their last at the company.

“Last week’s [decision] was already shocking. Today’s is just infuriating,” said Benjamin Normoyle, a longtime engineer at the company who received the message, speaking with GeekWire on Wednesday.

Other affected employees posted on LinkedIn to say it was their last day.

Employees were locked out of their email and other company resources shortly after receiving the layoff notice.

GeekWire first reported last week that the online retailer planned to shut down three offices, including its Seattle headquarters, and lay off more than 800 people in total. The company, owned by private equity firm Regent, announced a “going-out-of-business” sale last weekend.

It’s not yet clear how many employees had their termination dates moved up to today. One person who spoke with us on Wednesday was still employed there.

Zulily submitted filings with state employment officials in Washington, Nevada, and Ohio last week, stating that layoffs would begin Feb. 7.

“We regret to inform you that based on based on business circumstances we must move your Termination Date up,” reads the email Wednesday to affected employees, obtained independently by GeekWire.

Zulily’s health insurance plans will cease effective Dec. 31 for these employees, according to the memo. There is no mention of severance.

“As you know, on December 7, 2023, we gave you notice informing you that your employment relationship with Zulily would end on February 7, 2024, or the 14-day period commencing on that date,” it reads. “We gave this notice voluntarily under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act even though you were not entitled to WARN notice because you are not employed at an affected site of employment as defined by the WARN Act.”

The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act, a federal law passed in 1988, aims to protect workers by typically requiring either a written warning at least 60 days before a layoff or closure, or 60 days of severance if advanced notice is not provided, for companies with 100 or more full-time employees.

It’s not clear how Zulily is determining what qualifies as “an affected site of employment,” as stated in its email to employees Wednesday.

A notice from Zulily last week to the Washington state WARN system said 292 employees in Seattle were to be laid off as part of a closure. Separate state filings showed that the Ohio facility closure impacts 274 employees, and the Nevada facility closure impacts 273 employees.

The WARN rules include exemptions to the notification and severance requirements “when employers can show that layoffs or worksite closings occur due to faltering companies, unforeseen business circumstances, and natural disasters,” according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

A “faltering company” can be eligible for a reduced period of notification, according to the WARN Act, if an employer has been “actively seeking capital or business at the time that 60-day notice would have been required.” That includes seeking financing or refinancing via loans, issuing stocks or bonds, or pursuing other sources of money or credit.

However, the act notes that this exemption “should be narrowly construed” and does not apply to mass layoffs, but only to a “plant” that is closing.

Legal experts say the shift to remote work has created a gray area for how the WARN Act applies to companies with employees who work from home.

The email to employees on Wednesday, about the accelerated termination timeline, notes that they will receive details about COBRA health insurance and required state notices separately.

“We thank you for your service to Zulily,” it concludes, “and wish you well in your future endeavors.”

We’ve contacted Regent for comment on the latest notices. The firm has not responded to multiple emails from GeekWire about developments at Zulily over the past several months.

Here is the full text of the message.

Subject: Employment Update

December 13, 2023

Dear ****,

As you know, on December 7, 2023, we gave you notice informing you that your employment relationship with Zulily would end on February 7, 2024, or the 14-day period commencing on that date. We gave this notice voluntarily under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act even though you were not entitled to WARN notice because you are not employed at an affected site of employment as defined by the WARN Act.

We regret to inform you that based on business circumstances we must move your Termination Date up. This letter replaces and supersedes the December 7 notice, and serves as notice that your employment relationship with Zulily will end on December 13, 2023 (the “Termination Date”). You will receive your final paycheck, which includes any wages due through your Termination Date, in accordance with Zulily’s regular payroll practices, and/or state law.

If you participate in the Zulily’s group health insurance plans, your coverage under those plans will cease effective December 31, 2023, unless further extended under the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA). Information about the availability of continued coverage under COBRA will be sent to you separately. Any other employment benefits in which you participate will cease on your Termination Date.

You will receive separation information, including required notices by state, to your personal email by end of day today. If you don’t see it in your inbox, please reach out to [email protected].

