Unhappy with your Pixelotto advert? File a claim!
I got an interesting email today which I have been given permission to share with you. It is from one of Pixelotto's bigger advertisers:
Hi Phil,So let's get filing those Paypal claims now!
I just filed a claim with PayPal in an attempt to get my money back. The claim was automatically deferred since it was not an eBay transaction, however I used to work for PayPal, so I gave them a call to clarify what needed to be done and I was told that if a lot of people filed PayPal claims then all of the deferred claims involving Pixelotto would be reopened and that we would stand a chance of getting our money back based on the number of people upset.
So I advise you to tell everybody you can that we need to all get our PayPal claims filed. If enough are filed then we all could very likely be done with Pixelotto and come out with our wallets still intact.
Please let me know if I can help in any way. Alex has displayed very poor business ethics by refusing to refund the very people who have made him set for life. What's $280,000 when you already have a million?
42 comments:
Wow, looks like some people are upset with pixelotto. But to set the record straight, Alex does not "have a million dollars". $500,000 would have gone to cover taxes, another $40,000 to press and probably another $15,000 have gone to the current website already.
So the question should read, "what's $280,000 when you'll be left with $420,000?"
Still not bad, but it ain't a million.
moreover if to count minicouper etx...
so - f*ck taxes, go offshore
pixelotto is clear that is dead...
very interesting i shall be filling a complaint
I opened a dispute with Paypal a couple of weeks ago and it was closed (not deferred)the day after, because "Significantly Not as Described" applies only to shipment of goods.
How this advertiser was able then to get a deferral instead of a negative resolution I don't know.
Integrity! Integrity! Integrity!
I'm not a huge fan of Alex Tew's new site (Pixelotto) but what I can say (correct me if I am wrong) is that he has shown a lot of Integrity throughout.
Take the milliondollarhomepage.com. he could have milked a lot more from that cashcow if he wanted too (i.e. additional banners etc.).
But he didn't he remained true to his word. And that I find trully comendable and is how Business should be done.
I think advertisers need to
take responsibility for their own actions. Nobody forced them to advertise and I doubt if any of them, would be chucking money back in Alex's face, if they ended up getting more than their money's worth.
Besides would you honestly want to do business with any business that looks for an escape clause every time they make a bad judgement. My answer would be Not-on-your-Life!
Please see my
Open Letter to Alex Tew
mini-news.livejournal.com":
The person who sings once a year cannot be called a singer. Ukrainian boxer Klychko defends his champion title every several months. Alex should show the world his other genius ideas!
Otherwise, you will be known only as a lucky winner of the Internet lottery, not new trend developer!
"Internet as Pixelotto" discourages web developers to be creative! (See more at mini-billion.blogspot.com).
I believe my Mini-News.com is better, - a really unique Next Big Thing worth a BILLION!
http://mini-news.com
Well, consider this: he attracted all the buzz and pixel buyers by telling the story tat he had created a 1 million dollar page to raise money for college (plus more).
He then broke both of these promises:
1) by deciding to sell the last $1000 space for $38,100 on ebay, making it the Millionandthirtyseventhousanddollars homepage instead of the MillionDollar homepage, thus destroying the original concept out of greed (1 million was not enough anymore)
2) by deciding that he was not going to go to college after all.
Now, with pixelotto, he is refusing to refund advertisers who immediately have asked to cancel the 1 year service. Ignored.
And visitors to the site? They are told "Win $ 1,000,000" when in fact the actual final jackpot will probably be less than a quarter of that.
Since I don't think Alex Tew's plan with pixelotto was to intentionally deceive visitors by promising them a 1 million prize that would never materialize, it is obvious that this project did not turn out to be as: Alex Tew had planned, on the premises on which advertisers have made their initial decision to invest, and as visitors/players have been promised.
As a matter of decent ethics Alex Tew should admit that things have not gone as planned, modify the "win 1 million" promise displayed on the site, and allow a refund to all advertisers who request one within this initial period.
Personally, I have a problem with seven of the advertisers being able to get their money back, while others cannot.
