Valdi misquoted... Again! (2 updates)

Forgot to post this earlier:

"IDG/PC För Alla" contacted Valdi about the quote in Jnytt about traffic and the fact that their own numbers from http://medisoncelebrity.com/webalizer/ doesn't match. His answer to this is simply that he was misquoted, and that he never said those numbers. I wonder if the quote about that they had to upgrade their servers to cope with the traffic also was made up by the journalist, because with the actual numbers, there really isn't anything that needs to be upgraded, at least not on a web hotel that charges them $2 a month for hosting...

http://www.idg.se/2.1085/1.115585

This is just one of the claimed misquotes. Some of the other has been that he never said that they had manufacturing plants in Brazil, and that the prime minister thing was blown out of proportion by the tabloids (check the transcript below and the election-page and make up your own mind if it's correct or not..).

Update 1: I saw that "Mats" translated the most important part in a comment to the earlier post about this:

"Valdi: -I must have meant hits. You can see in the statistics that we've had about 1,2 million hits. I can't remember speaking about unique visitors.
PC för alla: -But in the article where you are qouted you say that you've had 1,5 million unique visitors each day. And that you've had more than 10 million in a week.
Valdi: -What? I've said no such thing. And i haven't mentioned any weekly statistics at all.
PC för alla: -So you say you've been misqouted?
Valdi: -Yes I have."

Update 2: I just got a mail from the chief editor of Jnytt, and she writes that they have contacted Valdi regarding the misquote. His answer was that he "said the wrong thing" to IDG/PC För Alla...

More translations

Dan has provided us with some translation of Swedish news articles:

EXPERTS: IT IS NOT POSSIBLE TO MAKE COMPUTERS THAT CHEAP
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/medisoncelebrity/message/107

MEDISON'S NUMBERS DO NOT ADD UP
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/medisoncelebrity/message/106

Translated transcript from the press conference with whe prime minister plans:
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/medisoncelebrity/message/108

More fun stuff from medison.se

So, there has been some digging on medison.se, and some fun stuff has been found:

http://medison.se/val2006/indexex.html
Valdis page he created to the election 2006 in Sweden when he was running for prime minister. Contains some fun stuff like "The campaign will only be a week long since the voting is on Sunday!"

http://medison.se/medisonshop
Medison Clothes Shop
"In short Medison will be selling Armani, Dolce&Gabbana, Versace and DKNY among other big fashion clothes brands in the Number One Fashion City in South America." Make sure to visit the link to Medison Clothes Collection 2006...

Update: I forgot this one, quite interesting too: http://medisoncelebrity.com/a4desk.swf

Medisons real traffic

So, yesterday in jnytts article Valdi said that Medison received 1.5 million unique visitors each day. Today we can present the real numbers, trough the hosting company's own tools:
http://medisoncelebrity.com/webalizer/
http://medison.se/webalizer/

Let me put it like this: So far in august, medisoncelebrity.com has received about 70 000 hits...

Update: There is already a mirror of the webalizers available at http://dump.plux.se/ if the statistics would be removed. And thanks plux for providing all the links and mirror.

Update 2: A reader made us aware of the fact that the page thanks.html that you should be redirected to when you have finished the order process only has received about 3500 hits. That doesn't look like any 300 000 orders to me...

Update 3: Jnytt has published an article about that the numbers from Valdi and the ones from the Webalizer doesn't add up. They have tried to contact Valdi for a comment but has not been able to get in contact with him. http://jnytt.se/Read__9770.aspx

More strange stuff from Valdi

In an interview with Valdi today in "Jnytt" we can find even more strange things coming out from his mouth:

• They have until now received over 300 000 orders in different forms.
• Their website receives 1.5 millions unique visitors each day.
• They need to upgrade their servers to cope with the traffic.
• Valdi sees Microsoft as a future partner to get money from, and he says "It would be strange if Microsoft would just sit and look at us when we sells hundreds of thousands of computers with Linux pre-installed.". Microsoft would pay Medison to be shown as a partner on their website so customers could buy windows directly when ordering the computer.
• Orders made from Europe will be sent directly from the manufacturer in Asia, and orders from America will be assembled in Brazil and ship from there.

These answers and claims just adds more questions than answers really. They have earlier said that they have a capacity of manufacturing 5000 computers per month, this would make the delivery time 5 years for the orders coming in now. And how are they supposed to upgrade THEIR servers when they are hosted by a company that charges 2 dollars per month for hosting? Could 1.5 million unique visitors really be true? Will customers have to pay for the shipping from Asia?