We thank you for your service to Zulily, and wish you well in your future endeavors.

Sincerely,
Richard Ormand
Manager and Chief Restructuring Officer 

This is the latest chapter in a stunning downfall for what was once a cornerstone of Seattle’s tech ecosystem. Zulily launched in 2009 and grew rapidly as it gained traction by offering daily deals on products for moms and kids. It went public in 2013 and was valued at more than $7 billion a year later.

In the ensuing years, Zulily struggled to maintain its growth. Qurate, the parent company of QVC, previously known as Liberty Interactive, acquired the retailer in 2014 for $2.4 billion.

In May of this year, Qurate sold Zulily to Regent, the Los Angeles-based private equity firm. The company reported a 17% drop in revenue during the first quarter of this year, to $192 million, and a $43 million operating loss.

Regent has acquired more than 30 businesses since 2015, including consumer retail and apparel brands.

Following the acquisition by Regent, Zulily went through two rounds of layoffs. The company did not provide severance for employees who were let go in June, according to affected workers.

Zulily also moved into a smaller headquarters building following Regent’s purchase, leaving its office near the Seattle waterfront. GeekWire visited the new office in October. The space had office furniture and desks, but there were only a handful of employees.

Meanwhile, vendors who sell to Zulily started reporting unpaid invoices this year after the company was acquired by Regent.

GeekWire reported last week on two lawsuits filed against Zulily by a logistics company and a software development consultancy in recent months, both alleging unpaid invoices.

Zulily this week filed suit against Amazon, alleging that the e-commerce giant’s tactics made it impossible to compete on price without jeopardizing its relationships with key suppliers. Regent is not mentioned in the lawsuit.

El growshop es un concepto que ha estado experimentando un crecimiento muy rápido, tanto así que hoy existen en el mercado numerosas opciones sumamente interesantes para adquirir una innovadora gama de productos de calidad. En una industria como esta, que crece día, a día, las opciones han venido rápidamente en aumento en los últimos años, conformando no solo emprendimientos exitosos sino comunidades completas que se forjan intercambiando conocimiento y experiencias.

Tal es el caso de Granel Seeds, una empresa que trabaja con productos elaborados con técnicas de vanguardia en lo relativo al cultivo, esto incluye aspectos esenciales como la selección de semillas, la preparación del suelo en el que se va a cultivar y por supuesto aditamentos para temas como el control de plagas, luz, temperatura y humedad. El utilizar estos productos y una buena asesoría en los procesos garantiza que el resultado final será un producto de primera calidad.

Granel Seeds nos presenta una oferta totalmente revolucionaria dentro de lea comunidad de cultivadores de cannabis, explorando una amplia gama de variedades genéticas de alta confiabilidad. Además se distingue por ofrecer asesoramiento experto a la comunidad sobre las mejores técnicas de plantación y otros rubros de importancia en la materia. De modo que podemos decir que el nivel de especialización de Granel Seeds en esto es muy alto.

Para comprender mejor el tipo de solución integral que Granel Seeds ofrece a la comunidad de cultivadores, es bueno que hablemos de algunos de los productos que la organización ofrece:

Estos son solo algunos de los productos que ofrecen, aunque no menos valiosos son son sus servicios de asesoría experta en temas de innovación e implementación, la cual está sustentada en la experiencia de más de 10 años apoyando al cultivador de Chile. Granel Seeds ha logrado establecer una propuesta que se ha consolidado como la opción integral en Growshop.

En cuanto al catálogo de semillas, este está en constante actualización, por lo que la comunidad de cultivadores siempre cuenta con nuevas opciones para producir más y mejor dentro de un mercado fresco y creciente.

Si hablamos de herramientas cuentan con microscopios, abrazaderas, lentes de protección, espátulas y chuchillos. Y para distintos usos cuentan con kits de iluminación, indoor, extracción y más.

