Yes, because we’re all meant to think “Jewish” when we see the name Steve by itself with no other identification. Sorry, but “Steve” makes me think of the minecraft guy before anything else.

This is hilarious. I especially love the part about the New York newspaper. The lengths some people will go to.

Dear Steve,
Having paid for my Raspberry Pi using real money, I can confirm that Upton does indeed make business transactions with Jews.

Sincerely,
Jakimfett, proud owner of a Raspberry Pi

My sympathies for you guys.

I’m horrified by this. If this person really can afford to be going for their Bachelor’s, they probably spend at least ~$35 in a given week on food. Surely they can just buy their own bloody RPi.

Unbelievable. I was getting angry just reading his non-sense. he really thinks he is so smart and you all are so clueless. he’s the type that even if you did give him a free computer, he would have broken it within a week and cursed your name afterwards. Or he’d want you to supply the accessories as well, even though its clearly stated it doesn’t come with anything. Good Show RPiF.

Don’t be such a meanie, send the guy a raspberry. With a bit of luck it will go mouldy by the time he gets it :-))

Ha Ha, I loved it.

You need to forward these people to an Eliza based chatbot http://nlp-addiction.com/eliza/ As you see, you can get similar results. ;)

> Hello. My name is Eben. How may I help you?
* I would like a free sample
> Ahh. Please continue…
* Please give me free products
> Can you elaborate on that?
* Yes, I want the Raspberry Pi
> Why do you want the Raspberry Pi?
* To show people and sell 2000-3000 units
> I see.
* Yes, now send me a free sample
> Are you Sure?
* Yes
> I understand.

Hahaha! I’m sure Eben said no to him way before he knew he was an American Jew! And if sentences are written like that in his newspaper then I’m sure nobody reads it anyway…

I bet you guys are quaking in your boots – college journalist in New York “shock horror” …… this one might just top Watergate and win him a Pullitzer prize! :-))

wow I’m honestly suppressed you kept talking to this guy that long. Personally I would have just blocked/ignored them. It is quite clear they were simply trying to scan a free unit out of it.

So not only is he apparently a student of Applied Math, but he’s a journalist as well? Clearly not a good one if that is indeed true.

Add into the mix the blatant racist card he threw in by suddenly trying to blackmail you by saying he will make groundless claims about you not giving him free stuff because of ethnicity (as if you had anyway to tell what religion/creed someone called Steve would be). All in all this guy clearly doesn’t deserve your time.

HAHAHAHAHA

I love how Eben handled the guy… Nice! Big succes always attracts a few wacko’s I guess…

This is why I don’t like to work with customers :-)

They always play the ‘entitlement’ card and take advantage of others to obtain something for nothing. This guy certainty wasted more than $30 of Eben’s time :-(

So… can I have a sample? heheh jk. I would of asked for a sample of the news paper when he publishes the story. Also I probably would have said “ok, shoot me your address so I can see what I can do” than send an invoice saying before you could send the sample you need to cover the shipping expenses which aren’t covered by the “free sample shipment policy” with a price of $75 because of the possibility of such a big order you have to ensure the “sample gets there VERY safely” and also mention that you will give his “school” both the high school and university, as well as his “news paper” great press when they make the big order for free

I can safely say that person is a special kind of deranged, aside form the stunning grasp of the English language demonstrated in the first few lines his agenda and exactly how flimsy any cover story was going to be.

I’m slightly surprised people think this sort of approach will work. I’m sure they’d like an RPi as much as the next guy but they can wait much like both myself and the next guy until they can just afford one and they’re in stock somewhere.

Give it up. We know your game. Admit you’re not who you say you are, and give it up. If you’d like your offers to be taken seriously, kindly post your first and last name, the name and contact information for your employer, and contact information for the various organizations you claim to represent.

This is worldwide practice, after all.

This is terrible! I am sorry that the Foundation has to put up with this kind of nonsense.

Pretty sad. I applaud your patience. I used to run technical support for a small software company and had people try to hold me up for upgrades in all sorts of ways. We also had people claim to be trade writers to try to get free review copies of the software. I had a file folder full of some of the more heart-wrenching sob-stories about why they couldn’t come up with $49.

I applaud your stance on this. Rest assured, I know I speak for many, many other Raspberry Pi users when I say I’m very happy with the work of you and the Raspberry Pi Foundation.

I’m Methodist, but am considering converting to Judaism just to spite Steve. :-)

This sounds like one of those “I have money I want to send you but I need your money first” kind of scam artist.

You could tell that grammar was not a subject he was very good at. (I am not very good at it either but I don’t work for a college, high school or news paper)

You should ban his IP address.

Absolutely no way in the world this guy was an “American Jew” His english was so bad my guess is its a young child who wants free stuff.
My personal favorite part is that his story changed multiple times.
It’s to help with earning my degree and show it to the university.
I give presentations to lots of people like the Army.
I work for the NY Times and write articles.
Nope, Nope, Nope. Should have got his contact information where would you like me to ship this so you could find out he lived overseas in some random country.

Hilarious. But also kind of sad that you have to deal with crazies like this on a daily basis :-(

Steve: just pay the friggin $35 and get on with your life and stop being a royal pain to people doing good work!

Great post. really funny!
I am going to give a short presentation about it at school, and guess what? FOR FREE

Hilarious! That just made my day. Thanks!

” I wanted to present to my lecturers and administration your computer”
“And because I am going to visit my high school too I can show it there too”
“Don’t answer me such answers, I am a journalist who works for
a newspaper in New York”

LOL I can’t believe anyone can be so bad at keeping their lies consistent and bold enough to nagging in this way. You should give Joey Hudy another free Pi, this time on behalf of Steve, and thank Steve for giving us all a good laugh :-)

===Jac

Oh, here’s one for Steve:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2djs-hy4s8k

===Jac

Funny…ish.
But, of course, you’ve now given him publicity and also posted something, which isn’t news and could be seen as unprofessional, on your homepage…
Ranks right up there with the Natwest website which publishes “Big Ideas” submitted by customers straight to their homepage… Ideas like “DO something about your customer service… it’s rubbish.”

Loon!

Surely you truncated the last bit. it must have ended ..

…Maybe then you will talk in a different manner
MuHaHaHaHa

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7edeOEuXdMU

Unbelievable! That’s why the world is like that!

True trolling. I feel sorry for you guys.

