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Resolving Issues With Elemental Designs - Page 5

post #121 of 182
10/10/12 at 10:40am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by J_Palmer_Cass View Post

This is not a criminal case. End of story.
Maybe or maybe it depends on the state. This is not that different from Mark Schifter getting thousands from multiple people for undelivered product and that resulted in him pleading guilty to a felony charge.
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post #122 of 182
10/11/12 at 3:58pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chu Gai View Post

Maybe or maybe it depends on the state. This is not that different from Mark Schifter getting thousands from multiple people for undelivered product and that resulted in him pleading guilty to a felony charge.

didn't marks problems stem from fraudulent fund raising?
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post #123 of 182
10/11/12 at 4:19pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by tundrSQ View Post

didn't marks problems stem from fraudulent fund raising?
Yes they did. He was convicted and was released from jail sometime in March of this year. He still has to make restitution, community service, with something like 20 years of probation.

However, as you know, he also took monies for things like LS and the vapor ware RSL II speakers. Those resulted in additional felony charges - 14 I think - that was pleaded down to one felony count. Sentencing is sometime in November assuming it's not continued again. I'm assuming he can look forward to more jail time.

This is what surprises me with the Iowa AG's office. Taking thousands from multiple people for product that never existed sounds like it rises to the level of felonies. I can't believe that's not prosecutable by the state.
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post #124 of 182
10/11/12 at 7:08pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chu Gai View Post

Quote:
Originally Posted by tundrSQ View Post

didn't marks problems stem from fraudulent fund raising?
Yes they did. He was convicted and was released from jail sometime in March of this year. He still has to make restitution, community service, with something like 20 years of probation.

However, as you know, he also took monies for things like LS and the vapor ware RSL II speakers. Those resulted in additional felony charges - 14 I think - that was pleaded down to one felony count. Sentencing is sometime in November assuming it's not continued again. I'm assuming he can look forward to more jail time.

This is what surprises me with the Iowa AG's office. Taking thousands from multiple people for product that never existed sounds like it rises to the level of felonies. I can't believe that's not prosecutable by the state.

You'd have to jail most of Wall Streeters if you want to be fair....they took a f*c* of a lot more....
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post #125 of 182
10/11/12 at 7:14pm
Thread Starter 
I'm just trying to figure out the reason why the AG decided to pack it in while in CO they didn't.
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post #126 of 182
10/12/12 at 7:21pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by rob4321 View Post

Quote:
Originally Posted by Chu Gai View Post

I wonder how this applies or people who sent thousands in? How tragic is the statement that they can't contact any company representatives.mad.gif. After all, doesn't the amount of monies on an individual basis rise to the monetary level for fraud?

I got the same email and am owed over $17,000 from them.

How in the heck could you be out 17000? This should be fascinating...
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post #127 of 182
10/12/12 at 8:28pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by lovinthehd View Post

How in the heck could you be out 17000? This should be fascinating...

It's actually a coworkers order that I helped with. The whole order was around $22,000 which was made in Sept 2011. They finally shipped about $5000 worth of the stuff in July. We tried cancelling the rest of the order but Alex convinced us to only cancel some of it cause "it would ship soon" and he would include some extra items for free. He told us their accounting department (which probably doesn't exist) had processed a refund of about $9500 and the rest would ship asap. Then he disappeared with no refund and no shipment. Matt said he'd see what he could do after the last edesign blog post and now he's disappeared too.
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post #128 of 182
10/13/12 at 4:16am
I have a funny feeling the people from eD are watching this thread like hawks, to know what actions people are taking against these aholes.
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post #129 of 182
10/13/12 at 5:27am
Quote:
Originally Posted by lovinthehd View Post

How in the heck could you be out 17000? This should be fascinating...

wow...i guess he bought one of each of everything. now that is brand loyal..biggrin.gif
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post #130 of 182
10/13/12 at 7:59am
Quote:
Originally Posted by airgas1998 View Post

wow...i guess he bought one of each of everything. now that is brand loyal..biggrin.gif

It was 13 of the cinema speakers, 19 custom made in wall speakers, 5 subs, 3 speaker stands, and the $9500 was actually a Nuvo whole house audio system from parts express. Parts express won't ship Nuvo to Canada so Alex offered to order it and put it on the pallet. Of that we received 2 subs and the 19 in walls.

We were originally going to do the parts express stuff ourselves and just get it shipped to ED but Alex said they get a big discount from them so he said he could get it for cheaper if we ordered through him.
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post #131 of 182
10/13/12 at 9:14am
17K. Wow. I would be going out of my mind. I'm not exactly sure what your legal options are being in canada. I would be seriously looking at a lawsuit
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post #132 of 182
10/13/12 at 11:56am
Quote:
Originally Posted by rob4321 View Post

Quote:
Originally Posted by lovinthehd View Post

How in the heck could you be out 17000? This should be fascinating...

