Monday, October 1, 2007

Someone still believes in Medison!

And that someone must be working there, since the FAQ on their site has been updated with some Q&A's:

Q: Why can't I buy a laptop now?
A: Just now you can't order any laptops because we are busy completing the delivery of the ones we have already sold. Once that has been done, we will resume taking new orders.

Q: How much does shipping cost?
A: It can cost up to approximately US$30, depending on where you want it delivered.

Whops, another lie in the first answer, as 2co already have confirmed that it was them who suspended Medisons account because Medison falsely claimed that laptops had been shipped. And I really like the wording in the second answer; "It can cost up to approximately US$30", what kind of answer is that? It costs maximum US$30... Or more! Why even write "up to" when they obviously don't know how much the maximum shipping are?
I really don't think that we need to worry about any laptops getting delivered at this stage anyhow.

Over to the people that have given up, Larry Dignan (executive editor of ZDNet news and blogs) has finally given up waiting for his order, writing "...this is a $150 laptop that will never come" in his blog. Larry has been quite active on blogging about Medison, and has until now been quite positive on that the laptops would get delivered in the end.

Another person who has given up is Martin Appel, editor at IDG/PC för Alla (Sweden's biggest and most read computer magazine), has done a Web TV chronical where he claims that he knows that no laptops ever will be delivered from Medison and that they will blame this on the media and bloggers. Actually, Martin wrote an article already in the start of August that he believed that no laptops would get delivered, and that Medison consisted of "Maniacs with wild grown plans and a big hubris". He's even harder than me with the words it seems ;)

62 comments:

Tommy TruthSeeker said...

Ouch, I see now afterwards that my grammar is totally up the hills today, just take it as it is :p

Anonymous said...

I didnt believe it from the get-go. I mean...the whole thing was ridiculous from the beginning and its only gotten worse.

Unknown said...

This thing really tingles my scamsenses. But there still is a few pieces of the puzzle that doesnt quite fit.
Where the heck is the actual scam taking place ?
Where is the costumers who is losing money ?
Where is the man running away with money ?

If this is a scam. Which it indeed does look like for 90% of the whole thing.. Its not exactly the standard scam script.
Either this is a extremely clever plot. All there really is here is doubt. Nothing actual sure. And this could be the thing. Since people can cancel their orders people will doubt if its a scam as opposed to being SURE its a scam.

Im merely raising questions here.. Just like yourself Tommy...
Im a trained scam spotter. Ive been working with scambaiters.. but.. I just fail to see where he benefits from all this as any scammer would do..

Anonymous said...

becaus its not a scam. its mythomania.

Anonymous said...

I think we'll see it.

I've given up on getting one soon, but I think we'll see it.

He's worked too hard on making people believe it exists. he's not touching any of the money, says 2co. Why would he still be trying to get orders? Maybe he has another idea, but I'm really hoping that this exists, and he's just a total moron who's given this thing too much media hype waaaay before it's time. All that pressure on someone, especially someone who's a total dolt, could definately make problems for his deadlines.

My fiancee frequently tells people for example, that she'll "be there in ten minutes" when its utterly impossible for her to be there in less than an hour - seemingly, just to get off the phone with them as quickly as possible.

maybe he told us they'd be ready just to get off the hook with us for a while.



...they could still come. It's not impossible at all. No where near. Just seems unlikely because of how sketchy it looks and has all become.

Anonymous said...

Dear Tommy, firstly let me thank you for this blog, I have followed it daily for several months (since I ordered one of these laptops), you have provided more information in one place than anyone else (especially 2CO).

I think you have come to the end of your tether with your last post (as you have done all the work) and have really given up! so here's my tuppence worth (UK).

I think the word "SCAM" has been used too much, perhaps "idea gone off half cocked" may be better.

If there was only ONE website that you could buy a laptop of these specs (obviously this year) for $150 US then it could be lucrative to offer advertising space on it (to make a profit).
However, linking to reputable companies without their knowledge is fool hardy at best. Closing, moving and generally buggering about with ones website just looks suspect!

I think we can easily double the shipping costs now stated (costs 25quid* to get a laptop off e-bay across the uk (400 miles max)) *slang for pounds sterling for US readers he! he!

I am just a bloke living in Kent, UK who would find a laptop usefull at that kind of price, optomistic... maybe. I'll wait a bit longer. It would be nice if 2CO could be bothered to e-mail me with an update.......yep optomistic!!