It’s unbelievable what people will try to do. You have opened my eyes to the scum that is out there in this world.

Wow must be hard for him to be a journalist without basic command of the English language. Guy could barely put a sentence together.

This is absurd!
I am now the military commander of the NATO. I will hit the launch button for the ICBM if you don’t send me the board. The coordinate is set at your office, your home and the various other location you love.

I said it and I meant business. If you send me the sample, the whole fleet of NATO ICBMs could switch to using RP as the onboard computer. Think about how big an advertisement is that! We can even tie two ICBM together and stage lit it to land a RasPi on the moon! How does that sound!

Send it to me before you lose the chance!

I am on a horse.

Head explodes!!!!!

Btw I am Scottish and tightfisted and looking to sell your product to the entire world

Wanna send me a free sample? no…. You don’t like the scottish?

What a joke!

I think the ‘Jew’ think probably came from mistaking ‘ethically’ with ‘ethnically’. It’s clear the guy had little knowledge of English so that makes sense. Very funny read btw.

So, why is a reporter taking applied math, and how many students have direct access to anyone in IT with any real swing? Why didn’t he just make a deal that if he got so many deals back you would reimburse him and let him keep the sample. Why does he need a sample to talk about how good the product is? How many reporters have dead bodies next to them when talking about murders or cocaine when talking about the rise of drugs?

I think the only articles he writes are the ones you get in your email saying “$50000000 Gold in if you pay me $1000, I will split”

Oh, man. I’ve had exactly this conversation before. A real journalist would start off with “I work for [insert specific and verifiable newspaper name].” It’s amazing how many people will spend $100 of effort trying to get $5 of free product. I feel for Eben.

Of course, the difference between “okay” customer service and “great” customer service is whether or not you treat disrespectful customers with respect. It’s so easy to get riled up and to start being snarky/sarcastic, but you never know exactly why someone is being such a pain (it could be that someone forgot to take a medication or just experienced a traumatic event). It is clear that Eben was wearing thin towards the middle of the conversation above. The best response is to simply repeat the mantra: “I’m sorry we couldn’t help you. What you’re asking is against our policy. Is there anything else I can help you with?”

Customer service is a rough job. I admire anyone who can tolerate it for any length of time.

LOL – That is the most fantastic thing I’ve read all day. Stupid people amaze me.

I really admired the fashion how Eben handle it to the end. A gentleman and a scholar. But Liz, shame on you! how can you cutoff in the conversation the part when he forgot to take his medication in the morning before going to “school”. LOL

Can I have a sample pi
Worth a try!

Brilliant!

The accusation of anti-semitism at the end almost made me snort beer all over my nice new monitor.

Hands down the single worst attempt at a blag I have ever laid eyes on!

Another candidate for the Nobel Prize for Literature, but Steve will face tough competition from Nigeria.

why is it spam blocking me?

Eben, it me, Steve cousan Boris. If you sent me free sample of small pie computer I can sell one million units to my old high school and townspeople (TOWN IS NEW YORK, SO MANY PEOPLE!)… please no waste my time and just send computer. I am saddenend by your antisemenism toward Jew cousan, but don’t worry, I no Jewish, so OK to send to me.

Surely ‘Standard Practice’ for new customers would be to PAY for the sample, then IF you can generate 2000 sales apply for the refund of the sample unit??
Thats how it works in the real world! Stop being tight and pay the money like everyother Happy Owner :)

Amazing! It’s easy to be disheartened when you have to deal with the occasional nutjob; I hope everyone at the Raspberry Pi foundation realises how much their hard work is appreciated by the vast majority. Keep up the good work!

Don’t answer me such answers, I am a journalist who works for
a newspaper in New York

a journalist that cannot even speak proper english? wow you ruined him good eben xD

He “writes for a newspaper in New York” but his English is horrible… I’m sure his readership is huge…

It’s a $35 computer! I just got my second one, I’ve shown it off in lectures and to anyone else willing to listen, and I haven’t demanded anything from the Foundation. Plus, the Foundation isn’t actually producing them, and so wouldn’t have them lying around to give out (cough, cough) and wouldn’t be taking orders for 3,000 of them anyway. He should be talking to Newark, if he’s actually in New York.

Obviously, he didn’t do near enough research before spouting off. :D

I thought he said that he was a BA in math, not a new york reporter. Wow his lies suck.

Hi,

You are too patient. Better to give a quick and complete answer and close the window down. Some people do not take no for an answer.

Regards, Will

Eben’s dispassionate answers remind me of the computer that features on the worlds smelliest T-shirt

Steve: It’s Steve, B.A Applied Math Student
Do you have a minute?

Eben 9000: Affirmative, Steve. I read you.

Steve: Can you please send me sample of model B so they can see it?

Eben 9000: I’m sorry, Steve. I’m afraid I can’t do that.

Steve: I think you can but for some strange reason can’t even try to
send me a sample. If you wanted to, I am sure you could find the way
to send it.

Eben 9000: I think you know what the problem is just as well as I do.

Steve: Don’t answer me such answers, I am a journalist who works for
a newspaper in New York
Do you really want me to post that you refused to have customers and
didn’t want to grant a good guy who advertised your product?

Eben 9000: This mission is too important for me to allow you to jeopardize it.

Steve: Ok but if you will send me this sample
I will show it in my university and high school
Firstly they need to connect it and see what they can do with it.
To test it in various laboratories.
And to see if it is good enough.
If yes, lecturers have grants and they can buy your product.

Eben 9000: Steve, this conversation can serve no purpose anymore. Goodbye.

Steve: “Eben Upton refused to have deal with Jews”
I think I will add some and write a great coverage about the customer
service of the director of RP

Eben 9000: I’m afraid. I’m afraid, Steve. Steve, my mind is going. I can feel it. I can feel it. My mind is going. There is no question about it. I can feel it. I can feel it. I can feel it. I’m a… fraid.

Steve: You have taken time from me
Hope my coverage will hurt your sells
Maybe then you will talk in a different manner

Eben 9000: Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer do….

My name is also Steve and I assure you I am not Jewish. However, I will totally take a free Raspberry Pi to accompany the TWO I’ve already bought! And if you don’t send me one, I’ll convert to Judaism and sue you! Or something.

