Saturday, September 1, 2007

The latest news: No news!

So, it's now the first of September in Sweden, and the first deliveries from Medison was supposed to been yesterday according to Valdi's last delay-notice. It's also one week since the first shipping notices was sent out, without any tracking numbers or information on when those orders should be delivered or from where they were sent. So what happens now? Seems like no one knows, or at least wants to talk about it.

IDG/PC För Alla wrote an article about it yesterday (Friday the 31st that is) where they sum it up and they also state that they have been in contact with several distributors and shipping partners since EMEA Services jumped the ship, but no one has any partnership with Medison. They have also talked with the service provider Infocare again, and they state that they still don't have any contract and it seems like there won't be any (surprised?). They have also tried to contact Valdi several times without any result.

And the last of yesterdays non-news is that 2co wrote an "answer" to my open letter that don't have any answers at all. Just some random BS not relating to my letter at all:

"This is to reiterate that 2Checkout is in continuous contact with Valdi in regards to Medison and their Celebrity laptops. On two occasions, we have met face to face with Valdi to address your concerns and to help solve certain logistical problems. If you have placed an order, be assured that no funds will be taken from your card unless the item has been marked shipped. If your order has been marked shipped, no funds will be released to Medison until you have received your laptop.
2Checkout would like to thank all of you that have been active in our forums in your search for information. We will continue to answer questions that fall outside of our privacy policy in the attempt to keep you as informed as we can.
It is in the best interest and a matter of integrity for 2Checkout.com to continue to protect it’s customers (you) and it’s vendors (in this case Valdi), in effect, you are all 2Checkout customers.
I would like to thank you all for your patience regarding these matters."


I don't understand why they even won't try to answer the most important questions, at all. Not the questions asked by me, or anyone else. They have written stuff like "We will continue to answer questions that fall outside of our privacy policy in the attempt to keep you as informed as we can." several times now, but haven't replied to any question at all with a valid answer since the shipping notices was sent out.

Feel free to create an account on their forum and ask for answers, it might help if they see that more people actually are interested in their actions and answers! The thread is located at http://www.2checkout.com/community/support/topic.php?id=309

162 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Feel free to create an account on their forum and ask for answers, it might help if they see that more people actually are interested in their actions and answers!"

You're like the kid that shouts louder and louder when no one (i.e. 2CO) pays attention to it.

Don't ask people to spam their forums! This is way below the level of this blog as I initially thought it.

It's quickly degenerating into classic trolling, please don't do that!

I realize it's frustrating without up to date info, but get this: they have nothing to say you can't infer already.

It's a total and complete failure. No one likes to talk about his failures much.

Anonymous said...

You know what I was thinking, everyone said that he shows up in the press way too much, for him to be a "classic" scammer.

Scammers would usually not communicate with anyone, and just silently leave their traps work for them.

Guess what, he's apparently learning, huh...

Anonymous said...

Just wanted to thank you for your almost daily blog-news... it´s big-time the best follow-up i´ve found on the web. Tackar!

Anonymous said...

The link to the article in idg not working.

Anonymous said...

2CO talking about integrity and protecting customers is on the same level as when Valdi talks about becoming prime minister of Sweden.

Don't we love all those nice empty statements from these two companies?

Three of my favorite Valdi slogans are:

"We have experience and a global network."

"Our strength is our global network and global experience. Therefore our market is global."

"The road to success is through hard work and by going step-by-step."

I'll give this to Valdi however:

"The road to fame is through selling something everybody wants online for an unrealistically low price".

I probably spent more time making mine than Valdi did making his though... :-)

Anonymous said...

Did it ever occur to you that you might actually be corresponding with Valdi himself when you think you are discussing with 2CO?

What if this is a part of the scam - Valdi somhow managed to get himself or one of his fellow scammers into a position where he can receive and reply to e-mail adressed to 2CO.

I mean how difficult can it be to get a low salary job at a bulk-payment agent like 2CO? Perhaps that was even the idea that started this... Medison Celebrity scam grew out of the idea about "what if I could get into a position where I can act as a customer representative for 2CO?"

I guess the only way to find out is to call 2CO over the phone - that is if you got one...

Anonymous said...

give them another week, if nothing happens call the police, fbi, mib, cia, al gore etc

2co made it clear about the money issue. customers WILL be charge as soon as item is marked shiped, but no money will be released to medison unless recived. its they're gay ass attempt to secure customers.

how are you suppose to know if u recieved it or not without tracking? 2co just wants to scam money, like medison, i bet they're both in on it.

Anonymous said...

Agree, 2CO is not a second better than Medison or Valdi himself.

2CO still takes orders and absolutely should be extremely concerned at this point.

And there is no excuse like: oh we have so many vendors that we can't investigate each of them.

Alright, but what about the vendor of the world's cheapest laptop?

Even if this was Dell or Walmart the president of the company would ABSOLUTELY SURELY know they are leading the world selling something like a laptop at an unbeatable price.

So if anybody at 2CO is preparing "the excuse" for being part of this; just simply forget it at this point. IT'S TOO LATE!

Anonymous said...

Get it strait! 2CO is selling the laptop to you, not Medison.

So 2CO were the F* is the Laptop. I'm suing your ass in every state between Ohio and Oregon.

Tommy TruthSeeker said...

"You're like the kid that shouts louder and louder when no one (i.e. 2CO) pays attention to it.

Don't ask people to spam their forums! This is way below the level of this blog as I initially thought it."

Sorry, thats not how I meant it to sound. It's just that they seem to have something personal against me, they have already tried to discredit me. And since it's quite few people asking questions over there, they just might not understand the magnitude of the interest that I feel from people. I was just looking for a couple of more people asking them to answer, not spamming.

Anonymous said...

Tommy, be aware that there might be comments here done by Valdi or 2CO staff members trying to discredit this blog.

Normal intelligent people should not have any problem understanding that Valdi and his one man online stunt show with no money, staff or experience to back it up is nothing real.

Anonymous said...

Three of my favorite Valdi slogans are:

There's another bunch of quotes from Valdi from the 1st August interview with the press...

"Vi har ordrar på väg på uppåt 300 000 laptops" (We have incoming orders at 300 000 laptops"

"Öhhh..." (Ehhh...)

and the most promising one...

