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January 6th, 2010

## Caution may be advisable: That’s my advice after talking to Cherrypal chairman Max Seybold

By Chris Meadows

I meant it when I said that TeleRead is an e-book blog, not a Cherrypal blog.

However, more concerns about Cherrypal’s veracity as a company have been raised—in comments here, in blog posts elsewhere, in Twitter, and in private e-mail—and I have asked Cherrypal Chairman Max Seybold to address them.

While I am largely satisfied with the answers and feel the problems have more to do with high order volumes and the holiday season than any possible malicious intent, it may be best for those still considering a purchase to hold off until more people (myself included) have demonstrably received theirs.

Irrational Exuberance?

It is possible I am excessively optimistic about Cherrypal as a company. Perhaps I am simply in love with the idea of a $99 budget computer, and the things it could do for the developing world (not to mention the digitally-divided poor in America). But I am trying not to let that prevent me from asking tough questions.

And after all, Cherrypal did not simply show up out of nowhere. People reported receiving the original Cherrypal desktop flash-based computers they ordered last year—albeit after a three-month shipping delay Cherrypal said was caused by bad parts. (Said The Register, “Though some claimed it didn’t exist, the CherryPal cloud PC chimera has been spotted in the wild.”)

Nonetheless, I still have not heard from anyone who actually has received an Africa, nor have I yet received my own. And more concerns have been raised. Find those concerns, and Max Seybold’s responses, below the jump.

A Cancelled Order

When I spoke to Max on Monday, he told me that the launch had attracted much more attention—and many more orders—than the company had expected, and they had to scramble to keep up. He emphasized that such overwhelming launches often led to problems and confusion.

> We also had a smaller batch which basically over the Christmas holidays got screwed up by the shipping company, and we had to cancel the batch. Meaning we refunded all the money to the customers, and offered them a reorder option for a slightly higher model. And most people went for that. But these are the usual little hiccups.

He also noted that he’d had to push back sending the review units he had promised me so that they could go to paying customers. He pledged to ship them out to me next week.

However, the method in which the order cancellation was handled has raised some eyebrows among Cherrypal customers.

In particular, some customers received refund notifications via “LIFESTYLE BRANDS SUGARROMANCE,” an Internet dating service, rather than Cherrypal. (Both SugarRomance and Cherrypal are owned by the same parent company, Tristate Brands. One customer who emailed me expressed concern about some of the links in Tristate’s homepage’s blogroll.)

When I asked Max Seybold about the refund notification, he said that during the first three days Cherrypal took orders, they processed credit card orders through “a sister company” because their own payment system was not set up at that point.

The Payment Processor Shuffle

Apparently Cherrypal has had some difficulties with payment processing systems over the course of its sales. For a brief time, Cherrypal took orders through Google Checkout. However, “Ray” notes that 12 hours after placing the re-order Max promised, he received an email from Google Checkout:

> Google Checkout no longer processes orders for this merchant. If you’d still like to make a purchase from Tristate Cherrypal, please contact this merchant directly or feel free to retry your order with another merchant.

I brought this up with Max, who explained:

> Google Checkout was only up for a day, and when we entered into that agreement we were under the assumption it would work differently. We accepted Paypal before, we’re accepting Paypal again. We will shortly add other payment gateways for market.

> The reason was basically, it was based on customer demand to offer Google Checkout as well, but it didn’t work the way we thought. It’s not available anymore. We didn’t even charge [any of the orders placed] through Google checkout.

One Cherrypal customer who emailed me mentioned that at the time he was asked to resubmit his order, the only payment option available was Western Union. However, when I checked again today, Cherrypal was now accepting payments via Paypal as well.

(Max does note that Paypal can lead to delay if the payment is an e-check rather than a credit card payment. E-checks take at least 7-10 days to clear. The promised two-week order delivery period begins after payment has cleared.)

Linux and Windows: Why the Same Price?

One concern that has been raised various places is why the price for the Linux and Windows versions of the Africa are exactly the same. It would seem the Linux version should cost less due to not having to pay the “Microsoft tax” fee for an OEM copy of Windows XP.