IT COULD HAPPEN, JUST LIKE THE SECOND COMING (which I may have missed due to beer)
Keep up the good work on our behalf Tommy.

Terminator

Unknown said...

Hello all
I started following this circus after an innocent google for a cheap laptop in July. Gut instinct is normally right, and mine said *warning*. I also think Valdi was after the advertising cash (what else ?!), but wouldnt dismiss the possibility that he's simply a tool.Or we havnt seen Valdi's piece de resistance - whatever that might be.

Bundy.

Anonymous said...

Steorn was supposed to setup a live video feed of the Orbo free energy device on their site.

I think that's a great idea for Medison as well. They should set up a cam and put an RSS with the upcoming laptop assembly events for each week.

[week 1] We're mounting the Q key..
[week 2] We're mounting the W key..
[week 3] We're mounting the E key..
[week 4] We're mounting the R key..
..

Anonymous said...

Does that work with a QUIRKY keyboard too?

I'm sure that would be the layout for this particular laptop!!

Anonymous said...

Tommy, truth is even at your best, your grammar is not perfect, but don't worry: the reason (most of us) don't correct you, is that we're not here to improve our grammar in the first place.

Your English is perfectly understandable either way. Thanks for your work on this blog.

Anonymous said...

Terminator,

You said you live in Kent, UK,
Is this address close to were you live?

Medison Europe Limited
27 Ruffets Wood
Gravesend, Kent
DA12 5JQ England

Anonymous said...

With regards to my location in relationship to 27 Ruffets Wood, I live approx. 22 miles south of there.

If you use google maps with that address and use the satellite option you will be pointed at a building. The address is also confirmed using www.streetmap.co.uk

I believe earlier in this blog it was decided that this was just a registered business address probably for many companies......

...so no I'm not going to go and duff them up!!

Terminator

doesthislaptoprunvista baby!!

...and would you want to??

Anonymous said...

Just to follow up on my last comment, here are some other companies registered at that address:

NORDIC MULTIMEDIA DISTRIBUTION LIMITED
Registered No. 06131232
27 RUFFETS WOOD
GRAVESEND
KENT
DA12 5JQ

Company:BYGGALLT I LYCKEBY LIMITED
Company #:06342633
Registered Address:
27 RUFFETS WOOD
GRAVESEND
GRAVESEND
KENT
DA12 5JQ

Company Name: HG SHIPREPAIR LIMITED
Company No: 05498779
Company Address (as per Companies House):
HG SHIPREPAIR LIMITED
27 Ruffets Wood
GRAVESEND
DA12 5JQ

and our "friends"

Company Details - MEDISON EUROPE LIMITED
Registered No.06312373
Address:27 RUFFETS WOOD, GRAVESEND, KENT, DA12 5JQ, DA12 5JQ
Type: Incorporated
Incorporation Date: 2007-07-13
Status: Not Analysed
Last Accounts Filed: -
Last Accounts Analysed: -

so no point in bombing it either I'm afraid.

Terminator

Anonymous said...

"Q: When can you deliver my laptop?
A: We try to deliver as fast as possible, but the normal time is between 4 and 6 weeks."

How can Medison state that they deliver the computer in 4 to 6 weeks when they havent delivered any computer yet.

Anonymous said...

anonymous said: How can Medison state that they deliver the computer in 4 to 6 weeks when they havent delivered any computer yet.

Your question makes a lot of sense only if you assume Medison is a company of integrity and honesty.

Medison is a scam because the company is selling a product that doesn't even exist and, if it existed, is priced unrealistically low.

The reason this scam is happening is because the CEO is suffering from mythomania.

Anonymous said...

from this blog August 8th:

The quote that was reported as a misquote was misquoted. See the earlier post about this. Now Valdi claims that either he never said to "PC för alla" that he was misquoted, or that it was a misunderstanding, or that he "said the wrong thing"............

he was probably er.. um..MISQUOTED??
maybe it was 46 weeks

Anonymous said...

Haha, vilken bisarr stil den där PC För Alla-snubben har.. men underhållande film.

Anonymous said...

...and, if it existed, is priced unrealistically low

Do you want to indicate that if the laptop turned out to exist and was sold at the given price tag, this would be a scam, because the price was too low?