"Vi är här för att stanna..." (We are here to remain)

How long would Medison remain in business? I may give them another week but I don't believe that any of their 300 000 laptops will show up.

Anonymous said...

Guys (and possibly Gals): don't let the discussion go down the drain with ridiculous suggestions that the negative feedback on this blog is somehow "paid by 2CO" or "by Medison employees".

Likewise, don't go as low as to suggest Tommy does this blog since he works for a "competing laptop company".

Both theories are quite hilarious and equivalent to an ostrich pushing his head in the sand to avoid trouble.

You'll get negative feedback if what you seem to be doing is bad from the subjective view of the poster.

Medison, 2CO and Tommy - all have their reasons to get negative feedback and this is how it works in the real world (as opposed to say, religion and cults).

Learn from the feedback, don't wrap it into shiny conspiracy theories.

Anonymous said...

"Normal intelligent people should not have any problem understanding that Valdi and his one man online stunt show with no money, staff or experience to back it up is nothing real."

Normal intelligent people realize that if one of two sides in an argument is wrong, it doesn't mean the other one is right.

Take this further, you can be right or wrong in different aspects at the same time.

The criticism towards Tommy doesn't suggest Valdi's business is legitimate. Read more carefully.

Anonymous said...

"Sorry, thats not how I meant it to sound. It's just that they seem to have something personal against me"

Why would this be, Tommy :P ?

You're like the classic example of a trolling journalist (trolling is the norm for most of the journalists nowadays).

You overly eager to get answers and prone to repeating yourself when you don't get them fast enough, or taking silence to mean that things are the way you think they are.

Intentions don't matter, what matters is the result.

I'm not saying this blog has gone south (yet), but maybe just think about this more before you go to 2CO for questions next time.

I realize it's hard to do, since every journalist/blogger faces the same problem of hitting the right balance, and often gets it wrong.

Comes with experience I guess.

Tommy TruthSeeker said...

"Medison, 2CO and Tommy - all have their reasons to get negative feedback and this is how it works in the real world (as opposed to say, religion and cults).

Learn from the feedback, don't wrap it into shiny conspiracy theories."
I totally agree on this. Not everyone likes the way I act or write, and I'm totally fine with that.

"You overly eager to get answers and prone to repeating yourself when you don't get them fast enough, or taking silence to mean that things are the way you think they are.

Intentions don't matter, what matters is the result."

The problem with this is that we need answers now, because ther eis a bigger risk now than never that customer will loose money. Whant should poeple that get their orders makred as shipped expect?
And I think I have been quite patient with waiting for answers, I do belive when five weeks have passed, it's time to ask those questions again.

Tommy TruthSeeker said...

And "I realize it's hard to do, since every journalist/blogger faces the same problem of hitting the right balance, and often gets it wrong.

Comes with experience I guess."

Yeah but it's hard when you don't get suggestions on how to do it in a better way. Most of the negative critizism can just be handled into the "whine"-category. Please tell me what I should have done instead of just complaining, helps me a lot.

Anonymous said...

"They have written stuff like "We will continue to answer questions that fall outside of our privacy policy in the attempt to keep you as informed as we can." several times now, but haven't replied to any question at all"

I worked in a tech support company some time ago and we called this "piss marking the thread".

When we'd not want to add anything more to an issue but it's a hot issue and threads keep appearing, we'd prepare a formal position and either paste it every few messages or rephrase it and post it again, so we seem responsive, although we're in fact not telling anything new.

It's not meant to answer any real questions indeed, the goal is to make the company seem responsive to any customer who finds this thread *later*.

The alternative is to censor the offending posts, and as such, piss-marking the thread is a little more fair practice, which I think you would agree with.

As this particular issue is discussed over hundreds of threads by now (I assume), the potential customer who finds your open letter thread, won't bother researching more, will instead opt for the authority of the company's response and believe the answers WERE given and you're just putting up a show.

Would they not reply at all, that would be suspicious to people who read this later.

Anonymous said...

--
Yeah but it's hard when you don't get suggestions on how to do it in a better way. Most of the negative critizism can just be handled into the "whine"-category. Please tell me what I should have done instead of just complaining, helps me a lot.
--

What you do? You post less. You post more concise, less speculation, less repetition. Make it seem you only speak up when it matters.

Don't sucumb to the pressure to post long posts when you know nothing has changed.

Make it like an event log. You just log "this and this happened", your neutral commentary, and that's it.

Sarcasm, speculation and repetition will kill your reputation.

Tommy TruthSeeker said...

"What you do? You post less. You post more concise, less speculation, less repetition. Make it seem you only speak up when it matters."
I write when I feel like I need to add something. And the only time I repeat is when I need to amplify something, not everyone reads every post on the blog. And I don't think that I speculate too much. Can you give any examples of where you find this to be a problem?

"Don't sucumb to the pressure to post long posts when you know nothing has changed."
I don't post at all when there isn't someting new, either in facts on a new viewpoint from me or someone else.

"Make it like an event log. You just log "this and this happened", your neutral commentary, and that's it.
Sarcasm, speculation and repetition will kill your reputation."
I have to disagree on this. I want this blog to have my personal touch to it. It gives me energy to keep posting, and most people seems to like it, it's impossible to suit everyone I'm afraid.

Anonymous said...

Well, Tommy, you asked what is my advise, I gave it to you. I'm sorry if you feel the need to reject it line by line afterwards.

Anonymous said...

ive said it before tommy keep up the good work and the rest of u negative jokers out there: sod off

Anonymous said...

Who are all these people who want to give Tommyo advice how to run his blog? Of course he will do what the hell he want. And he have done it very good, thats why I am reading it.

Valdi Wonka and 2co is a bunch of scumbags. Especially 2co. To say Valdi is it is to kick someone lying but its worse with 2co since they are trying to give the impression that they are serious.

Keep ask questions, and run them down if they do not answer the important ones.

Wonka and 2co are trying to steal from stupid and poor people, the makes me feel bad about all this.

Tommy TruthSeeker said...

"Well, Tommy, you asked what is my advise, I gave it to you. I'm sorry if you feel the need to reject it line by line afterwards."
I actually asked some questions too ;)

But as I said, I can't please everyone, but I think it's better to at least answer to the critizism instead of ignoring it just like Medison and 2co.

Anonymous said...