Pero la experiencia de Granel Seeds no se limita a proveer de soluciones a aquellas personas que se dedican al cultivo. También ofrecen todo tipo de productos y parafernalia relacionados a la cannabis: ropa 420, pipas, Jockey, contenedores, Bong, ceniceros, bandejas, papelillos, vaporizadores, enroladoras y muchas cosas más.

Siempre es importante elegir bien en lo relativo a cualquier tipo de producto o emprendimento que tengamos pensado realizar, y en el caso del growshop no es la excepción. Granel Seeds es sin duda la opción adecuada en su ramo, ofreciendo todo lo necesario para quienes forman parte de la comunidad de cultivadores o simplemente desean aprender y acercarse a este maravilloso universo.

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Microsoft secured a court order to seize and take down websites used by a group that it describes as the “number one seller and creator of fraudulent Microsoft accounts,” which deployed bots capable of tricking the CAPTCHA systems normally used to confirm that humans are creating accounts.

The group, which Microsoft calls Storm-1152, also routinely circumvented the authentication systems of other major technology companies, including Twitter (X) and Google, according to a Microsoft complaint unsealed Wednesday afternoon in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

The group “represents a significant industry-wide problem,” the complaint says.

Bots deployed by Storm-1152 were responsible for about 750 million fraudulent Microsoft accounts, the company said. One reason they needed to create so many was that the company’s fraud detection systems identified and disabled the accounts quickly, often in a matter of hours after they were created.

“We are sending a strong message to those who seek to create, sell or distribute fraudulent Microsoft products for cybercrime: We are watching, taking notice and will act to protect our customers,” said Amy Hogan-Burney, Microsoft GM and associate general counsel for cybersecurity policy and protection, in a post.

The group has been engaged in the scheme to circumvent CAPTCHA since 2021, according to the complaint, which describes the group’s general approach without going into deep technical detail. CAPTCHA stands for “Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart.”

Cybercriminal groups used email accounts created by Storm-1152 to launch phishing campaigns, ransomware attacks, and other criminal activities, Microsoft said in the complaint.

One of the criminal groups, dubbed Octo Tempest, “recently committed massive ransomware attacks against flagship Microsoft customers that infected the computer systems of those customers with ransomware which disabled critical operational systems, resulting in service disruptions that inflicted hundreds of millions of dollars of damage,” according to the complaint.

The complaint named three residents of Vietnam as defendants: Duong Dinh Tu, Linh Van Nguyễn (also known as Nguyễn Van Linh), and Tai Van Nguyen.

Microsoft credited cybersecurity defense and bot management vendor Arkose Labs for providing “valuable threat intelligence insights” that led to the detection and disruption of the group. The company says it’s also working with Arkose to deploy a next-generation CAPTCHA defense solution.

Next time an Amazon package hits your front step, don’t just shout thanks through the door or at the van driving off down your street — use Alexa. For a limited time, you’ll be spurring Amazon to also tip that driver $5.

The company announced this week that it’s bringing back a holiday promotion in which customers can show their appreciation for delivery drivers with the “Alexa, thank my driver” feature. U.S. customers can use an Alexa-enabled device (Echo, Echo Show), the Alexa app, on Amazon.com or in the Amazon mobile shopping app.

First rolled out during the 2022 holidays, the promotion works by sending a thank you to the driver who completed a customer’s most-recent delivery. The first two million thank yous will also send $5 to the driver, at no cost to the customer.

Last year, Amazon said that the feature exceeded company expectations. Since then, customers have thanked their delivery drivers over 22 million times. Drivers may not get a tip year round, but they are able to see the number of times they are thanked within their app.

When Kelly Campbell bought a metallic gray Tesla last year, the Seattle resident was delighted. The luxury features, the stellar safety ratings — it was the car she’d been waiting for.

About seven months later, she was rear-ended in a minor collision. The car’s damage looked “very superficial,” Campbell said. “It was completely drivable.”

But fixing it sent her on a journey stretching more than half a year and costing $14,000 in repairs and nearly $2,000 in car rental fees.

