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Elon Musk: Officially a fraud and piece of shit. Official or unofficial war criminal?

MaybeACoordinator

By MaybeACoordinator
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Spottieottiedopaliscious
Spottieottiedopaliscious

Hotez is far from bulletproof.       

MissingInAction
MissingInAction
Spottieottiedopaliscious
Spottieottiedopaliscious

Absolutely.    Would you like other guys pointing out Hotez deficiencies?   It was actually more about Hotez but whatever? Why stick around? All the constructive back and forth

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Francisco 2.0

Francisco 2.0 32389

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Posted

Meanwhile, with Starlink:

https://www.techdirt.com/2022/05/03/elon-musks-starlink-still-cant-seem-to-answer-basic-customer-support-emails/

 

Quote

We’ve noted for a while now how Elon Musk’s Starlink low-orbit satellite broadband service isn’t going to have the impact many think. For one thing, the service can currently only provide service to a maximum of around 800,000 subscribers globally. For context, around 20-40 million people in the U.S. lack broadband, and 83 million live under a broadband monopoly (usually Comcast).

Even with everything working perfectly, we’re talking about a service that’s only going to make a very tiny dent in a very large problem. And Starlink, as a business, isn’t working perfectly.

 

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The lack of capacity (plus some supply chain issues) has greatly constrained subscriber totals, forcing most Starlink users onto a waiting list that for many can be more than a year. Many users on said waiting list have been trying to get refunds after a recent round of price hikes on a service they haven’t received yet, only to find a company that simply can’t or won’t respond to customer support and refund inquiries:

 

At the end of March 2022, Sbi requested a refund of his Starlink deposit because of the price hikes – but has had trouble getting his money back because he can’t get hold of the company.

“I feel I was scammed by Starlink,” Sbi said. “This is not fair business practices. The company had my money for over a year, I need that money back, there shouldn’t be any conditions on how to receive my money back.”

 

 

Quote

This sort of problem isn’t particularly uncommon over at Tesla or Tesla solar, either (the horror stories involving installs of the latter are the stuff of legend). All three efforts are widely heralded for innovation, yet can’t respond to extremely basic consumer support inquiries. Raising prices on Starlink customers already stuck in order purgatory has proven the final straw for many:

Rich Kecher, in south Virginia, said he’d had trouble getting his Starlink deposit refunded after about a year. He told Insider of an “outrageous lack of communication” from Starlink, which had pushed back its expected start-date for service in his area from November 2021 to late-2022.

“The price increase was the final straw,” Kecher said.

To be clear, Starlink provides an amazing upgrade for users in unserved areas. But that’s assuming you can get and afford it. A major issue in U.S. broadband access gaps is affordability, and a service with a $710 first month price tag is going to be well out of reach for many. Many others who can afford it will likely find themselves elbowed out by Musk acolytes who see Starlink ownership as a status symbol. 

While Musk may be heralded as an innovator he’s not particularly innovative when it comes to customer service. He’s also not single-handedly able to defeat the laws of physics. Starlink capacity constraints are likely to result in a lot more of stories like this. And it’s not going to be helped with Starlink starting to partner with major airlines despite being unable to meet demand for existing pre-orders. 

Eventually, to manage this capacity crunch, I’d imagine the service will implement network management tricks that annoy users further, whether that’s throttling of high definition and 4K video, or even usage caps and overage surcharges. 

Even the hype-prone Musk has repeatedly acknowledged that Starlink will have limited impact and may not be financially viable over the longer term. The low orbit satellite broadband space is pock-marked with the wreckage of similar efforts, which is why many bristled at the $886 million in subsidies doled out to the company by the FCC. 

Most experts believe that if you’re going to subsidize broadband, it makes sense to throw that money at pushing future-proof fiber, then filling in the nooks and crannies with 5G and fixed wireless. Starlink can will help a little, but its innovation is greatly hamstrung if users can’t get it, can’t afford it, and can’t get the company to answer an email or pick up the phone.

 

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clapclapclap

clapclapclap 9000

Posted
Posted (edited)

An example of why Twitter is so poorly run these days:

There's a fire near downtown Fort Worth that started about a half hour ago.  Searching "fire Fort Worth" pulled up in 'Latest' just a single, unreplied tweet asking about it 20 minutes ago, the rest are yesterday or older.  Switch to 'Top' and there were several more tweets, all more recent, including a long thread with pics and lots of info.  After a couple of minutes all of those disappeared from 'Top' with no tweets more recent than April 29.  Flip over to 'Latest' and its still only that one unreplied tweet from today and junk from yesterday.  Go back to 'Top' and still nothing from today.

