Complaint Review: QMS Inc. MacPadd

Gizmodos Comments on MacPadd UnTrue, Erroneous, Unfounded and in Contravention of its Own Terms of Service

A long awaited telephone conversation in early in December 2009 with Nick Denton CEO of Gawker Media assured us that our response to the November Gizmodo article would get complete and equal play-time.  All we wanted was for the erroneous and false article as written and blogged about, to be removed because it violated Gawker Medias own Terms of Service. Instead we were told that we could provide our response to the Gizmodo article.

First of all we dont want to give Toms Hardware or its self righteous and self absorbed writer Tuan Nguyen anymore air time than really necessary since ALL of what he has put forward is false uncredible and smacks of some fanatic that you see on the nightly news.

Second, Gizmodo did not endorse our company, they effectively reviewed our product approximately one year ago with some minor sarcasm targeted at the Mac Community.

Third, the only scams or frauds that has been committed is by Nguyen who received his product without paying, lied to the general public about his experience and grossly misrepresented the facts. Gizmodo is not innocent in all of this either because without any duty of care or due diligence, they assumed what was written by Nguyen was true without contacting the other side of the issue and that in and of itself, in our opinion is a crime.

All of this smacks of n**i propaganda; Joseph Goebbels If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.

The Gizmodo Article

To say that Sometimes we unintentionally endorse companies is grossly false in its entirety and context. The original article of November 2008 is provided below;

The Gadget: MacPadd, the anodized aluminum mousepad meant to match the finish on newer MacBook and MacBook Pros. It's about the size of a standard mousepad, if slightly shorter than usual (but just as wide).

The Price: $25

The Verdict: Holy butterface, it works! We originally thought it would be little more than a gimmick; a shiny surface that looked great but tracked horribly. Untrue! As a mousing surface for laser and optical mice such as our favorite, the Logitech MX 1100, it works fineor at least as well as normal mousepads.

It's also as weighty as you'd expect from something made out of metal, so there's the added bonus of it not flailing around as someone like Matt Buchanan vigorously plays Team Fortress 2, or like Jesus Diaz when he intensely photo shops Steve Jobs' face onto models (male and female). The undercarriage of the MacPadd is a gooey melted-marshmallow texture that holds the pad in place on your desk for added stability.

There are, as always, a few downsides. It's a few inches shorter in length than normal mouse padsonly one-and-a-half mouse lengths instead of about twoso you'll run out of room quicker. It's also hard (you know, metal) so you're more likely to scrape your wrist on the side as you're using it. And because it's made of aluminum, it's COLD. Using this in Chicago or New York during the winter would be a bad idea unless you had the heat turned up, but it's not too bad that you can't deal with it.

At $25 though, it's not too expensive, and should last quite a bit longer than normal pads that wear out over time from friction. And when it boils down to it, you know you want an aluminum mouse pad, and this is a good mouse pad.

Gizmodo did not mention anything about the MacPadd company, therefore this comment about unintentionally endorsing our Company is wrong.

Gizmodo relied upon someone else who has lied about his, capabilities, work experience, customer experience without reading the website about how we conduct business. The first lesson in life or as professional see it for yourself.

We attempted to contact the author of the Gizmodo article but he refused to respond to our emails or phone calls. Is there any sense of fairness in this conduct in particular when you lie to the entire internet world in your article?

It is more disappointing that Gizmodo does not follow its own Terms of Service (TOS) whereby the commentary was false, slanderous and unfounded, in particular, related to privacy issues. We spoke to online business executives who take extraordinary measures to protect their own private lives so that they quite frankly are not subject to the likes of Nguyen and upon describing our experience are appalled at the harassment and misreporting that we have been exposed to. Relative to business ethics the new targets for the social travesties in our country and afar has become the online channels.

The ezine, Comsumerist, jumped into the feeding frenzy at the prompting of Nguyen who within a period of a week became disturbingly obsessed with his $25.00 mouse pad not arriving by star trek transporter, with a tracking number. In addition, Nguyen decided to start a blog about his $25.00 mouse pad, then he established a Twitter Account. Is any of this sounding psycho creepy yet?

The Consumertist reconsidered the information available and removed its article from its blog site December 10^th.