Perhaps this is what you wanted to say: The laptop, if it exists, cannot be sold for $150 without the seller loosing money.

People with apparently good knowledge of OEM manufacturers and hardware costs have already disagreed to this (read forum messages from a few weeks ago) and claimed that it is feasible. In the end, it is a matter of opinion, I guess. (Unless someone actually starts selling such a machine, but that someone will not be Dell or any other established manufacturer, that's for sure.)

Anonymous said...

I recently contacted Medison to see if they were still selling. My emails are included below (note shipping is $25 here...)

I don't really think this is ever going to happen, it was a nice idea, that made me smile at the time - but really at the moment I don't think it's possible for someone to sell a laptop for £75 ($150) unless they include some sort of mobile phone deal or broadband contract to make some money on the side...

[email]

Dear Liam,


Thank you for writing to us.




We are very sorry, but just now you can't order any laptops because we are
busy completing the delivery of the ones we have already sold.

Once that has been done, we will resume taking new orders.

Please check our website later for more information.
! - - [ if !supportLineBreakNewLine ] - -

Freight will be about €25 depending on where you live.


Best Regards,

Medison / Christina







----- Original Message ----
From: Liam [liam]
To: info@medisoncelebrity.com
Sent: Monday, September 24, 2007 6:31:46 PM
Subject: $150 Laptop


Hi,

I've just been sent this site and am very interested in buying a laptop.

What are your current delivery times? What would the postage costs and any taxes be to buy a unit to be sent to the UK.

May thanks,

Liam

Anonymous said...

Also Tommy - keep up the great work!

Love checking this site out, always makes me laugh!

Can you add RSS though, I can't get Atom feeds for some reason.

Anonymous said...

I think Valdi (just) has had a sex-change and her new name is Christina ...

Anonymous said...

It is possible that Christina is another relative of Valdi Ivancic.

There are 8 matches for Christina Ivancic on the US census web site.

CHRISTINA M IVANCIC (Age: 38) EUCLID, OH << is pretty close to 2checkout

Anonymous said...

In Sweden there are a total of eleven persons (over 15) with the last name Ivancic but no Christina

Maybe Christina works out of the office in San Fransico :-)

Anonymous said...

anonymous said:
Perhaps this is what you wanted to say: The laptop, if it exists, cannot be sold for $150 without the seller loosing money.
Yes, US$150 is just too cheap. I do in fact have knowledge about OEM manufacturing and component costs but also logistical costs, support costs, sales costs, warranty costs, engineering costs etc. There are many reasons why a company like Acer or Dell have more than one employee.
I've been to Southern China quite a few times visiting those factories. You'll often find clean ISO9000 compliant factories with 1000s of employees, mostly 20-24 year old Chinese women, living in dormitories in a big closed area with a gate and with perhaps only one small super market inside - earning perhaps US$70 per month (approx. 50 Cents per hour).

And yes, you can design a laptop like this costing < US$150 in raw BOM costs for sure.

CPU:
Low performance Celeron processors are currently overstocked and available for perhaps US$10 or so (my guess).

LCD:
LCD panels can possibly be purchased cheaply if you use panels with multiple defective dots (panel vendors have a quality criteria for what is acceptable)!

And I'm sure you can be smart about the other components that goes into the BOM as well.

But, nothing is cheap unless you talk high volumes and it's surely not a one-man job to pull this off.

Anonymous said...

Dood, don't give up on CEAASEAASES in Japan!

Anonymous said...

If you're the same Peter as the one posting before, you've somewhat surprised me. Anyway, I agree with you on this, it's possible for a larger company.

BTW, to anyone shocked by Peters description of those factories, it is perhaps worth adding that such a job at an electronics factory is quite a high-end and well-paid one in comparison to those in areas like the textile and clothing industry or toy manufacturing.

Hey, but I'm deviating from the topic.
There have been quite a few reports about workers producing cheap clothes. For example, a German magazine called 'Stern' uncovered that a well-known catalog company sold dresses that about 8-14 year old children in India, who were held as working slaves in a cellar, had to decorate all day long with rusty needles. (No joke, they were sold by their parents.) Stories like this aren't uncommon.

When such a story gets to the press in western medias, the companies (often well-known ones, not just no name importers) cancel the contracts with their subcontractors immediately. However, it is quite likely that nothing happens when nobody gets to know about it. In many factories in Asia, visitors aren't welcome.

