Medison promises money back if it can't deliver... in three months

That $150 Medison Celebrity we glanced a few days back seemed to smell a bit fishy from the get-go, and a recent press release from the firm does a fairly terrible job of assuring us all otherwise. Typically, one's in dire straits if it has to address mass concerns of scamming, and Medison is now blaming the unexpectedly large amount of orders and "tremendous" amount of website hits and support calls for an apparent "shift in the time frame" in which customers will receive their orders. Granted, the company still promises that it will deliver, and now claims that your money will be returned if your machine isn't received in three months. Ah well, it's not like you had better things to do with your cash than let someone else earn interest on it while you fret over ever seeing it (or a laptop in its place) ever again, right?

[Thanks, Valdi I.]

[JoKoLoKo @ Jul 27th 2007 9:55AM]

To Engadget!
I have read the article with the owner of Medison in Swedish newspapers. He is even saying that the company that takes care of the billing (2co.. something) will not actually take the money of your credit card until the laptop is being delivered to you.

[Ben @ Jul 27th 2007 11:07AM]

That's awesome. I will cancel my credit card while the laptop is shipped to me. Which means I will have a free laptop :)

[nikster @ Jul 27th 2007 11:29AM]

You know - in the age of internet spam i am AMAZED that anyone can fall for this. discuss it. SEND MONEY?!?!?!

Are you guys insane?

A scammer can promise you anything. all he needs is your cash and he's off with it. YOU WILL NOT GET THAT PHOTOSHOPPED CLEVO for $150. Ok?

But maybe, you fall for the bait, thinking you can always cancel the transaction through the cc company. Who cares? You aren't going to get the laptop for $150. Jeez.

[CowboyGA @ Jul 27th 2007 10:06AM]

At $150, this deal is worth a gamble for many. Yes, the company could easily collapse and fall into bankruptcy, taking buyers' money with it, but there's a chance you could still be one of those to receive the laptop before the collapse occurs. There's also a slight chance that the company actually did the math and can succeed at the bare bones pricing (slight).

[nikster @ Jul 27th 2007 11:31AM]

There's one born every minute. Did you ever consider that maybe these people never intended to send anyone anything?

[Georg @ Jul 27th 2007 10:07AM]

Hmmm... this seems that Madison is short on cashflow and need to proofe to bank that they will get "real" orders if they would can build it!?

[CraigS @ Jul 27th 2007 10:12AM]

You're money back after 3 months!*




*We're declaring bankruptcy after 2 1/2 months btw.

[Peter @ Jul 27th 2007 10:29AM]

Reasons not to trust this "company"

- They're a Swedish company without a Swedish address or phone number
- Their only address appears to be a residential mail drop in the UK,
shared with a number of companies that appear to be barely legitimate
- Their UK office doesn't have a phone number
- A Google search for "Medison" turns up nothing
- The laptop photo appears to be that of a different company's product.
- You can't build a laptop for $150. The LCD panel itself costs at least $70 in volume.

[BudgetGone @ Jul 27th 2007 10:31AM]

How does getting more hits on one's website and more orders delay production? "Stop the line! All hands to pedal the web server generator!"

WTF!?

[TheOmegaSoldier @ Jul 27th 2007 10:42AM]

that was hilarious. i think i spit up some donut.

[Grant @ Jul 27th 2007 1:01PM]

haha.

his best friend is runnning assembly line in his garage with the one server, the increase of traffic made his surge protector blow.
lmao

worse comes to worst, if they don't charge your CC until it's shipped, and nothing ever shows up, you refute the charges with your CC company.
Some people forget how useful CC companies are when it comes to fraud, they are really consumer friendly and don't screw around.

[DonL @ Sep 17th 2007 9:26PM]

OMG That was funny!!

[Jaroslav @ Jul 27th 2007 10:43AM]

Hey everyone, shut up and take your Medison!

[soul7963 @ Jul 27th 2007 11:21AM]

Isn't Valdi I the guy who tipped about the article the "CEO" of Medisen?

You can view his awful blog attempt here: http://www.medison.se/

[Alex93053 @ Jul 27th 2007 11:25AM]

It's amazing what people will do for publicity.

