Monday, October 16, 2006

Vision Technology Announces a Beta test...

Not of their core (and much touted yet to date un-realized potential) VVoIP software... Nooooooo. Depite claims of partnerships and licenses to (as documented here) Govalin, Heelstrike and Yadio. Despite the repeated claims in their press releases... (http://www.keepmedia.com/pubs/PRNewswire/2006/05/25/1596778?ba=a&bi=1&bp=12and http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/060821/clm039.html?.v=52 among many) And despite the initial and recent claims (VSTC claims) of having 2 (two) servers commercially available for this VizTalk/Communicator, etc. The beta test is of an SQL product.
And the beta test is not of their much ballyhooed "True" Artificial Intelligence.. Noooooooo. (http://www.keepmedia.com/pubs/PRNewswire/2005/12/02/1103328?ba=a&bi=0&bp=12) Despite all these claims nothing ever happend and, as documented here, they were trying to sell this for $500K just months before the whole scam started.
No. What they announce in "beta" is some SQL database front end. Wow. I must contain my enthusiasm. Who's beta testing this? What prospects, positioning, messaging, offering, branding, technology overview, expectations, details, etc., are they providing on this momentus announcement? Oh yeah, like everything else NOTHING. They tell the world NOTHING. Comeon' Ed, tell us something. Show us you're not the big lard butt dolt you appear to be. First "Train Buddies" now "SQL Companion" hmmmm, interesting.
Did anyone notice in this PR (http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/061016/clm509.html?.v=49) that..
1. SQL is now admitted publicly for the first time (despite being documented here already) that SQL was owned by Ivan Ivanov. Hmmmm. Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasnt Ivan the CTO of a publicly traded company, then sold a company that he owned to the publicly traded comapny for which he received compensation in stock from the original company? That sure seems like a real conflict of interest. And, I don't remember seeing any filings, disclosures or the like.
2. Ed, Ivan and Brecher all now get stock. Wow, thats a relief to know these guys who have been scamming everyone have a publicly documented chance to cash in more.
3. K.A. "trainbuddy" Parker now gets stock. He's a consultant, of dubious input. Any announcements, disclosures or postings as to what he's produced, done, recommended, consulted on or anything else? Of course not.
4. Who is this Mr. Hensley a "major outside consultant"? I don't remember any filings, announcements or disclosures there either.
5. Notice the vaunted finance and reporting team of McKittrick, Williams and Lysiak are nowhere to be found.
VSTC, whatever the "product" is a SCAM. And, their web site still lists no products or technology.

8 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Scam is nothing new. Read this thread that tracks from 2003 to (in an amazing coincidence) to the day after David supposedly sold Gatelinx.

http://www.tv-forums.com/forum/Satellite_TV_Forums_C2/Pay_TV_Systems_C2/Direct_TV_Forum_F2/Prime_TV_Rebate_Scam_P193

beware, so says poopscoop

2:32 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

poopscoop,

Tried to go to the url you suggested, but I'm getting a forum not found message.

Perhaps part of the url got cut off? You can use this webpage www.tinyurl.com
to make a shorter address that reaches the same forum....

3:29 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Here is the link that poopscoop referred to. (I had to look at the source for the HTML because for some reason, I couldn't copy the whole thing.)


Click Here for http://tinyurl.com/ust45


It really gets interesting around the post that starts off "hi there, all of you who unfortunately were..."
(BTW, the company sunlogix that they mentioned was another Hagen company that did web design.)

The rebate issue was present when I started there. I asked some questions as did all the new Gatelinx employees. The PrimeTV side of the story was that it was a small percentage of people who couldn't follow the directions on the rebate form. This should have been my first hint that there was something wrong... but I took them at their word.

I thought it was strange when I was told that they saved the "juiciest" messages for the Christmas party and laughed at them... but since some of them were death and/or bomb threats, I thought it was simply a way to blow off steam.

I rationalized the threats by thinking back to my (limited) retail experience in college and thinking how there were a few encounters that I had that flew out of hand quickly. (Due to my lack of people skills.)

Honestly, if I'd known what the Hagens were when I started, I wouldn't have taken the job. And of the Gatelinx employees I interacted with directly, I think they all felt the same. (Well, not sure about Stefanik... it was always hard to get a read on him. We often joked that he was someone's AI project that got loose. )

Other than that, everyone I dealt with on a regular basis were good people, who really were trying to do the best job they could in an insane environment.

While I was there, I answered a few calls at my desk from frustrated customers who called the 1-800 number and just started dialing extensions. I still think about them. I did get threatened a few times, but the ones that really bothered me were the people who really needed the money. Their car broke down and they needed to fix it, or they were counting on the rebate for their rent or... probably four or five in all. I did what it'd been told to do and forwarded the calls on to the Customer Service manager (who may or may not have been a real person... I never met him). I hope they finally got their money.