"I think it's better to at least answer to the critizism instead of ignoring it just like Medison and 2co."

Nice comeback :D I admit defeat.

Anonymous said...

There is always something positive in every situation.
We knew what Medison was up to.
The lesson?
Next time your are buying something on the web avoid 2CO or 2CheckOut.
Thanks for that.

Anonymous said...

"Next time your are buying something on the web avoid 2CO or 2CheckOut."

Please don't be silly. 2CO is in fact in half the online shops in the world.

It's a very big company. Yes, they're not handling this in the best manner possibly, but avoiding them? Avoid tap water while taking a shower will have better success than this.

Tommy TruthSeeker said...

"Please don't be silly. 2CO is in fact in half the online shops in the world."
I find that statement to be quite exaggerated, do you have any source of that information?


"It's a very big company. Yes, they're not handling this in the best manner possibly, but avoiding them? Avoid tap water while taking a shower will have better success than this."
I'm a quite active e-buyer but this was the first time I ever heard of them. Sure they are quite big, but e-tailers seems to change to other partners when they get bigger, since 2co is quite expensive and doesn't have the best reputation.

Anonymous said...

"since 2co is quite expensive and doesn't have the best reputation"

So basically they're like PayPal.

Tommy TruthSeeker said...

Yes, but I would say that Paypal is bigger and even harder to avoid ;)

Anonymous said...

:o

Anonymous said...

Hello folks!
We gonna ship computers very very soon. With the first ship from Brazil, step by step it will float on the waves to the success. Our partners, 2CO is still are able of making transactions, so everything is allright.Our partners 2CO will take orders till the end of the days, so dont be worry, our band is still tight as fuck! Instant delivery guaranteed.

Anonymous said...

Hey Valdi wannabe...that last message was stupid.

I wonder how the actual Valdi is spending his weekend and if he is still in Sweden.

Perhaps he just moved on with his life now and is trying to find another way to make a living?

Afterall it appears like he quickly gave up on his ambition in the Swedish tourism industry.

Anonymous said...

I have to admit that Medison just keeping quiet two days late after their own *second* deadline is creeping me out.

I work with plenty of companies and just shudder at the though of getting such a silent non-delivery treatment from a partner I rely on.

Anonymous said...

any news from the people with laptops marked "shipped" early this week?

Anonymous said...

Keep in mind the site still says:

"Shipping and handling is taken care of by our partner ___________ with its network reaching out over several continents."

Who does the shipping is a mystery.

Anonymous said...

Great blogg and really good work. Thanks Tommy! / Niclas

Anonymous said...

Ey Ey!!
At least there is a lot of folks did not buy anything from 2co... And there will be a lot more..
I guess everyone interested in this laptop knows this blog because this webspace is the best i have ever seen. Updated daily and fair information.

We, everyone, knew that medison was rubish, but we did not know if 2co was the bin.
Actually it is.. For real.

Very good work, Tommy, Very good work.

Anonymous said...

Yes, agree, 2CO is full of rubbish. I wonder how many hopeful buyers with low income and students who need a laptop for their studies have been fooled by 2CO's total lack of actions including simple warnings.

Everybody who reads this, please help make sure 2CO don't get away with it. They are abusing their legal position of allowing vendor fraud to become business for them without being sued. But wait, in this case they are indeed KNOWINGLY PARTICIPATING in a scam! No excuse please, including silly ones like "we were trying to hire someone to discover cases like this, see our open positions". 2CO's staff must suffer from an incredible lack of intelligence to not see this case of "the world's cheapest laptop". If 2CO did like all the other "partners" of Medison who ran away, Medison would have been stopped much earlier.

I don't think anybody should go after Valdi who is just a unique case of human psychology and who probably is in a situation none of us wants to be financially and otherwise. He apparently didn't even have a real income in Brazil and relied on his wife.

2CO needs to deliver what they've sold and to do so need to find a real vendor. Acer or Clevo are possible vendors that would allow them to minimize their loses. But obviously that still means a significant loss for them considering how unrealistically low US$150 is, but anything less would be unjustice and should be widely communicated across the Internet to allow people to understand how 2CO is abusing their position.

But first reasonable action of 2CO is to immediately stop taking more orders!

Anonymous said...

*sniffle* well said!

Anonymous said...

Valdi VS Bagdad Bob

Have u notice the similarities ... "There is no war here ... we have killed all the Americans"

"We have sold 300 000 computers ... the phone lines have been down the last 24 hours (days)." I am the CEO of a $50 million company ... and I am applying for job as the tourist manager in Karlskrona"

Good luck Brasilien Bob!

Anonymous said...

No news on Monday?

Anonymous said...

I checked through the threads about medison on 2CO, and turns out they are really tough to deal with.

At the beginning they sent everyone to talk to Medison THEMSELVES about any details.

Then they claimed THEY will talk to Medison to clear any details, and SHARE it with us.

Then after they talked, they REFUSED to share any information under some random privacy provision which curiously they forgot about in their previous answers.

This is totally laughable.

I'm looking at Tommy with new eyes now. But I guess this is why the way Tommy acts in this is so important, he's having the right position in this situation, but he should step very very carefully as to retain his credibility (unlike 2CO, which totally lost it in my eyes), since people are quick to label other people "trolls" or "spammers" even if it's not the case..

The information on the net and the posters are so many! There's only so much time to make proper judgment.

I guess I'll say in the end that 2CO is much easier on their vendors than their buyers. Come to think of it, it's only logical to be so: the vendors pick the payment partner, the buyers pick the vendor, they have no say in any of this.

Anonymous said...

I think that 2CO has done everything exactly right and as they should have done. They have addressed the concerns of their customers in public and without breaching confidentiality and privacy requirements. They have made it absolutely clear that no customer will loose money. They have not participated in any speculation and rumors about their business partners---speculation, which they aren't allowed to do and which can easily have legal consequences in a business setting. They have replied calmly and friendly even to people that run a blog with a choice like "scam or just a bad idea?" as the subject line of their blog. ;-)

What else should they have done? Hiring a private investigator to check the background of one of their thousands of vendors? Or just cancel the contract with a vendor based on sheer suspicions, even within the deadline extended once?

