Helio owned retail and kiosk stores close
Posted by Justin B. on June 26th, 2008 at 09:16 PMThe day has unfortunately come, corporate owned Helio retail stores and kiosks have finally been put to rest these past couple of days, but this has no affect toward third-party retailers selling Helio. This move comes in part of Helio’s long rumored talks of merging with Virgin Mobile. While there is still no official word from either Helio or Virgin Mobile (there should be one soon), the stores have closed to focus their distribution in other areas that are making more profit.
Here’s a reminder of what some of the Helio retail stores looked like, they are pretty awesome looking, and it’s a shame to see them gone.
A little birdie also told us that Helio/SKT and Virgin Mobile have still been in talks up to this point, and may very well be in talks up until the news hits the wire. Is that good or bad? We’ll know when that information is revealed. We’re hoping good though!
June 26th, 2008 at 9:31 pm
Yeah and the three 3rd party kiosks near my house all closed last year. So… hopefully Best Buy picks Helio up again.
June 26th, 2008 at 10:31 pm
Noooo….. Those stores WERE awesome!
June 26th, 2008 at 10:34 pm
What a bummer. I thought helio had a good chance
June 26th, 2008 at 11:33 pm
didn’t you just spend a week complaining about unsourced articles, then your big story after the sh*t actually hits the fan is from “a little birdie”?
one thing i hate about helio is that its member base is made up of retarded 12 year olds
June 27th, 2008 at 12:38 am
Yes, I did. They are unsourced, and they have inaccuracies. If you even read my news post, you’d see that the only piece of it that is referenced to someone else is the part where I said that VM and SKT/Helio were still in talks, which uhhhh last time I checked, isn’t wrong. The only thing we are waiting for at this point is OFFICIAL details on the matter, none of which the Engadget, Gizmodo, we at Heliocity or any other site/article has at this point. I did not claim that “Helio is GONE!”, or “SKT loses faith, HELIO IS DEAD!!”. Why did I add this in there? Because I needed to tie this post into the VM merger discussions. It’s not like I claimed this person told me that Helio is dead, dolphins everywhere in the world suddenly died, and little children are no longer allowed to play kickball. That’d be a tragedy.
Let’s leave it at that, alright? If you have any further problems with me, or my news post, you can e-mail me.
Edit: I just wanted to add, I did for awhile not believe the rumors of Virgin and Helio merging when they first started to spread (about a month or two ago). Now though, there’s no denying that it’s happening. I’m an avid Helio user, I love the service and I have no major problems with it, so why would I want to believe them? Anyway, that’s all in the past, and what matters at this point is now and the future.
June 27th, 2008 at 3:19 am
I bought my Ocean at the San Diego store back in February. I remember the good service, relaxed atmosphere and open layout. Truly, it was a waste of space, and could have been used as a sales store/internet/coffee cafe, but sadly that failed. Too bad too. I doubt I would have gone back to the store for anything, but I liked knowing it was there.
I’m still a fan of my Helio service and everyone i know likes my Ocean, even my friend with his new World Edition Blackberry through Sprint. If things fold or merge, I might just jump back to Sprint, but I am holding out for the chance to still be on board an alternative and see if an MVNO can actually make it.
June 27th, 2008 at 4:17 am
That really sucks, the Santa Monica store was awesome and so were the people there. And Justin i know it’s something hard to believe but it’s happening, kinda hard to be a skeptic on this one. I’m glad a friend of mine told me alot sooner i left and went back to Sprint, and purchased an Instinct.
June 27th, 2008 at 7:36 am
My question is, If Virgin buys Helio, will I still have to stick with Virgin Mobile afterward? Or would I be able to leave without any penalties?
June 27th, 2008 at 7:42 am
well it’s on the news now, Virgin buying HELIO for $39 mil
June 27th, 2008 at 7:48 am
It’s official, MVNO lone survivor Virgin Mobile is picking up the struggling Helio from SK Telecom and Earthlink for a cool $39 million in Virgin Mobile USA stock. They expect the deal to close in Q3 2008, pending regulatory approval. The acquisition comes as no surprise, but it’s still sad to see the one true innovator in a mostly doomed MVNO space fall to that pesky little “completely failing to make money” thing. The good news is that it while the Helio brand will be phased out, Virgin Mobile isn’t just in this for the 170,000-ish subscribers it’ll be picking up. They plan to leverage Helio’s technology and content offerings, not to mention the willingness of its customers to pay a few extra bucks for the perks, to build the Virgin Mobile brand into new spaces — spaces which hopefully prove profitable and Ocean 2-ey.
from - Engadget.com
June 27th, 2008 at 7:49 am
It looks like the NYC store is open, no?
I’m glad the third-party locations are remaining. Two of my buddies sell over 70 Helios a month at their store. If I remember correctly, didn’t AT&T have the same problem a decade ago when they launched a bunch of corporate locations, then closed them down to focus on indirect dealers? Hopefully this works for Helio.
What about calling the post-paid line “Helio by Virgin Mobile” and the pre-paid just “Virgin Mobile”?
Similar to how they segment clothing, i.e. Armani, Armani Exchange.
June 27th, 2008 at 7:59 am
Hey Justin, you sound like a little girl with her fingers in her ears screaming “SANTA IS REAL”.