I put this to Max, who explained that it was a byproduct of the Africa’s “Internet appliance” nature. Cherrypal does pay the OEM fee for Windows, and as a result “we make much less money” on the Windows version.

The original plan was to leave it up to Cherrypal’s discretion what OS to ship with the Africa: they would decide whether to send Linux or Windows with a given order.

> Then a lot of people had feedback that they wanted to choose, so we decided now we would keep the same price, though I’m not saying we will keep it that way.

> Some media outlets asked me the same question. It’s a minor problem so to speak. There’s hardly anyone asking for the Windows version. The huge majority is asking for Linux. We were kind of surprised too, it’s really overwhelming. I would almost say it’s an exception that people choose Windows.

Word of Mouth

The delays in shipping have led to some bad word-of-mouth spreading about the company. Some people are upset (and suspicious) to be receiving a refund rather than the computer they ordered.

Others are suspicious because no one has yet actually (publicly claimed to have) received an Africa. Max has stated he has sent review units to a number of media outlets, but declined to name any of these outlets.

> In all fairness, just wait a couple more days. Our top priority is for customers; we send out the first batch of review units to media outlets. They will take a little time to test it but I’m sure there will be some feedback coming from them pretty soon.

He said that the lack of public reviews was “a problem that will go away in a couple of days.”

When I spoke to Max on Monday, he had this to say about the negative word-of-mouth.

> A lot of people like to talk bad about other people, and I have many many many many emails from people that were very pleased about the customer service, pleased how everything went and stuff, but usually these people don’t go public with it. And maybe at some point we’ll find a way to post it on the website or whatever…but in terms of my assessment, I think we’re OK, we’re doing good.

So far, Max’s explanations seem plausible to me. I do not believe Cherrypal is acting in bad faith. However, I am also not actually out any money if Cherrypal fails to deliver me the review units it has promised, so I may not have room to talk.

Some TeleRead readers have expressed concern that they have not seen the promised refunds hit their accounts yet (though these refunds usually do take a few days to appear), or have been having trouble reaching Cherrypal’s customer service. (“RedSonja” even reported receiving a “service disconnected” recording when she tried earlier this evening, though I was able to reach Max easily when I called a half hour later.)

Max Seybold has said repeatedly that they are trying to reach out to every customer and answer every e-mail, but it is possible some might have slipped through the cracks. Cherrypal’s customer service number is 650-319-8300; I have never had trouble reaching Max Seybold at that line, and anyone with concerns is encouraged to call.

Caution May Be Advisable

As I said, it seems most likely to me that Cherrypal has simply been plagued by bad luck, unexpectedly heavy orders, and the holiday season. I still firmly expect to receive my review units within a couple of weeks, after which I will have a good deal more to say about their suitability for e-books.

Nonetheless, it is hard to blame anyone for being antsy over the shipping delays, refunds, and payment processor concerns, especially since no one has actually gotten his hands on an Africa yet. But as Max said, this is a problem that should fix itself within a few days.

It might be the most sensible strategy for those still considering making a purchase to wait until the reviews actually begin to come in. If you do decide to order, being cautious will only cost you a few extra days.

Technorati Tags: Cherrypal Africa,Cherrypal,Max Seybold,Africa,Sugarromance,Tristate,Tristate Brands,refunds,credit card,Western Union,PayPal,Google Checkout,word of mouth
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This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 6th, 2010 at 11:54 pm and is filed under Cherrypal, Chris Meadows, Google, Linux, crappy customer service, netbooks. . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Also, please note that if you're commenting for the first time, your remarks will be held for moderation. If you still have problems, email TeleRead Co-Editor Paul Biba. Pinging is currently not allowed.

### 51 Responses to “Caution may be advisable: That’s my advice after talking to Cherrypal chairman Max Seybold”

1. Sergiu Partenie Says:
   January 7th, 2010 at 9:53 am

   I ordered two of them on Dec 22. The bank wired the money out of my account the next day. My order status is still “Pending”. If i don’t get any reply to the emails i sent to cherrypal or i don’t see any official announcement from Max in the next few days, i am going to ask the bank to cancel the payment.
   I really hope it’s just an unfortunate series of delays and mishaps and i can get my Africas.