Our website has been clear how we ship our product and the time factors involved. In addition, Nguyen just could not accept the fact, despite himself being born in Vietnam, immigrating to Canada and acquiring Canadian citizenship (now working in the USA without a Green Card) and having lived in Canada for 30 years could not remember or took the time to realize that Canada Post does not provide tracking numbers to USA addresses for the type of mail service (we use Small Packet Air).

Here are some facts and points related to the November 2009 Gizmodo review related to MacPadd;

      Gizmodo never endorsed MacPadd as company nor were they ever asked to, nor is this a practice on its blogsite

      Gizmodo asked to review our product

      Gizmodo was not highly complimentary of our product in the November 2009 review

      Gizmodo never made comment on the company selling it or any research on the owners or company itself.

      Gizmodo never endorsed MacPadd as a company

      Gizmodo has not done research on our company or product other than lies from Nguyen

      Gizmodo was not asked to own or disown the company

      Gizmodo exposes and comments in PRIVATE emails and alleged conversation of individuals against its own privacy policies

      Gizmodo did not validate the conversation with the individual who allegedly made the comments (they were falsely reported by Nguyen)

      Gizmodo commented one sided the information related to the conversation by a self serving individual

      Gizmodo staff refused to return our phone calls and emails

      Gizmodo has refused to remove false content contrary to their own Terms of Service (Gawker Media)

      MacPadd has a B+ rating with the Better Business Bureau

      Best of Media cannot be found as a valid USA corporation (their headquarters are in France)

      The long detailed account by Nguyen is again filled with lies and misinformation that Gizmodo did not take the time to determine if any of it was true or false.

      The Toms Hardware article was entirely false

From our Canadian perspective, we now see how the USA became involved in a war in the Middle East in 2002. It was based on false information to the world by its generals, President and vice President wasting billions in resources, money and young lives. The media did not check their sources of information until log after the war had started and they pushed their agenda forward at the expense of soldiers and the country. The pattern seems to continue with Gizmodo.

This is the real and honest account and our position related to Nguyen.

Preamble and Questions

With respect to this incident, from an alleged hardware review company, it begs the questions;

      Why was Toms Hardware reviewing a mouse pad? They have never reviewed this type of technology (?!?!?!) before!

      Does Toms hardware have any qualified engineers on staff that could provide a credible technology review? Does Toms hardware have any business graduates on staff that could comment on business conduct? And what about ethics?

      Was this incident a valid hardware review or just someone taking out their consumer anxiety on some small little company?

      When you buy a product do consumers look at the criteria on the website or do you establish your own standards for delivery or performance regardless of what is posted?

      Is a mouse pad considered hardware? Is this a continuation of the Mac Community hatred by Toms Hardware or its writers?

THE FACTS AND NOTHING BUT FACTS

Nguyen ordered two MacPadds Friday October 23^rd5:41 pm GMT  (Friday evening after our office closing).

MacPadd did not address the order until Monday October 26^th (the first business day after the weekend)

Nguyen received confirmation of his order from PayPal immediately upon placing his order.

MacPadds policy is to have product shipped within 7 business days (see website) or in this instance to be shipped by November 3, 2009.

There were emails from Nguyen but there was nothing to report. Our experience with more advanced online order systems is that they have automatic responders identifying that the order is in progress. We do not engage in such services.

The product was packaged and labelled for shipping late October 29^th and delivered to the post office Friday October 30^th.

Nguyen issued a PayPal dispute Friday, October 30^th at 3:41 pm GMT 5 business days after the order was received and 3 hours before his 13 calls to MacPadd owners residence. MacPadd owner does not make his personal address available however, it was obtained by Nguyen and posted on Toms Hardware site. A breach of privacy and its own Terms of Service.

MacPadd responded to the PayPal dispute to Nguyen at approximately 3:55 pm GMT identifying the shipment had been sent and would provide a tracking number (not remembering the order was from California however a Customs Declaration Form was available)

Friday evening, there were 11 telephones calls to the MacPadd owners residence (no one was home) (call display shows who calls and how many times). When the MacPadd owner arrived the call display showed the many phone calls but no voice mail. We received the 12^th phone call at 7:09 pm that was threatening, abusive, intrusive and rude. Nguyen demanded a tracking number for the shipment.

Nguyen emailed my personal email address several times starting  at 7:16 pm Friday evening;

David -

You have 10 minutes after this email is sent to reply with a valid tracking number for the 2 MacPadds.

Or else we will be forced to write an article about you and the company.