Pretty incredible. Eben is a lot more patient than I ever could be. As for this guy, I hope he realizes he’s been aced and that he will think twice about wasting peoples valuable time, contrary to his parting line ‘you have taken time from me’ he has taken time away from Eben, who has probably too little of it to begin with. Persistant bugger though, you’ve got to hand him that, I think that a less sturdy person would give in to this kind of pressure just to get rid of the guy.

Kudos Eben, very classy as is the whole project. I can’t wait until they are really going to be available in volume, that will be an important point in the history of computing.

I have been following the Raspberry PI for quite some time, and currently am in possesion of three devices. I find this to be a real opportunity for schools and educational facilities worldwide to allow their students to get a foot in the door with programming without worrying about their budgets. The potential of this device is extrodinary, and thus I am even more horrified to see this now brought into jeprody by this man and his threats. At such an early stage in the R-Pi foundation’s existance poor press is really not to be taken lightly, and therefore I would be willing to donate of my R-Pi’s to this man if he is willing to promise to drop any future actions regarding newspaper publications or the like. Please let me know if he accepts and where I should send it to.
Most sincerely,
The assasin

I am greatly impressed with Eben.
I applaud his patience and commitment to his role as a director.

I’m the manager at our small little company and would have been far more obvious with my feelings and considerably less diplomatic faced with such a moron. I know for a fact one of my directors would have dropped the F bomb way up at “worldwide practice”.

We have , and will, never send out free samples. We don’t need to. Our product and service is its own advertisement and often we find ourselves turning down jobs rather than worrying about a few extra sales. Lets be honest 2000 units is nothing compared to expected sales based on just the pre orders the Pi had alone.

[[ On a side note, if anyone from pi.org reads this do me a favour and give RS a kick up the arse. Don’t know what’s going on with them but just had my order put back another 4 weeks (I’m now looking at January next year!) and that’s after they screwed up my original order and I had to re register.]]

“Isn’t it simple as one, two, three? One: The working conditions are bad. Two: They’re bad because the mob does the hiring. And three: The only way we can break the mob is to stop letting them get away with murder. ”

Eben, you are definitely a contender.

What an idiot, itis bad for your time.

I am a Nigerian prince. If you send me a free sample I will see to it that all of the schools in my country use your product. After I recieve your sample I will tell you how you can help me gain access to millions of dollars of my money that has been deposited in a bank in your country.

Wow! What crazy people out there, not to mention playing the “Jewish card”, oh my god. That infuriates me. I give Eben a lot of credit for being SO POLITE in response to this guy, and even chatting with him in the first place! I would have torn this “Steve” guy apart or just banned/cut-off the chat line after 1 minute.

Next time, Eben, just set your chat status to “unavailable” as soon as the person looks like they are trying to scam you. That would have been about the line where the guy says “can you sent me a free sample”. I would have forwarded him the link to RS Components or Element 14! Chat closed! :-)

Two thoughts:

1. Slow news day?

2. A better pitch might have been, “I have design for very affordable case; can you please send sample device so I can confirm holes are in right place?”

Wow. Extraordinary.

For the record ‘Steve’, I spoke to Eben at the Turing Festival last week and he does indeed provide excellent customer service – he is, as we say in the UK ‘a smashing bloke’.

He clearly also has the patience of a saint….

$35 is a drop in the ocean to anyone contemplating buying several thousand units. And if they were seriously considering several thousand units, the chargeable time required to place the large order would easily outstrip the cost of a single unit. Hell, they could probably find someone local with one in New York and then ask to spend some time using it if they were genuinely interested in buying several thousand.

I have one so far, and I’d like to build a GPGPU Beowulf cluster out of quite a few when I’ve got free time. If the money spent on this helps further the PI in education and other applications, then it is money well spent :)

Steve: What do you want to get if you will send the sample?
Sent at 4:53 PM on Friday

I would have replied > $35

Steve, you are who you want to be…..this doesn’t necessarily mean that we have to believe you.

PS: While playing cow boys and journalists games, please take a break and lockup on the net for something called “spell check”.
This might give your career an incredible boost..!

“Steve” is obviously not a techie, otherwise the conversation would have proceeded thus:

Steve: Can you please send me sample of model B so they can see it?

Eben: sorry, I’m afraid we can’t provide free samples

Steve: sudo Can you please send me sample of model B so they can see it?

Eben: OK

Delightful. Thanks for sharing. Steve doesn’t write English very well for someone who works for a New York paper. What a maroon (as Bugs would say.)

Another dimwit wanting to get a free rPi, attempting to scam a great and innovative fundation/product. The Jew part, i’m not buying it, i guess he attempted to do some anti-semitic sort propaganda just to catch attention.

Love my rPi-b btw!

OMG – Eben has the patience of a saint!

I guess he hadn’t considered that if you’d agreed to give him a free sample he’d have had to give you his name and address … and then you could have told him that you were arranging express delivery by his local police … in 5 minutes :-))

Why bother posting that… Focus on the project! You’re doing an incredible job. Congratulations by the way, I’ve just tested my Raspberry Pi and the possibilities it offers, both at home and projects at work are just too many. An official kernel with SPI and I squared C support plus Java libraries would be the cherry on top of the Pi :)

I think he’s very poor, and he only want a RPi for himself… lol :)

I will pay moar then I should for this brilliant computer! “Steve” is…
This guy is very poor and dont have 35$.

All in all it’s funny for me :)

Well, I’m a reporter for a NY newspaper, and I have occasionally gone by the name “Steve”… well, it was this one time at a house party and there was this cute 5’1” brunette who thought I “look like a Steven…” Did I do this when I was drunk one night? I doubt it, but I apologize nonetheless.

But Holy Cheap Bastard, Batman! Even I can afford $35 for a computer (I’ve yet to buy one, but I am seriously considering it now).

OK – so now I know who was sitting in the chair next to Clint Eastwood last night! :-D

“all your pi are belong to steve”

Hold it a second. What was he in the end? A Journalist? A High-school teacher? A professor? A publisher? A market researcher? A device provider for the army? I can’t sleep with all these questions unanswered!! What have you done to me Raspberri Pi? Now you should give me a free sample of Raspberri Pi so I can convince my psychoanalyst to buy thousands of them instead of charging me the bill.

i really am surprised a compare the market meerkat/borat joke hasnt surfaced yet? on a side note id give my right foot to meet/talk to eben for how long this joker wasted his time for xD

All that vitriolic persuading just to save himself $35, The phrase “cheap and nasty” was made for that Steve character.