That's the other side of the coin of getting everything cheaper. The problem is, however, that the working conditions wouldn't automatically improve when the final sellers increase their price. Company ethics guidelines are usually just there for P&R, and the actual manufacturers always get the smallest piece of the cake.

Anonymous said...

Yes, actually those 50 cents per hour workers in Southern China are usually coming from rural areas of China and get much better conditions than what they could get by becoming poor farmer girls back in their local village. No need to feel sorry for them really.
The real problem of Chinese manufacturing is not those large usually Taiwanese owned plants but the many family owned sub-suppliers to the electronics industry that have very little care for their workers health partly because the market is so cost focused and partly because of lack of efficient rules and regulations. Sadly these vendors are rarely inspected by foreigners.

And for that reason you seldom hear about the actual problems in Chinese manufacturing! The dense smog of an area like Guangdong is not from the large assembly plants but from all these smaller factories. When you take the train from Shenzen to that area you will see a horizon of smoke stacks and guess how little of the BOM cost of a laptop goes into putting filters into those smoke stacks?

Really not much...

Madsen said...

"Another person who has given up is Martin Appel, editor at IDG/PC för Alla (Sweden's biggest and most read computer magazine), has done a Web TV chronical where he claims that he knows that no laptops ever will be delivered from Medison and that they will blame this on the media and bloggers."

I hate to promote my own insight (haha, right! Of course I don't!), but I actually called that two days before Martin Appel — my blog is read by considerably fewer people than his articles/blog posts though, but I'm not bitter :-p — here: http://lillesvin.net/archives/190 (in the paragraph just below the first bulleted list, ie. the one about Valdi's behavior).

With that said, I think a LOT of (even "most") people have given up on Valdi. Actually, I have to admit that I'm beginning to think less of people who still think a $150 laptop will be delivered at their door step at some point. On the other hand, kudos to them for believing in the good in people and keeping the spirit high.

Anonymous said...

Wait... Yaaawwnnn.. Wait, wait, wait..

People are still recycling this issue over here?

Jesus. Christ. Oh. My. God. Holy. Crap.

Anonymous said...

amphibia you were looking for a US$150 laptop. Great news for you!

Here is a series of laptops priced at below US$150 very suitable for someone like you:

http://www.vtechkids.com/browse.cfm?productLine=Grade%20School%20Learning

Please go to Radioshack to buy one of these and shut up!

Anonymous said...

amphibia you were looking for a US$150 laptop. Great news for you!

Nah, never been looking for one. But those look sweet.

If I only I had spelling problems :( But here's to hope some day a brain damage will make me need one of those to learn to write again!

Thanks!

Anonymous said...

I don't understand why people can't understand this is in fact a scam.

When you sell something you don't actually have and use many lies to convince people that the business is legitimate and a real product exists when it doesn't, there really can't be any questions about what it is.

Scam is a scam no matter if the guy behind it was optimistically hoping that having customers ahead of having a product would attract a vendor into doing business.

The definition is clear:
http://mw1.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/scam

Scam: a fraudulent or deceptive act or operation

Surely Medison was extremely deceptive using lies and claiming to have a factory and a product ready to ship.

But I agree this is a scam with a more indirect mission than the usual scam. Most scam is aimed to make money directly. This scam was with the more indirect aim of establishing a customer base to create a company without actually having the funds to do it.

Yes, Valdi wanted to start a low cost laptop company and for those of you who remember, he even had a half done Flash web site with two other laptops advertised: Star Celebrity and Hollywood Celebrity.

Anonymous said...

Call it as you like it, that doesn't change the fact that it was no fraud and nobody (except perhaps for 2CO) was harmed.

Actually, I wouldn't have the slightest problem with that business concept if it worked out. As long as nobody looses money and the product is delivered, I frankly don't care whether an enterprise takes starting money from some investor or from the prospective customers.

That I say under the premise that such a concept could work, but I have doubts about that. Even with very tight calculations, it doesn't seem easy to bootstrap a company out of the money of prospective customers without at least getting some additional securities from investors. The starting costs are always higher than the running costs later.

Perhaps Valdi should have said: Lend us $150 for 3 months, and if we succeed, you'll get a laptop, if not, you're guaranteed to get the money back. Would have been a fair deal imho, but probably nobody would have lent him any money... ;-)

Anonymous said...