It's actually a coworkers order that I helped with. The whole order was around $22,000 which was made in Sept 2011. They finally shipped about $5000 worth of the stuff in July. We tried cancelling the rest of the order but Alex convinced us to only cancel some of it cause "it would ship soon" and he would include some extra items for free. He told us their accounting department (which probably doesn't exist) had processed a refund of about $9500 and the rest would ship asap. Then he disappeared with no refund and no shipment. Matt said he'd see what he could do after the last edesign blog post and now he's disappeared too.

Holy crap! So why did you trust this guy so much? Personally with orders of that size I'm looking for safer trading terms, at best half up front, half on delivery. Sorry to hear in any case.
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post #133 of 182
10/13/12 at 1:01pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by lovinthehd View Post

Holy crap! So why did you trust this guy so much? Personally with orders of that size I'm looking for safer trading terms, at best half up front, half on delivery. Sorry to hear in any case.

Yeah, I had ordered from them back in 2007 and had a great experience. The original order was just going to be the 3 front cinema speakers and a sub and chatting with Alex it kept growing. Back in Sept 2011 I don't recall hearing of any problems they were having. We were emailing them weekly for updates and they'd always have an excuse (mostly about the design of the custom in walls). Plus we weren't aware of the 60 day limit on visa chargebacks. We had assumed they were just really busy and backlogged not that they had no money or product.
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post #134 of 182
10/13/12 at 7:23pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by rob4321 View Post

Yeah, I had ordered from them back in 2007 and had a great experience. The original order was just going to be the 3 front cinema speakers and a sub and chatting with Alex it kept growing. Back in Sept 2011 I don't recall hearing of any problems they were having. We were emailing them weekly for updates and they'd always have an excuse (mostly about the design of the custom in walls). Plus we weren't aware of the 60 day limit on visa chargebacks. We had assumed they were just really busy and backlogged not that they had no money or product.

can i assume you have retained council? This case more than any other screams fraud on their part.
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post #135 of 182
10/15/12 at 8:30pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by rob4321 View Post

Quote:
Originally Posted by lovinthehd View Post

Holy crap! So why did you trust this guy so much? Personally with orders of that size I'm looking for safer trading terms, at best half up front, half on delivery. Sorry to hear in any case.

Yeah, I had ordered from them back in 2007 and had a great experience. The original order was just going to be the 3 front cinema speakers and a sub and chatting with Alex it kept growing. Back in Sept 2011 I don't recall hearing of any problems they were having. We were emailing them weekly for updates and they'd always have an excuse (mostly about the design of the custom in walls). Plus we weren't aware of the 60 day limit on visa chargebacks. We had assumed they were just really busy and backlogged not that they had no money or product.

Big ouch. So did he actually pay Parts Express for "your" order I wonder? Parts Express might be able to enlighten the Iowa AG?
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post #136 of 182
10/15/12 at 8:42pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by lovinthehd View Post

Big ouch. So did he actually pay Parts Express for "your" order I wonder? Parts Express might be able to enlighten the Iowa AG?

I would say almost for sure he never ordered anything from parts express. Months ago he claimed it was on back order but I confirmed on the parts express chat that they could order it in in days. When ever I would ask about the status he would just say he'd check and get back to me and then never would.
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post #137 of 182
10/15/12 at 8:56pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by rob4321 View Post

Quote:
Originally Posted by lovinthehd View Post

Big ouch. So did he actually pay Parts Express for "your" order I wonder? Parts Express might be able to enlighten the Iowa AG?

I would say almost for sure he never ordered anything from parts express. Months ago he claimed it was on back order but I confirmed on the parts express chat that they could order it in in days. When ever I would ask about the status he would just say he'd check and get back to me and then never would.

As much as he seemed to care for his customers' money, maybe he didn't care about paying his vendors either...just curious more than anything but checking PE's order time as a consumer vs a b2b client is a bit different...
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post #138 of 182
10/30/12 at 12:50pm
I was one of the victims of the credit card frauds happening from eDesignAudio.com before their website went down. I'm just glad I got my speaker baffle adapters made from them before they went poof smile.gif
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post #139 of 182
10/31/12 at 6:49am
I bought a 7.1 setup in 2008, took forever to get the original A5-350, and the amp blew a week later. I got a replacement within a couple weeks and luckily haven't had an issue since. I love the speakers. I have to say Ben and Chris were awesome to me - I never really dealt with anyone else. The only negative I had was the grills on the A6-6T6 towers bowed out and there was talk of getting replacements to people but that never really happened, as far as I know - I never got mine. It's a minor blemish.