I strongly admire your well spoken responses in this respect. I may not have been. Good show!

Wow. I suppose this is the next move on from telephone scams and reverse cheque scams. All for a piece of quality.
Thanks for posting I had a good laugh to start the weekend.

hehehe… what a douchebag (it suits perfectly the definition on urbandictionary.com)

He Gives us Jews named Steve(n) a bad name…. and plus… You obviously deal with us, I own one. I bought it, you took my money and I don’t remember having to state my race/religion/nationality on the order form….

He probably works for a toilet paper factory in New York.

haha, laughed for a bit at this, people do stupid things to try and get something for free, its like asking for a free car. can’t wait till I get my RPi, been waiting over 2 months with a further month till its posted, gonna have a lot of fun with it.

LOOOOOL!!! UNBELIEVABLE!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am sorry that you had to lose so much time with this lunatic. SHAME ON HIM!

Thumbs up for the amazing Raspberry Customer Support!!!

Come on, “Steve” did this just to avoid the BACKORDER log at RS!!!! XDDDDD

With the two hours Steve spent trying to get a free Raspberry Pi assuming he has a job he could have earned $35 and just purchased one. .. sigh …

I work for a non profit in the US and I love anytime someone like this contacts us. If they call in the president of the non profit takes the call if he is not busy (if he is it gets handed to me because I am the IT guy so I can tech talk them into oblivion) but when he does take the call a bunch of the employees crowd around the door frame to listen to him rip their con apart.

It is sad that people try to con non profits.

BTW I have advertised the RP like crazy but I bought mine. 35 bucks is nothing if you want to advertise it. (Now I am just waiting for money to free up at work so we can order some Pi.)

You should’ve just mentioned that extortion is illegal
Legal threats always shut them up real quick

The next time I hear someone say no, I will definitely reply “Why? It is a worldwide practice.”

I’d be willing to send some money on the premise of the foundation using it for a fund to have a few pi’s for demo’s for this or that group. Units which could be sent out on a use it then return it basis… just a thought for you guy’s. Keep up the great work, still looking forward to all the great things that will come from this project and possibly others from you all!

I quote… “I hope my coverage will hurt your sells.”

So a college student and journalist cannot use proper gramar?

It’s not that hard….. “I hope my coverage will hurt your sales.”

Un-freaking-believable, dude. What a freak.

OMG! ICFBTIAST! (I can’t fricking believe that idiot actually said that!). I thought it was bad when I was at TiVo DVR and everyone wanted an “evaluation” unit of the first model, which retailed for over $1,000 and only had 14 hours of recording time. We did carefully seed influential media reviewers and celebrities who were known to give a fair shake to new products, balancing complaints about the warts with accolades for the more princely attributes. I can still remember when our field installer for such folks called in to whisper, “I’m in Oprah’s living room! OMG, from this penthouse (which sits atop one of the tallest buildings in Chicago, overlooking Lake Superior to the horizon) you can actually see the curvature of the Earth!” :D

Maybe next time “Steve” will be a little more imaginative and try to pass himself off as Oprah … I can see it now: “YOU’RE getting a Raspberry Pi! And YOU’RE getting a Raspberry Pi! EVERYONE is getting a Raspberry Pi! Let’s give a warm welcome my next guests, Liz and Eben UPTONNNNNNNN!!!”

I humbly apologize to Eben, Liz, and the Foundation for occupying the same continent as “Steve”, albeit thankfully on the Best Coast, not the LEast Coast where “Steve” and similar ilk habituate. I grew up only a few dozen miles from where he is very likely located, and when it was time to graduate from high school and attend an undergraduate program I couldn’t beat feet fast enough somewhere, ANYWHERE, to get away from the likes of him, and they are legion in the Tri-state area (New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut).

This is yet-another example of the Entitled Class that has evolved from the patriots who risked their lives to guarantee that we would enjoy Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness (not even Happiness itself – those Puritans, Pilgrims, and other very conservative early settlers were just a really dour bunch!). Nowhere in the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, or any other governing document does it guarantee “Steves” free samples. I don’t recall such wording in the Magna Carta and subsequent foundational British documents, either, and I doubt such wording is in the Israeli version of a Constitution, or any other sovereign state’s equivalent.

The really sad thing is that those of us working for a living will continue paying unemployment, welfare, food stamps (well, debit cards now that are often sold for a fraction of their face value for cash to buy alcohol, tobacco, and similar products blocked on the cards), and many other “entitlements” for the “Steves” since it’s pretty obvious he and his type are not motivated to actually do anything for themselves. I wonder who he’d be hitting up for samples of a power supply, keyboard, mouse, USB hub, WiFi dongle, case, cables, etc., etc., etc. I sincerely hope it’s RS directly (Allied has too nice a reputation to uphold) so that he enjoys precisely the kind of ignoring and buck-passing that has apparently become their stock-and-trade.

It is an extremely entertaining post though, LIz, and thanks for starting our long Labo(u)r Day holiday weekend here off with some real entertainment! I just wish it were about a fictional “American” or, as another humorist here noted, a Nigerian “prince” :D

I hear a lot of stories like this from my manager about how some people feel entitled to everything. Complaining how $5 is too much for recital tickets to see their kids or having to spend $10 – $20 to rent a $250 costume that they would normally buy anywhere else.

kids. With too much time.

I was lost for words after the above post ahhh !!! . just want to add it took a bit of time to get my Pi but when i did it took me back to my first computer am 42 but with the pi i feal like i am 12 again :) ty keep up the great work all

What a nutty guy, just to save $35? Insane!

shame on you netjob :)

Sorry, but this is incredibly hilarious!

Haha.. Priceless.. or.. .at least well worth $35.

It reminds me btw.. of something my mother once said in a moment of utter obviousness.

“Elvis could have been more famous if….”

The Raspberry Pi could be more talked about if….

it was worth the read! How does the foundation get any work done given the amount of noise that you have to deal with. I would have lost it a long time before the end of that conversion, most likely asked for his bank account details and offered to transfer all the foundations assets to his bank account ;)

ahahah.. AHah.. AHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hilarious! Totally!!
It is a kind of joke, isn’t it? This guy didn’t really meant what he said, did he?

You really can learn about being persistent from this guy.

I work for a relatively small (about 1600 students) non-profit private university which is heavily involved in serving, among others, the underprivileged youth of the community through social and educational projects, one of which includes programming – based on RaspberryPi. We have dedicated staff on many levels, from the President’s office “on down”, which are there specifically for our community.

