non-payment rumor follow-up

[Jason R]

I was perhaps a bit too personal in my attacks against Ross.

I need to be directing my comments against his company. And since he once told me that he "is the board of directors" (in response to my question about whether his board would allow him to take AU from CMI Holdings and to form a new shell company), it may not be impossible to draw this distinction.

However, I will present a simple fact. No expletives and no rumors.

Ross says BMG was paid. However, BMG tells me that they still, unfortunately, have not been paid.

There are two possibilities:
1) the wire was lost
2) the wire was not sent

BMG have just been fantastic about this whole set, and agreeing to do it for the fans. It is not like they are a small company by any stretch of the imagination. Bertelsmann is one of the most respected media companies in the world, and I don't understand why they cannot be treated professionally. I owe them a significant debt for commiting to this project, and I must say that they certainly do not deserve to be blamed for the problems by Another Universe.

Thanks
Jason

[pgh kenny]

I'll refrain from sarcasm, but just state that a reasonable person would conclude that wire transfers are almost never "lost". It's not exactly the same, but I have used a debit card for six years and none of my transactions have ever been lost. We are not in the 1920's here.

[EmmBee]

Is it even possible for a wire to be "lost?" It's not like it's going through the US Mail. I thought it was a bank to bank transaction?

Ooo, look! My Frozen Embryo hatched into a Tino! I never saw one of those before! Hee hee.

[phelix]

Is it even possible for a wire to be "lost?"

In a word, No. A wire is merely a transfer of data from one bank's database to another. These databases are designed to be "transaction safe" in that either the transaction is completed fully, or not at all. If there's a problem, the databases rollback to the state before the tranaction started. SO, all that money is sitting either in AU's account or BMG's account. It's not floating around in the ether somewhere.

[Natasha (candygirl)]

I used to work in accounting and my ex used to work at a huge bank, so between the two experiences I can concur with what has already been said. If the wire got "lost" (and I have no idea WTF that would entail) then AU could provide proof from their bank that the money was in fact transferred and tell BMG that they (BMG) will have to take up the issue with their (BMG's) bank.

I know we like to make fun of bankers because they sit on their asses all day counting money (or at least that's why I made fun of my ex's job), but seriously this kind of stuff does not happen in the real world. It's a pretty simple procedure. Then again, so is reversing credit card charges.

Maybe the stagecoach was robbed. Or the delivery guy fell off his pony.

Riiiiiiigggghhhhtttt.

[Chaser]

What are the ramifications of the non-payment? I am guessing that BMG will not send AU the discs until they get the money, obviously. But what else is involved. How long will BMG wait before taking action? What kind of action would that take and what would that mean for us, the customers? If AU hasn't paid BMG will that mean that only AU won't get the disc and other companies like Amazon will?

I have been reluctant to cancel my order because I don't want the hassle of trying to get my money from AU and I know that if I did AU would ship the next day, cause that is just my luck. But seriously, would it be better to cancel and try my luck with a more well established and reputable company like Amazon?
Thanks Jason, like everyone has said you have the patience of a saint and I know I would have bailed on the project if you weren't involved.
~Trina

[Natasha (candygirl)]

I was wondering about the ramifications as well - let's just say hypothetically that AU never pays BMG (go with me here for a minute) - does that in any way affect Amazon's DVDs? Since AU is the one who paid for the rights initially, is there any effect on Amazon and other distributors?

[phelix]

What are the ramifications of the non-payment? I am guessing that BMG will not send AU the discs until they get the money, obviously. But what else is involved. How long will BMG wait before taking action? What kind of action would that take and what would that mean for us, the customers? If AU hasn't paid BMG will that mean that only AU won't get the disc and other companies like Amazon will?

That's how I'd expect it to play out.

I have been reluctant to cancel my order because I don't want the hassle of trying to get my money from AU and I know that if I did AU would ship the next day, cause that is just my luck. But seriously, would it be better to cancel and try my luck with a more well established and reputable company like Amazon?

If I had ANY confidence that Ross would refund my money, I would have cancelled by now. I'm one of those who never got a refund for a doublecharge, so I know Ross will keep my money. So, my choices are to cancel and get nothing back, or keep my order and hope AU can actually deliver the discs.

[So-Called Angel]

BMG have just been fantastic about this whole set, and agreeing to do it for the fans. It is not like they are a small company by any stretch of the imagination. Bertelsmann is one of the most respected media companies in the world, and I don't understand why they cannot be treated professionally. I owe them a significant debt for commiting to this project, and I must say that they certainly do not deserve to be blamed for the problems by Another Universe.

Yeah, BMG are just fanfuckintastic! Has anyone visited their website and gone to the General News section where they say that the DVD boxed set is available exclusively through AnotherUniverse. That article is what made me order my set through AU. Considering how respected they are, I didn't think they would deal with a company that was disreputable. I suggest that BMG are more careful who they deal with in the future.

And in the same article they go on about CMIH as if they were the best thing since sliced bread!

[Jason R]

No, BMG did nothing wrong.

Ross saved $2 per box set by allowing other retailers like Amazon to sell the DVDs, and he approved the deal. I could see no logic for him doing this as he would lose a ton of business to Amazon.

However, I suppose his money was really tight, because this would only have saved him about $7,000.

[So-Called Angel]

Well, Jason, you sure know how to take the wind out of a persons sails!

But BMG should have been careful who they dealt with. Because their name was involved - as you said, they are respected - I thought that AU would be trustworthy. Then again, maybe AU have never done this sort of thing before. Have they?

[Jason R]

There was a product they tried to market over a year ago, called "Sonic 2ners." The way I understood things to transpire, they took the pre-orders, but the 2ners were not created in sufficient quantity (2ners were wireless headsets that transmitted the music through the bone in your ear, so that your ears were not blocked and you could here other sounds, etc. good for riding a bike, etc). i'd always understood that those people got their refunds.

No, this is a different situation of a company degrading slowly, like a minute hand, over the duration of a project. Slowly enough where it fooled me, BMG, other vendors, stockholders and customers. Sadly, some of their stockholders still defend them, and even believe that I am conspiring with Amazon.com to hurt AU's sales. Ross is a very charismatic person and people want to believe his ruse.

However, history is littered with charismatic people who are not good people.

[Chase Cat]

However, history is littered with charismatic people who are not good people.

Yes, and some good books and storys were written about such characters. It's like Shakespeare's Othello. But I hope we will not all dead at the end.

[arteitle]

Submitted for your approval: several interviews with Ross Rojek on the subjects of his company and the Sonic2ners project. I hadn't heard of this product until now, so I Googled on the name, and found a link to these interviews on Value-Stock.com. However, the interviews had since been removed from their site. Undaunted, I checked the URL in the incredible Internet Archive Wayback Machine, and found that it had several older versions. I haven't had the chance to read through much of them so far, but they look interesting. An older version of the same page features an interesting Profile of CMIH.

Aaron Teitlebaum
arteitle@yahoo.com
an unintentional lender to CMI Holdings

[Jason R]

As you can see, ross actually sounds like a real CEO in some of those interviews. I can only imagine what kind of mental decline he has been through in the last 12 months. It is at the point where every email I get spouts more bullshit. What he writes to me is in absolute conflict with what he writes to others.