Saturday, September 15, 2007

So what now?

Yes, what now? Is the story over? What will happen next?
What we currently are waiting for is Valdi's press release that should come "soon" as he said last Thursday. Were also waiting on what action he will take with the now defunct order button on medisoncelebity.com, that hasn't been working since Wednesday. It wouldn't really surprise me if he set up an account with paypal, worldpay or Google checkout instead, or just claim that THEY chose to take down the order page until they have solved the "logistic problems" with current orders.

I'm also waiting on answers from 2checkout on the three following questions that should be answer without breaking any contracts or things like that:
  • Are Medison still able to mark the open "authorized orders" as shipped, without any proof at all like last time?
  • What will you require Medison to do to open up orders for them again, and what proofs of this will you require?
  • How long are the deadline until you cancel all orders if the above isn't met?

Anyway, I listened to Medisons press conference (the one from first of August). It's even more crazy when listening to it now in retrospective. As many people have requested it, I'm considering to transcribe some of the parts to English while waiting, if people still are interested in it. The audio files are over two hours, so it will probably take awhile, but I can do in parts and post it in sequels. I can give you a quick sample:

Journalist: - The computer has a Czech keyboard...
Valdi: - No, It hasn't. It, it has Czech keys yes, but it's not a Czech Keyboard.
Journalist : - But what are the definition?
Valdi: - Ehhh, no, this keyboard also have other... so... other keys except the Czech ones... that are on other keyboards. So it is not a Czech keyboard.

As a side note you can see from this photo taken at the press conference that it actually has a 100% Czech notebook keyboard layout.
So if you like me too do an English transcription, please give me a shout in the comments or e-mail me and I'll start work on it if the interest is high enough!

37 comments:

Anonymous said...

If I read correctly the various recent comments by 2CO staff members in their forums, there are no remaining orders anymore. No new orders are accepted, the orders that were inappropriately marked as shipped (and thus billed) are refunded and the remaining authorizations (orders) are resolved back into the customers account.

So, of your three questions, the first and third question have been answered. 2CO has effectively stopped doing business with Medison.

Tommy TruthSeeker said...

Now, that is the tricky part, their response about the "remaining authorizations" that has "resolved back into the customers account" is just the normal process of an order. If a order is made, and the card isn't charged, the reserved authorized amount will be reversed, but the authorization still stands if a future charge is made to the customers card. So as long as the order isn't officially canceled and the authorization itself are canceled, there is still a possibility to charge the customers card with the same amount. That is just an example why 2co are so bad at communication, they don't give an answer if those orders actually are canceled or not. As far as I know, no customers except the ones that had their orders marked as shipped has received any communication that their orders has been canceled.

Anonymous said...

I'd love to see a full, or at least pretty comprehensive translation of what you mentioned. I keep catching whispers of it and stuff, but no real translations. I'd love to hear more of it.

Anonymous said...

Tommy,
The authorizations are "resolved". A contract that is "resolved" is ended, is cancelled. Not the authorized amount is reversed to the customers account, the authorization itself is reversed to the customers account. That means that the authorization has been ended, does not exist anymore.

Tommy TruthSeeker said...

Everything except that points to that the current orders sill stands. Wording like "Due to the logistical problems currently preventing Medison Europe Limited from shipping their Celebrity laptop, and the backlog of current orders, 2CO has suspended accepting _new orders_ at this time." and "_Affected orders_ will be automatically refunded within the next 48 hours unless the customer specifically requests to suspend the refund at this time. _Affected_ customers have been contacted separately via email". They also write stuff like "_certain measures_ have been taken regarding Medison's account". They are in no way saying that they have canceled _all_ orders, except if you chose to interpret just that answer that specific way. If you look at previous comments from them containing those words we find: "The reserve, or authorization hold, can only last for a certain period of time before it "falls off." This is what happened. It does not mean that the order did not go through, simply that the authorization hold is no longer holding. This happens in about a week with Visa cards and 30 days with other cards, such as Master Card. When Medison ships the product, they will need to reauthorize the $150 and the money will be transferred at that time."
This answer was posted over a month ago, and as we all know, no "reauthorization" was needed to charge the customers cards, at least not from 2co's, Medisons or the customers side.

I'm not saying that I'm right, I'm just trying to say that it isn't clear, and that 2co needs to answer these simple questions to sort this out! And is it really much better if they have canceled all customers orders without notifying them?

Anonymous said...

When I first went to read this blog I thought this would be a short story where 2CO would quickly find out the facts about Medison/Valdi and stop any co-operation like other companies Valdi approached did.

From the very beginning end of July first thing I did after reading this blog was to check at FCC and was not surprised to find nothing from Medison and nothing that would be a Celebrity equivalent = no product legally allowed to sell in the USA.