I think Valdi was too dopey to realize that 2CO wouldn't give him any money until the laptops were shipped. He even tried to get around this by marking a bunch as shipped but they caught it. If he had chosen another payment method it would have worked.

Anonymous said...

i got it! i got it! maybe valdi is waiting to ship until a computer with those specs can be made for the $150 price.

surely this isn't TOO far away :p

Anonymous said...

Yes obviously Valdi was reading all the news about how low cost laptops would hit the market around this time and wanted to use that opportunity to establish a company.

Now the reason this is scam is because of the lies and deceptive nature of how things were communicated.

If Valdi had chosen to play with open cards and not lie about having a product and factory already; but instead explained that his aim was to establish a business and with 2CO people would not be taking a financial risk, then I completely think the concept would be acceptable and people would know it was very likely they would never get a laptop.

But with the lies it remains a scam.

Anonymous said...

peter, how is this blog more interesting than the rest of your life.

do you have logical explanation for this phenomena.

Anonymous said...

shce said--

The 2CO folks are double-teaming me now in the forums, one right after the other--

"As we've stated multiple times in various threads, we've provided the supplier with a deadline to provide 2CO (and, subsequently, potential customers) with that information.

There are no "orders" to be cancelled. There are no valid credit card authorizations in 2CO's system to be billed. No one who previously ordered could or would be billed without reauthorizing a new order especially if the value of the transaction changed due to the addition of shipping/handling charges.

We have a lot of valuable features currently being implemented by our developers and there is no reason to spend Product Development efforts on manually forcing thousands of orders into a status which has meaning to our system but absolutely no effect on the consumer. That said we have, however, encouraged any customer who wants the additional peace of mind of an actual "cancellation" to request that via a support ticket and we'll be happy to comply.

Your order is by no means "live." It is essentially a pre-order placeholder that may or may not ever be utilized to determine where you are at in the event product does become available.

Our patience with this process is by no means infinite -- generous, yes, but not infinite. All potential customers will be notified when the deadline has been reached."

Anonymous said...

shce--And----" After reading your posts, I have come to the conclusion that you do not understand how this system works. In one of your posts, you state

"I currently have a contract with them. They offered, I accepted."

You authorized funds to be taken from your credit card. We chose not to accept those funds, and therefore have no legal obligation to deliver anything ordered.

We have stated earlier that at this time this product will not be delivered and have given those who ordered it the option to be contacted if this product should come available.

If you would like your order canceled, please call or submit a ticket and we will do that for you. Please remember that at this time the funds that you authorized have fallen back into your account and are no longer available to 2Checkout.

2Checkout is not waiting for everyone to gradually cancel their order, we know that they understand that they do not have to. "

Anything new in here??

Anonymous said...

shch, Thanks for keep on posting at 2co, I wish I could support you but I have no standing order. Is it not anyone else out here with an order?
2 co just can't forget about the money, no money has been bla. bla. You are correct, you placed an order at 2co = reseller. You have the right no know if you will get a laptop. If you order something It's because you need it. No one can wait forever to place an order somewhere else.

The people here saying 2co is handling this correct is just 2co themselves, just ignore them.


Pete

Anonymous said...

Yes I agree. Only 2CO staff members can find reasons to defend 2CO. Fact is that 2CO has not at all communicated well to their customers, not at all done a due diligence of this obvious bogus vendor and even today the Medison & 2CO "partnership" is showing itself in an extremely unprofessional way when selecting the "Buy Now" button:

Parameter Error

Incorrect parameters were supplied, therefore this purchase cannot begin.

If you are attempting to purchase from a web site please contact the web site so that they can correct the error.


Yeah...how many weeks does it take to just simply inform people of the facts in a couple of HTML lines of text?

And facts are, as I've said since July, there is no Medison Celebrity laptop, there never was and there never will be. It's as real as the Mars rocket I am planning to build in my garage.

Note: I'm spending on average 20 minutes per day in this blog...and 80 minutes in the bay area traffic chaos burning fossil fuels. Medison is still good entertainment e.g. compared to watching TV, but it's starting to become like watching the same movie over and over again.

Anonymous said...

2CO has cancelled all authorizations, even if now Valdi wants to mark something as shipped, 2CO will have to email the customer to confirm the authorization AGAIN.

