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Article #6192

John Mitchell and FEdit

#6192
From: Brian Diehm
Date: Mon, 23 Jun 1986 20:28
57 lines
3749 bytes
As many of you have complained, Mr. John Mitchell, author of FEdit, often does
not deliver the goods when presented with shareware money.  At the time of my
last mention of this on the net, one person suggested that I call the Postal
authorities, complaining of mail fraud.  After all, he did cash my check.

I am doing exactly that today.  I AM ASKING THAT ANYONE ELSE ON THE NET WHO HAS
BEEN SIMILARLY TREATED DO THE SAME --- simply call your post office and ask for
the phone number of the nearest Postal Inspectors.  Usually these are in the
larger cities.  The more complaints, the more impetus to action.

DO NOT BE MISLED by a recent posting wherein someone stated that Mr. Mitchell's
intent was to hold the orders until the "latest version" was out, at least until
you read the details of my transactions below.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On December 28, 1985, I sent a $30 check to Mr. Mitchell.  This was negotiated
on January 15, 1986.  I received no acknowledgement, no offer of an upgrade at
cost, and certainly no documentation.

On April 14, tired of waiting, I sent Mr. Mitchell a certified letter of com-
plaint, in which I documented the transaction and asked for fulfillment of the
contractual obligation implied by his cashing my check.

On May 16, I received my certified letter back, marked "Unclaimed."  Since my
correspondent had meanwhile suggested the Postal Inspectors, I got their number
while picking up the returned letter.

The same day, before I called the Postal Inspectors, I checked my unix email.
A correspondent at Apple, who shall remain nameless, informed me that Mr.
Mitchell had been employed by Apple, and that Mr. Mitchell claimed that he had
recently caught up on his correspondence with FEdit and that ALL ORDERS HAD
BEEN FILLED at that time.  That is why I say don't be misled by the recent
posting.

My response was to ask the correspondent to pass a message to Mr. Mitchell,
detailing my story, and stating my intent to go to the Postal Inspectors if I
did not receive satisfaction.  However, since a new channel of communication
(unix email) was now open to Mr. Mitchell, I was willing to wait two weeks for
a response before doing so.

It has been over a month now, and no response from Mr. Mitchell.  However, I
cannot guarantee that my Apple correspondent did indeed pass on the message,
though I have every reason to believe he acted in good faith.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Therefore I am taking what action I can.  I do not expect it will do much good.
However, the impression I get from Mr. Mitchell's alleged statements is that he
is either extremely disorganized or extremely arrogant, possibly both.  I would
be delighted to be proved incorrect.  I do understand that some people have had
excellent response when sending in money for FEdit, I just wish I were one.  If
you do send in a check, I would suggest that a Certified Letter will probably
not get delivered, though it probably would be safer from a legal point of view.

-Brian Diehm
Tektronix, Inc. (SDA - Standard Disclaimers Apply)
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Message-ID: <759@tekig4.UUCP>
Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!princeton!caip!nike!ucbcad!ucbvax!hplabs!tektronix!tekig5!tekig4!briand

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Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!princeton!caip!nike!ucbcad!ucbvax!hplabs!tektronix!tekig5!tekig4!briand
From: briand@tekig4.UUCP (Brian Diehm)
Newsgroups: net.micro.mac
Subject: John Mitchell and FEdit
Message-ID: <759@tekig4.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 23-Jun-86 16:28:05 EDT
Article-I.D.: tekig4.759
Posted: Mon Jun 23 16:28:05 1986
Date-Received: Thu, 26-Jun-86 03:17:54 EDT
Organization: Tektronix, Inc., Beaverton, OR
Lines: 57
Keywords: mail fraud