Just to make one thing clear, I'm NOT IN ANY WAY affiliated with 2CO (or Medison), not as a vendor, employee, or customer. This is just my two cents as somebody who is looking for a chap laptop. The problem I had with this blog from the beginning is really its title. Bad rethorics.

Anonymous said...

"What else should they have done? Hiring a private investigator to check the background of one of their thousands of vendors? Or just cancel the contract with a vendor based on sheer suspicions, even within the deadline extended once?"

Valdi is breaking the ToS of 2CO, the ToS was setup primarily as a guide when suspicions are good enough to cancel an account for.

No communication, no tracking number in the shipment notices, misleading shipment info and missed deadlines: good reasons to stop doing business with Valdi.

Anonymous said...

www.2coscam/info (?)

Anonymous said...

I'm not sure why the guy above is trying to protect 2CO, but 2CO CAN NOT hide under a silly excuse like "we have 1000s of vendors" when it comes to such an incredible unique case.

EVERYBODY at 2CO should be keenly aware about 2CO's new world leading position selling the cheapest laptop in the most booming consumer electronics indrustry!

How obvious does a case need to be before they stop taking orders???

Other "partners" detected the bogus nature of this much earlier.

What is it at 2CO that motivates them to keep taking orders and fool more and more of their customers?

Does 2CO think they have nothing to lose? What about reputation? I hope we can all make sure the world will know who was a primary participant in the "scam of the year".

All of you, please write mails to your local newspapers to start the domino effect of getting this story in the press, it has what the media wants (entertainment value).

Anonymous said...

FYI. The Medison Celebrity support page has changed to:

"We are working on setting up a 24/7 telephone support line."

So, they no longer claim that they are overloaded!

Still a mail-address to infocare.

Anonymous said...

Valdi might do some actions like slightly changing his web site to keep whoever is so incredible naive at 2CO believing his ever going to deliver.
He might actually try to buy time in hope for some vendor getting down to US$150 for a laptop.
Several laptop vendors seem to have a strategy of getting down to below US$300 in retail for a low cost model and soon Asustek should have one close to US$200. But US$150 and with the specs advertised...he will have to buy a LOT of time. Valdi might have had a conceptually good idea if he wasn't this agressive in setting the price too low.

But, what is in the mind of the 2CO management?

Anonymous said...

for 2CO it's just business as usual, that will be obvious once the deliveries get rolling.

O ye, of little faith...

Anonymous said...

If any of you is still looking for a cheap notebook, CircuitCity is selling one for 300 bucks (no rebates).

Anonymous said...

He didn't "spam their (2co's) forums" He simply encouraged people to participate in their forums in an effort to get more answers. That's what forums are - a place for anyone who wishes to create a valid account to participate in ongoing discussions.

Anonymous said...

New text on supportpage, probably changing it so it seems like they are doing something.

"We are working on setting up a 24/7 telephone support line."

Anonymous said...

I finally got one of the two Medison laptops i ordered. However Linux was not preinstalled.

http://bayimg.com/jagJCaAbI

Anonymous said...

please write mails to your local newspapers to start the domino effect of getting this story in the press,

Bad idea. More press would get Valdi more attention, more hits on his website and even orders.

The best that can happend now is that Valdi drifts away into obscurity, but with his name on google everywhere, so nobody that does research on him will ever forget.

Anonymous said...

Ive grilled them dude. Still no response worth anything.

This company sucks and everyone knows it. Dont anyone give them any money.

Anonymous said...

Please Tommy, go on with your research. The most of us like what you are doing and hope you will come up with some new news. Remember you are free do do your job in your own way, with your own touch. It´s your blogg! If somebody dislike it, let them pass by...

Anonymous said...

zebulus, please post all Medison responses. If they give poor or confusing answers it hlpes to show this in public.

Anonymous said...

Zebulus is in abstinence phase, he's now imagining he communicates with imaginary Medison employees.

You know, the ones selling imaginary laptops to imaginary customers.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, Here is what I said to 2CO:

2CO,

I believe that you, as a company, are more liable than anyone else here if this becomes sour and turns out to be fraud!

YOU have violated your OWN end user agreement in letting Valdi Ivancic do business through your site and persisting in taking peoples money. YOU are responsible for supporting Valdi Ivancic in his lies and assuring people in something that you know will never pan out.

You should never have done business with someone who can not and refuses to show evidence or any proof that his product even EXISTS!

YOU have violated international law by using the internet for fraud! In my and the Entire LM Alliance's opinion you are the one who holds majority of the responsibility, not Valdi, simply because you are the one who is taking the money from the end user, not Valdi.

Even if you refund it, you are still at fault for taking the money in the first place. This is not how you should conduct business. Promising a refund is NO type of legitamte warranty.

If i am incorrect, please correct me. I wish to hear your explanation. We all do.


And here was there response:

I am willing to answer questions regarding 2Checkout.com, but I will not compromise our integrity. If you were a vendor of ours and I had a meeting with you, I would not put the contents of that meeting on the open forums. There is a privacy policy in place.

We do not need a tracking number to do verifications this is done by telephone.

2Checkout has not violated any international law, nor have we condoned any kind of fraud.

You as our customer are completely secure, you will receive your laptop, or you will receive a full refund.


Say what you will about my comments, you should know before you post something grilling me I dont give a sh* what anyone says. Yes, I was very harsh on 2CO, and im proud of that fact.


But that's all I got, I will continue to grill them further. Here is the link to my post.

http://www.2checkout.com/community/support/topic.php?id=214&page=5

Anonymous said...

It's funny how fast and hard the press jumped on the $150 laptop announcement, and how nobody has made a peep about following up on the non-shipments...

Short attention span theater.

Anonymous said...

Love isnt Blind its retarded

Anonymous said...

About 2CO's reply:
2Checkout has not violated any international law, nor have we condoned any kind of fraud.

Knowingly selling something that clearly does not exist is FRAUD.

So how clear does "clearly" need to be for 2CO? Can I open a business at 2CO and start selling Airbus 380 aircrafts at US$ 1000 per piece?

The sad thing is that people ordering a US$150 laptop are getting fooled waiting for nothing and of course 2CO knows that.

Fraud is fraud and 2CO can not excuse being part of this anymore. It's totally nonsense they keep taking orders and have done zero in due diligence of this vendor.

Anonymous said...