Means, people are still on their database, but now they all need confirmation.

So I do believe at this point you could say we're at a satisfactory conclusion of this story, which is why I don't understand why people come back to it.

Yes 2CO has been pissing off everybody for 3 months, but in the end they did everything what they had to do as a minimum in good faith, so we gotta cut them some slack.

Maybe they'll learn a thing or two for handling this kind of stuff in the future.

Also, to cheer you folks up, there's far worse than Valdi on the Internet. Valdi promised $150 laptops and delivered nothing and the cards were not charged... But what about THOSE guys...? Their product is sold and delivered, and costs $200... I'll quote the description of what it does:

"New! Featuring four beams, nearly twice the rotation speed and improved timing processing, the Quadri-Beam is an ultra cool disc treatment. This patented process reduces the noise floor allowing far more information to be retrieved from the disc. It also works great on DVDs, giving you a picture that is brighter, sharper, crisper and cleaner. For those of you who have never experienced the sonic benefits of the Bedini Clarifier, it significantly reduces high frequency glare and increases retrieval of information, enhancing dynamic range. Detail and resolution are improved dramatically."

Anyone reading this with most basic knowledge possible on how CD-s and DVD-s operate is probably rolling on the floor holding his stomach right now.

Can you imagine the amount of people who wasted
$200 on this snake oil?

Products like those deserve even greater attention than Valdi's non-existing electronics I think...

Anonymous said...

The people here saying 2co is handling this correct is just 2co themselves, just ignore them.

Totally untrue, I am in no way affiliated with 2CO (and also not with Medison, of course), yet I have said repeatedly and still say that 2CO did nothing wrong---nothing at all. They have dealt with the case 100% as they should have.

What's your problem? There was never any problem for anyone with canceling the order, and 2CO has protected their customers (both vendors and buyers) as they should have.

Get a life! If you think there will be no delivery, and everything points into that direction for a long time now, then cancel your order. This has been said numerous times, on this blog, and by 2CO, yet you still complain. About what?

If you don't know how to cancel your order, ask 2CO. They will tell you.

And again, I'm not in any way affiliated with 2CO, not as a customer and not as an employee, so stop spreading ugly lies! It's truly annoying to hear people keep repeating over and over on this blog how 2CO screwed up, just because they didn't cancel a contract with one of their vendors on the basis of assumptions that were posted on an hastily set-up blog in which users can post anonymously and articles are written by someone who remains anonymous and could work for Dell or any other competition.

As long as it is assured that fraud is prevented (as 2CO did), a company should not and cannot cut down all ties with business partners just because anonymous people on the Internet spread unconfirmed information (be it real news or rumors) that discredits their business.

I'm sucessfully selling quality shareware for more than 10 years now, and I'd be outraged (and rightly so), if my credit card processing company (not 2CO) would cancel my account just because some people anonymously spread some FUD about me. It's simply not up to a credit card processing, reselling or sales management company to decide whether some posts about someone in some anonymous blogs are veridical or not! Their responsability, among others, is to prevent fraud, which is exactly what 2CO did.

While I can understand the complaints from the perspective of disappointed customers, who have ordered and never received a laptop, they simply do not do justice to reality.

BTW, given the nature of the business venture (a $150 laptop), it would have been quite natural if the competition had paid people to discredit Medison. Since everything is anonymous here, I guess we'll never know whether this has happened or not. 2CO had to safeguard against such attempts, too. This explains their defensive information politics, which was very sensible from the start.

Anonymous said...

Of course from a money handling perspective 2CO has done what they should.

But frankly speaking, what makes it so hard to judge for 2CO and others that this laptop is a big lie???

If I worked at 2CO I would simply grab the phone, call Valdi and give him 48 hours for sending me a photo of his product approval label with that UL, FCC number etc. by e-mail. If he can't, I know he is full of BS.

So how hard is that??? I mean...hey...seriously?

And I also agree that we can always find worse scams. The CD/DVD treatment product mentioned above is a good one. Some people believe in such crap for sure. The whole A/V cable industry is making big money by fooling people into believing that very expensive cables can route a signal better.

My opinion about Medison/2CO is that it's more of a stupid insanity than a criminal act. But it is both because of the lies.

Anonymous said...

Hey Valdi, I'm sorry that the lacking regulatory approvals nailed you.

Anonymous said...