Regards /

Tuan Nguyen

Director of News Operations

In order to APPEASE Nguyens time sensitive demand, MacPadd owner attempted to provide the tracking number from its paper files that evening. See email listing screen shot below.

MacPadd erroneously provided a tracking number that had a date of 2009/03/10 (March 10^th) instead of the one that was 2009/10/30 (October 30^th) not realizing Nguyen was from the USA.

Regardless and as a matter of fact, his order was manually prepared and no enhanced Canada Post tracking number was available however, the Canada/USA Customs Declaration forms were completed and provided as evidence in this document.

The 13^th abusive and demanding telephone conversation Friday evening at 7:35 pm by Nguyen to the residence of MacPadd resulted in MacPadd stating that it no longer wants his business and is issuing a refund. Nguyen did not want a refund and refused several times however, MacPadd made the decision in order to avoid further conversations and confrontations.

MacPadd terminated the business relationship with Nguyen at 7:40 pm October 30^th, Friday night, based on the 13 phone calls and demeanour of the telephone conversation and the emails.

From MacPadds perspective there was no obligation or interest to continue any dialogue, provide any information in light of the refund. As a resolution to the PayPal dispute as filed by Nguyen Friday afternoon 3:41 pm, MacPadd authorized a refund as a resolution early Sunday morning November 1^st at 5:01 am GMT. Based on the PayPal policies Nguyens payment was held in abeyance outside of the control of MacPadd effective 3:41pm October 30^th. There was no opportunity for fraud or ripping him off.

See refund email confirmation screen shot. PayPal did not settle the dispute, QMS/MacPadd AUTHORIZED a refund to Nguyen. There were no innuendos relating to fraudulent activities by PayPal.

Throughout the weekend there were several threatening emails (see small sampling above) from Nguyen despite the issuance of a refund.

For the record;

      MacPadd has been a product offering for 1 year with one BBB complaint (lost shipment by postal system) (except or Nguyen whose complaint was invalidated)

      MacPadd or QMS Inc has a B+ rating from the BBB

      MacPadd has never been contact by Police or FBI for possible fraud activities as Nguyen would have you believe

      The rip-off website information was brought to our attention for the first time  and each issue as identified therein were addressed directly.

      MacPadd does not make false claims

      MacPadd has never committed fraud and never will

      Apple is aware of MacPadd and have considered selling the product on their website

      MacPadd met with and talked with several Apple representatives regarding the sale of our product. No concerns were expressed at the time of discussion.

      MacPadd is patent pending

      MacPadd has sold to over 8,000 customers

All of what has been attempted by Nguyen to discredit our practices and us has been refuted with evidence. What remains is the deranged self-righteous individual who himself and Toms Hardware has a great deal to hide.

http://www.techimo.com/forum/imo-community/73275-tom-pabst-thg-afraid-come-us.html

http://hubpages.com/hub/How-Toms-Hardware-Guide-pwnd-the-industry-then-lost-it

Lets put this into perspective.

MacPadd is just a mouse pad!

The MacPadd product was created by the owner, for the owner. There were many other people who saw the idea as it was being developed and wanted it as well. If demand diminishes than the offering will shut down. It is not my livelihood.

The online business effort has been interesting and up to the date of the Toms Hardware incident, a fun experience.

Finally, with Nguyens allegations of fraud, this is a matter of perspective or better yet ignorance.

We researched the Toms Hardware site to look for articles on Madoff, Ebers, Stanford, Global Crossing, Enron just to name a few.

Despite these multi trillion dollar frauds against the world, none of the Toms sites has a single article about these financial and social travesties.

Somehow Toms and Nguyen has now become an expert on fraud as both prosecutor and jury. It begs the question, what are the purported experience or educational qualifications of Toms or Nguyen to make this kind of allegation?  

Isnt ironic that a little $25.00 mouse pad can cause so much angst and anger while the accusers are in a state of moral and legal ignorance.

Gizmodos/Gawker Medias Term of Service

Gawker Media the owner of Gizmodo terms of service can best be distilled as follows and in its own words;

       Do not post threatening, harassing, defamatory, or libelous material.

       Do not intentionally make false or misleading statements.

       Do not offer to sell or buy any product or service.

       Do not post material that infringes copyright.

       Do not post information that you know to be confidential or sensitive or otherwise in breach of the law.

