Saturday, August 25, 2007

Shipping started according to e-mail!

A few persons are posting that they have received the following e-mail:
"Hello *********

This message is to inform you that the following order has been shipped.
Order Number: ********
Order Total: 1038.5 SEK
Tracking Number: 00000000
Shipping Method: Scandinavia
Product Provided by: www.medisoncelebrity.com
Comments : Will be delivered to your home by Medison
Thank you for your order,
2Checkout.com
www.2checkout.com"

The message itself seems legit, that's just how 2co's shipping confirmations look, and the "Shipping Method: Scandinavia" is the same as it says on 2co's order page.
However; no tracking number or shipping provider is noted, and 2co them self wrote "at this time no laptops have been shipped" just one day ago.
What this means at the moment is very hard to say, because the only thing someone with access to Medison's account at 2co needs to do is:

"To mark your orders as shipped, please follow these steps:
1. Log into your 2CO Account Homepage.
2. Under “Helpful Links” click on the “Mark” link by “Mark Shipping”.
3. Choose the format you would like to search by and click the “submit” button.
4. On the Shipping Page you will need to enter a tracking number (or other text, if this does not apply).
5. Confirm that the Shipping Method is correct
6. Choose to notify the customer or not.
7. Add comments, if you like.
8. Click the “Mark shipped” button."

This brings me back to a question I asked 2co three weeks ago:

Tommy: "You say that no money are transferred to the suppliers account unless that the order is "marked as shipped" in your system. What does this check mean, is it just a box to check, or do they have to provide a tracking number that you follow up in all orders by automatic means or other?"
2co: "We will require tracking information in this case. Due to the large number of orders we will undoubtedly permit an alternative method for supplying 2Checkout with that information in place on having to individually enter tracking information for each order."

2co has also answered this previously, when confirming the fact that shipping isn't free:
"All customers who pre-ordered will have shipping costs identified via re-invoice and be asked to re-authorize the order. Free shipping may still apply to the Scandinavian orders to which it was originally intended". This has not happened and Valdi has already confirmed before that shipping isn't free to Scandinavia either. The previously reserved amount has however now been withdrawn from the customers cards according to several persons.

All in all, I would say that this e-mail makes the whole thing look even more fishy...

Edit: The orders was marked as shipped Saturday morning Swedish time.

35 comments:

Anonymous said...

in one of the messages on the 2co forum they state that they will follow up each order with a phone call as it is their policy to confirm that the product is as advertized before they dispense the money. If they are already dispensing the money then they lied as well.

Anonymous said...

"How do you know when they ship the computers? How do you know that they arrive? How do you know that the packages ain't empty?"

The short answer: Because our verifications process involves calling customers.

For a longer explanation, please see the following Knowledge Base article:

http://www.2checkout.com/community/?p=25
http://www.2checkout.com/community/support/topic.php?id=211&page&replies=19#post-1172 there is the source

Tommy TruthSeeker said...

As I have understood it, it is correct that the money will be withdrawn when the computer has been "marked as shipped" but that they won't transfer the money to medison before it it confirmed that the customers has received a working computer.

Anonymous said...

When they say their process "involves calling customers", does that mean calling all customers or just a selected few?

If they're going to call everyone of Medisons' purported 300,000 customers they are going to need one hell of a call-center.

Tommy TruthSeeker said...

I've already asked that question previously too:

Tommy: "In the manual investigation process, you say that it includes calling customers. Lets say that a supplier says that they have shipped 5 000 orders, how many do you check manually with a positive answer before the money is paid to the supplier? 1%? 10%? Do you wait until everyone who you ask actually has received the product?"
2co:"4. The percentage is higher on a new 2Checkout account and is continuous. We do wait until the product has been received in order to make sure, as someone mentioned in a comment somewhere, that the box isn't full of bricks or newspapers, etc. We're looking into a dedicated Customer Service queue as well so that any customers will be able to bring their concerns to us and we'll be able to track and get responses to those concerns as efficiently as possible."

So it's not all, and not a good answer.

Anonymous said...

Tommy, all in all, apparently being in the online CC processing business of mediating between insane sellers and stupid buyers, is more complex than it sounds.

Which makes it even more confusing why 2CO would take unneeded risk with an obvious vaporware product.

Anonymous said...

As I've wondered before.
They can't withold medison their money until they've got ahold of people right?
I wouldn't want my company waiting weeks after shipment until I've received a penny... Legit or not...

Isn't the whole idea behind 2CO (no matter what they say) that if it is a scam they simply cancel everything but they have no means to figure that out beforehand.

So they would refund (eventually as it says on their site) the first customers and cancelling all orders that are processing.
And in this magnitude thats enough for Vladi to make a fortune.

What have I missed?

Anonymous said...

According to Medison's web site, the specifications may change without notice. Below are the key specifications of this laptop as they appear today:
1. Cheaper than anything else on the market!
2. Produced in Brazil and apparently originally designed through a copy-paste process from Clevo's web site by someone who also wants to be the next prime minister of Sweden.
3. Delivered through air mail.
4. Easy to carry around. Is the lowest weight of any laptop.
5. Very durable and never needs repair.
6. Very environmentally friendly. Made of the disposable material called "Air".

If you ordered one of these laptops and it seems to disappear for you, it might be because of the above specification 6.

Anonymous said...

It will very interesting to see 2checkout's response to the questions about the missing tracking information.