We assemble the laptops in Brazil because then we can ship the laptops together with protective white powder to leverage the shipping synergies.

Anonymous said...

Hey, Peter, stop turning anyone who's bored with you into 'Valdi'. Can't we plain ol' be bored with you.

Go change the world or something.

Anonymous said...

Hahaha, good one Valdi.

Anonymous said...

Hello,

I have been in contact with medison from the begining. And what iknow there will be no delivery in october because of some big logistik problem.But they promised my firm in Finland that they will deliver soon.. i have 2 test orders at medisons. and will order about 300computers if they are as good as they say. And i am also waiting for test computers from some other (bigger) companies that aslo have promised too sell computers for nearly the same price so yes i think its not a scam.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...

And what I know there will be no delivery in October because of some big logistic problem.

Yeah...

If "logistical problem" in your definition means a problem with finding a vendor that will deliver the laptop for low enough cost...YES, you are right :-)

If "logistical problem" in your definition means inability to deliver because of no shipping arrangement from the factory to customers...LOL...you must be joking.

In any case...don't forget: this laptop never existed and never will.

Medison is just an online entertainment company.

Time to enjoy the weekend...

Anonymous said...

peter, I don't understand what's with your need to constantly declare what you're doing with your work, vacation, and the fact you'll enjoy your weekend.

Why do you need to tell every time you'll enjoy your weekend? Is this newsworthy event?

So you wanna waste your time here posting the same crap over and over, cool, stop making excuses and clarifying yourself.

When I "enjoy" my weekend, my PC will be unplugged in the first place. Otherwise I come here to post crap. There we go.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said:
And i am also waiting for test computers from some other (bigger) companies that also have promised too sell computers for nearly the same price so yes i think its not a scam.

Interesting, would you mind tell us who these companies are?

While there are several laptops currently available for US$300-400 (Compaq and Acer) in the USA, I've yet to see one below US$300. But it appears as if nobody is truly trying. Technically it's possible to lower the specs further and get it below US$300 and still run Linux with good performance.
But perhaps the Asus Eee PC will be a low cost killer laptop - the laptop for students and people who just need an extra one...let's say in your car hidden somewhere, just in case.

I'm using Linux right now by the way and it works great. It's amazing what you can get out of lower performance hardware when you use more efficient software . Everything seems faster on my single core Linux machine than on my quad core Vista machine.

Anonymous said...

Oh God*
PLEASE DON'T TURN THIS INTO AS MS vs LINUX THING (I have enough of that on ZDnet)

I have both,they usually work,they both crash on my machine (a RAID thing I think).

It looks unlikely that anyone will be reviewing their new Medison Celebrity laptop this year, however, if there were only 7000 orders (of which some have been cancelled) and they should turn up, I get mine sooner! :-)

Nothing ventured, nothing gained (and as long as I don't lose anything fine)

At the end of the day it is more entertaining than the drivel on TV do you not think?

I thank Tommy (and others who add useful comments) for the info provided here. It allows me to gauge the risk I am taking when ordering. If I get stung at the end of this then that's my fault, but please allow me to be smug if it happens.

* dependant on religion
*b) "Medison" may be used as there is as much scientific evidence of existence



PS no malice intended, just my sense of humour (well I did order one he! he!)

......and all this during pub opening time, bye.

Anonymous said...

Back from pub now, although I don't recognise the garden,furniture or even this computer (although it will look pretty good in my room later, your worship)
((I'll use the space reserved for my new laptop, but I'll need a shovel for the dust))

a) Valdi/Medison acted in a suspect manner
result: this blog

b) 2CO have done nothing illegal
result: have done bugger all really, could earn shed loads out of this if it happens, in the meantime.., have made themselves look a tad dodgy.

c) Several people have posted here
result: either they have improved or ruined their weekend

d) 24 hour drinking should mean what it says
result:........trouble at best...??!

e) Will just getting the South American packing "dust" reduce delivery times?
result: Who cares, several kilos at $150!!!

f) Is that a disco with all those flashing lights or is it the old bill??
result: leg it*

*not to be confused with "legit" (as not seen on Medison web site)

N.B. I am not a professional comedian (no really) but lets not get too ugly people! I need advice, will this laptop fit in my Christmas stocking or should I start stretching my Easter bunny?
(If you know how to do that you should hand yourself in, Roger!!)

