Late Night Update for 10/10

[Ross Rojek]

I actually wanted to have an evening when I didn't have to come back here, but apparently I do.

I'm not leaving AU anytime soon. AU will honor all the coupons that are issued, but they will not be exchangable (you can't sell them off to people who do want them). Just like we honored all the orders for the Free Spike figure that Fandom had promised people before we bought AU. We ended up buying them ourselves and sending them to people just because it was the right thing to do.

BMG has been paid for 5,000 units. I'm probably going to try and cut that back to 4,000 or less due to the amazon thing happening as well. At least we won't have as much money tied up in inventory. I'll ask someone there to verify that for everyone to settle the issue. The woman who was supposed to give me the ship date was out yesterday and today, but if she's in tomorrow I'll come by and post.

The entire delay with BMG right now is they had to make the slipcase and insert the DVDs. For some reason they thought we were going to just ship the DVDs loose. So that caused the delay we're currently getting through. There was no way that they could have gotten them done in August as had been posted here. They didn't finish the authoring until the end of august.

G-Wiz is getting paid tomorrow and next week. They'll be getting the boxes done next week and shipping them off to us. There may be a delay due to the longshoreman's strike, but they didn't think it would be that long. I'll ask robert there to confirm it with someone here so you won't have to just take my word for it.

The bonus DVD will hopefully be going into production next week as well. It will be done by a northern CA DVD production company, and I'll post who it is when they start. I'd hope you wouldn't bother them, but I figure that'll help settle some of the rumors as well.

Jason has been paid about half of what he's due. We will continue to finish paying him what he is due, regardless of how he is treating us.

Someone e-mailed me about letting people use their gift certificate before we shipped their lunchbox and bonus DVD. It's a good idea and I'll use it.

We will make sure that everyone who is due a refund or credit is given one. If someone wants to take the time to figure out the interest due on their credit card for the time the over charge existed I'll be more than happy to process that for them as well. Same way we credited people who were given an overdraft charge or bounced a check due to a duplicate charge.

This week I've been on the road. So everything has been handled from a distance. This entire project has become very wearing and I'm looking forward to it being over. And while I want to keep updating people here, I also don't really want to keep getting slammed every time I show up. As much as I'm pretty self contained in my self image, this just gets old.

I will come in and post updates. I really don't to get into ongoing arguments and posting in threads. It keeps me from getting other work done and doesn't seem to solve anything. So here's the update for the day.

I will probably not be online this weekend and Monday. Monday I'll actually be at BMG for a meeting (among other things) and if I can't get an update from them tomorrow, I should be able to get on then. I may also be able to get the slipcase box art and post it.

[Jason R]

Ross, you've said this before. "I'll pay you despite how you are treating me."

I just want to remind you that you are not the victim here. Your customers are the victims. Pay BMG. Pay G-Whiz. Refund the money to the hundreds of customers who have been double or triple charged. And know that I have reported them all to Authorize.net (at least the ones sent to me).

I think that I have treated you very well. However, we all have our limits. I would like to warn anybody reading your post not to let it make them feel better because you have a gift for saying the right thing to calm people down, but you don't follow through. You buy yourself time.

And you did tell me that you were leaving CMI Holdings. But I don't really care about your .0003 of a penny per share stock or the bozos who post here or email me from your company.

It is OCTOBER. YOU HAVE HAD THEIR MONEY FOR 9 MONTHS. PAY YOUR BILLS SO THAT THESE PEOPLE CAN HAVE THEIR DVDS. THAT IS ALL I CARE ABOUT AT THIS POINT.

Jason has been paid about half of what he's due. We will continue to finish paying him what he is due, regardless of how he is treating us.

[Ross Rojek]

Ross, you've said this before. "I'll pay you despite how you are treating me."

Sorry, I shouldn't have said it.

[Jason R]

Ross, it would be much easier to accuse me of mistreating you if you didn't doublecharge hundreds, if not thousands of your customers and if the vendors involved in this project had been paid.