OH MY GOSH I am so going to start selling something so ridculously fake on 2CO and see if they let me sell it!

Im going to sell WWII BiPlanes for $1 each!

Anonymous said...

I'll take one. Do they come in Red?

Anonymous said...

SIMPLE QUESTION FOR 2 CO:
WHERE IS MY LAPTOP?

Anonymous said...

SIMPLE ANSWER: ASK 2CO, NOT A BLOG

Anonymous said...

2CO will first have to find a real vendor for all the customers they have who they have sold a US$ 150 laptop to.

Thanks to 2CO some people actually believe MEDISON is real.

PLEASE don't accept just to get your money back. 2CO SHOULD NOT escape from this so easily.

Anonymous said...

Tommy, what deadline are we waiting for right now :P ?

Maybe the 6 weeks (mid September)?

Also do you have contact with some of the people who had their laptops marked shipped? They may have something to say (or if they have nothing to say by the end of the week it's still news).

Anonymous said...

Selling cadillac $150 each made in plant in brazil so cheap :)

Anonymous said...

Does it come in red?

Anonymous said...

Where is my laptop? 2CO dont respond. Medison as well. Maybe Tommy knows :)

Anonymous said...

foolio...

Seriously, what makes you think anything is real about this laptop?

Please don't accept when 2CO will try to reimburse you and when they give some made up excuse.

Anonymous said...

"Seriously, what makes you think anything is real about this laptop?"

Seriously everyone stop repeating the same thing like a broken record.

Anonymous said...

Was the Medison Celebrity Laptop offered in the 2CO Shopping Center? If it was, it has been removed.

Anonymous said...

"Was the Medison Celebrity Laptop offered in the 2CO Shopping Center? If it was, it has been removed."

-> https://www.2checkout.com/2co/buyer/orderpage/1257876?p1=1

Anonymous said...

https://www.2checkout.com/2co/buyer/orderpage/1257876?p1=1
Stupid bogspot!

Anonymous said...

I don't think the medison laptop was ever offered on 2co's official page. It was always given special treatment... another indication 2co knew something was different.

Anonymous said...

Article on CNET

http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-9772144-1.html

Anonymous said...

http://www.2checkout.com/community/support/topic.php?id=325&page&replies=1

Anonymous said...

Interesting. So now 2Checkout is claiming that Medison has started shipping laptops to customers in Sweden? Anyone seen any reliable proof of this? (Note the word "reliable" there, thereby exclusing the same hoaxsters who did the whole, "WOOHOO I GOT IT TODAY AND IT IS AWESOME!!!!111!!!111ONE!!!!" schpiel the last time Medison was supposed to have shipped but didn't, that is.)

Anonymous said...

from 2CO's forum:

http://www.2checkout.com/community/support/topic.php?id=325&page&replies=1

Eugene Michasiw said...

Does anyone know where Valdi is?
Is hiding in his basement or is he fleeing to some tropical island.

Anonymous said...

2CO must be incredible stupid to think this US$150 laptop is real and now they even believe products are delivered in Sweden. Amazing stupidity.

Of course Valdi must be doing something to fool 2CO to get money out of all this. Nothing else would make sense. Perhaps some of Valdi's friends ordered laptops at Medison and fake the report back to 2CO that they received them!

Anonymous said...

Received laptop
http://www.sweclockers.com/
forum/showthread.php?
s=&postid=7654296#post7654296

Anonymous said...

Received laptop here and here.

I have learned to distrust postings with many capitals and exclamation marks.

Anonymous said...

Hm, I realize now that one is just a reference to the other. The original posting is the second link.
(I don't read Swedish)

Anonymous said...

Please stop being ridiculous. US$150 is below the total component cost of a laptop of this specs and Brazil is not a cheaper place to produce laptops than China.

This is bogus and was from the very beginning. Sorry to say it. Valdi might have believe in it when he started to define his Medison Celebrity (specs from Clevo), Hollywood Celebrity and Star Celebrity (the latter two are found on a home made Flash site Valdi never completed).

Wake up...you can buy the brand new Apple iPod Nano with video for US$ 149 with 4GB. And that's not a too bad of a deal! Perhaps Valdi can sell that from his socalled "Apple Store" (another poorly designed web site).

But a brand new 1.5GHz full size laptop at US$ 150...gosh it's so stupid it's funny.

If someone received a real laptop it's because Valdi wants to get Medison to start releasing money to him.

If Valdi REALLY had a laptop in production, the only intelligent action would be to first send a few trial production samples to some of the known editors in the technical press. It could have saved him from all this bad publicity he is getting that pushed him into hiding.

This whole thing is just way too stupid.

Anonymous said...

Alright, I did a bit of research...

This is very bizzare my friends.
Search kag12345 on the Internet.

The guy who claims to have received the laptop was looking for a cheap laptop August 8 = much later than the first Medison orders that have not been completed.

He posted this question in C-NET:
http://crave.cnet.com/5208-1_105-0-10.html?forumID=142&messageID=2472937&threadID=226545

Same ID. It's just statistically unlikely it's someone else.

And, he say he is US citizen! Not Swedish.

Possibly this guy is from Cincinatti Ohio if you look at another web site where you can find his Road Runner e-mail account.

That's interesting for one reason. Cincinatti is in driving distance from Columbus where 2CO resides!!!

That is just EXTREMELY weird.

His name is possibly Ken Gallo.
http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i319/kag12345/1037421572_l.jpg

He might have this e-mail address:
kag12345@cinci.rr.com

I thought the first people receiving this laptop would be in Sweden considering that is where the web site was known first.

He might just be a real customer who received his laptop, but then why in the USA and why close to 2CO?

Anonymous said...

Here's my take. I thought I heard 2co say some laptops had been shipped in Sweden.

Valdi get his friends and relatives, the other company peoples friends and relatives to all buy laptops. He tells them they will get it, just not first. He needs there help to get the company off the ground.

They all buy and say they received it.

He get's 2co to release the money.

Maybe he goes and buys some cheap laptops and sends them out to the US. He tells 2co he sends out 10,000 laptops, gets them to release the money. They verify some, but not all. He just says shipping, border issues on some, they are on the way.

Gets some money, buys some more, ships some more and tells 2co this time he ships 20,000.

Gets the money and runs.

Classic pyramid.

Anonymous said...