I've been astonished to see how 2CO has maintained an ignorant role and can not figure the facts out in spite of numerous warnings and totally obvious facts.

I agree Tommy; 2CO needs to explain a few things in honesty and why they have maintained a position of Medison being a valid company.

Anonymous said...

Medison being a valid company.

Maybe they are dyslectic and misread Valdi company as Valid company?

Anonymous said...

I'd love to see the translation, but given 2CO closed the door for Valdi it may be only for our own entertainment and too much work for you.

So unless Valdi Comes Back 2 hits us, I'd be glad if you just bring out some highlights like the one about the keyboard ;)

Anonymous said...

Amusing tidbit... Recently a German company accidentally shipped boot sector virus with their computers.

The name of the company: Medion...

The name of their top laptop: ALDI

Now, this has nothing to do with Medison and Valdi... but isn't it funny how if you add just one letter to both, you get something familiar :)

Anonymous said...

C-NET added the Celebrity laptop in their review section long ago...

http://reviews.cnet.com/laptops/madison-celebrity/4505-3121_7-32559238.html?tag=prod.txt.1

What did they call it?

Madison

Surely there is something mad about Medison.

Anonymous said...

Sorry correction, ALDI is the supermarket where Medion sold their laptops (not the model name).

Anonymous said...

When you get your order canceled from 2CO, please complain to:

http://www.columbus-ohbbb.org/complaint.html

Use 2checkout to find the link.

It appears like 2CO will just try to walk away from this as if nothing happened.

Anonymous said...

Peter Mortensen... Peter Mortensen... Peter Mortensen... Peter Mortensen... Peter Mortensen...

Isn't this out peter. I bet he is.

Anonymous said...

out = our

Anonymous said...

It's not over. We've withheld our press release because of new developments with 2CO. To clear up some issues:

Yes, the decision was consensual, between 2CO and Medison to stop taking orders.

No, we won't sign up with another payment vendor, until we're ready.

Yes, blogs like this have actually hurt our ability to deliver this product, after all, on the Internet, it's all about company's image.

Still we're confident that we'll regain what we lost when we reintroduce the complete product later this year.

We'll be updating our site soon to reflect what I said so far, and you can check periodically for news.

Sincerely,
Valdi Ivancic
CEO & President
Medison Europe Limited.

Anonymous said...

This one looks like coming from the man himself, but take it with a large grain of salt, until it's confirmed on the site.

It wasn't me, anyway.

Anonymous said...

Valdi...next time you try to sell something, please start selling it AFTER you are ready to sell it like other NORMAL companies.

Personally I would be the first to congratulate you could pull this off but to build a business based on taking orders before having the products to sell is not fair to people ordering it or even 2CO.

Next time you come to Silicon Valley, let's talk.

Anonymous said...

Peter, there was a research recently that people in higher positions play more games, and read more blogs, since their work is less, and the higher salaries they receive make them perceive money as "easy".

Y'know what I mean?

Anonymous said...

>Y'know what I mean?
Perhaps, could possible apply for many of us in this blog.

Actually this is the first blog on the net that caught my interest.

"The world's cheapest laptop" is an interesting topic for many reasons. Certainly Valdi has contributed well in making it even more interesting.

I'm sure Tommy started this blog motivated by similar reasons as most of the readers here incl. you and I.

Although some people might be feeling betrayed in ordering a laptop that has not even entered it's mass production, I think the rest of us are just curious after finding out what really is going on behind the surface.

If Valdi wants to try again, I hope he will use all the feedback he got to make it succeed! :-)

Anonymous said...

To Valdi,

IF you are acctually reading this blog ...

Many people have your "illness" when they are 7-10 years old. At that time you can hear mostly boys bragging about how strong their grand fathers are or how much money there families have. You can also here amazint stories about vacation and what happened when you where not watching ...

Fortunatly, this illness goes away when a person matures ... for some reason that didn't happen to you. Instead, the illness progressed. Now you try to look the part with a suit and tie ... and nice mumbo-jumbo on a web page ... from Sweden to Brazil and from Brazil to Californa ...

How does it feel to be the laughing stock of the internet ... You are like Bagdad Bob standing in the mittle of a war saying that you killed all Americans ... not very belivable ...

Let me tell you Valid, people like you need to get their pants taken down i public ... actually for your own good. Because right now you are thinking ... I could have pulled this off, if it wasn't for blogs like this ... and for stupid advertisers and suppliers that failed to see your vision ...

Face it Valdi, you have NEVER succeeded doing anything right! You have started many ventures, but you lack the skill of bringing the projects to a close.

I am not writing this to make you sad Valdi, even though it is some hard facts! But, the reason I am doing it is that I know that the only way you can be "fixed" is if you realize that the game is over (and it has been for some time).