Over all, this article just publishes even more bullshit from Valdi, without one ounce of criticism towards the answers. Weak, very weak. And they even call the article "Medisons CEO against the wall"...

http://www.jnytt.se/Read__9766.aspx

Update, someone posted a translation over at Medisons forums: http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/medisoncelebrity/message/97

A video...

(No, I'm not the author)



Edit: I do understand the criticism for posting this video. I posted it just before I went to bed yesterday and should have supplied more information about it.
The reason I posted it was that I try to collect all information regarding Medison here, whether or not it is "completely correct". As long as I have a source for the information I don't see any problem with it.
Now about the video, it really isn't as funny (and actually a bit true in a sad way) if you haven't listened to the press conference, which I guess most of you haven't since it's in Swedish. It's very spot on, and dealing with many of the strange things Valdi said. I really do believe that it's a good entry to the discussion.

Even more about shipping (and 2CO)

Valdi has confirmed on their forum that they will charge extra for shipping and that it will be done trough UPS globally. They don't know how they will charge for it, but either C.O.D. or payment in advance in some way (Hmm, some way to get money after all?). They still don't know how much it will be however.
2co has also changed their view somewhat and saying that Medison hasn't been clear enough about the shipping charges. They are still trying to figure this out with Medison, but in the meantime they say that customers can refuse the delivery if there is any charge for shipping, and receive full refund for the purchase.
Now, this opens up for another question: Since Medison don't have any initial economical assets, what happens then if loads of customers refuses the shipment and Medison is charged them self with double shipping for thousands of orders? Is the shipping partner aware of that economical risk?

New domains!

Thanks for the overwhelming interest in my blog! I receive loads of thank-you mails, and really can't answer them all if there isn't any questions but I read them all of course!

One reader thought that I didn't get enough hits (only 4000-5000 unique hits per day :p) so he registered some new domains pointing to this site!

We can now be accessed from the following domains except medisonscam.info:

medison.nu
medisoncelbrity.com
medisoncelebrity.net
medisoncelebrity.org
medisoncelebrity.info

Don't stop spreading the word!

Articles about the Medison press conference in English

I got a mail (or actually two from different people there) from IDG Sweden saying that they have translated two of their main articles about Medison to English. You can read them here:

Many questions surrounding the 150 dollar laptop
"Medison, a small Swedish PC company, claims they will sell a basic Linux-based laptop for only 150 US dollars. But the company has been called in question in blogs, forums, and news articles, because the computer shown on the company's web site seems very similar to a laptop from another producer. Two days ago Medison met the Swedish press to straighten things out."
http://www.idg.se/2.1085/1.115391

Medison's founder: "I want to be Prime Minister"
"Medison's founder, owner, and managing director, Valdi Ivancic, has grand plans. Apart from selling the world's cheapest computers and opening factories here and there, he has plans to become Prime Minister of Sweden."
http://www.idg.se/2.1085/1.115388

Read them both, it's really great stuff!

2Checkout.com not checking out

So, after Medison said on the press conference that shipping wasn't included to any destination, I went directly to 2Checkout's (Medisons payment provider) to ask how this works out. When ordering the Celebrity to their order system, it clearly says that shipping is free, so I thought "this must be some kind of joke, 2CO must surely get this straight".
Let me tell you, they do not! After some discussion on their forum, it turns out that there is no problem for their suppliers to lie about things like that and that the buyers has to take the hit. Sure, you can cancel the order now if you didn't understand that you had to pay at least 1/4 extra of the price, probably more, but how would you know that? Well, if you visit 2CO's forum now after I have asked the question or read this blog, but how many of the buyers does really do that, I mean most of them must believe that the deal is genuine and don't have any reason to browse sites like this?
And if they do send something else than the supposed laptop 2CO will of course refund your money. But not the shipping.

Whats more, it still says free shipping when going trough the order process, and no one knows the actual shipping cost. But that doesn't stop 2CO to take orders, they say that them and Medison will work the shipping price issue out, but then what?

And here I though that 2CO was a trustworthy company keeping the buyers money safe.
Could there be any more loopholes for Medison to actually get hold of the money, when other things can be duped so easily at 2Checkout?

Fair deal? I really don't think so...

Last summary from the press conference

Our friends over at Cint posted a complete audio recording of the press conference. I have written the most important points from it here:

• Their competition uses about 50-60% of their budget on advertising.
  
• Competitors have contacted them and want to collaborate.
  
• The press conference was delayed because Valdi had to go to Copenhagen and have an important meeting with UNICEF.
  