2. RedSonja Says:
   January 7th, 2010 at 11:15 am

   I would like to add that, while I don’t think that malice is intended here, Cherrypal does not appear to be prepared for the “big time”. I suspect that while Mr. Seybold is very likely acting in good faith, it’s hard to be confident in the product and company when followup emails arrive from a skeezy online dating service. At the very least, it creates an air of unprofessionalism.

   I’m very disappointed, too. I LOVE the Cherrypal mission – to close the digital divide and provide green computing solutions. I’m just not convinced that they are a mature enough company to provide that yet.

3. Scott G. Lewis Says:
   January 7th, 2010 at 12:04 pm

   You guys are a lot more trusting than I am. This company has an unbelievably high number of unfortunate circumstances, all the fault of other vendors, and an amazing number of “explanations” for all of them.

4. Chris Meadows Says:
   January 7th, 2010 at 1:14 pm

   Max said when I talked to him that they were trying to respond to every e-mail, no matter how important or unimportant the issue mentioned in it. I’ve gotten emails from people who sent an email in and got a response within a day or so.

   Like I said, maybe I’m too optimistic and trusting about the company, but I continue to hold out hope that Africas will start being delivered any time now—if not to me, to people who ordered them and who can talk about what they’re like.

5. Sergiu Partenie Says:
   January 7th, 2010 at 1:27 pm

   Chris – if i receive my Africas before you get yours i promise to send you a review and pictures to post on TeleRead and to run whetever tests you want me on them.
   Hope we all get them and Cherrypal picks up the pace.
   Thanks.

6. Dan Miller Says:
   January 7th, 2010 at 2:47 pm

   I love the attention to Cherrypal, Chris. I’m an owner of a Cherrypal C114 that I bought from eBay a year ago from a person that almost certainly bought it direct from Cherrypal. It’s kind of nice IMHO, came in a slick Cherrypal box, works just okay. I’m interested in updating the LimeOS on it but haven’t been able to do so. I followed the blogs and news reports about Cherrypal last year. There were delays and complaints and suspicions but I don’t think there was any scam going on then. I don’t think there is any scam going on now with the Africa now. However I don’t see how the business model can enable Cherrypal to go on with the Africa for long because the price is just too low for it to be profitable. Maybe Cherrypal can do it though.

7. Dan Miller Says:
   January 7th, 2010 at 2:58 pm

   PS: Cherrypal should make it the “hundred euro laptop.” That carries most of the buzz and makes the enterprise a bit more profitable.

8. David H. Wilkins Says:
   January 8th, 2010 at 7:17 pm

   I wanted to believe that Cherrypal and the Africa were real. As soon as I read the articles, I decided that $99 was worth risking for the chance of getting in on the ground floor of something big. My order number was 71. I was a little suspicious when I had to pay Sugarromance. I was a little suspicious when the site got hacked right away. I was a lot excited when I got the shipment notification. I was A LOT upset when I got the refund notification. I guess I should be happy that I didn’t get scammed out of my $117.

   I bought an OLPC in the Give 1 Get 1 program. I bought a GP2X handheld gaming device. I’m a sucker for small devices that have promise. I guess I’ll never get to find out about the Africa.

9. Chris Meadows Says:
   January 8th, 2010 at 7:34 pm

   I continue to hold out the hope that the matter will settle in a few weeks and they’ll be better able to fulfill their orders. I mean, they refunded your money after all.

   When (if) I get the review copy (they say) they’re sending, I will be doing a lot of reviewing of it.

   I agree that they’re definitely making a lot of mistakes here and losing a lot of consumer good will. But I still don’t think they’re trying to cheat anyone.

10. David H. Wilkins Says:
    January 8th, 2010 at 9:56 pm

    At least SugarRomance got to book the revenue in 2009 and delay booking the refund until ‘2010. Shenanigans if you ask me.

    I was really looking forward to doing some un-boxing an reviewing myself.

    As for Cherrypal having a run of bad luck, luck favors the prepared, and these guys will apparently NOT be favored by luck very soon.

    True, I’m glad I have my money back. I’d rather be writing this comment on an Africa, though.