Edit: 'Top' most recent is now from 2 days ago:  

Movies That Matter to screen Woman on Fire – Welcome to the City of Fort Worth

Woke logarithm in action.

Just no excuse for that ineptitude.

Bring on Elon ASAP and fire a lot of a-holes.

Edited by clapclapclap
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F250

F250 28772

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7 hours ago, 52-80 said:

Elon got more investors onboard with the acquisition, which reduced the size of his own loan/liability.

Larry Ellison putting in $1B.  Saudi rolling in $2B from their existing stake. 

Larry is going to insist Twitter run on Oracle.

 

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Brisketexan

Brisketexan 105123

Posted
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2 hours ago, RatJuul said:

Binance: $500 million. The crypto exchange’s half-a-bil is basically just a blank check for Elon. As CEO Changpeng Zhao told the FT, Elon “didn’t have a plan for Twitter. There isn’t, like, a business plan. So it wasn’t that type of discussion.”

Yes, further supporting the position that crypto bros are totally serious about finance and sound business decisions.  "No plan?  Cool.  Here's $500 million."  I DEFINITELY want to stake the future of the global economy with these dudes.

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52-80

52-80 19153

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Posted
44 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

Yes, further supporting the position that crypto bros are totally serious about finance and sound business decisions.  "No plan?  Cool.  Here's $500 million."  I DEFINITELY want to stake the future of the global economy with these dudes.

Ya, a line given by a dude for an article is never exaggerated or oversimplified.

They just send messages over Signal like “wya, wanna Venmo me some cash so i can kop this bird thing” and the other guys like “sure just gimme ur wallet address ill airdrop u some litecoin” and that concluded the entire agreement. 

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Brisketexan

Brisketexan 105123

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6 minutes ago, 52-80 said:

Ya, a line given by a dude for an article is never exaggerated or oversimplified.

They just send messages over Signal like “wya, wanna Venmo me some cash so i can kop this bird thing” and the other guys like “sure just gimme ur wallet address ill airdrop u some litecoin” and that concluded the entire agreement. 

You underestimate how arrogant and stupid people can be, even (especially?) people with $500 million to dish out.

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52-80

52-80 19153

Posted
Posted
14 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

You underestimate how arrogant and stupid people can be, even (especially?) people with $500 million to dish out.

Crazy that in order to borrow 10s of billion dollars from banks and investors you need to show some sort of a business plan

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/06/technology/elon-musk-twitter-pitch-deck.html

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tbone_

tbone_ 14119

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Posted
You underestimate how arrogant and stupid people can be, even (especially?) people with $500 million to dish out.

Money is jet fuel for ones personality. Want to see who someone really is? Give them a shitload of money.
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Brisketexan

Brisketexan 105123

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Posted

Money is jet fuel for ones personality. Want to see who someone really is? Give them a shitload of money.

You sound like my wife. Back one time when Mark Cuban got some big fine for telling some NBA ref to go fuck himself, I said “I can’t help it, I like the guy.” My wife immediately responded “of course you do - he’s just like you and your idiot friends if y’all had lots of money.” I couldn’t argue.
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NoName

NoName 16351

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Posted

https://www.theverge.com/2022/5/7/23061198/elon-musk-double-twitter-revenue-through-subscriptions-blue

Quote

In a pitch deck viewed by the Times, Musk gave investors a taste of what to expect under his ownership. This reportedly includes driving up Twitter Blue subscribers to 69 million by 2025 and more than doubling that number to 159 million by 2028. Launched last year, Twitter Blue is the service’s $2.99 / month subscription that gives users access to an “undo tweet” button, app customization, ad-free articles, and other exclusive features. Musk expects a huge growth in total Twitter users as well, growing from the 217 million users reported last year to 600 million Twitter users in 2025 and, eventually, 931 million in 2028.

idk what's more laughable, that twitter is going to 3x it's user base in the next 36 months or that they are going to get 69 million rubes (lol) to pay $36 a year for twitter blue.

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Grade of D as in David

Grade of D as in David 13253

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10 minutes ago, NoName said:

https://www.theverge.com/2022/5/7/23061198/elon-musk-double-twitter-revenue-through-subscriptions-blue

idk what's more laughable, that twitter is going to 3x it's user base in the next 36 months or that they are going to get 69 million rubes (lol) to pay $36 a year for twitter blue.

The jump to 159M rubes in 2028 is even more ridiculous. For fucks sake Spotify has 180M.