It wasn't until the very end that I realized that I'd been fed a line the whole time. As much as the Hagens have screwed me personally (out of about $20K+, which is a big deal to me), what really bothers me about my involvement in this is all of the people the Hagens probably think of as "little people" who got a golden shower out of the deal.

At anyrate, I'm out of it now, and do what I can to warn people...which makes me feel a little better.

5:26 AM  
Blogger ex-GTX said...

The beta test (still wating to find out who the "one" is, of course) is having a "tremendous" effect on the stock.

5 Day Percent Change -10.53
10 Day Percent Change -5.56
20 Day Percent Change -14.14
30 Day Percent Change -16.67
50 Day Percent Change -45.16
100 Day Percent Change -86.72
200 Day Percent Change -94.83

5 Day Moving Average $0.8640
10 Day Moving Average $0.8940
20 Day Moving Average $0.9370
30 Day Moving Average $0.9593
50 Day Moving Average $1.0446
100 Day Moving Average $2.7379
200 Day Moving Average $6.4506

Despite the well managed stock price (narrow range, never below 80 cents, never above $1.5) with programmed trading to start the day and at various intervals, these guys can't escape the fact that there is still no product or technology, still no financial reporting and most of all, still no prospects.

VSTC IS A SCAM

8:44 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Sorry, I need to call bullshit on your last post. You are either lying or completely naive and judging by your other posts on here I doubt the latter. There is nobody that was around that place for even a week that did not know the rebate scam.

Hmmmm, I absolutely did not know it was a scam. Since I'm anonymous, it's there is no reason for you to believe me... however, I am absolutely unaware of any distortion in what I said or what I'm saying now.

If I'd known what was going on, I would have terminated my employment and done what I could to bring attention to what was going on. Plain and simple, I was raised better than that.

But, what you are seeing as a lack of naivete now is largely due to lessons learned then. You're talking to someone who went through a trial by fire and is wiser for it. I now have a better idea of what questions to ask, and what things to look for at an employer, and I'm much, much quicker to put things in moral, rather than legal, terms than I was at when I was at Gatelinx. And, I've also learned a more important lesson... it doesnt' matter how smart you think you are, there is always someone out there who can con you.

5:49 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hmmmm. Let's just make sure I understand what you said:

"saved the "juiciest" messages for the Christmas party and laughed at them" +
"death threats" + "bomb threats" + "personal threats" + "never having met the customer service manager" = ???? just another day at the office?

How about Louise Brown, Carl? Did you ever hear of her? That's a good one too. Hilarious.

Well, enough. A guilty conscience needs no accuser.

4:42 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"saved the "juiciest" messages for the Christmas party and laughed at them"
Thought it was odd, but didn't really connect it to anything.


+"death threats" + "bomb threats" +
"personal threats"

Yes, I did think these were unusual, but when I spoke to my friends and family abou t it, not a single one said "Oh, well there MUST be a scam in there some where." And the management always had a ready excuse which I did not question, I should have...but didn't.

+ "never having met the customer service manager" = ????

Why would I have met him? At the time the PrimeTV + Gatelinx company employed a LOT of people, and rebate scam/customer service manager where happening in a part of the company that I never dealt with.

Not only that, but myself and most developers there worked from home for most of the week. We would come in on Monday, and perhaps Tuesday... then the rest of the week we'd be at home, away from all of this.

just another day at the office?

No, the pieces of information that you've put together occurred over the course of 2+ years. If all this had happened within a day or a week or even six months, I absolutely collected the dots. However, I was kept so busy and had so little time to reflect on things that I didn't piece together these clues until after I was out of the Gatelinx world.

How about Louise Brown, Carl? Did you ever hear of her? That's a good one too. Hilarious.

This was one of the things I discovered after I left.

I find it absolutely amazing that you hold me responsible for knowing every little detail at a company with something like 100 employees, when I was away from the office something like 80% of the time.

Well, enough. A guilty conscience needs no accuser.

See the thing is that have stated that I feel horrible about that these people have lost their money. I was a big enough person to admit that, and a big enough person to admit that I should have figured it out. But for some reason, you feel the
need to jump up and claim that I'm lying.

Makes me wonder why its so important to you that I should have blood on my hands. So why is that?

10:45 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

You're right, Carl, I don't know you do I? It all just seems a little too convenient. Whether you actually knew or stuck your head in the sand isn't all that important to me. What rubs me, is the whole "doing this to help others and save the next victim" facade. Please. It's revenge, pure and simple. If you were this great avenger of truth, I still believe you would have bothered to do a simple google search. I have worked in many different environments including retail and death threats are something very, very uncommon. But, I suspect it is much more difficult to see the answers that are right in front of you while you are collecting a paycheck rather than seek the details after it all implodes.

5:50 AM  

Post a Comment

<< Home