[Jakob @ Jul 27th 2007 11:31AM]

I have a theory:In Danish newspapers he ("CEO" of Medison), will try to deliver at least 100 notebooks. When they have done that, I think the world will think that Medision is real, and then they money will begin to rull in to Medison's bank account. After that he will travel to Brazilia.Medison has company in UK (which is actually a hotel-room, or something like that), it should be a Swedish company and the domain address is Danish - UK, Sweden and Denmark???

[toddp73 @ Jul 27th 2007 12:15PM]

Remember what hoxornick89 in the last story its all true. I know him personally

[toddp73 @ Jul 27th 2007 12:19PM]

Any one in Portland Maine I'd be glad to set up a get together with me and nick. Email me at [e-mail] and ill give you my cell. Os he told me about this long before it was ever here.

[suv4x4 @ Jul 27th 2007 6:12PM]

"Remember what hoxornick89 in the last story its all true. I know him personally"

He's the guy that always is in your mirror when you look there, isn't he. We don't doubt the laptop exists: we know where Medison stole the images from, and they are from a real ($500) laptop.

I wanna see their CEO showing us the "factories" they have in Brazil and hundreds of the laptops on the assembly line. Now THAT is something that would do a bit to convince me.

[nnm @ Jul 27th 2007 6:24PM]

Sorry but before this, like lase year, he had _plans_ to make deals with supermarkets in Sweden to sell these computers for $450 USD, that is almost nothing for a new laptop here in Sweden. The deal failed with large companies, and now he is dropping the price threefold and selling it directly to consumers by shipping them China=>Brazil=>England=>Sweden? The laptop in the picture that he has IS REAL, they are from Clevo, Clevo has ONLY ONE PARTNER IN SWEDEN, and that is ggs-data, a person that notified us about ggs-data got involved in the discussion on a swedish forum because Clevo was mentioned and he said Clevo (from Taiwan) denies having any contact with Medison. Besides he has mentioned before in the media that they are from China. Your friend DID NOT get them from Medison, but from one of Clevos partners in the US.

If you want me to get the links to the sources, I will, but didn't think it was necessary since it's all in Swedish (huge discussion online here, about it).

[suv4x4 @ Jul 27th 2007 7:53PM]

"$450 USD, that is almost nothing for a new laptop here in Sweden."

Do you imply these guys tried a pyramidal sales technique on actual stores in Sweden? Wow... the courage of those guys.

But how would it work given they will need to stock first.. Do you have details on the entire plan (sorry don't know Swedish :D ).

Otherwise how would the deal fail. It's not so hard to get a laptop (especially cheap one) for sale in a store, if everything looked ok.

[bobartig @ Jul 27th 2007 12:27PM]

Anyone bother to read the FAQ? It's full of typos and awkward grammatical structures. Plus, half the links on their site don't even work. This is no way to launch a company. I vote scam.

Plus, if a cost efficient giant manufacture, such as Asus is aiming for the $300 price point, how could any smaller player do it for less? It's simple economy of scale.

[gautam @ Jul 27th 2007 1:44PM]

It's so simple. Take your money, earn interest, return the money later.

[suv4x4 @ Jul 28th 2007 6:49AM]

"It's so simple. Take your money, earn interest, return the money later."

It's simple, but 2CO will only give them the money for an already shipped laptop, so that plan fails.

Poor bastards at 2CO - they are the only losers of this whole fiasco. Processing thousands of fraudulent orders and then having to process thousands of refunds. And they work for free since their cut from $0 will be $0.

[hehehhehe @ Jul 27th 2007 2:08PM]

Either way, they're going to get a lot of credit card numbers... If you are foolish enough to place an order, make sure to get a new card soon.

[Adam @ Jul 27th 2007 3:49PM]

Come on Engadget, work your magic and get a demo from the company! I know its non-existent but it wouldn't hurt sending them an email.

[Weefselkweekje @ Jul 29th 2007 4:47PM]

No they wont, as 2CO will not release any credit card details to them.

[suv4x4 @ Jul 27th 2007 5:44PM]

They are stressing on the fact they'll return money before they've shipped the first machine even? That's all ways screwed up.

If I was them I'd also mention the moneyback guarantee, but not put it in the center of the press release. It's not about our money back, it's about getting a laptop, the whole reason we bothered to order (ok I didn't actually order, since I have minimum skepticism that apparently plenty of people lack).

They just sound like they don't even intend to ship anything and that's quite sad. I'd flood the site with photos of their factories, video demos of the laptop and anything they have their hands on.