It’s over, you lost. Helio has been bought by Virgin Mobile already for 39 million. Virgin Mobile got a great deal considering Helio’s debt and poor management.
Now two things need to happen ASAP; allow current subscribers to leave ETF free, if they want, and fire the entire customer service staff.
June 27th, 2008 at 8:43 am
To add to this article, more than 1200 3rd party dealers will be shut down by year end, like i said before, virgin will stick with its radioshacks, sprint kiosks, wal-marts, targets and etc…. sucks lol
June 27th, 2008 at 8:45 am
justin you sound like a girl
June 27th, 2008 at 9:49 am
the instinct lacks in instant messaging and since i travel, move around, and constantly making friends all the time having instant access to a wide # of im programs is a must. also the browser still sucks in comparison to the oceans. do any of sprints phones offer instant messaging?
June 27th, 2008 at 10:11 am
wholly jezus.. if i have to spend more again for phone service .. i’ll go caveman.. send me smoke signals.. screw the man!!! that is untill they pass a law on smoke signals and somehow make you have to have a license to send em or some crap like that..
so there are no and never were any stores or kiosks or 3rd party retailers where i live.. humm oh well. but lets all have a drink on one h&ll of a great phone. or well least its better than most the others out there..
then again.. now comes open source programming on phones in the very near future. go read about it.
and the irony of that is, when one company creates something for their phone, the other companies can adapt it and put it on their phones in their own way legally and for free(as it is open source).
and justin .. sorry.. you did sound like a lil girlie..
June 27th, 2008 at 10:17 am
Yes the Sprint Rumor supports AIM, probably because it has a qwerty keyboard. Try searching around Sprint’s website for devices enabling IM.
June 27th, 2008 at 10:20 am
isnt VM bad all that save the internet stuff?
June 27th, 2008 at 10:40 am
http://www.helio.com/page?p=virgin&
that official enough for ya? jesus.
June 27th, 2008 at 10:50 am
First of all to all the lame asses who keep blaming everything little thing on Justin SHUT THE F*** UP ALREADY! Gosh get a life. I think he made his point well in his post. Lets end it at that. HE wasn’t calling any of you out, you don’t need to go sit for hours and think up a new insult which by the way “Justin you sound like a girl” yeah real good one guys. Whew don’t know how he’s gonna recover from that one. On that note:
I have talked to a helio rep and other people have e-mailed. Helio says business as usual. Now I know yeah even if it is bull they wouldn’t admit they were goin down. They told me they did close down 43 kiosks and retail but they are focusing on internet and tele something or other sales. Which to me sounds like business wasn’t going the best. But we just will not know until one of these companies just admits or officially says something. You can’t go off random sites. I mean I have never even heard of half of those places. Maybe im just out of the loop. But I really don’t care. Look if Helio goes down then it goes down. If it doesn’t then thats cool. Either way people need to quite whining and crying about it all over this forum. Do we really need 20 posts asking the same damn question about whether Helio is getting bought out or what helio users should do if it happens? And Why is it all of a sudden Justin’s fault? He isn’t CEO of Helio! HE can only go off what he reads too. Cut him some slack sheesh. This forum used to be awesome and easy going but ever since these rumors no one seems to be able to talk about anything else. And every post gets hijacked by some ass hole(s) who think they know everything and need to make sure that everyone knows it. Now everyone does have the right to state an opinion this is a forum. But personal attacks are just childish. Grow up people. Accept what may or may not happen and move on with life.
June 27th, 2008 at 10:51 am
And thank you bpm for actually posting some reliable truth and source. There people happy now?
June 27th, 2008 at 11:04 am
lol,they were callin’ justin ‘helio’s head kool-aid drinker’ over on howard forums,lmfa0o0o0 *strokes chin* but can you blame the man,his whole site/ad revenue depends on helio’s existance!shouldnt have that blind faith though partner(im guilty as well,i told plenty of people ‘NO,helio is NOT closing.i mean,look@all the rumors the company has survived thus far!hopefully,in furture peices youll be more honest w/ us helio customers on what we need to do,as to avoid ETF’s if we dont wanna go to virgin!also,if the ocean is allowed on virgins network(and less say the oz2 perhaps one day),wouldnt the fact that apps and games for the ocean have to be custon written and wrapped for the ocean make this site somewhat still relevant?
June 27th, 2008 at 11:22 am
just saw on helio’s site thet we’re NOT gonna be exempt from ETF *rolls eyes* FK VIRGIN and HELIO!!!
June 27th, 2008 at 11:49 am
Liek omg, I fail to see where I sounded like a girl, but whatever. UR internet wordz don’t hurt me!!
June 27th, 2008 at 4:37 pm
yo…any fans of Buddy Beacon out there? Wonder what this means for us. I know that you can get it on Sprint…it in an app called WHERE. Someone told me it’s free, gonna check it out. Buddy Beacon rocks!
August 15th, 2008 at 1:16 pm
When I started working at GameStop as lower-management a year ago, we still had a deal with Helio. I was sad to see that terminate, and then I was shocked to find the Helio kiosk at our mall gone, too! I’m still keeping the faith, because I love my Ocean even with its flaws, and I’m looking forward to the Ocean II.