11. Scott G. Lewis Says:
    January 8th, 2010 at 10:38 pm

    Be it bad luck/poor planning or malfeasance of some sort, at the end of the day it’s enough to prevent me from ordering. Perhaps if it works out for everyone else and some positive reviews come out I’ll reconsider, but for now either of the above scenarios is enough to give me pause.

12. neuromancer Says:
    January 9th, 2010 at 6:40 am

    Has anyone received a working tracking number or even a device yet?

13. You Must Be Crazy Says:
    January 9th, 2010 at 7:40 am

    This story really bears all the hallmarks of a scam.

    i) Offer something really attractive (ie cheap)- even appeal to ’soemthing for nothing’ feeling: eg they claim to have shipped 10 inch screens against 7 inch orders
    ii) lay on as much noise as possible about how the deal will likely go away soon:

    a) the Windows version is the same price as the Linux, but they say this may change soon.

    iii) get people to pay through channels that will make it hard to get their money back (bank transfers or Western Union) (eg in the UK at least, credit card purchasers get their money back from the card company if the merchant goes belly up.

    iv)) The product itself makes no business sense.

    a) How can they offer a Windows version at same price as Linux? Impossible without losing money on every Windows one shipped!
    b) they ahve doubled their factory configuration complexity and customer support hassle, by offering 2 OS’es.
    c) How can they say the Africa will be contain different CPUs (ARM/Intel/etc) depending on what is the cheapest at the time?

    That is an engineering/manufacturing nightmare – having to have 3 different motherboards lined for the one product.

    That triples the factory config cost and customer support cost

    vi) The connection wth SugarRomance is a bad smell.

    So……….. if that analysis is right, and it;s a scam, we would expect to see:

    as much publicity as possibility, all with the hint that the deal is wonderful and time limited.
    The CEO will be very visible with reasuring noises, all the way until the plug is pulled.

    No one publicly claims to have a unit – except for stooges, who will noticeable because they too will talk up the fact that the offer must surely end soon – posts by Dan Miller abaove fit that exactly

14. You Must Be Crazy Says:
    January 9th, 2010 at 7:57 am

    Maybe I was being tough on Dan Miller – his web site shows his Jan article haviogn bought a CherryPal branded device.

    But because he bought that on eBay, not direct – he doesn’t know if what he has in his hands was a $300 device or a $100.

    For sure he does not have the Africa in his hands.

    Does anybody, anywhere have an Africa?

15. DeusExMachina Says:
    January 9th, 2010 at 5:26 pm

    @YouMustBeCrazy

    I too am suspicious, for a large number of reasons, but your logic is severely flawed:
    “lay on as much noise as possible about how the deal will likely go away soon”
    Regardless of the other dubious things about the company, THIS is simply not one of them. At no point do they make this claim. In fact, the only claim they make on pricing is that it may be possible to lower it in the future.

    “the Windows version is the same price as the Linux, but they say this may change soon.”
    Yes, the implication is that the Linux version will be cheaper. How is this unbelievable?

    “The product itself makes no business sense.”
    In what way. It’s business model, though very poorly executed, makes perfect sense. See below.

    “How can they offer a Windows version at same price as Linux? Impossible without losing money on every Windows one shipped!”

    Very easily. By making more on every Linux version. You assume incorrectly that the linux config is the break even point, so they must lose on the Windows config. This assumption is without foundation.

    “they ahve [sic} doubled their factory configuration complexity and customer support hassle, by offering 2 OS’es.”
    No they haven’t. They have added some complexity, sure, but to claim it is doubled is pure hyperbole.

    “How can they say the Africa will be contain different CPUs (ARM/Intel/etc) depending on what is the cheapest at the time?”
    By typing it into a text field? They make a perfectly cogent explanation of this.

    “That is an engineering/manufacturing nightmare – having to have 3 different motherboards lined for the one product.

    That triples the factory config cost and customer support cost.”
    Again, no it doesn’t. You are simply pulling numbers out of thin air. It really is not that big a deal to support multiple motherboards. MOST computer companies do. How many different motherboards does Dell support? It certainly is not additive. Adding other hardware adds complexity, but many things are redundant across architectures. Also, if they are getting the components as described, they already work with existing OS configs, so it is not that big a deal.