When I first contacted Mr.Tew I was told that nobody had gotten their money back. This was a lie.
There is no way that RC.AM (and others) should be able to appear on the Pixelotto site (attracting others to advertise) and then be able to pull out and get their money back.
If seven people can get out of the "Pixelotto contract" which Alex Tew is so quick to quote, then EVERYONE should be able to!
With regards to the person who said "How this advertiser was able then to get a deferral instead of a negative resolution I don't know."
I too got an instant auto-negative from Paypal, and that was even with me describing the goods as tangible!
All I can assume is that there have been so many claims that it has flagged Pixelotto as an "auto-reject" site now.
However, an ex-Paypal employee has assured me that if enough claims are made against Pixelotto, Paypal may look into things further, regardless of the claim being auto-rejected. So hopefully putting in a claim still does some good!
If anyone can shed more light on this, please let us know!
Sorry, I have a business to. If I invest some money in advertising, I never ask my money back, even if the ROI is 0.
It's childish to do it. You're not a serious business-man and I'm not surprised your business is going bad.
Really, you guys are the ones on the wrong side of the fence. You'd never get a penny back if you took this to court -- you voluntarily entered a binding contract of sale under the terms on his site, which never promises or even implies any specific level of traffic or results for you. You have no case to get that money back and the fact that Phil is willing to go beyond scamming Alex and scam PayPal by calling it a tangible good in his dispute shows that you're just petty criminals.
Let's say you, as an amazing businessman, give money to Alex Tew for an advert on the understanding that a) he would do his part and create a buzz out of the site, b) not make one rule for some advertisers, and another rule for the rest, c) you were not simply intending to throw your money away i.e. you want SALES for your cash!
Ok, now let's say you get ZERO ROI (ARE YOU CLEAR? NOTHING BACK FOR YOUR MONEY) from this agreement with Mr.Tew...
If you were to roll over and just accept that you have given Mr.Tew money for NOTHING, then you are not a businessman - you are an idiot.
..."I never ask my money back, even if the ROI is 0"...
Hey Mr. Amazing Business Genius, I have a few ROI=0 investments for you! Just send me your money and I will give you nothing back! Interested? Didn't think so!
Don't comment again until you have thought about it first, ok? :)
Phil... "a", "b", and "c" were not part of the contract. You can't make up your own terms that the other party didn't agree to, and you definitely can't enforce them. You're a petty criminal.
Really, you guys are the ones on the wrong side of the fence. You'd never get a penny back if you took this to court -- you voluntarily entered a binding contract of sale under the terms on his site, which never promises or even implies any specific level of traffic or results for you. You have no case to get that money back and the fact that Phil is willing to go beyond scamming Alex and scam PayPal by calling it a tangible good in his dispute shows that you're just petty criminals.
Lol, surely kids should be supervised before they comment on an adult blog?
Or maybe you are just slow at picking things up?
I already said that the purpose of MY claim is because some people get money back, so why not all? Why should some people pay for their advert on Pixelotto, but not others?
Seems to me that if you are talking of going to "court", then let's talk about selling a site under the banner "win a million dollars", when this will NEVER be the prize fund. False advertising?
As I said before, if you are going to comment on Pixelotto, please think longgggg and harddddd about it first ok? It just avoids me having to point out how stupid you are. Cheers! :)
I think Alex Tew is perfectly entitled to fly the "Win a Million Dollars" banner on his site. Anyone who has bothered to read the rules and understand the game will know that a million dollars isn't guaranteed. As for the taxes? Well I must have missed that bit? You know the bit where he said it was all "tax free".
Phil, he can give refunds to some people and not you. There's no law against that, and it doesn't conflict with the terms on his site in any way. Go take a contract law course buddy, it's usually "Business Law 101" (as in first course, first semester) at universities.
I understand it's hard for you to understand, that's why these facts had to be beaten into you by two dozen people before you shut down your own Pixelotto libel-fest site.
I see you didn't follow Phil's advice to think long and hard before writing something about pixelotto.
And unfortunately there is no university course to teach you that.