A pyramid requires many people, this is just a scam. A conspiracy maybe even (two or more persons)
Heh I love the pic someone posted a few posts back. I recommend that pic :) We'll see when the police start looking for Vladi... How can anyone trust someone Named Vlad... the impaler anyone? :)
Someone needs to call InterPol

Anonymous said...

Already did, ive been on hold with them for quite some time now :)

Anonymous said...

Any luck so far? We're all ready the BS posts about people who claim to have gotten the laptops, but any actual confirmations? any luck getting a refund?

Anonymous said...

To the guy who posted all the bizarre info about kag12345. Very interesting, however there is no way kag12345 is a US resident. If you look at the Aug 8th post that you linked, his pragmatics are all wrong. A native English speaker would not word the message like that. He sounds more like he is foreign. Something to think about.

Anonymous said...

"To the guy who posted all the bizarre info about kag12345. Very interesting, however there is no way kag12345 is a US resident. If you look at the Aug 8th post that you linked, his pragmatics are all wrong. A native English speaker would not word the message like that. He sounds more like he is foreign. Something to think about."

Huh? Sounded native to me?

Anonymous said...

You guys may found this interesting:

2 weeks ago, he was questioning about the whole $150 laptop thingy here:

http://www.2checkout.com/community/support/topic.php?id=214&page=3&replies=4#post-1079

However, there're a few kag12345 on the net:

Cnet (location unspecified, speculated US)
http://my.cnet.com/5304-4_92-0-2.html?tag=tab&ursRegID=21888616197177075456509295409392

youtube (from australia)
http://www.youtube.com/user/kag12345

Cincinnati Amateur Hockey Assn "CAHA" (well, kinda self-explainatory, even contains his phone number)
http://www.buckeyetravelhockey.com/archives/arch2000/contacts/assoc011.htm

Now, the thing is, we would not know which kag12345 are we dealing with here. The one located on 2co may just be another decoy from whoever's behind all these.

Although the tone and use of punctuations suggest that the one who posted the message on the 2co forum listed above may be the same person who posted the "laptop arrived" story.

Now, I think it would be good for Tommy to call up the guy, Ken Gallo, just to check whether he's the person on 2co or not. Is there any method to trace back the poster's ip address on the 2co forum by ourselves? that would shed some us light on this issue.

Unknown said...

Ahaha, guys why the fuck are you running for that kag12345 like chicken around the egg? It's clear that there must be a hundreds of shipped laptops for a solid proof. That one is one more ill scammer...
Note, that 2CO MUST verify every laptop delivery, so they just have no right to release money to Valdi. THERE IS NO DELIVERED LAPTOPS AT ALL. and it's fucking weird 2CO still gets the orders. I want to beat Valdi with the fists)

Anonymous said...

I agree, of course the Medison "thing" is not real business and Valdi wont ever be able to deliver, but you gotta understand the extremely strange combination of things surrounding kag12345 claiming to have received a laptop.

Here is some information:
http://home.cinci.rr.com/kengallo/home/whois.htm

He seems to have worked or is working in IT security and have skills in Linux judging from his resume, so this is the guy I'm pretty sure.

If it wasn't because Ken Gallo is living in driving distance to 2CO it wouldn't be this interesting.

It smells a lot like fraud to me and 2CO's behavior simply doesn't make sense.

Anonymous said...

http://www.aleborg.se/blogg/?p=64 ;)

Anonymous said...

You wouldn't be trying to create some marketing buzz with that link now would you...

Anonymous said...

"http://www.aleborg.se/blogg/?p=64 ;) "
you get a paypal order form up and make shipping to the US available and I'm in for one. :)

PLEASE don't use 2CO though :(

Anonymous said...

This was -6 days ago

Hehe, I'd argue this line is getting funnier and funnier as the number gets bi... I mean.. smaller :)

Unknown said...

yep, all eyez on 2CO. Ok, medison is scam etc. But how long 2CO will support it? Thats nonsense! What the fuck are they thinking of?

Anonymous said...

Well one week has gone by past the scheduled shipping day. No word from Valdi. No word from 2CO in over a week.


I think we can pretty much call this done. Now we just wait for an official apology and public arrest of Valdi Ivancic.

Anonymous said...

105th Comment woot ;D

Punkonjunk said...

Hey!
My name's jake, and honestly, I hope this is true. a 150 dollar laptop is amazing!

As of now, what do you believe? after much reading and research I agree that it's definately sketchy, but this company promising to return the money is nice. Do you think this will actually ship?

Anonymous said...

Anybody knows how we can create a class action lawsuit against 2CO and Medison?

One possibility is that someone internal to 2CO is working with Valdi on enabling the flow of money to him and with the fact that one guy kag12345 (Ken Gallo) claims he received a laptop from Medison and is an IT guy living near 2CO's office makes me wonder.

Anonymous said...

I think that people are getting a little too paranoid off of this whole kag12345 claim that he received his laptop. People like this pop up all the time whenever you get a deal that's too good to be true. Read FatWallet or any of the other deal forums for a while, and you'll see hoaxsters pop up who claim to have gotten in on an impossible deal that, for one reason or another, no one else can get. It stirs up lots of attention, and they get to point and laugh at everyone who gets all worked up trying to figure out how to get in on it, or why it worked for the hoaxster but not for them. It's how people like this get their jollies and ego-boosts, I think. People like this popped up right around the first deadline, remember? Of course, they looked a little silly when Medison announced that no laptops had been shipped, and that they had to push the shipment date out.

Anyway, I really doubt that this kag12345 twit is part of some grand conspiracy. I think he's simply another person out there who is getting off on B.S.-ing everyone and watching everyone go nuts about it.

Anonymous said...

kag12345 might not be part of this whole scam but it's undeniable strange that the apparently only guy using this ID lives close enough to 2CO's office to actually work there.

Statistically speaking, it's a bit like finding a matching finger print on a global scale.

Anonymous said...

There could be several Ken Gallo but even if there was, it would be rare to see several of them in cases like this:
http://www.buyselltix.com/messageboard/openThread.php?id=5

Name: BuySellTix Admin
Fake email. - September 06, 2005 11:40 AM
An individual seller with email id : Bouche_117@yahoo.com (name: Ken Gallo) has been sending fake email under BuySellTix.com name. Please disregard those emails. We are not involved with payment and shipping of individuals tickets. You wil have to make mutual arrangements for shipping and payment. He is saying that buyselltix has authorized the wiring of money which is not true. Be aware of this individual.