    This is NOT to say that the company is not dubious, or outright fraudulent. The fact that again they only accept Western Union for payment is beyond sketchy. I spoke via e-mail with “Max Seybold” who gave this explanation:

    “We received thousands of online orders every day sinced we launched the Africa about a month ago and major credit card processing companies as well as PayPal gave us a very hard time. Further, the commission PayPal and credit card companies charge doesn’t support our very thin margins. We will come up with a better solution sometimes soon.”

    Bull. Sorry to be so blunt, but that explanation is totally full of it. For a $100 transaction, Western Union charges $8. That is 8%! Paypal, while it IS a rip off, charges only around 3%. That is less than HALF! So claiming that you use Western Union to keep profit margins acceptable is a flat out lie. Using Western Union also associates you with Nigerian e-mail scams, Eastern European lottery scams, and all sorts of seediness. In fact, I suspect there are few ways better to totally kill your gross income, let alone your net margins, than to only accept Western Union. So again, bull.

    It is also dubious that they do not have any standard shipping arrangements. Their explanation that it allows them to pick the best method for a given transaction is absurd. There is no benefit to doing that on a case by case basis, or on having a flat rate shipping amount unless it includes a markup over everyone’s rates. There are numerous shopping cart packages available that let the user specify shipping method, so again, their explanation is bull.

    The fast that the CEO was willing to discuss these issues with me, all the way up to the point where I pointed these things out, and then ceased responding, is also fishy.
    As is the fact that exhaustive online searches have found NO ONE who has received a working unit, and only a single instance of someone who claims to have received any unit from CherryPal (the desktop unit from last year) and that was on the company’s own blog site, with low res pics, and is thus not particularly trustworthy.

    But all that said, I can also believe that the company is not a scam, and that the owner was simply overwhelmed by the volume, and not prepared to actually operate as a real business. Not that that changes anything, other than allowing for the possibility that these things will sort themselves out in the future.
    I don’t hold out much hope, but if it does work itself out, I will certainly follow through on my offer to Mr. “Seybold” to make an initial minimum purchase of 10 units.
    I will not, however, hold my breath waiting.

16. Dan Miller Says:
    January 10th, 2010 at 7:49 am

    You Must be Crazy says: “Maybe I was being tough on Dan Miller.” Yeah, you were being tough to call me a stooge, and beyond that you have no idea what you’re talking about at all because you haven’t bothered to inform yourself, for example as to the difference between the original Cherrypal (the $250-priced device) and the $99 Cherrypal Africa. Ignorant people posting insults anonymously is just a reality of the Internet. I’d ask that the editors not approve any further of your clownishness though.

17. DeusExMachina Says:
    January 10th, 2010 at 4:27 pm

    OK, I have an update. I have again established contact with CherryPal, and we have come to an amenable agreement as to payment terms, terms that will NOT require me to send off money to them via Western Union sight unseen. I also have a non-CG image of the actual device. I will have further details Monday after we arrange shipping details, and perhaps even more details soon thereafter. I will keep people posted, and if and when I receive the unit, I will write an EXHAUSTIVE review.

18. Chris Meadows Says:
    January 11th, 2010 at 12:25 am

    DeusExMachina: Is that an agreement to payment terms for ten units, or just one trial unit to start off with?

    Also, as I said in an e-mail to you, I would really like to see that picture.

19. Nate the great Says:
    January 11th, 2010 at 1:02 am

    I just got back from CES, and I still do not have the laptop. I ordered on the 22nd, so I’ve now hit 4 weeks with no communication from Cherrypal.

    This is a scam.

20. Sergiu Partenie Says:
    January 11th, 2010 at 8:13 am

    DeusExMachina: Good luck. I also e-mailed Max a few days ago offering to write a review for my ALREADY PAID FOR Africas and asking again for a estimated shipping date. Still no answer. So today i filed a fraud complaint with my bank. I have a friend who also tried to get a Africa. He asked for his money back a week ago but got nothing. He will also file a complaint with his bank.