Of course since they have nothing, all they can do is offer our money back. What's a bunch of losers.

[nnm @ Jul 28th 2007 3:47AM]

If anyone still cares, a person from sweclockers (http://www.sweclockers.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&postid=7546970) mailed Clevo to ask about Medison (actually a person even called them) after this huge discussion that we've had on that forum (in swedish though), but anyway here's their response. If people still buy that laptop, with all evidence poking them in the eyes then I will lol. =)

The laptop model in question is the one Medison has a picture of, and copypasted the specification from (typ-o's included).

(Thnx Daxman22)
>From: "Europe Sales"
>To: "***** *********"
>Subject: Re:
>Date: Sat, 28 Jul 2007 07:17:46 CET
>
>Dear Sir,
>
>Because of our business policy we are unable to reply to your request in detail.
>We can however confirm to you that we do not have any relation to the Medison company
>you are reffering to nor do we have a partnership with any reseller in the western world that is offering our machines to
>end customers for a price lower than $250.
>
>I hope you will find our answer satisfactory.
>
>With kind regards,
>
>Guan-Yin
>
>
>Clevo Mobile Computing
>Taipei

[Atasas @ Jul 30th 2007 6:43AM]

Yep! unfortunately credit agreement states, that once paid (As silly me did) I have to comply with terms of it (wait for month on the end), unless proven that is a scam... Yep! tomorrow getting Authorities involved!

[suv4x4 @ Jul 30th 2007 4:05AM]

If you go to the medisoncelebrity.com site today, you'll notice changes. First of all, the laptop is now displaying a blue picture which reflects on the rest of the laptop case.

This is very important since I've not seen a scam use blue color before. Likewise he buy/price buttons are changed from golden to blue.

There's a new blue laptop picture on the medison.se site as well.

The Support section features now a huge blue (!) power button, and says:

"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."

That comes few days after their other message in the Contact page which says:

"The phone lines are temporarly closed".

Notice the hilarious typos/grammar in both cases. I wonder what would a $150 laptop produced with so little care works like. Maybe like pure compressed air.

[oleg @ Aug 8th 2007 12:34PM]

translate!

http://www.prylportalen.se/ArticlePages/200708/02/20070802111530_MKF156/20070802111530_MKF156.dbp.asp

[WindsorFox @ Aug 22nd 2007 6:39PM]

For those of you who speak from your rear end and not having a clue, especially Atasas who should know better if he ordered. The sales are handled through 2CO and when you place your order you ARE NOT BILLED for the computer. Your card is only authorized, you are NOT BILLED unless and until the computer is actually shipped. This is what the staff from 2CO have said and I checked it with my credit card. People, before you start ranting off crap about scams and thieves you need to check the facts other than just reading a bunch of bloviation on the Internet. 2CO is in Ohio and has a full CSR staff and a toll free number.

I am very disappointed in Engadget's silly comment of "Sure like you had nothing better to do with your money than to allow someone else to collect interest on it." This is false and irresponsible. I know this for a fact because I placed my order, had a $150 authorization but have NOT been charged. I don't expect 2CO will charge until I have my computer shipped. This is nothing like spam, this is a real company with an actual person who may run for PPM of Sweden.

[p0g0 @ Sep 2nd 2007 3:47AM]

And when are you going to get it? I am checking every now and then to see if this is true or not. I hope that you can keep us posted

[WindsorFox @ Sep 2nd 2007 12:50PM]

I emailed Medison and got a reply in about 30 minutes, he said hopefully shipping will start the first week of Sept. which is next week. By all means email them or phone 2CO if you have questions.

My sore point though is the people who keep yelling scam and ripoff when the facts are it is extremely unlikely you will lose your money since the payment is handled by a known local company. If I don't get a computer, then I havn't lost anything by trying.

[Alison @ Sep 2nd 2007 5:35AM]

I am not sure about anyone else, but when an authorization has been made on my CC (mainly bank card) that amount of money is put aside out of my reach --by the bank--, and if they are now saying there will/could be a 3 month delay on shipment, that blows the fraud complaint time limit out of the water...my bank gives me 3 months--not one day longer to fight anything, and the day an auth is made--that amount is earmarked and out of reach--I agree with everyone here...wait until a reputable! source gets their hands on one! And IMO, any company who has had any bad press will want to make it good by doing just that!!!!!!! I don't see them budging--scam all the way!