As there isn't one to teach you the importance of ethical behaviour and human decency, which often has nothing to do with what a law allows you to do or not to do.
I would advise you to not add another stupid comment after this, but of course part of your stupidity is not understanding that you are stupid.
Regarding:
I understand it's hard for you to understand, that's why these facts had to be beaten into you by two dozen people before you shut down your own Pixelotto libel-fest site...blah blah blah etc
I shut down my site as it is a complete waste of time to dedicate so much effort to answering idiots like you over and over again, when the constantly miss the point of what I am doing, and instead repeat the same moronic statements at me time and again - WHEN I HAVE ALREADY ADDRESSED THEM!
Hence, don't waste my time commenting here, thanks. And if I was you, I wouldn't try to be "clever" with your replies either. You are not good at it.
>>>>
Anonymous said...
Integrity! Integrity! Integrity!
>>>>
Methinks someone here is protesting to much.... it's a little "Tew" much of a coincidence if you ask me...
anyhow, shame on the "hooray for scams" bloggers who claim that if you are stupid enough to pay for one you deserve everything you get. and how laws etc not only support but encourage this behaviour.
Let's see how you like it when someone sells you a pig in a poke and it's not quite how it turned out...
basically... Go Phil!
bring some standards into this industry!
Good job, and don't let the people who wished they had scammed everyone first get you down
>>>>
Anyone who has bothered to read the rules and understand the game will know that a million dollars isn't guaranteed.
>>>>>
Well done Alex Tew!!! You have managed to fall back on the fine print! What an extraordinary entrepreneur you are! So creative! So worthy of your sycophants! Delivering such value! You see, there was no fine print promise! HE can promise one thing and do another! Don't you love that when it happens to you? Don't you just love it?
Eh, Mr Integrity? Eh? Eh?
Good old Tew, always knows how to face up to his responsibilities... you know like facing his customers.... "Gimme jsut one more chance and I swear I'll make it alright!" I see it now. the game show on channel 69, the sure-fire marketing blitz that is gonna happen any day now.
I am sure he'll take teh money, and wait it out. but for now, he is a bit of a dirty dog.
I loved the "Conspiracy Theory" brought a tear to me eye, to think that anyone in the whole worldwide world could mistake my (impoverished self) (a.k.a Mr Integrity) for that of the rich-and-famous Alex Tew.
Honoured though I am, I feel i should put you out your misery now and save you any further torment. After all I've got my own integrity to think about!
Some excellent, common sense comments there Micheal, and thanks for the support ;)
Phil, I think you're an idiot. Business is about risk. You took a punt and it didn't pay off. Deal with it. The million dollar home page worked because of the story. The pixelotto story was rubbish, hardly any one was interested. You thought, as many others did, that it would be as big as the million dollar home page. You made a bad judgement call just like Alex did
It's a disgrace that Alex Tew will not give refunds, and one has to resort to trying to get it through Paypal.
Yes, this was a bad judgement call on the part of advertisers and of Alex Tew. So everyone should walk out with their initial money. Why is Alex Tew keeping advertisers' money regardless of the project having failed? Regardless of the site being almost unusable for the first month?
Alex Tew should have accepted all cancellation requests made within the first month. The fact that he refused, and he continues to ignore the requests, is really a huge disgrace.
His reputation will be destroyed forever if he persists.
I think "Will" got it spot on there. My advice is stop crying over spilt milk and move on. No business succeed when its stuck in the past. Some of us learn from our mistakes other never learn - because they blame someone.
If the mistake WAS on the part of the advertiser, then we wouldn't be "crying over spilt milk".
You are another who has missed the point and forced me to repeat this yet again: The "mistake" has been made by ALEX TEW, so we are perfectly within our rights to "blame" him.
Phil, if you place a bet on a horse and lose, do you blame the horse or do you blame yourself for putting the bet down in the first place?
Or perhaps you might just get over it and move on?
The horse would not claim to offer something that would benefit my business. The horse would not misrepresent itself to me, or lie to me personally. Betting on a horse would be an informed gamble on my part - I didn't take an advert on Pixelotto to "gamble". Etc, etc.