• The other persons in Medison are not really hired; they are just on vacation from their normal jobs in the furniture business and military.
  
• Vista is no problem, you just need more RAM.
  
• There is no risk of having the same name as another multinational company according to their legal councils.
  
• The company doesn't have any economical assets.
  
• The reason that they didn't believe that this would become so big is because they only announced the product and website to a small local website at first.
  
• The reason that the project started is that their CEO didn’t have any income in Brazil and needed some way to gain money.
  
• They are still in negotiations with logistics and service organizations, even that the first computers will be delivered the coming weeks.
  
• VAT is supposed to be paid by Medison.
  
• In total contrast to what 2CO says, Medison says that they are the sellers and only using 2CO as a payment provider. They claim that contract is between the consumers and Medison Europe Limited and NOT 2CO.
  
• The reason they chose Fedora is that they hasn’t looked at the alternatives and doesn't know anything about them. They may change Linux distribution in the future if any company behind the distributions wants to pay for it.
  
• Medison only have "virtual offices" since they are so few.
  
• He is dead serious about running for prime minister. He will do this without being part of a political party and he will do this as soon as possible. It's important to note that this isn't an answer forced by the journalists; he talks in detail about it.

Last post for the night

Thanks everyone for hanging on tight and supporting with your funny comments. Seems like the news sites are slow with information now, but there will be more details tomorrow morning!

Medisons CEO will run for prime minister!

In another article from "IDG/PC För Alla" it is said that Valdi, the CEO of Medison said (seriously) on the press conference that he will be prime minister in Sweden sometime.

Update since people seems interested in the matter:
Valdi don't believe that he has to be in a political party to become prime minister (or minister of state as it's proper name is in Sweden). He hasn't decided when to start campaign, it depends on his family and how Medison evolves. But it will be some day!

http://www.idg.se/2.1085/1.115308

Medison charges extra for shipping!

According to Cint, shipping will be made by UPS from Holland. The buyer have to pay for the shipping, no amount specified. Afaik, this is in direct breach with 2CO's supplier terms. I have asked them about this and waiting for an answer on their forums.

Edit: Still no answer from 2CO on this as of Thursday morning CET. You can check this thread yourself for updates: http://www.2checkout.com/community/support/topic.php?id=241&page&replies=3

More from the press conference

IDG/PC För Alla writes that there was almost no news at the press conference. They still don't say who manufactures or ship the computers. They don't want to comment on the Clevo-story at all.
One thing was said however, and that is that their business model to sell cheap computers should be sponsored by selling ads on their website. An ad that should be published for one country for one month should cost 15 000 US dollars, and a bigger ad for all countries for a longer period should cost 3 million US dollars. They did not have any advertisers yet though.
The serial sticker from the computer was scratched away "to protect the manufacturer"...
They do still say that they have assembly plants in Brazil that "some" of the computers will be assembled at, but not all. Some will ship directly from factory.

http://www.idg.se/2.1085/1.115306

News from the Press conference!

Anders Nyman at Cint just got away from the press conference. He says that the press conference was almost 2½ hours. He was able to ask most questions that the community is wondering about, and have the complete press conference on audio and will release it online tonight or tomorrow. In short he wasn't convinced that they actually will deliver any computers.

They had one computer, the pictured Clevo with Czech keyboard , to show. This was also the same computer they showed to a Swedish magazine in april when the price was three times higher.

http://www.cint.se/debatt/ShowPostFlat.aspx?PostID=62603&PageIndex=46

Open letter to Medison and the related mass media

At 7 P.M. CET this evening, Medison held a press conference. This letter was sent to them and to the press:

At 07.00 PM this evening Medison will hold a press conference. They will have a Medison Celebrity laptop on display to prove that it actually exist, the problem with this is that it does not prove in any way Medisons ability to mass produce, and ship hundreds of thousands of them.But there are other problems regardless of their ability to deliver the product, they have broken many rules and laws here in the EU and have undermined consumer rights and safety for an online purchase. This letter will include essential questions that have to be answered before anyone is recommended to enter into purchase agreement, and we believe that it is suitable to ask them now and hope for answers in the forthcoming press conference later today, either by Medison answering them self or by the journalists using the questions.

1. What is Medison selling? The laptop in question is manufactured by Clevo Computer Company in Taiwan. This company, as the OEM, said that they have nothing to do with Medison. Therefore, if there are any laptops it must be of other specifications. What would those specifications be?