I check up every few months on eD and just found out about the closing now. Wow, this is really too bad. I feel for everyone affected. I hope you all get your issues resolved. My warranty runs out soon so I guess I don't really have any further vested interest, other than defunct brand loyalty and unfulfilled potential future purchases.
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post #140 of 182
11/3/12 at 12:18pm
This is very unfortunate to be reading. I literally just had my second amp quit out on me last night. I bought a A3-250 Back in 2007 and during the middle of the night in 2009 one of the caps randomly blew which scared the crap out of me and woke me up during a deep sleep. Just yesterday the subwoofer quit working so I went online to look for them to email and I find nothing but "What happened to ED audio" type threads. Well I guess they finally gave up and went out of business, seems like they could not properly source amps which turned out to be their demise.

I've personally had my subwoofer for thereabouts of 5+ years and WHEN it worked it worked very well, it's a damn shame that they could not source their amps out. I guess I will now be looking for a new HT subwoofer. SVS, HSU, or EPIK....HMMMMMM tongue.gif

Subwoofer is used mostly for gaming and movies.
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post #141 of 182
11/4/12 at 7:14am
Sorry to hear about your sub.....you can't go wrong with SVS.
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post #142 of 182
11/4/12 at 8:05am
I have owned SVS and Hsu now and can say they have the best peace of mind when buying (I also owned eD, so I understand your pain). I have an Hsu VTF-15H sub that I really like but your budget will be the deciding factor. Epik is a lot of bang for the buck, but I would read through the last 6 months or so of the owners thread as there are quite a few reports of amp issues and some reported customer service issues. Something to consider based on your eD experience. But there is no question that the Epik subs are some of the best deals out there right now.
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post #143 of 182
11/5/12 at 3:42am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Grumpy514 View Post

This is very unfortunate to be reading. I literally just had my second amp quit out on me last night. I bought a A3-250 Back in 2007 and during the middle of the night in 2009 one of the caps randomly blew which scared the crap out of me and woke me up during a deep sleep. Just yesterday the subwoofer quit working so I went online to look for them to email and I find nothing but "What happened to ED audio" type threads. Well I guess they finally gave up and went out of business, seems like they could not properly source amps which turned out to be their demise.
I've personally had my subwoofer for thereabouts of 5+ years and WHEN it worked it worked very well, it's a damn shame that they could not source their amps out. I guess I will now be looking for a new HT subwoofer. SVS, HSU, or EPIK....HMMMMMM tongue.gif
Subwoofer is used mostly for gaming and movies.

U can send your amp to Dave for repairs. He is one of the guys that ED outsourced repair work to. From the reports on this forum his turnaround is quick and his charges are reasonable.
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post #144 of 182
11/11/12 at 8:37am
after having similar issues with other vendors (not eD), here is my personal policy which may help others for future purchases:

1. Assuming you are using a credit card for payment...know the rules regarding disputing charges on your CC.

2. Do not under any circumstances allow this time interval to pass without having goods in hand, tested/inspected. I don't care who promises what. You must not allow anyone to talk you into going beyond this point.

3. If you feel this compromises your relationship with the vendor, suggest they reverse the charges, then put a new charge on your CC when the product ships

Typically what happens is magically when you are very close to the end of the window to dispute charges, for whatever reason the product is "on the verge" of being shipped...
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post #145 of 182
1/6/13 at 7:09pm
Saw this bit of news today about ED. Looks like Milne is suing Alex and Matt.

http://www.newtonindependent.com/newton_independent/2012/12/by-peter-hussmann-ben-milne-founder-of-the-cash-based-payment-provider-dwolla-and-mentor-to-the-des-moines-start-up-communi.html
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post #146 of 182
1/6/13 at 7:35pm
Thread Starter 
Fascinating! I wonder if that means Milne also bears some financial responsibility for all those unfulfilled orders?
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post #147 of 182
1/6/13 at 7:36pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Alagar View Post

Saw this bit of news today about ED. Looks like Milne is suing Alex and Matt.

http://www.newtonindependent.com/newton_independent/2012/12/by-peter-hussmann-ben-milne-founder-of-the-cash-based-payment-provider-dwolla-and-mentor-to-the-des-moines-start-up-communi.html

And the Iowa secretary of state listing for Udiom Inc http://sos.iowa.gov/search/business/%28S%28rd5mhbf05w2jrvr5fnappg55%29%29/summary.aspx?c=W5ebsXsaNciPIxD6NpsRkVhu1cpxSRkxHjPfml6XZO41

So now there's an owner to go after....
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post #148 of 182
1/6/13 at 7:41pm
That is interesting. Makes me wonder. Why would he sue if he knows they are broke? Or are they?
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post #149 of 182
1/6/13 at 7:49pm
Those are some seriously lofty numbers that Milne was collecting from ED. I wonder if a lot of the money that "disappeared" went to his royalty payments to keep him off their backs.
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post #150 of 182
1/6/13 at 7:55pm
I had been to their production facility several times, they really had what appeared to be great groundwork to make some serious money. A very nice size warehouse, with a cnc, paint booth, testing station, front office, etc etc. And it was filled with inventory at the time which my last visit there was just a month or two before they went belly up.
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