From online forums to casual conversations, Tesla owners are sharing stories of slow, frustrating, high-priced repairs. The experiences have some consumers wondering if they should tap the brakes on electric vehicle purchases, or if crash repair worries are overblown.

Unlike missives from Tesla founder Elon Musk, the answers here are nuanced, data show.

• Tesla collision repairs do cost more on average than fixes for other vehicles, according to data.
• EV repairs are not inherently more expensive. Repairs for EVs from non-Tesla automakers cost only slightly more than those for gas-powered vehicles, and the cost difference has decreased over time.
• The cost of repairs for all vehicles has increased significantly for numerous reasons, and those increases are expected to continue as cars keep getting more high tech.
• Certain factors make Teslas more expensive to repair, and those issues could potentially extend to other new car makers such as Rivian, Lucid and others.

While Tesla owners and insurers are getting hit with bigger repair bills, collision costs are up across the industry. They spiked 8% for the first half of this year compared to the same period last year, according to Mitchell, which provides collision data. The average collision repair bill is now more than $4,700.

The factors driving up costs include: a labor shortage and higher labor rates; parts shortages and higher shipping costs; the increased need to replace instead of repair parts; and a growing use of high-tech safety features.

It all adds up to expensive, tricky fixes.

“There are so many things that go into this repair,” said William Parkins, general manager of Metro Auto Rebuild of Seattle and Bellevue. “The technology you know and love takes so much time to diagnose and to fix.”

Data reveal higher Tesla collision costs

While an expanding slate of automakers are introducing new models of EVs, one still reigns supreme. Almost 60% of the EVs registered in Washington are Teslas — that’s more than 63,000 vehicles.

“Teslas are still by and large the most popular EV on the road, so most of the repair stories we hear about are from Teslas,” said Liz Najman, content marketing manager for Recurrent, a clearinghouse of information on used EVs.  

A 2023 Mitchell report found that the average bill for collision repairs for all EVs except Teslas was $269 more than repairs for petrol-powered vehicles. When the comparison included Tesla repairs, the difference spiked to $950.

The Highway Loss Data Institute took a snapshot approach, matching up 2018-’19 Tesla Model 3s with their gas-powered counterparts, namely midsize, luxury four-door vehicles of the same year. The organization examined insurance losses from collisions, which includes how much insurers paid out for repairable and non-repairable vehicles. It found the losses were nearly 10% higher for Teslas compared to similar cars.

GeekWire repeatedly contacted Tesla for a comment on this issue, but received no response.

Experts attribute the higher costs to multiple factors, some of which also apply to other luxury vehicles. They include requirements for:

• repairs that follow precise step-by-step procedures (directions will specify, for example, the exact number of welds for a damaged area as too few would create weakness, and too many could make a section too rigid in a collision);
• Tesla-made parts, rather than cheaper alternatives;
• Tesla-specific tools for repairs;
• and specially trained Tesla technicians.

“Every Tesla body shop I know charges a higher labor rate,” Parkins said.

One upside for Tesla drivers: data suggest their cars are less likely to be involved in wrecks in the first place.

The Highway Loss Data Institute found there were 5% fewer collision claims for Tesla Model 3 vehicles, and much greater reductions in the likelihood of injury-related claims, compared to their luxury vehicle counterparts.

However, safety concerns regarding Tesla’s Autopilot function forced the company on Wednesday to issue a recall of nearly all of the 2 million cars it has sold in the U.S. The recall involves a software update to address a defect that allows drivers to misuse the automated driving system.

‘It’s not ‘replace the bumper and call it good’’

From the outset, Campbell’s pursuit of repairs was agonizingly slow. Her car was hit in May, but she couldn’t even get an estimate for repairs until August.

While there doesn’t appear to be data available calculating the time it takes from a collision to getting a fixed Tesla returned to its driver, multiple factors can lengthen the process for the vehicles.

Washington has one Tesla-owned collision shop and seven Tesla-approved shops, mostly in the Seattle area. To boost the number of technicians in the state, Tesla has a training partnership with Shoreline Community College that launched in 2018. Rivian and Renton Technical College are starting a similar program this month.