    Also – as an advice for everyone who got “burned” – write a nice letter to the Chinese embassy in your country and describe how “Tristate Hong Kong Group Limited, 610 Nathan Road, Suite 813 8/F Hollywood Plaza, Kowloon, Hong Kong” got your money but never sent you the goods and how this will affect you future trust in dealing with Chinese companies.

21. atari Says:
    January 11th, 2010 at 9:00 am

    Today my EMS tracking-number received from Max Seybold finally worked. The shipment is now in Baoding – will keep my blog entry updated until the package arrived.

22. Sergiu Partenie Says:
    January 11th, 2010 at 10:14 am

    atari: can you please tell us your order number ? Mine was 82x and it still has a “Pending” status.

    Thanks.

23. atari Says:
    January 11th, 2010 at 10:41 am

    Sergiu Partenie: My order number from the cherrypal webshop is 82x too. The money transfered with Western Union arrived there 12/28/09…

24. Chris Meadows Says:
    January 11th, 2010 at 4:35 pm

    I see from atari’s blog entry that the package has now arrived in Beijing. I wonder if anyone else has received similar tracking numbers.

25. DeusExMachina Says:
    January 12th, 2010 at 2:43 pm

    The agreement was for one unit, with a volume discount to be applied to a future additional purchase of 9 units if it panned out.
    That said, I have additional information to add.
    Contrary to agreements, Max Seybold did NOT contact me with shipping details on Monday. I have sent another message to him requesting contact, but we shall see.
    Also, and perhaps more telling, the picture I was sent, once opened outside of mail, is CLEARLY a faked photoshopped image. It was not even very well done, and is kind of insulting in its poor quality. This does not mean that this is a scam, it could just be more evidence of someone in over their head. And I am NOT out any money, as I am not foolish enough to send anyone funds via Western Union without product in my hands. But certainly this confluence of facts flows toward a conclusion of fraud.
    Again, I will keep my options open and will report back what transpires.

26. Sergiu Partenie Says:
    January 12th, 2010 at 3:16 pm

    I have sent today a last e-mail to Max asking that he either sends me my two Africas (like he has sent Atari his) or give my money back. It looks like he opted to give me back my money instead of the laptops. I hope he keeps at least THIS promise.

    Congratulations Atari – it seems like you will receive the only prototype ever built (most likely it will be the old 10″ version of Bing)

    Also – anyone noticed that http://cherrypal.com/greenmaraschino/ – the page of their Linux distro – is showing a “Error establishing a database connection” since last year ?

    DeusExMachina – i would love to see the ’shopped image

27. DeusExMachina Says:
    January 12th, 2010 at 3:50 pm

    Update:
    After sending another message pointing out the failure to abide by his own commitment to communicate with me this Monday regarding shipping, I have once again been contacted by Max Seybold, and have been told that the unit will ship on Friday.
    Additionally, and perhaps most interestingly, was this following tidbit:
    “We can ship this Friday, USPS out of California, will keep you posted.”

    Considering Atari’s EMS tracking info having the unit shipping out of China, I find the fact that the claim here that the unit will ship USPS out of California to be VERY interesting.

28. Chris Meadows Says:
    January 12th, 2010 at 3:54 pm

    Perhaps the units meant to fill the batch of orders that had to be cancelled ended up in California, so some orders will be fulfilled from there. (If they’re shipping to the USA, it makes sense they would do that. Remember, atari is in Germany—or, at least, his blog is posted in German so it seems like a reasonable assumption he’s somewhere in Europe that speaks it—so there would be no benefit to shipping his unit from America as opposed to China.)

    I wonder if my review units will also ship out of California that way.

29. Chris Meadows Says:
    January 12th, 2010 at 4:24 pm

    Hmm. Just emailed Max, got a prompt reply:

    > Most Cherrypal Africa orders for US customers are shipped out of California, that is correct. We are holding off with review units until further notice.

    > We might pause taking orders in US and some other countries soon in order to satisfy demand for customers in developing countries. The Cherrypal Africa was designed first and foremost for people who can’t afford an expensive laptop.

    After I emailed him back, he clarified,

    > I didn’t say that you won’t get a review unit – I just can’t give you an exact date right now – first things first

    Looks like for the moment I’ll just have to wait and see what people who do receive them think.