Go back to school, or take a job in a grossery store ... you owe your wife and your child that. Come out of the closset and admit that you are sick ... My name is Valdi, and I am a mytomania!

After this big blunder you will NEVER be able to get trusted again --- thaks to the Internet.

And to the people (you know who you are) who still have a mailadress and a name out on the Medison web page ... my strong advise is to get your name out of there ... start preparing your defenses how you could be fooled by a guy like Brazilien Bob (Valdi).

And Tommy, thanks for a great Blog!

Anonymous said...

I've translated the part about his political ambitions, if anyone is interested.
I could possibly transcribe and translate a few more things from the PC, but it's probably not worth it since this story is more or less over now.

Errh, as Primer Minister, I'd very much like to run the question that the Swedish people should get a better living and beyond all, eh, be able to develop the country further. I consider Sweden to be a fantastic country, and I absolutely want to return everything that Sweden has given me but I think that beyond all, there is... beyond all I think that the democratic process that we have in Sweden, the democratic model, erh, kan be developed further and become more democratic so that the citizens get a better chance to make themselves heard. And in that way, maybe the Swedes and inhabitants of Sweden gets a possibility and interest in getting much, much more involved in society. And so Sweden can become a richer nation. Richer doesn't just mean richer financially, but also that, ehm, that you can get better schools, better health care and much else, and beyond all, maybe you shouldn't have to work so hard but get a chance to meet your family and so on...

Tommy TruthSeeker said...

Hey nitro2k01, is it ok if I use that as a base if I decide to transcribe that part?

Anonymous said...

Yes

Anonymous said...

Tommy the nice thing is, even if you decide to start with the highglights you can still use those pieces later in a more complete translation, if you decide to do it (so one way or another the work doesn't have to be done twice).

I thought how I could help, but not knowing Swedish, all I could think of is check the English (which is hard since, again, I can't understand the Swedish original) :P...

Anonymous said...

marketer, so well said.

Anonymous said...

thanks Peter!

Anonymous said...

Question: what's with the YZ / ZY keys?

Are those interchangeable in Swedish or something :P ?

Anonymous said...

Valdi's quite slow though, the site still hasn't moved a char. The buy button and all of the rest.

No wonder he couldn't comprehend the complexity of building a laptop. He could possibly assemble one in 10 years with that kind of frugality.

Anonymous said...

Yes, so I have mental illness, thanks very much.

Well then my next plan is to setup a paypal account and ask for donations to help people with mental illnesses (or at least one of them: me).

Anonymous said...

Tommy, I suggest someone trusted gives a call to finally confirm ALL authorizations are canceled and if so, wrap it up.

Without 2CO, Medison has nowhere to go, and no one to harm, so I think it's pointless to keep tracking this issue, at least for now (or until the mythical press release comes out).

Anonymous said...

www.medison.se is no more ...

maybe Valdi need to buy the premium package for $9.99 instead of the free version :-)

Anonymous said...

Just imagine the audacity to claim you've outdone the entire computer hardware industry, while being unable to maintain two simple homepage-level sites online and up to date.

Anonymous said...

You asked "So what now?"

Nothing more, I think.

Unless there are new developments, the Medison Celebrity Laptop will fade into oblivion. One day we may hear again from Valdi with a new fantastic project, but with the worldwide attention that the Celebrity Laptop got people will remember him and he will not get far with his new plans.

Anonymous said...

I guess Brazilien Bob payed the $8.99 for the Medison page is back up again -

-- by the way, do you know that the road to success is through hard work and going step-by-step?

Anonymous said...

marketer, step by step works only if you have experience and a global network.

Also his San Francisco and Sao Paolo stock photo shots show just placeholders. I love the irony, not as funny as "Product 404 not found" but still....

Anonymous said...

Guys, there won't be press release. Don't wait for it.

He has nothing to gain from attracting attention anymore, with the 2CO account closed.

Anonymous said...

I must admit that Valdi reminds me about a few guys I've seen in high tech R&D.

A creative company needs people who can come up with untraditional ideas and some times ideas nobody thought would be feasible.

Often these people are risk takers who think little about the consequences of what they propose. They are good in starting things but often poor in completing the things they've started.

I can see a danger when a guy with this personality is getting the idea of starting his own company and take the role as CEO.

Valdi's idea of selling a Linux laptop with low-end specs and distributing it through a lean organisation is a GREAT IDEA in itself in my opinion. Linux is less demanding in terms of CPU power and memory and overall the specs of the Celebrity were reasonable and the timing is perfect.

So his IDEA was GREAT...but EXECUTION was INCREDIBLE BAD.

So my advice to you Valdi:

Next time he start something you need to partner with people who have EXPERIENCE in EXECUTION and set the price at a realistic level where actual earnings are possible.