The Tesla collision center didn’t have availability, so Campbell went with a certified shop. An initial estimate was from $6,000 to $7,000, but once mechanics disassembled the damaged area to get a better look, the price doubled due to issues with sensors.

“It’s not ‘replace the bumper and call it good,’” Campbell said.

After the second estimate, the car sat waiting for parts.

While most automakers have commonly used parts distributed to dealerships and available to nearby repair shops, Tesla parts are shipped from California, Parkins said. Tesla is establishing a parts and assembly facility in Marysville, Wash., according to the Puget Sound Business Journal, bringing supplies closer to shops.

Another issue slowing the workflow are the negotiations between insurance companies and repair facilities regarding repairs and costs. Once work starts, the need for unanticipated, additional parts can trigger more negotiations and parts shipments.

“The biggest delay in my industry,” said Parkins, “is the insurance industry.”

Janet Ruiz, communications director for the Insurance Information Institute, rejected that characterization and noted parts and labor shortages are adding time to repairs for all vehicles.

“The claims process is no different for Tesla cars than any other brands,” she said via email. “Each claim after an auto loss is evaluated on its own merit. Labor costs and parts costs are evaluated and there may be back and forth.”

For Campbell, however, insurance delays were the final insult. “I had to wait a week to get the car after it was already repaired while the Tesla insurance assessor at Allstate signed off on it,” she said.

Finally, just after Thanksgiving, Campbell got her car back.

Electric vs. combustion engine vehicles

There are now more than 40 EV models on the market in the U.S., and EV sales are on pace to increase 50% this year, according to BloombergNEF. And data suggest those shoppers won’t be paying significantly more to fix their electric cars than drivers of internal combustion engine vehicles.

The Highway Loss Data Institute analyzed cars that are sold in both electric and combustion engine configurations and compared their repair costs. The analysis covered 11 manufacturers, excluding Tesla, Rivian and other companies that make only electric vehicles.

Looking at insurance losses, the costs were a mere 2% higher for EV collisions than for conventional autos. The research also showed that the difference in repair costs between EVs and internal combustion vehicles has been decreasing over time.

There are additional factors that help even out the costs of electric vehicle ownership:

• Because EVs don’t require regular oil, filter and fluid changes, routine maintenance costs are lower, said Consumer Reports.
• Contrary to some perceptions, EVs are less likely to be written off as totaled. For 2020 and newer vehicles, the total loss rate was 7.3% for EVs, compared to 8.5% for fossil fuel vehicles, according to Mitchell data.
• As with Teslas, the Highway Loss Data Institute found there were fewer accidents with the EVs from other automakers, a drop of 20% compared to their combustion engine counterparts.

Bubble wrap

Up until a month ago, Campbell was still team Tesla — admittedly with reservations. But after the final hoops in the repair process, she’s over the brand.

“I would not buy a Tesla next time had I known it would take over two months and $14,000 for what amounts to a minor, cosmetic issue,” she said. “It has been so frustrating along the entire ordeal.”

Other drivers are likewise unhappy with the repair process.

Rebecca Kavoussi had her Tesla clipped while parked in a lot north of Seattle. The damage from the July collision was limited, but Kavoussi couldn’t get it in for a repair until November. It appears her fix might take only a month, but she’s still spooked by the specter of costly, drawn out repairs.

So when her family’s name came up on a Rivian waiting list, Kavoussi declined the purchase given the repair risks.

Matt Moore, senior vice president of the Highway Loss Data Institute, agreed there can be challenges with new manufacturers — but emphasized that the problem doesn’t stem from the vehicles’ mode of power.

“Startup and or niche automakers may have smaller repair networks or more expensive parts, regardless of whether they’re selling electric or conventional vehicles,” Moore said via email.

Campbell just wishes she could bubble wrap her Tesla.

“I’m afraid to drive my car now for fear of getting hit,” she said, “and having to deal with it all over again.”