    Well, if the review unit ends up not coming through, maybe I’ll order one myself sooner or later—if they’re still taking orders by the time I hear from anyone who successfully receives theirs.

30. atari Says:
    January 12th, 2010 at 4:37 pm

    Sergiu Partenie: Max told me that I’ll get a “Linux 8.9″ screen laptop” – so probably it’s not “the old 10″ version of Bing”. Hopefully the shipment will arrive soon, so we all know a bit more. But at this moment the online-tracking does not tell me any news about the progress…

31. Kira Says:
    January 12th, 2010 at 6:39 pm

    Looks like their website is down:) lol.
    I was about to order 3 africas, but they simply can not operate as a business.. can’t handle orders.
    I am out!

32. DeusExMachina Says:
    January 12th, 2010 at 8:05 pm

    There website being down provides additional info. First, it is now clear that he is running the site through Yahoo’s web hosting. Second, the Store is still actually up, if you link to it directly:
    https://p2.secure.hostingprod.com/@www.cherrypal.com/ssl//openstore/product_info.php?products_id=2&osCsid=fdb2bbe57d95f4750630d2cc47d5a235

    If I could post pictures, I’d post the bogus pic I got from Max Seybold. It is kinda laughable, actually.

33. Chris Meadows Says:
    January 12th, 2010 at 8:22 pm

    If you could email it to me, Deus, I’ll put it up. I sent you an email requesting it already.

34. DeusExMachina Says:
    January 12th, 2010 at 8:44 pm

    Yeah, I read that in the forum, but I never got the e-mail message. I’ll check my spam filter and see if it got snagged.

35. DeusExMachina Says:
    January 13th, 2010 at 8:09 am

    I checked my spam folder, and do not appear to have gotten that e-mail message. Try again?

36. DeusExMachina Says:
    January 13th, 2010 at 6:10 pm

    As for the supposed excuse of concentrating on the third world mission, The very fact the device has WiFI shows that their target market has access to the internet, and I would point out that there are no posts or online reviews to indicate that anyone THERE has gotten a unit either.
    We shall see where this goes on Friday.

37. Viorel S Says:
    January 14th, 2010 at 7:17 am

    cherypall africa seems to be a scam after all – I ordered one on 22 dec. One week ago I have asked for refund – Max said that I will get it – but deadline expired yesterday and no refund yet….so… DO NOT BUY!!!

38. Chockedoff Says:
    January 14th, 2010 at 7:32 am

    I believe this is a very convincing scam based out of the US. No one who wants to do business professionally, especially given the complexities of sourcing would leave the sales and distribution side so poorly handled. A website hosted at yahoo?? Western Union used to handle payment- who in the right mind would them if they do not want to commit commercial suicide? If they have the money to source in bulk , they would have the funds to handle paypal and distribution agreement.

    All Chinese distributors manage a better job than this. Maxthis.

39. Chockedoff Says:
    January 14th, 2010 at 7:50 am

    Furthermore, the promise of a better machine than stated is a classic bait.

    First you want to buy because of the price. Then you do it in the name of a good cause. Then people question your ability to deliver. You give them a greater incentive!

    After waiting 3 days my order status has changed to processing and i got an email. Hurrah i am order number 1296. 1296 x 100 = 13000 minimum profit so far. I shall not be proceeding with my order.

    And Max is not prepared after last years sucess of 2.5 million hits in a day after the launch of the C110. Anyone own one? With such demand Cherrypal should be a major player now!

    Anyhow thats just my two pennies worth of opinion.

40. Sergiu Partenie Says:
    January 14th, 2010 at 1:43 pm

    Viorel S: Same here. Refund was supposed to arrive yesterday. Maybe the SWIFT transfer from Tristate Lifestyle’s bank is being blocked by the Great Chinese Firewall

    One more question – as Cherypal is selling the Bing from almost a year – can anyone point me to a web page/blog which reviews such a machine ? When searching for “cherrypal bing” Google Images returns only the standard three promotional images.