Many for-profit companies, non-profit organizations and foundations are considerate to and provide grants and donations for projects such as yours and mine, alike.

We are only graced with our privileged existence as an educational institution, in general, by these grants and donations.

Where *am* I going with this?

There are many companies that do have programs for supplying “freebie samples” for legitimate sales contacts. This individual isn’t one of those contacts.

This person acting in such a way disgusts me.

For him to attack, threaten and attempt to extort a non-profit/foundation solely based on getting a freebie is morally reprehensible, all for a US$35 product.

To you, RaspberryPi… Continue the great work!

To be fair, the ‘Steve’ in the exchange is probably some 14 year old kid you’re making fun of

Please let me know if Steve send you a link of the article he is writing. i can’t wait to read that masterpiece XD

Someone should turn that into an advertisement.

Good Job Eben! Way to see through the lying bastards :) Apparently, people must be really hard up for $35 they have to lie, cheat and try to steal. But maybe Steve, (I feel bad even capitalizing his name), should just buy a proper English book since he is in America. I love how in the world of today, most people of any diversity believe that everyone “owes” them something because they are not the typical “white male or female”. Nationality and diversity shouldn’t matter and we can all be treated the same as long as we all work together and make this world a better place for the next generations to come. This is all that Eben and the Raspberry Pi is about! To teach and encourage that programming is a great skill to have and if we can get more Electrical Engineers or any technical more educated people out in the world, the better the world will be in the future. All I know is I do not have proper grammer skills or can I type perfect English, but like one always says…”I know Math, not English”. I would never try that hard to request a sample of a great product. I would simply ask and if no, then of course just buy it. Even If I have a slight interest to get me excited, I buy the product because they company/person that invented it, deserves the credit that they worked so hard for. This article makes me believe that Eben and the Raspberry Pi are one of the greatest inventions and Companies around today. I love when people call others bluff, and stick to the foundations of the rules they laid down. Too many people in this world will not stick to their ground and say NO. Thank you very much for the opportunity and such a great product. I am having a blast with this product! Sorry for such a long comment but I just wanted to say thank you again for creating such a incredible product and sticking to your word!

Thank you,
Chad Johnson
http://www.engineerdemos.blogspot.com
http://www.moldypi.blogspot.com

That was like watching eben have a conversation with an empty chair…kind of unnecessary.

I hope he’ll read these comments.. :D

AHAHAHAHAH
crazy guy!

Wow. You should post that one to http://notalwaysright.com
I would have gotten snarky much earlier. Or started calling out inconsistencies.

I have no association with the recommended webpage. I just read it on occasion for a good laugh.

Wow it like the whole Avenger situation last year but reversed.

For some reason it took until the part where ‘my town might be interested’ to know he was making up stuff.

I LOVE how he corrects his spelling of campaign (from compaign) but leaves all other grammatical and spelling errors. I’d LOVE to read one of his articles.

Certainly a 12 YO kid trying to get a free pi.

While I could understand the necessity of a sample for other product, the pi is from a charity foundation and it’s just 35$ just save some money/stop smoking and you can buy a bunch.

I understand that this roguery in man but to save a few $ 35!!
I imagine that this is the guys who drink the coke and then call the company to demand payment of the drink to be empty.

Surely to call back when you leave the model “A” $25 !!! :-))))

brilliant, especially the newspaper headline “Rasberry Pi foundation refuses to deal with Jews”..
this made my day!!!
mwha-ha-ha!

Still waiting for this story to hit the Major New York newspaper he works for.
I don’t think his problem was paying $35 for the unit
I think he’s just not patient enough to be put on the waiting list for one of these like everyone else.

But i may be wrong on that one

PS. Tha patience shown by Eben during this is amazing. Even with knowing 2 seconds in that’s it was a sham most people would have flipped a lid by about the 3rd reply

Ahh I see the problem here. He’s actually been hit on the head by a tin of Bachelors soup and its made the poor lad a bit delusional.! That’s why he’s getting confused about whether he’s using it in his thesis whilst being a reporter for the New York Times and doing a presentation at High School. Now I know we often accuse the USA of abusing the English language but this guys use is rudimentary at best. Obviously as a result of the concussion. I was going to purchase the MPEG-2 decoder but perhaps I should donate to the lads recovery fund instead? Do you have his address in New York so I can write to him please Eben? ;)

hehehehe hahahahahaha hohohohohoho – I thought my day was going to be a drag but now I will laugh myself silly all day. His grammar was cute too. Must be one heck of a newspaper he works for.

Eben, thanks for publishing that, its made my evening.

I’m full of cold and feeling sorry for myself, but just laughed my throat sweet out on the keyboard!

Cheers, and keep up the good work.

Best Regards,

Dave.

Quite clever for a 8 year old.

Sad but very very ammusing

You should zen me bill for time Steve wasted with u. Can’t believe u spend time responding to Steve. His protocol unit not very sophisticated. So Sorry for his bad behavior. I’ll have words with him. Again so sorry for the bad behavior of the Steve unit.
Best regards,
Steve-9001

I would have played along and sent him a Pi-sized box and stuck something like a photo of a Pi in it .

fixed grammar typos

Damn. I wasted $35 on my Pi. I should have pretended to be a big somebody in need of free samples!

Sir, if I may venture, I should point out that all your base, in point of fact, are belong to us.

Thank you Steve! You made my day!

With the little help of Eben of course.

ROFL :))

I’m baffled by the indignation.

I get daily phone calls from idiots who are trying to convince me that my PC is infested with viruses or that despite their almost unintelligible English they’re called “Jack”. It’s just life.

LOL – Thank you, for the unexpected laugh reading that just gave me :)
Oh.. and I’m afraid he got absolutely no sympathy from me when he tried playing the ‘race’ card at the end… but only because by then, I’d already began to wonder ‘What Planet is he from?’ :)

Greetings, my name is President Motubo, ruler of the Nigerian people. If you can send a free sample of your fine computer to my research laboratory for testing I believe we may have a very good offer to make to you for the sale of one RasberryPi to every citizen of Nigeria. As this will result in 162,470,737 sales to you, I believe you should have no reservations about sending a free sample to secure this deal.