G-Whiz told me that, without a doubt, the lunchboxes would have been finished if they were paid when the balance was due.

Why are wires from your company getting lost all of the time?

Also, the project is not over until every last lunchbox and bonus disc is shipped, and don't you forget that. I will make sure that you are not let off the hook when (or if) you ship the DVDs.

[kali0927]

Ross-
You mentioned the interest on the overcharges. I was double-billed in late July. I know that for me, I have a 17.99% interest rate on my visa. At $115x 17.99% is $20.68 of interest a month. Three months (July, August, September)--

$20.68X3= 62.00 in interest.

So if this were the case, i (and some others) would be getting the dvds at a very cheap rate.

--Kali

[Cate]

Ross, you've said this before. "I'll pay you despite how you are treating me."

I just want to remind you that you are not the victim here. Your customers are the victims. Pay BMG. Pay G-Whiz. Refund the money to the hundreds of customers who have been double or triple charged. And know that I have reported them all to Authorize.net (at least the ones sent to me).

I think that I have treated you very well. However, we all have our limits. I would like to warn anybody reading your post not to let it make them feel better because you have a gift for saying the right thing to calm people down, but you don't follow through.

And you did tell me that you were leaving CMI Holdings. But I don't really care about your .0003 of a penny per share stock.

It is F*CKING OCTOBER. YOU HAVE HAD THEIR MONEY FOR 9 MONTHS. PAY YOUR BILLS SO THAT THESE PEOPLE CAN HAVE THEIR DVDS. THAT IS ALL I CARE ABOUT AT THIS POINT.

Jason has been paid about half of what he's due. We will continue to finish paying him what he is due, regardless of how he is treating us.

Jason,

Ross said that he paid BMG for 5000. He said that he is paying Gee Whiz in two installments. He is dealing with the overcharges. And you will get paid.

*He also said that he would have the payments to BMG and Gee Whiz confirmed to someone here.*

So, Jason, unless you definitely know something that you are holding out on for confirmation that proves what Ross is saying is utter bull could we all please just back off a little?

(Truthfully though, how you could possibly prove whatever it is you've been alluding to here is beyond me because at this point I don't think I trust any of the principles involved in this mess. )

It isn't going to make much difference to anyone here to wait until next week to see if we do get confirmation from BMG + Gee Whiz - at least not the people who preordered and used CCs for payment.

[Jason R]

To simplify things a lot, you'd divide your interest rate by month for the monthly interest, although it is more complex because it compounds daily. So it is not 17.99% per month.

Ross-
You mentioned the interest on the overcharges. I was double-billed in late July. I know that for me, I have a 17.99% interest rate on my visa. At $115x 17.99% is $20.68 of interest a month. Three months (July, August, September)--

$20.68X3= 62.00 in interest.

So if this were the case, i (and some others) would be getting the dvds at a very cheap rate.

--Kali

[Jason R]

I'm glad that G-Whiz will be getting paid. I hope that maybe I helped to shame Ross into paying them, and that this will all be behind us.

I also hope that the wire is received by BMG.

I want this project to be completed with as few additional problems as possible. To stick up for myself, I really do have a pretty good idea of how he does business, and I hope that you will read both of our posts before making judgement.

So Cate, as much as you ask me to lay off, it's not that easy. Why is AU so slow in paying everybody when the money was collected up front to begin with? And I am not talking about me getting paid. After my posts during the last few days, you determine if you think I am hung up on collecting what is owed to me in back payments. I've never once mentioned getting paid.

[dTheater]

Ross, you think your the victim now? When I read that, that pushed me over the edge. You may very well be the worst person I've ever had the misfortune to "know." You should rot in jail for these criminal acts.