41. atari Says:
    January 14th, 2010 at 2:09 pm

    DeusExMachina said:

    > The very fact the device has WiFI shows that their target market has access to the internet

    OLPCs have WiFi too, it’s supposed to build wireless mesh networks for the exchange of files or sharing ones internet-connection with many users…

42. DeusExMachina Says:
    January 14th, 2010 at 8:39 pm

    Nevertheless, internet access is available all over the third world. Certainly if our orders are being held up due to preference for these countries, we would have seen information coming from them regarding actual shipping units. We have not. It speaks for itself

43. Rory Says:
    January 14th, 2010 at 9:07 pm

    Charrypal says that you will have your Cherrypal in 10 – 14 days. It is true?

44. Chris Meadows Says:
    January 15th, 2010 at 12:43 am

    Rory, it’s been five weeks since some people ordered, and not one single person has received his yet. atari is the only one (we know of) who has even received a tracking number, and even that hasn’t been updated for three days.

    So, no, it’s probably not true. At least it hasn’t been so far.

45. Rory Says:
    January 15th, 2010 at 12:03 pm

    Hi!

    My point of view is that will need be organized and do a lawsuit to Max Seybold.

    We need write to web sites that it is a big scam, Max Seybold never send merchandise, really it is sad, but will need stop this man.

    Do you know some lawyer famous, public figure? We need contact him! We can! Join us, we will get money back and stop this scam.

    It is like a religius leader that do scam!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcXKUjv3teU
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yl7ErYjtnDE

    Do you believe it is true?

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdsk-cEjggU
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmF20N9HPGo
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsTzyW9FSpQ
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYNvfx2AdLQ
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xa42MSmxahc
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ix3y9PqJ7ps
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CIpgCc4HJY

    It is a joke! Not possible! It is one year ago!
    The same history! Many people is waiting the computer, lol!

46. African't Says:
    January 15th, 2010 at 9:23 pm

    I ordered an Africa on Dec. 19 and my order status is still listed as ‘Pending’.

    I sent an email yesterday to support@cherrypal.com asking about the status of my order and I received a reply literally within 5 minutes saying: “that doesn’t sound right, I will check your order status and get back to you”.

    I decided to write back again today and I told them to either give me a valid tracking number or refund my credit card by this coming Tuesday, or I will file a dispute with my credit card company.

    This looks like a scam to me.

47. African't Says:
    January 16th, 2010 at 3:32 pm

    just a quick update:

    I received a response to my second email within 15 minutes (the first was from ‘Cherrypal Support’ but this one was from ‘Max Seybold’), and he claims that they have shipped ‘many’ Cherrypal Africas and Bings in the last month.

    He said my refund request has been submitted to the credit card processing company, but as of right now there is no refund to my account. I will wait until the weekend is over but if it does not appear by Tuesday I will take further action.

48. Yomero Says:
    January 16th, 2010 at 8:36 pm

    To me it looks like a scam, see below

    http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=69600

49. Ricco Says:
    January 17th, 2010 at 5:27 pm

    I purchase one sample few weeks ago for some project in my company without checking other advice on the web.

    I was worrying since but they just cancel my order et refund me by paypal. It doesn’t seem to be a scam but they definitly have issues.

50. Alex Says:
    January 17th, 2010 at 6:20 pm

    Hi,
    i’m from Italy.
    I placed my order the 01/07/2010 and payed with paypal.
    unfortunately I found this blog after the payment…
    I heard nothing from cherrypal, the order status was always “pending”..
    I was thinking to ask the refund when today unexpectedly I receive a refund from Tristate Hong Kong Group Limited tro through Paypal!!!!
    Here the reason:”Unfortunately we had to cancel your order. PayPal will refund your money immediately. We will provide more information through our order management system. We apologize for the inconvenience. Thank you for choosing Cherrypal”
    I hope you will all receive your money back too!
    bye
    ale

51. Yomero Says:
    January 18th, 2010 at 10:21 am

    I am a little bit curious, I just entered their website (And also a couple of weeks ago) and they stated that the only payment method they accept is Western Union, how was the payment done, if the order was pending and never confirmed?

    A couple of weeks ago I ordered one, but fortunatelly I was able to recall the payment.
    By the way, My order still have the staus “Processing”, but today I am going to send an email cancelling it.

    Regards and good luck.

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