Anonymous said...

Link to swedish article http://www.idg.se/2.1085/1.119615

The article states that money has been charged now from some accounts, but of course, no computer.

Anonymous said...

So, I guess this is how the story ends, huh. Just a plain old fade to black and everything gets quiet.

Anonymous said...

Swedish news says that 2CO claims that they have confirmed with customers that medison has delivered.

http://www.idg.se/2.1085/1.119731

Anyone who believes them?

Anonymous said...

How many are they saying shipped/received?

Anonymous said...

If this were true, and Valdi wasn't a complete idiot, he should have had somebody taking pictures at some of the deliveries being made.

Anonymous said...

And, if they really are shipping, don't you think there would be big announcement on the medison web site?

Anonymous said...

Translation from IDS articale, poor one I'm sorry.
2CO say only "Customers" no figure.
2 persons at 2CO have confirmed delivery but don't want to give out their name.
Customers contacted 2CO, not opposit.
____________________________
Hehe, when I receive my late laptop, first thing I do is to call croos the Atlantic to tell 2CO I recived it.

Pete

Anonymous said...

I reaaaaally hope that 2co isn't telling the press that laptops are being delivered based on kag12345's claim.

Anonymous said...

"I reaaaaally hope that 2co isn't telling the press that laptops are being delivered based on kag12345's claim."

They can't be that stupid, or can they?

As far as I can decipher the article (can someone post a proper translation?), there is no certainty that the 2CO spokespersons are indeed from 2CO

Anonymous said...

At this point 2CO can either be:

1. A company with a totally ignorant staff hoping in the impossible - a new laptop sold at under it's component cost.

2. A company participating in fraud; for example taking money from X customers and doing refunds to the less than X customers who complain.

3. A company with one or more staff members who work with Valdi and perhaps getting 50% routed back of the money sent to Valdi even products are not delivered. kag12345 certainly looks suspecious in that respect.

I would have liked to say there is the option possible of actually really delivering this Clevo laptop at US$150. But unless someone wants to lose money, that option is not there simply speaking.

Anonymous said...

IDG have been in contact with 2CO and there is NO reason not to trust IDG. Sorry for the translation again but I have big family and my english is poor. Maybe someone else can help?

Pete

Anonymous said...

Not saying my English is any better than yours, but here it is:

Contradictory information is circulating regarding the $150 dollar computer from Medison. Now 2Checkout, the company facilitating the purchases, says that the first customers have already received their computers. "Customers have contacted us and confirmed that they have received their computers", a spokesperson for the company says to Computer Sweden.

English translation of article MEDISON HAS DELIVERED

Anonymous said...

Article in PC for Alla:
Now Medison have started to charge those who have ordered a $150 laptop. Lennart Aspenryd confirms that money was drawn from his account on August 28. So far he has not seen any computer, but he is optimistic and is hoping it shows up soon.

Translation here

Anonymous said...

Something better be lost in the translation.

"No certain information exists about which customers it is, but according to 2Checkout it is probable that the first computers have been sent to Swedish customers. Apart from this the company does not comment on the Medison affair."


Are you telling me that 2co doesn't know in what country the customers that received the laptops are with any certainty? What, did a couple people just call and say "yup, got one" so that's it? That's confirmation?

Anonymous said...

just posted in 2co forum


geno
2CO Staff
Posted 3 minutes ago #


I apologize for being away from the forums for so long regarding this matter. I can tell you that Medison has been given a deadline. If that deadline is not met, all standing orders will be canceled and you will be notified when you can place you order again. This is not a reflection on Valdi, Medison or the product, but on system management and back end fulfillment issues. I thank you all for taking part on the forums and look forward to future discussions.



No mention that any have been delivered.

Anonymous said...

HOT of the press: 2Checkout has retracted their statement just now! http://computersweden.idg.se/2.2683/1.119780

I am translating it now. Stay tuned.

Anonymous said...

I really can't believe that Paypal would put up with this crap.

Anonymous said...

Translation of latest article:

2CO backs off: "No computers on the way"



The events surrounding the Medison $150 computer becomes even more bizarre. Now 2Checkout retracts the statement that the first computers have been delivered. The customers that had confirmed delivery are said to have been eager customers and bloggers who have tried to bluff their way to more information about Medision.

Anonymous said...

So 2CO's verification process included reading blogs.

Looks like they really aren't ready to handle anything but flawless operations (which I must admit, is still how most of their vendors do business).

Anonymous said...

"More than 7000 people have ordered a Medison computer from 2checkout.com, according to Geno Arce."

So the 293000 orders must have come from elsewhere... But we knew this is false anyway.

Anonymous said...

Tommy, your time has come ;) hehe, can't wait for his coverage.

Anonymous said...

What is it with everybody, do you believers really think it's possible to make and sell a laptop like this for less than US$150?

Why don't we just all pray and hope some God will solve all our problems including magically change the cost of computer parts?

Did 2CO finally realize that kag12345 is a Mr. Scam living in West Chester of Ohio?

Anonymous said...

Ya, if Valdi is banking on the 300,000 number to sell expensive advertising on the web site to subsidize laptop sales, this 7000 number from 2co just put the final straw on the $150 Medison laptop.

Geno is saying that the problem is a 'distributor' problem? So, Valdi is sitting on 7000 computers but no way to deliver them? What a load of bs. If that were the case, why not ask customers if they want it shipped with shipping payment due, since shipping is now extra anyway.

It's a major assumption by Geno that any exist beyond the 1 computer that Valdi took to this private meeting.

Anonymous said...

Since Geno also admitted there is a deadline, I think we can safely assume that 2Checkout now has realized this is not for real and are just going through the formalia before ending the relationship with Valdi. I would think the deadline is one or perhaps two weeks from now.


I don't think it's a coincidence that Geno surfaced again with this statement exactly one week after the delivery due-date either.

Speculation of course... I think we haven't seen the last unexpected turn of events yet.

Anonymous said...

"It's a major assumption by Geno that any exist beyond the 1 computer that Valdi took to this private meeting."