2. When a customer completes a purchase, it is done with 2Checkout.com inc, an American company. The purchase agreement is for example between a person in Sweden, and a company in the US, therefore the person doesn't have to pay VAT. Normally this tax is charged by entity importing the product to the person making the purchase. But Medison stated that the laptop is shipped from England, so what are the extra fees for having the laptop shipped from England? Who is importing the laptops into the EU, Medison, or the person making the purchase in some way? Some clarification on this matter would be appreciated.

3. On Medisons webpage they (Medison) state that "Taxes, fees, shipping and handling and any applicable restocking charges are extra, and vary." but when completing a purchase, there fees are not included as the total cost is always $150 no matter where they get shipped. Why is this information different? Which of them are correct?

4. Medison has said that they will be able to include the right keyboard layout with the help of the addresses on the respective orders. How will this work with countries that have several layouts, ex. Canada where both French and English is being used, or countries where it is unusal with antive keyboards?

5. The first laptops, as stated by Medison, will arrive in the middle of August this month. Presumably, for them to arrive in time, they should already be shipped from the factory. Is there any documents that confirm this initial shipment?

6. To not include purchase agreements, warranty information and other forms of agreements is against both European and Swedish law. When will Medison comply?

7. Why has Medison chosen a Swedish company for service? Will customers, for example in India, be required to send their laptops all the way to Sweden for service?

8. For almost a week, the support page on MedisonCelebrity.com has said:"”Due to the unexpectedly high traffic to our support line past 24 hours it broke down. We want to inform you that we are currently working hard on getting a phone line back on air”, and Medison is not answering e-mails in a timely manner. When will this be fixed?

9. Why was Fedora the choice as Linux-distribution? This is not very known for being good for new users, with installing programs and so on. Which programs are installed as default?

10. Medison states on their website that upgrades and accessories can be bought through their partners, but the website where the accessories are supposed to be is empty, who are Medisons partners for this matter?


Apart from the questions above, there are some additional questions that should be answered so that the general public can re-gain confidence in Medison:

1. You state that the company has existed since 1996, but all traces of it here in Sweden show that it seized to exist as a company in 2003. Did Medison really continue operation until 2007? And in that case, how?

2. Medison has stated that it was a mistake that there were links and ads to several large companies on their webpage. Why didn't you remove all 'obsolete' adds at once when you was made aware of that, but instead you removed them one at a time after these companies contacted you about them?

3. Several of the companies and organizations that Medison claims to have worked with, have said that they never have worked with Medison, how is this possible? An example is the schools they claim to have worked with.

4. Wasn't Medison Europe Limited a bad choice for a company name when there already is a multinational company named Medison, that also have a subsidiary named "Medison Europe" in Holland?

5. If Medison is as big as you claim, and based in several countries, why is 2checkout dealing directly with the CEO as a private person not with Medison as a company?We hope that these questions can be answered in a good and confident way!

Best regards,
Tommy
http://www.medisonscam.info/

Öppet brev till Medison och media.

(Translation will follow later)

Ikväll klockan 19.00 så kommer Medison att hålla presskonferens om sin tusenkronorsdator Medison Celebrity. De ska då enligt uppgift visa upp datorn för att bevisa att den faktiskt existerar. Problemet med detta är naturligtvis att bara för att de visar upp en dator så bevisar det ju inte att det finns flera. Det finns också andra problem, oavsett om det finns några datorer eller inte. Medison har på den hemsida där de säljer datorn brutit mot många regler och lagar som är fullständigt underminerar konsumenternas rättigheter och säkerhet. Vi kommer i detta brev ta upp de frågor som konsumenter måste veta och få svar på innan man ingår ett köpeavtal. Dessa frågor måste besvaras, och vi tycker att det är lämpligast att gå ut med dessa frågor så att de kan besvaras i samband med kvällens presskonferens, antingen genom att Medison svarar själva, eller genom att journalisterna på plats framför dem till Medison:

1. Vad är det egentligen de säljer? Datorn som visas upp på bild (och troligtvis även på presskonferensen) och specificeras på hemsidan tillverkas av Clevo Computer Company i Taiwan. Detta företag, som är originaltillverkaren och producenten av datorn, säger att de absolut inte har något med Medison att göra. Därför, om det nu finns några datorer, måste det röra sig om helt andra datorer med en helt annan specifikation. Vad är denna specifikation i så fall?
   