2co writes in their information for merchants - "If you ship tangible goods always provide us with good tracking information whenever possible as soon as possible. Do not provide fraudulent dates that can and will be given to a customer who contacts us for shipping verification. That is a sure way to get an order refunded and to accrue negative risk markers on your account."

It appears that 2checkout puts a strong emphasis on correct tracking information.

I am sure 2CO will ensure correct tracking information is supplied by Medison as well.

Anonymous said...

This is interesting... Although I'm 100% convinced it's a scam, I still don't see Valdi's gain from working with 2co. Time will tell how this will turn out. IF Medison manages to pull through a scam with the help of 2co, 2co will be a dead company.

Anonymous said...

click on 'The CEO' have you guys seen this? http://engvall.org/intelligentia/

Anonymous said...

oh NO! the plot thickens... Nominations lol. great find!!!!

Anonymous said...

ok.. well now we have a phone number.. it may be old.. but hey

here it is: (from that site posted 2 above me)

phone: +46 (0)455 - 300 122

Anonymous said...

The Intelligentia site is ancient history. My friend worked for them and for some really dumb reason he put a backup of the site on his site.

From what I gather Valdi was not much to be reckoned with.

Unknown said...

I wonder what the point would be to start marking orders shipped, if they werent really shipped. might it be that valdi actually can get his hand on the money ?

if so, does he intend to scam them, or does he still belive he can ship computers and just think he needs some quick bucks to make it happen ?

Anonymous said...

Please everyone stop beating a dead horse. It's kinda pathetic.

In less that 24 hours 2CO should reply if the mails are fake or not, why there's no tracking information, only then speculation would have a chance to make any sense.

Anonymous said...

A dead horse?! Whack it! Whack it!

Anonymous said...

My guess is, this advertising money he banking on, won't be released until products are shipped. Perhaps he thinks he can loosen that money by saying "computers are shipped, let's get those ads up for all those people about to receive laptops".

Anonymous said...

I'm your guy. I can what a dead horse, off a dead horse.. whack off a dead horse.

Anonymous said...

"The message itself seems legit, that's just how 2co's shipping confirmations look, and the "Shipping Method: Scandinavia" is the same as it says on 2co's order page."

Sorry for beating a dead horse but my suspicion is that Medison themselves built and released this email on the forums.

They can receive test emails as account owners to test the procedure, and they are trying to lure advertisers.

Advertisers aren't coming: so they're trying to make it look as if shipping is starting in attempt to lure some people into trusting them.

Just my wild guess, and of course I'm most likely wrong, but things seem to fit in.

Anonymous said...

"the guy with the glasses sa...
Advertisers aren't coming: so they're trying to make it look as if shipping is starting in attempt to lure some people into trusting them."

I have had a conversation with their salesmanager and he said that they would start shipping this week. My comment to him was that i am not ready to buy any advertising until i am sure that they deliver computers.

Anonymous said...

wait a minute! You actually TALKED with someone at Medison? You're talking to them more than 2CO then...They ain't saying nothin' now.

Anonymous said...

Wasn't 2CO supposed to respond by now? I'll be damned if they're not having a talk with Medison about this right now.

Or trying to.

Anonymous said...

Only 3 days left now, interesting to see what the new delivery date will be. My guess is 17.09 that sounds good:P

Anonymous said...

The mails are fake, stop fussing about it.

Also, you can bet there will be fake delivered laptops on 31-st.

I'd be curious if the purported Celebrity owners could tell us who's the mystical manufacturer of those infamous computers by looking at the (hopefully) intact sticker on the back.

Anonymous said...

To protect the identity of the thie...sorry, manufacturer, all serial numbers will be removed.

Luckily, there's always Intel CPUID.

Anonymous said...

Btw, can you open:
http://www.2checkout.com/

or, have the shut down ... ??? (I can not open the page)

/Ian

Anonymous said...

"Btw, can you open:
http://www.2checkout.com/

or, have the shut down ... ??? (I can not open the page)

/Ian "

- Online again ...

/Ian

Anonymous said...

I tried to make a purchase. I saw the AmEx logo on Medison's first page. When i came to check-out they don't accept AmEx ....

I guess it looks nice with the AmEx logo on the front page even though they don't accept it. I guess it is the same thing with the computer ... it looks nice on the picture ... but there are no computers to be delivered ... :-)

Anonymous said...

On Swedish CINT forum, the person EmmaFX that that claimed she had received delivery of the computer was exposed today as fake. The account was registered using a fake email through a proxy server anonymizing her identity. EmmaFX was apperently posting on the forum in portugese while stoned, saying she was in Brazil enjoying the free money from the Swedish donkeys [sic]

Anonymous said...

A simple Request,

can you take down the F-Bombs on the main page, it blocks it at work and I cant get to the page.

Thanks.

Tommy TruthSeeker said...

I changed the ones I found in the Yahoo-hack post. Hope that was all?

Anonymous said...

2checkout.com has apparently met with Valdi. Although they will not release the information from the meeting they say that 1) everyone who orders a laptop will receive one or 2)customers money will be refunded.

Anonymous said...

Nice, to have 300k ppl money times $150 for like half to a year...Iam sure everyone will get a refund...thats the hole idea.

Doc
/nyabud@hotmail.com

Anonymous said...

http://www.medisoncelebrity.com/buynow.html

At the moment our webshop is under construction.
Please come back later when we re-open the shop

Yes, unbelievable what keeps this man going.