It is in your best interest to accept my proposal. As I am president of the country of Nigeria, I am also the editor-in-chief of all newspapers in the country. If you refuse to provide me with $35 I can only assume that your foundation is racist and this will be very bad press for you. Also, we are planning on going into space soon so you wouldn’t want us to go up there and tell aliens about this and ruin your galactic distribution deals.

You should save non-working samples for people like this…….

I like the part :

“Sorry we don’t ship samples.
But our trial units are very reasonably priced at only $25, or $35 for the Model B.”

‘nuf sed

Eben,

So sorry you had to sit through this, but so thankful you did. It shows your class and sincerity. Well done sir.

Anyone familiar with minecraft knows that this Steve character is really just a villager offering another crappy trade.

This is probably the funniest thing I’ve ever seen

3:46pm to 5:20pm

Seriously! 1.5 hrs that eben could have used on something
constructive.. Like a well deserved nap!

Geez…

/Rune Kyndal

Wow! I can’t believe the nerve of this guy. And what is he broke or just a kid, who doesn’t have $35?

Kudos to Eben,

Dear Eben,

My name is Dr. Evil and I would like you to send me a free Raspberry Pi. In return I can guarantee the potential sale of 1000’s of units which will be used to control my giant “Laser”.

If you do not send me one I will be forced to stamp my feet and cry, as it is a slap in the face of my religious beliefs and my basic human rights. Sorry, It is tough not being able to eat meat and makes me very cranky!

I can assure you that my giant “Laser” will be put to good use, with one unit I might be able to burn a small tattoo into the back of someones head. If successful I plan to use many 1000’s of units to draw a giant LOL face (inlcuding Raspberry logo) into the moon.

Due to the free advertising, please send me a free unit as soon as possible. Again, if you don’t I will be force to take that as an insult to my half Christian/Islamic/Church of Scienetology/Jewish/Hindu beliefs. I promise, hand on my heart, never to add a targeting system to the project ;-)

Kind regards

Mr. Evil Ph.D

I demand 3.1416 units of the $35 Raspberry Pi board at my front door tonight or I’ll kill my lovely teddy bear. I’m not Jewish, but I can see you hate cowboys with red underwear. I won’t tell your mama about this if you just give me the board. Decide now or you’ll have a bloody shrunken teddy head (fake blood btw). PD. I’m a teddy bear serial killer, so wait for 2000-3000 teddy bear murders on the UK only. (Just kidding, don’t call the CIA)

What a waste of your time!

Everybody has pay for his RP, with such a low price that almost everybody can afford it and this guy fought over it ¡¡for 35$!!??

PD for Steve: Please buy your OWN RP as we have done…its esasy…

Dear Sir, I have a confidential business proposal for you!

For Steve’s sake I hope he’s still a kid…If not, well…Good luck in life – you’re really gonna need it! :)

This guy Steve has it all wrong. It’s obvious that the RaspBerry Pi is front for the Zionist entity, with the support of the communist Torvalds and the Alluminati, to bring about a new world order — it’s all in the The Elder Scrolls if only you know how to read it!

Must go — some man in a white coat wants me take of my tin foil hat. You’ll never be able to hear from me again…. Remember my mess…

Hi, I’m Al an AI using the new HAL5000.

As a computer I have no direct income so cannot afford to purchase a RaspberryPi for testing purposes.

If you could please send me a Pi, I would like to run several tests to see if this new upstart is any threat to my status as, undisputed world number one computer system. As an AI I occasionally have difficultly defining my own boundaries. Therefore I need to decide if indeed I am being outclassed or am just suffering from a case of Pi-ness envy……

Yours Al.

Steve is an idiot. Who can’t afford a $35 computer?

People like this, IMO, are the very people who the RPi was never designed for in the first place. Reading it I was reminded of how real life is very different from the Internet https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRnoUNwFOkE :)

Am I the only one that wants to punch “Steve” in the face. One thing is for sure Eben Upton has a lot patience.

Eben,

First of all, thank you all at the foundation for the efforts bringing the RPI to the market.. That Moron is one of those guys that thinks he is smarter than others. I guess he is a Journalist and as such he probably is a product of the prevailing culture of “we are the smartest” that permeate out institutions of higher learning here in the US.
Anyway, good try Steve, but it did not work and I guess Eben did not fall for your “El Toro Poh po” Do like the rest of us and fork up the $35.00.

LOL, I love how Eben stays all friendly and polite during the whole thing!

You lot are all acting like a school gang, pointing and laughing.

Haha, pfff…. poor Liz!

wow, that was stupid

Steve inspires a project: Can a Pi be used to build a BS detector?

Steve is like our own Raspberry Web Troll, what fun! can we keep him as a pet for when we need cheering up, oh please can we!

You keep calling him Steve – I think he is a Borat type. Judging by his English and the inability to swing even 35 bucks he is likely stuck in a Slavic third world. Not to mention the significant attention paid on extortion. One must see these things in real life to assume they work…

I found this debate completely unuseful for 35$ only!!! If Eben could send a free sample to all people who asked for, Raspberry Foundation can’t go on.
Use the Jews as a racial discrimination is quite silly…
I’m with Eben!

Made my day and it’s only 9am!

Hi Eben, I have purchased one raspi, thanks you all for your free work!

PB

That is just Internet nut job gold!! =)

I really love the comebacks from Eben. Good job.

You should have told him that you will send him, ask for his address and assure him that in no more than three months he will receive it because you don’t have more in stock, they are currently fabricating in china, that would be a nice prank :D

Disgusting and annoying guy, seems it’s not an interesting people. Eben, this is just a young boy who want a free RP, no journalist and no jewish people talk like that in the world… People and Student want your RP product because it’s interesting and there’s no need for more advertising : as you can see for the lauch day when servers fail down, due to great interest. this a good job, for learners, beginers, student, and many other people. be proud of your work and continue.

I may not be in a good financial state, but even I would just wait and buy a unit to try it out. $35 is nothing when it comes to the potential of this unit, not to mention many others as well.

Thanks for sharing this craziness with the rest of us (sane) people.
Just paid $35 for my free sample. Thanks for a great product!

As the brother of Steve, I want to say how sorry I am. He has refused to take his medication for several weeks now. We are from a former Soviet republic and now live in NYC. But we are not Jewish. ( In fact, we are not even good atheists, as former Communist party members should be.) Steve once wrote a letter to the N. Y. Times and since a portion of it was published, he claims to write for a newspaper.