[WindsorFox @ Sep 2nd 2007 12:59PM]

You need to telephone your credit card company and have them explain how it works. You are wrong. If you get charged and you do not receive your merchandise, you will get a refund from 2CO and even if you didn't you will get reversed by the card. You need to stop spreading incorrect information. If you do not like the terms cancel your order, but do not spread your opinion as fact.

[Alison @ Sep 2nd 2007 8:02PM]

Actually it is you who is wrong in this case. I have 2 instances in the past 30 days occur to me. 1st, a person fraudulantly acessed my cc information and made a charge. Now this is not me charging--however the Banks give maximum 90 days to file the fraud-in this luckily it was the bank who recognized the transaction as fraud. The 2nd, an ISP that would not cancel service, but had a preauthorization on file because I used them for 10 years! The best the bank could do for me (by their rules-Chase) was go back 90 days, I had to use the BBB to get the remainder of the money returned, and it is still in the process. Once an authorization has been made on all/any of my accounts 90 days is the max!! Some Banks might have different cut off dates--but not mine--and until I see someone dish out the money and actually hold one of these in their hands--I will not take that chance with my accounts.
If they need working capital to supply the business with money---and I am sure they know how the process works (this guy has bankrupted 6 businesses)--using the potential customers as a soure is not the way to go about it. If this was such a good idea--banks and other investors would be flocking to defend their money in news reports, and even as advertisers on their webpage--I don't see it happening. The topper is, I can use that 2co site to collect money for selling garbage--the company doesn't care--they will collect if a person requests the service--and they get paid for it-maybe that side of it is liget-sort of, doesn't make the medisen company ligit. The 90 day thing was the topper for me--I will never do it.

[Alison @ Sep 2nd 2007 6:13AM]

I wanted to add>>>It is interesting to read a stats page the company posted---why they posted it online I have no idea! But when they say they had too many requests--it doesn't jive...sure they have hits on the pages--how can't they with all the press-bad or good--? And why are the total hits per hour higher than daily hits?? here is a copy of what it says for August
http://medisoncelebrity.com/webalizer/usage_200708.html
OH BTW, this site even records how many times each of these blogging pages mentions their name it looks like too, and which ones! I don't allow cookies, or my visit would have been recorded to I bet! They aren't even reaching max kilobytes for the hits...no reason for an overload or whatever their excuse was for the site to be down!
Monthly Statistics for August 2007

Total Hits 3628822
Total Files 2307530
Total Pages 578551
Total Visits 195431
Total KBytes 55576261

Total Unique Sites 155503
Total Unique URLs 121
Total Unique Referrers 5208
Total Unique User Agents 5557

. Avg Max

Hits per Hour 4877 33896
Hits per Day 117058 571078
Files per Day 74436 295013
Pages per Day 18662 74460
Visits per Day 6304 23651
KBytes per Day 1792783 6879281

Hits by Response Code

Undefined response code 63
Code 200 - OK 2307530
Code 206 - Partial Content 4292
Code 301 - Moved Permanently 931
Code 304 - Not Modified 1099248
Code 400 - Bad Request 10
Code 403 - Forbidden 9
Code 404 - Not Found 216355
Code 405 - Method Not Allowed 383
Code 501 - Not Implemented 1

[coloncapfl @ Sep 11th 2007 6:55PM]

Just wanted to clarify the CCissue. Most bank start to count the 90 days on a scam until an actual charge is done, not when the funds are on hold, since placing the funds on hold is not an actual purchase but a guarantee of a purchase. When you have a hold, is the changing entity that releases the hold. The money is in the account, just not available. On the two instances that the person stated earlier, the funds were already withdrawn from the account therefore is a purchase. Banks cannot do anything with holds and have to be addressed to the holding entity, is only after a purchase is made that the CC can declare it a fraudulent purchase. If your CC institution tells you otherwise then you need to check them out. I had instances with Visa, MasterCard and even with a Debit card with visa logo, and that is what Visa explained me. You should check your Banking institution prior to assure a fact in totallity. furthermore, there are now temporary CC for single purchases that does not affect your bank account info, even disposable CC that you can add money as you go.

[Chris @ Oct 8th 2007 11:31PM]

as of right now, the "buy now" button leads to an error page on 2co's site.