How about someone (sober) start a "will it/ won't it happen poll? 'cause I guess there won't be much news for a couple of weeks....

Kronenbourg King

Anonymous said...

I just have a story to add about two methods of how costs in the USA currently are saved on laptops:

1. Mail-in rebates.
2. A ton of useless trial software pre-loaded on the laptop.

I bought a Fujitsu in a regular store a few days ago. It happened to be with US$200 mail-in rebate.

So I had to initially pay the US$200 extra: Fujitsu LifeBook A6025 before rebate US$999.99 and after rebate US$799.99.

Getting those mail-in rebate forms processed can be a true nightmare. I had to get new ink for my printer to copy the UPC labels and as my laptop had broken pixels I had to get another unit and resubmit the forms with new serial number.

I talked to the dealer in the store and he said that approx. 60% of those mail-in rebates never get paid back because people don't get it done in time or make mistakes in the process!!!

60% of US$200 = US120 for this particular case people pay extra!

And when the laptop booted for the first time I experienced a ton of needless trial stuff that I had to uninstall.

I wonder how much money PC vendors get from all the companies providing trial software.

If there is enough harddisk space one could imagine that a laptop could be sold (with profit) dirt cheap just by putting enough trial software on it and perhaps combine it with those silly mail-in rebate schemes.

It looks like this is the concept behind some of the cheapest laptops in the USA.

Currently the cheapest (new and non-refurbished) laptop available in the USA seems to be a Gateway 520/ML6230 at US$ 349.99 from Best Buy. But still it comes with Windows and twice the HD capacity of the Celebrity.

Anything cheaper?

Anonymous said...

If I worked at 2CO I would simply grab the phone, call Valdi and give him 48 hours for sending me a photo of his product approval label with that UL, FCC number etc. by e-mail. If he can't, I know he is full of BS.

Okay, I agree with you, they should have done that. My guess is that they have so many weird snake oil vendors (that actually sell something) that they principally don't want to check them. ;-)

But they could and should have asked for some proofs in this particular case.

Anonymous said...

Maybe 2CO have many snake oil vendors...but come on...they can't have many "world's cheapest laptop" vendors.

I mean, seriously speaking...

Anonymous said...

Valdi sightings?

Where does he live right now, is he in Jönköping. It could be interesting to meet him on the street and ask him how his business is progressing ... but maybe he got the job as the tourist manager in Karlskrona due to his global experience and global network ...

I am slowly learning from Valdi the road to success ... I guess success is veeeery close to Valdi right now ...

A

Anonymous said...

My prediction: We vill never hear anything from valdi or medison again.

They're toast...

Anonymous said...

///Totally untrue, I am in no way affiliated with 2CO (and also not with Medison, of course), yet I have said repeatedly and still say that 2CO did nothing wrong---nothing at all. They have dealt with the case 100% as they should have.///

How can something be so hard to understand or do some just don’t want to?

I start a new job in 8 weeks, for that job I need a car.
I find great car at a reseller and it’s a bargain but they need 4-6 weeks for delivery. Fine I think, less than 8 weeks is OK.
I order a car, sign a paper but I don’t pay anything until I get delivery.
Now 12 weeks has passed and I still haven’t got delivery of my bargain car. I can’t do my job properly so what to do. Cancel my first car order and order another one at twice the price or wait. The reseller just give me bs crap responses about logistic problem and keep telling me I haven’t lost any money over and over again. I order a car because I need a car but I don’t want to end up with 2 cars.

I can’t see how 2c0 have dealt with this 100% as they should.
Post like this must be from 2co.

Pete

Anonymous said...

I absolutely agree Pete. People bought the laptop because they needed a laptop.

Ouch, it's that simple :p

I mean, people were certainly not told this was a game of a guy Valdi trying to create an impossible business.

Even today this lie can still be found on the Medison web site:

Q: When can you deliver my laptop?
A: We try to deliver as fast as possible, but the normal time is between 4 and 6 weeks.

Tommy will you make a list of all the lies some day?

G-Ma said...

My order for this $150 wonder was placed on Medison's website (which I noticed is shut down now) on August 15th, soon after I had read about it on CNET. My credit card hasn't been charged, which makes me think that I may one day see it and because they haven't taken any of my money, I don't think it is a scam. Of course, my husband tells me that I'm so gullable.