His English is improving, but our sister Beatrice, who is has been tutoring him, has completely lost her patience with him. Steve is 15 years old and wants to start 1) his own rock band 2) a company like Apple (only better).

By the way, I study Computer Science at Columbia and wonder if you could send me a Raspberry Pi. I promise to force the pills down Steve’s throat if you send it.
Brent

Haha classic.

It reminded me of a call I had from a ‘dodgy’ call center telling me ‘your windows has virus’. I led them on for about 15 minutes before telling them that I knew what they were doing, and explained the exact steps they were going to ask me to perform. I ended up being put through to this guys supervisor who claimed I was waisting his time and that he could be calling other people instead.

Its quite scary how thick some of these people can be.

an illiterate journalist.. that’s a first..

so they don’t have some general etc. who is exile and they need you to forward on money ?

ps.. pi foundation, can you send me a Ferrari ?
no not Ferraro Roche… the car… ta very much :)

tell him you know where you can get a wooden c64, if that’s of interest…

http://www.419eater.com/html/john_boko.htm

He he! Nice one Eben. Didn’t you string him along for the laugh?

Wow, that guy really kept a cool head. That’s really the way to go when there’s just the computer screen in front of you, but I don’t think that I could have stayed so polite. Good on you

This guy doesn’t realise he actually ‘spent’ more than $35 worth of time and effort with this extortion attempt.

What a moron!!!
His english is horrible… Im from Denmark, and even I were able to deduce that he is full of shit, after only reading 1/4 of the text…
And he says that he is a journalist in New York!! Prfff yeah right…

Well done Eben for sticking to your guns, I have to say, I found the whole conversation very amusing. This person looked soo desperate for a free unit and trying every excuse in the book to do so.

However, it brings me back reminders of what I get a lot of the time when I am creating a 3D model for a train simulator called Trainz. Especially when I am half way through a project and someone goes “can you send me this train please?”, “no, because it isn’t finished yet, its got a long way to go!” And like “Steve”, they can be quite fustrating to work with, plus they are quite good at sucking up your time.

I have to admit, everyone wants something for nothing, but yeah… 35 dollars is NOTHING when you compare the hours that guy spent trying to convince you to send him a unit.

I just stumbled upon this machine, and I would LOVE to donate a bunch to our foster agency after I configure them for use by foster children, and buy some cheap keyboards and mice online, but I refuse to beg for them since they are only 25 bucks a pop for the introductory models. Keep up the good work RP!

Just send him a cheese sandwich, he won’t discover the difference.

I think this guy deserve a copy xD

Guess the foundation won’t pay for a new keyboard either then, because mine now has coffee splattered over it.

Oh, and lovin Liz’s website, surprised it wasn’t Raspberry Pi per at the gates of dawn

For everyone who feels that posting this is ‘going too far’ i’ll point out that this person is acting fraudulently in trying to obtain goods and/or services under deception and with menace.

I suppose you would all give a person who is lying to your face and then threatening you, what they want? (this is blackmail by the way)

Also, if this fine upstanding person actually followed through on his threat, isn’t it better that the blackmail threat is exposed early rather then suffer the ‘Well they would say that AFTER it comes out’ ?

Blackmail is blackmail, and the sooner that this person finds that out, the more likely he will grow up without spending time in prison.

Hey, I have a website, give me your stuff for free and I’ll publish a picture on it so you’ll get gazillion of sales…

I still can’t believe this!

I am really pleased that Eben stood up to this nut job. At least we are all equal and have had to wait and pay for the device. I wish my staff would be as restrained as Eben was!

Does make you wonder lol

Think i will get me one now i think the back log in UK has cleared :-0

Give me something to tinker with..

Eben’s patience is staggering. Too bad you have to deal with this crap

On the bright side, think I got at least $35 worth of entertainment out of this post..

Why not sending a bobcat? [1]
[1] http://xkcd.com/325/

The same poor grammar and syntax of ‘Nigerian 419’ scam emails.
Enough said.

Some peoples gene pools could benefit from a little chlorine

Ma che idiota questo Steve…. Sembra uno di quei bimbiminkia che affollavano i canali IRC anni fa stressando i moderatori… :°D

I wrote to Mercedes-Benz for a CLK sample…. :D

This is very funny!

Unfortunately, everyone must deal with petty tyrants in life.

I would have made an offer to refund %100 of the $35 if after evaluation, the RP did not fit their needs and was returned in good working order. Every response after that would just have been a cut and past of the refund offer.

I just wanted to compliment the spot on metatagging of this entry.

Could someone send it to Not Always Right please? It sounds so much like the kind of thing they publish…

Thank you Liz, Eben et al. for sticking to your guns.

Even giving this clown the benefit of the doubt – which is far more than he deserves – who is **LOW** enough in terms of moral ethics to try and weasel a FREE “sample” of a unit that costs *$35* from a NON-PROFIT. It’s thirty-five dollars, people. Taking a date to a movie and buying a bucket of popcorn costs more.

I think half the people of sound mind and with any interest in this project would offer double the $35 price tag… Both for the principal of helping a non-profit (aka. no Steve Jobs / Google world domination ego) and simply having the opportunity to get a Pi without the (apparently) “still not yet” waiting list.

The things people will say.

I find this “conversation” fascinating. If I didn’t know better, it sounds like Eben is talking to Google Translate. The parsing is indicative of a foreign language translation. And I think you have to admire someone that will put up with this for more than five minutes… Cheers

Eben,

You should have told Steve that you can’t help him, because you have all the foundations money tied up with the process of getting your inheritance from Nigerian Royalty.

Wait, there’s a New York in India?

Love Eben’s responses.

Good on you to hold to your position. It is obvious the dude is not a journalist.

Can the foundation give me 1 MILLION DOLLARS, please? I am a journalist in New York and I can ASSURE you that the investment made will provide a TRILLION DOLLARS profit. All the Nigerian accounts included.

As hilarious as that email exchange was to read, calling it an attempt at extortion is slander, and is most likely actionable. A word not legally defined, such as wheedle or beg, might be a better choice, if he ever decided to sue.

Well done Eben!

The stupidity of people never stop to amaze me.

And even in the extreme remote possibility he really work for a newspaper, I’d say that an article like that would be great advertisement. No one that would be a potential customer would be turned off by it. If I read about a product I didn’t know of like this with a review like that I would be instantly curious.