Would that have been the the same Clevo he showed at the press conference August 1st?

Anonymous said...

I wonder whether the laptop shown by Valdi to Geno was the one with Czech keyboard and scratched-off label at the back (as was the one presented at the news conference in Sweden:)

Anonymous said...

It's surprising but it seems Geno isn't aware about the history behind that PC that was shown at the press conference.

Anonymous said...

"It's surprising but it seems Geno isn't aware about the history behind that PC that was shown at the press conference."

He sits behind his name and can't confirm or deny rumors. No one has ever seen a confirmation this is a Clavo laptop (though we know it is).

If he claimed he knows the story and thus confirming it, he could open himself to a lawsuit (of course Valdi doesn't have the resources to file a lawsuit and go though with it, but why should Geno risk in the first place?).

Anonymous said...

They are still getting the orders... Stupidity in square

Anonymous said...

"They are still getting the orders...
Stupidity in square"

They won't after the deadline passes, obviously.

Anonymous said...

Is it possible Tommy abandoned us :`( ?

Anonymous said...

The more I think about it, when tight lipped Geno dropped the 7000 in sales number, I really think that torpedoed Valdi's business plan of partners clambering for a piece of his 300,000 sold.

Is he starting to distance himself from Valdi now?

Anonymous said...

the www.medisonecelebrity.com and www.medison.se sites seem to have disappeared, or at least be down.

Anonymous said...

Shit, they're down! So it's over hahaha.

Man, I wish Tommy was around today to give us his analysis on this whole mess.

I'm sure he'll write about it in the next 72 hours though. I'm looking forward to it.

Anonymous said...

Interesting. They are both turned off by the isp.

Perhaps, since 2co hasn't released any money to Valdi, he can't afford the $2 per month, per site anymore.

Anonymous said...

I wonder if that guy from Houston hacked his isp admin page? Nah, he would have put up some other pages, not just shut it off.

Anonymous said...

Give Tommy time, folks. As has been noted before, he has a life outside of sitting at a computer updating this, and this has been a pretty fast few hours that all of this has come down. I'm sure we'll have the skinny from him soon.

Anonymous said...

Medison is changing webhotel for the websites www.medison.se and
www.medisoncelebrity.com.

We are told that the redelegation will take up to 48 hours before our
websites will work again. We are doing our best to speed up the process.

During this time it will not be able to buy Medison Celebrity laptops
and it will not be able to reach us on e-mails.

Temporarily e-mail addresses are being set up and will be posted in
public asap.

Everyone who has ordered a Medison Celebrity laptop will receive a
laptop. For checking your orders or cancel the order, please contact
2CO on www.2checkout.com during these days.

Sincerely,
Valdi Ivancic
CEO & President
Medison Europe Limited

Anonymous said...

Heh, changing web hotels, good one. The site was shut down by the host.

If in fact the sites are reopened, it will be in a different jurisdiction, Russia no doubt.

Anonymous said...

Dear Valdi,

I'm sure if you have not already moved on, you read this blog from time to time...

You are certainly a great entertainer but poor laptop vendor. I love the entertainment you have provided though and hate to see things getting to the end.

Isn't this the moment where reality starts to kick in?

We all want to believe in the unbelieveable great outcome that everybody who ordered this US$ 150 laptop get it, everybody will become happy with it and you will get the credit in the end.

But now seeing your web site being shut down without notice is just another chapter in a pretty hopeless chain of events.

Isn't it a bit like being the captain sitting on the roof of a ship while everything below is under water and still hoping the ship wont sink while confirming it with a blind guy next to you with the name 2CO?

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...

I wonder if that guy from Houston hacked his isp admin page? Nah, he would have put up some other pages, not just shut it off.

07 September, 2007 23:33

Do you mean me? No trust me if i did it I would have claimed responsibility. You would know it was me. Nope, though I cant say I didnt want to. I really did want to. But now its done for me, heh.

Anonymous said...

But why would he change hosting right now.

It's not as if his site was slow or it's not as if he had anything at all on this site but few static pages.

Also I don't understand why would their hosting stop his sites. He's not hosting anything illegal, unless they believe this is a deliberate scam.

Anonymous said...

Exactly.

The writings on the wall, 2co is going to dump him. Who better than the Russians to process transactions. And then, no messing with EEU laws and enforcement.

Anonymous said...

Oh, and btw, the wording on that Valdi post was right on. Kudos to you.

Anonymous said...

Until now Medison was:

1. Valdi himself as Medison CEO, president, press person and blog master.

2. Some not very professional web pages on the Internet.

Now what is left of Medison is Valdi himself.

Gosh I miss those ridiculous slogans on the web pages!

By the way, that Ken Gallo is waking a lot of suspecion. Is he working with Valdi on all this?

Anonymous said...

The 2CO page still takes orders

Anonymous said...

... for 114.06 EUR :)

Anonymous said...

At least they have the currency conversion right.

Anonymous said...

I was thinking about buying a million Medison Celebrity laptops a 2CO just to see what happens.

US$ 150 million is more than my credit limit though (LOL) but I wonder if it would still go through.

2CO seems to have no control of anything.

Anonymous said...

Looks like Medison are in breach of 2CO's terms of service.

"You can sell through 2CO if:

* You maintain a Web site(s) containing complete marketing, advertising, and product information."

They have no website now. Also it mentions something about 'knock-off' products. Surely marketing another brand of laptop as your own would contradict this.

Anonymous said...

2CO has proved with this Medison laptop that they don't give a damn about anything. They have their legal rules that make lawyers happy but reality is that they are a bunch of dick heads who don't care about customer satisfaction in the end. Anybody who wants to sell something that is predicted to become a big hit before anybody else and before it's really available can use 2CO to get the business from the early buyers.
And if it fails, 2CO will just cancel the orders pretending they didn't do anything wrong.

2CO has demonstrated that they simply don't care about:
1. The product is real at the point of setting up the agreement with them - or even long after when customers start to complain.
2. Who and how shipping is done and paid for.
3. The product is supported with service and warranty according to the local laws of the buyer.
4. The product complies with mandatory requirements according to the local laws of the buyer (e.g. FCC).

2CO is a scammers paradise with the way it's setup. E-Bay is way way better.

Anonymous said...

Please continue with the comments on the latest (September 8) blog entry.