       Keep all comments relevant to the particular GM Site where the comment is being posted.

If Gawker Media receives notice that Material posted is not in keeping with these terms and conditions or the intended use of the Comments section where it is posted, we reserve to right to remove the material.

It is truly disappointing that Gizmodo would, themselves, post information on their blog site that is in contravention of its own Terms of Service (harassing, false, defamatory, misleading, etc.).

Definition of defamation (Wikipedia); is the communication of a statement that makes a claim, expressly stated or implied to be factual, that may give an individual, business, product, group, government or nation a negative image. It is usually, but not always,[1] a requirement that this claim be false and that the publication is communicated to someone other than the person defamed (the claimant). 

TOMS HARDWARE POST SCRIPT 

Tuan received his MacPadd and a refund. He has yet to return the product as instructed during our last conversation. If anyone could claim fraud or theft it is MacPadd on an individual who has not paid for a product he has admittedly received. This product we sent was not a gift.

QMS Inc nor McPadd has never or would ever contemplate or commit fraud. The challenge to anyone making the allegation is to prove it. Fraud in Canada is the intent to deceive. We have 8,000 customers that have not been deceived.

There have been instances where it seems either product has been lost in the mail (national postal systems) or customers have reported missing product in order to claim a refund. In this instance, the only entity that has been deceived is MacPadd by misreporting. We elected to use the USA and Canadian Postal Service. That is prevalent every step of the way in the advertising and purchasing process.

Relative to personal comments about myself, there was nothing that was consented to be public during our telephone conversations, nor did I authorize my personal information to be posted on Gizmodo or Consumerist or Toms Hardware. Nor was it identified that any of what would be said would be twisted and manipulated for a media interview. In addition Nguyen took out of context and misreported the facts for his own agenda and deranged character.

For the record, during the 13^th telephone call to my home, Nguyen asked what I was doing at that moment whereby I could not run to the office and get him his tracking number; I responded I was having a drink with my wife. After all it was Friday night and we were starting to relax for the weekend. If that is a crime or a headline, then it should appear in every newspaper every week for over 175,000,000 people in North America, not just myself.

Tuan became more inquisitive and he asked what credentials I had to operate my business I responded with my professional and academic background (MBA, Engineer, Certified Management Account, I sit on the Board of Governors for our profession). There was no bragging, just responses to his personally intrusive questions. If I had known that any of this might have been fodder for an uncredible site like Toms Hardware there would have been no conversation.

As the conversation became more bizarre and abusive I identified that the conversation was over and Nguyen was getting a refund. All of what was being said was weird. I wont get into the verbal exchange because quite frankly it was absurd, abusive and disrespectful. I did say that our business relationship was over and get out of my life after several threats. I do not apologize for my statement or position.

This statement made it clear that I did not want to talk to this person ever again and I did not want him calling my house ever again. Unfortunately that did not stop him, his friends or co-workers phone calls from continuing to call to harass and leave abusive messages (We had the police trace all phone calls and emails). None of what we have described should sound like a stable person or anyone I would want to do business with. We could advance our other findings in this matter but that would just cause the individual to become more self-righteous and create and post more falsehoods to satisfy his character and agenda.

The only fraud that has occurred in this instance is the multitude of falsehoods by Nguyen on his website and the breaches of Toms Hardware own Code of Conduct, and Terms of Service.

I can assure you that because of this incident, the FBI, and Canadian Police Authorities (OPP) have been involved with respect to criminal and telephone harassment related to Nguyen and his followers. Fortunately the conduct, calls and emails have ceased. If anyone including the Gizmodo condones or wishes to incite threatening phone calls, emails or online conduct then that should be declared in your terms of service; but we thought Gawker Media had a better reputation than to condone that type of behaviour.

This is a record and statement of an incident falsely and irresponsibly reported by Toms Hardware and Gizmodo. We applaud Consumers who had the decency to realize a mistake and correct it. We believe Gizmodo should have enough character to do the same. Toms Hardware and Nguyen are beyond hope and we are considering legal remedies in this matter.

The Creator of MacPadd

H1N1

There have been incidental comments regarding our website statement that Macpadd and its resistance to the H1N1 virus. We state that we are one of the few if not only mouse pads whereby its surface can be disinfected by a wipe (Lysol or Clorox). Our product is currently are being considered in government and one of the largest hospital environments in Canada.