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Vegas64

Vegas64 674

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Asking someone to quit while on pat leave seems illegal:

Twitter announced Thursday that it was pausing hiring, cutting costs and restructuring its leadership, as the company tries to prepare for Elon Musk’s $44 billion takeover. The company said it won’t take on new employees and may cancel offers already out, according to an internal memo seen by several media outlets. Two of Twitter’s top executives are also leaving: Kayvon Beykpour, head of consumer product, and Bruce Falck, general manager for revenue.

Beykpour tweeted that he was on paternity leave when CEO Parag Agrawal contacted him and asked him to quit. “This wasn’t my decision,” Beykpour wrote.

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Captainant

Captainant 27661

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Posted

Is Musks deal even still viable? He was financing his debt with TSLA and crypto and whatnot, and all of those stocks/commodities are down BIGLY. I know it's a fun meme and all, but I dont think musky can buy it at the price he committed to considering his other debt is also tied to the same assets

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Posted (edited)
56 minutes ago, Vegas64 said:

Asking someone to quit while on pat leave seems illegal:

Twitter announced Thursday that it was pausing hiring, cutting costs and restructuring its leadership, as the company tries to prepare for Elon Musk’s $44 billion takeover. The company said it won’t take on new employees and may cancel offers already out, according to an internal memo seen by several media outlets. Two of Twitter’s top executives are also leaving: Kayvon Beykpour, head of consumer product, and Bruce Falck, general manager for revenue.

Beykpour tweeted that he was on paternity leave when CEO Parag Agrawal contacted him and asked him to quit. “This wasn’t my decision,” Beykpour wrote.

 

Would love to understand some depth/ background behind "asked him to quit."  That is seemingly deliberately vague.

If dude resigned or quit, there's nothing illegal there.

Also, Paternity Leave =/= FMLA.  It isn't protected time off, but rather a paid benefit extended by the (evil) employer.

Edited by slorch
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Vegas64

Vegas64 674

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1 hour ago, slorch said:

 

Would love to understand some depth/ background behind "asked him to quit."  That is seemingly deliberately vague.

If dude resigned or quit, there's nothing illegal there.

Also, Paternity Leave =/= FMLA.  It isn't protected time off, but rather a paid benefit extended by the (evil) employer.

I feel like the literal very next line clears up a little vagary, though: “This wasn’t my decision,” Beykpour wrote.

That doesnt sound like a man who resigned or quit.

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F250

F250 28772

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Posted
1 hour ago, slorch said:

Would love to understand some depth/ background behind "asked him to quit."  That is seemingly deliberately vague.

 

It's a nice way of firing someone while handing them a parachute. Beykpour was one of the Periscope founders that was bought by Twitter. He will have a soft landing.

 

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Bateshorn

Bateshorn 9927

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The only predictable thing out of this whole affair is that the wildly unpredictable man child who started this would likely change his mind or lose interest before the difficult, boring, and complicated task of arranging the finance could occur. 

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Cheeseweasel

Cheeseweasel 26438

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22 minutes ago, Bateshorn said:

The only predictable thing out of this whole affair is that the wildly unpredictable man child who started this would likely change his mind or lose interest before the difficult, boring, and complicated task of arranging the finance could occur. 

Lobo's gone, man. No need to kick him when he's down.

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Neonmoon

Neonmoon 38129

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Are we taking bets? 
 

This is a genuine concern

He’s stalling to gather alternative financing because Tesla stock down 40% which threatens his margin loan 

He is raising this issue to avoid billion dollar bail fee

He wants more attention 

The Lizard people don’t approve 

 

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Captainant

Captainant 27661

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20 minutes ago, Neonmoon said:

Are we taking bets? 
 

This is a genuine concern

He’s stalling to gather alternative financing because Tesla stock down 40% which threatens his margin loan 

He is raising this issue to avoid billion dollar bail fee

He wants more attention 

The Lizard people don’t approve 

All of Elon's actions are causing valuation swings of tens of billions of dollars and he's still actively trading twitter shares. How is he NOT engaging in market manipulation?

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Laxtonto

Laxtonto 12080

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My money is on trying to drop the price while using this to further clear house before taking ownership.

 

Forcing Twitter to own up on its real subscriber count (which we all know is massively inflated) and therefore have to clean house of those that were helping to inflate the numbers only helps to start the house cleaning early and makes it that much easier to re-org and cull when he has full control.

Bigger question is who is left holding the bag for signing off on these inaccurate counts and do they have a “real” set of books with an accurate count somewhere.

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