Bad analogy man.
PHIL you are a big loser...you invested your money and LOST. Your LOSS is Alex's GAIN. He has a site which makes money from SUCKERS and you're one of them !!!
Well done Alex you are doing just greeeeeat. It is survival of the fittest and Alex deserves EVERY PENNY
NO REFEUNDS HA HA
Hold your Horses Phil "I didn't take an advert on Pixelotto to GAMBLE" That's the biggest (horse b*llocks) i ever heard. Of course you knew it was a gamble unless you had your blinkers on.
You were banking on it paying off - big time.
Sadly just like your arguement it seems to be failing miser-ably.
I think you will find most of the advertisers were not using Pixelotto to gamble. That is the job of the PLAYER, not the advertiser.
I was banking on my "payment for a service" paying off. I paid to have MEGA traffic, and that is what I expected. No gamble - see?
(really great horse puns there by the way *snore*)
Apologies for the Zzz! puns just trying to break my own sleep pattern as you cover the same old story over and over and over again.
Sorry for sounding a bit dumb but
what gamble are the PLAYERS taking. I thought it was FREE to play???
No problem man, I am used to dealing with dumb people like you every day :)
Again, the reason for covering the same story is only as a result of answering your inane comments.
Hopefully now though things are finally sinking in, and you can go back to sleep :)
Oh and just so you know, taking part in a lotto is considered to be gambling.
Now please don't bore us any more by commenting again. Thanks.
You just lost the whole arguement there Phil when you said:
///
"Oh and just so you know, taking part in a lotto is considered to be gambling." /// that must therefore include advertisers as they are an essential part of the whole lotto concept. So your earlier arguement that you were not "gambling" has suddenly lost its legs.
I'd rather be dumb than dumber anyday!
Lol, once again I have to point you in the right direction it seems :)
Ok, let me spell it out...
There are two ways to use Pixelotto. As an advertiser, or as a player.
As a player YOU ARE GAMBLING by taking part in the "lotto" side of Pixelotto. You are going there to enter the competition and try to win big money.
As an advertiser you are not interesting in the prize money (advertisers cannot play remember!). You are ONLY there to get people to your website. You are NOT GAMBLING.
Now I am sure we are all tired of you missing the point, so please don't comment again unless you have something sensible to say.
Phil it would seem that you only want opinions from people who agree with you. So much for an open debate.
As for the "sensible comments" remark. Well, if you had done the sensible thing in the first place then you wouldn't be in the position that you're in now.
Always "try before you buy".
If something sounds to good to be true. It probably is.
It's good to wait... and see how things pan out.
Take my advice and you won't make the same mistake twice.
Now if that's not sensible comments I don't know what is.
P.S. Why has nobody else posted a comment of late. Lost interest I expect.
Well, phil's an idiot.
Read.
Anyone who has purchased ad space has gotten exactly what they have paid for. Anyone who asserts otherwise really needs to grow up and get used to the real world by, say, maybe having read the terms and conditions BEFORE paying for advertising.
"Betting on a horse would be an informed gamble on my part" -- well, so was this, unless you can provide a copy of whatever promise you had that you'd get super high traffic from Pixelotto. There is no promise at all in those terms and conditions, for the advertisers it is indeed an informed gamble, and it is not Alex Tew's fault if you have trouble accepting when you yourself have made a mistake.
haha that last person sounds like alex tew trying to wriggle his way out of things!
Not again! You already thought I was Alex Tew. Now you think someone else is Tew too. We can't all be him surely???
Having just read through this board, can someone clarify for me. Did Alex's site fail to take new advertisers for a "considerable" period of it's initial 60 days operation (a key timeframe). If so, then surely the advertisers may have cause for complaint as the who success of PixeLotto would have been based on the "jackpot" rising fast. If the site has been unable to accept new advertisers or players, then the advertisers should not be held responsible for the failure of PixeLotto, and they should be entitled to a partial/complete refund?
I think there has been some discrepancies between new advertisers signing up and the amount the prize fund increases.
Post a Comment