2. När en kund genomför köpet så görs detta via det amerikanska företaget 2Checkout.com, inc. Köpeavtalet sluts alltså exempelvis mellan en svensk privatperson och ett företag i USA, därför så betalar man ingen svensk (eller utländsk för den delen) moms. Detta innebär i normala fall att kunden blir ansvarig att betala moms och eventuella avgifter till speditören när produkten importeras till Sverige. Nu är det dock så att Medison har sagt att datorerna skickas från England och då är frågan hur momsen och avgifter betalas. Är det av Medison när datorerna förs in i EU, eller av privatpersonerna på något sätt. Hur i så fall?
   
3. På Medisons hemsida så står det tydligt att avgifter till betalningsförmedlaren tillkommer, och så även frakt och andra avgifter. När man väl genomför köpet så tillkommer det inga av dessa extra kostnader, utan det är bara de utsatta US$150 som konverteras till aktuell valuta som man valt. Varför står det olika på hemsidan mot vad som faktiskt dras, och vilket är det som stämmer?
   
4. Medison uppger att de med hjälp av adressen på ordern avgör vilken tangentbordslayout som skickas, och att man får den som motsvarar sitt land. Hur gör de så med de länder där det används olika tangentbord, exempelvis Kanada där både engelska och franska tangentbord säljs och används? Likaså, det finns länder där det är väldigt ovanligt med tangentbord på deras eget språk, hur vet de köparna vilket tangentbord de kommer få?
   
5. Medison har under de senaste dagarna sagt att de första datorerna kommer levereras i mitten på augusti. Det är bara två veckor kvar till dess så man får anta att datorerna är skickade från tillverkaren för att komma fram, speciellt om det skulle röra sig om skeppsfrakt. Finns det några dokument som bekräftar att dessa datorer skickats i så fall?
   
6. Att inte ha garantivillkor, köpevillkor och liknande tillgängliga är ett brott både mot Sveriges och EU’s konsumentköplagar. När skall detta åtgärdas?
   
7. Hur kommer det sig att Medison har valt ett svenskt företag för att sköta service? Kommer exempelvis kunder i Indien behöva skicka sin dator till Sverige för reparation?
   
8. Det har nu snart i en vecka stått ”Due to the unexpectedly high traffic to our support line past 24 hours it broke down. We want to inform you that we are currently working hard on getting a phone line back on air” på hemsidan, och e-post verkar Medison inte svara på heller i rimlig tid. När ska detta åtgärdas?
   
9. Varför föll valet av Linux-distribution på Fedora, som knappast är ett speciellt bra val för nybörjare på Linux? Exempelvis är det ganska avancerat att installera nya program, så följer det med några extra program installerade, och i så fall vilka?
   
10. Medison anger på hemsidan att man kan köpa tillbehör, uppgraderingar och liknande från deras partners. Sidan som det länkas till är tom, så vilka är dessa partners?

Förutom de ovanstående viktiga konsumentfrågorna så finns det andra frågor som bör besvaras för att återfå förtroende för företaget:

1. Medison anger att de funnits som företag sedan 1996. De senaste företaget som fanns registrerat med ett namn anknytande till Medison försvann 2003. Har Medison verkligen existerat under perioden 2003-2007, och i så fall hur?
   
2. Medison har angett att det var ett misstag att det fanns annonser och länkar till ett flertal företag på hemsidan tidigare. Varför togs i så fall inte alla annonser bort på en gång när det uppdagades, utan en i taget först efter varje enskilt företag kontaktade Medison?
   
3. Flera av de företag och organisationer som Medison säger sig ha arbetat med på sin hemsida säger att de aldrig har samarbetat med Medison, hur kommer det sig? Exempel är samtliga skolor som anges.
   
4. Är inte namnvalet Medison Europe Limited en ganska dålig idé med tanke på att det redan finns ett stort multinationellt företag som heter Medison, samt även har ett Holländskt dotterbolag som också heter Medison Europe?
   
5. Om nu företaget är så stort och har kontor i flera länder, varför har då betalningsförmedlaren i USA avtal direkt med Medisons VD?

Hoppas att dessa frågor kan besvaras på ett bra och tillförlitligt sätt!

Med vänliga hälsningar,
Tommy
http://www.medisonscam.info

Our own domain!

Due to the incredible popularity of this blog (were receiving thousands of unique hits each day) I decided it was time to get a proper domain that's easier to remember and looks a bit more serious. So the new way to access this site is via http://www.medisonscam.info/

I also decided to start posting under a more personal name, so Tommy / Tommy TruthSeeker and Truth Seeker are the same person, just so you know ;)

And please stay put, there will be an open letter from me published here later this afternoon.

Press conference confirmed!

Anders Nyman at Cint has confirmed that journalists have been invited to a press conference (by Valdi personally) at 19.00 in Stockholm. Exact location is not public information.