[Jason R]

Hey dTheater, here is a summary of Ross's post:

"Whoa is me. . . Alas, I have to actually LOG ON to a fan site that generated $450,000 in sales for my company tonight.
Jason is mean to me, but I'll pay him anyway.
Boo hoo, You people are mean to me, but I'll send you your DVDs anyway and maybe refund your double or triple charges..."

Is that some sense of ENTITLEMENT or what?



You see, it doesn't work that way. If I don't get paid, I will sue Ross. If customers don't get their DVDs, they will sue Ross.

We are not being mean. We are not even playing hardball yet.

[Denie]

This entire project has become very wearing and I'm looking forward to it being over. And while I want to keep updating people here, I also don't really want to keep getting slammed every time I show up. As much as I'm pretty self contained in my self image, this just gets old.

You are tired of this! What about your customers? How do you think they feel right now?
You want this project to end! Then pay the vendors, damn it!
You want to stop being "slammed" in this forum. Then do what we paid you to do back in February. Quit f***ing around and refund the money you stole, get us our DVDs, bonus discs, and our lunchboxes.

To everyone else reading this post - my apologies. I had to vent.

[brainysmurf]

Ok, I am not going against Jason here...but I do think that we should give Ross a break. He answered all of the questions that were put to him, he seemed very straightforward. I agree that AU hasn't been the best business partner for this, I think they even agree with that. Regardless of why people were overcharged, why the DVDs arent here yet, why the lunchboxes aren't assembled, etc... it doesnt' really matter at this point. Ross has told us the status of each part of the box set, has agreed to personally handle any cancellations and has worked out a way to try and compensate us for their transgressions.

Why don't we just take what he's said at face value and give him a week or so to prove himself. I just don't think that attacking him is productive at this stage in the game, especially since it does appear that he is trying to take the "high road" from here on out. While I agree with much that has been said about AU, CMIH, and Ross himself I just think that we've put him in a "no-win" situation. If he doesn't post on here we complain about the lack of communication, and when he does we attack him for what he has said. I don't know what else we could ask of him right now, assuming that the things he said in his post are correct.

I really don't know why I'm posting this, except maybe because since I'm only about an hour and half away from AU headquarters I was going to go down there tomorrow and cancel my order in person. I was surprised and pleased with Ross' post, and I'm willing to give him another chance.

I have spoken.
<and no, I am not affiliated with AU, handheld football man, or anyone else like that.> =)

[Jason R]

He really does feel sorry for himself.

I believe it was back in July when I really had a big blowout with Ross on the phone --it was about the sheer volume of double charges-- and he has the audacity of crying that that this project was stretching his infrastructure and staff to its limits.

I suppose that's why he didn't fire the guy who posted the stuff on MSCL.com about the double charges being intentional. (The guy still works there to this day). But that's another story. (My one regret is that maybe he will now get fired, when all he was doing was trying to tell us the truth).

In any case, he went on to say how he has a lot of major projects and this one was taking up too much of his resources. I ask you to look at the front page of http://www.anotheruniverse.com (don't buy anything though). Does it look like the MSCL box set was not a big deal to him?

Why are there still unresolved double charges from August? Is AU.com that inept?

[Denie]

He really does feel sorry for himself.

I certainly don't feel sorry for him. I think he dug his own grave.

[Jason R]

Ok, I am not going against Jason here...but I do think that we should give Ross a break. He answered all of the questions that were put to him, he seemed very straightforward.
I have spoken.
<and no, I am not affiliated with AU, handheld football man, or anyone else like that.> =)

You are within your rights to do that.

Just bear in mind that I, too, am hoping that these issues will be resolved. I am merely trying to pressure Ross to pay the parties in question so that we can all be watching the DVDs instead of bitching about AU's poor service. I'm trying to shine a little light on how things are being handled by Ross.

Lifting a rock and watching all of the green and brown bugs crawling around underneath -- Hopefully embarassing AU into meeting its obligations.

However, beware of people who will tell you what you want to hear. It may make you feel better for now, but we've been through this cycle many times over the last 9 months.