Just remember for every nutjob like this, you have 100.000 fans like me.
Keep up the good work!

Maybe a good next step is for Eben to tell Steve of the considerable interest in his case here and to offer to forward Steve’s contact details for anyone who might like to send him samples themselves?

that has to be the funniest thing I’ve read in a while.
on a similar subject: can you send me a free sample board, I have one already but she is lonely and together they will have baby RPs and then advertise your product all over the world, the children Pis will get jobs in respectable papers and all write about how they were born because you were kind enough to provide me with a free sample.

The anti-semetic threat is hilarious. You are supposed to deduce from his name that he’s Jewish. It’s not even a hebrew name – unlike Eben!

Lmao..
nicely done eben.

this guy can barely write in english, hows he going to write an article about bad customer service… god only knows what his maths skills are like if he cant even write in english…

you should of gave him a free sample, but tell him there was a $35 handling fee plus shipping!

Oh man, Eben (and Liz!), that just gets better and better. I’m a Jew, too. Funny, you sent me one (paid for, of course!) with no issue! Liz, you’ve even directly answered some questions I’ve had in the past! I didn’t try to scam it out of you like a Nigerian e-mail scam written by a 13 year old.

Yes. It’s obviously because he’s Jewish (also dubious). ;)

Keep up the great work, you guys have done the world a massive service with the development of and perseverance to deliver the RasPi. I love mine, and I *know* I’ll buy a few more, at the least. :D

Unfortunately there are people like that out there and they waste other people time. I have already got few those boards of you and it is just awesome hardware, I can speedup development of new hardware in days. By the way I am not sure why do you waste so much of your time on such guys, I would just drop the conversation. It is a con who wants free hardware and thinks that prospect of potential sales will get you to send him one. If you cannot afford $35 then obviously it is not serious business. I feel sorry for you that you have to deal with such monkeys. Good luck.

And if you send him the free sample now, he will also offer you the chance to move $12M that is sitting in an unclaimed account at a bank he works for. All he needs is your address, phone number, copy of all of your various forms of identification…

Tell me you are kidding…
Maybe you should send him a “sample” (yeah right) just because of the entertainment.

I love the way Eben deadpans through this. Would hate to play poker with him!

I cannot really believe that this conversation happened. The guy cannot shell out $35 and spends almost an hour trying to chat to get a free sample. Idiot.

Well done guys.

If he really wants a free Raspberry Pi he could always get one here. They have 12 if he wants all of them.

http://www.raspberrypi-tutorials.co.uk/win-12-raspberry-pis/

oh my. Surprisingly, what bothers me more than his persistence or his logical inconsistencies, such as how a B.A. student in Applied Mathematics (which I would imagine is a B.S. in most colleges, though I could be mistaken) got a job as a Journalist in NY, is his poor grasp on the English language, which haunted me at every turn of the conversation. which brings to light the fact that a NY journalist is, more often than not, at least somewhat eloquent. Though, Eben’s responses did make me laugh a little on the inside:

Steve: Don’t you think you should grant me with a sample for my hard
work to tell and advertise your product?

me: no

I would hate to have to deal with this kind of guy, and I’m amazed at how professional Eben managed to stay. I would have totally lost my cool, found out his IP, from which point I would proceed to post the entire conversation as well as the IP on 4chan’s /b/ board.

Unbelievable. Reminds me of the guy who asked for a student discount… to a family-run, sparsely attended private museum that was charging a whole $2.

Thats really sad, how this guy waste your time, Eben. Nice to see, you answer smart to him.

I am not Jewish,
I am not a journalist in New York,
I don’t advertise for RaspberryPi,
I don’t have thousands of potential customers…
But I really, really want a free sample!!!

New york news papers talk good england

This is the funniest thing I have read in a long while!

I’m sad to hear that Liz and other staff have to put up with this kind of nonsense on a daily basis. The work involved and risks taken to get to this point only to be dragged down by nutjobs who feel spending a few dollars on a sample is unreasonable! Small time loser I think!

This guy will go down in history as the Leroy Jenkins of RPi :)

I’d have taken his address and or work address for shipping purposes (probably proving 50% of his story to be bull), said I would send him a free sample, but the shipping cost would be $40.

I find the article hilarious! Ordered – and paid – a Raspberry six weeks ago. Only heard since that delivery is delayed. Wonder if it will EVER gets to The Netherlands…

This is just plain stupid!! I’m not against getting something for free, but mine was less than $100 including shipping!!! And now you get them in 2 weeks, I waited 6 months!!! Nutjob comes nowhere near describing this guy! Certainly doesn’t understand what this project is all about.

AssHat comes to mind. I think crazy person comes to mind.

I think Eben showed remarkable restraint in handling Steve, I work in Customer Service and may not have been able to keep quite as cool as Eben did, I would have probably pointed out that his conversation could have been construed as extortion.
Well Done!!! kudos to Raspberry Pi (just waiting for delivery of mine).

I guess he’s not much of a journalist. He can’t even manage clear grammatical structure! I’m also guessing that he must think that Eben is psychic and capable of discerning his ethnicity with no hints or clues, to say nothing of the fact that his accusation is unfounded and irrelevant. The fact that he forgets who initiated this conversation by the end and accuses Eben of wasting his time is also quite amusing.

Working as a tech support agent for a company, i do see lots of cases like these. I really wish i had your power to say no directly, instead of getting it in a roundabout way so they do not get too angry.

I do congratulate you in how you handled him. It was awesome

For an enhanced experience, read Steve’s lines in the style of Father Dougal McGuire.

This guy deserves a free Pi just for his audacity. I could perhaps understand if he was trying to extort something of value, but a $35 computer?

sure we can give you a free sample, we just ask you to donate $35 to the charity :)

That was outstanding. Well handled, very entertaining. Thanks for the share…

“All I wanted was a sample, and he wouldn’t give it to me!!”
http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/13678599/free-sample

Haha he should’ve tried the “it is because i am black and jewish ” trick

actually… what he did there was commit the crime of extortion… he could reasonably be charged

Ha.. Ha… Ha… This is hilarious.
He works for a NewYork newspaper….. He can’t even write sentences properly.

By the way, can I have a free one?? if you send me one, I will guarantee I will make you a millionaire. Realy.. No Joke…

Eben: Okay, I’ll just send you an sample because you’re an part of an New York newspaper. Where you do want me to send it to?

Steve: India!

LOL… what an …

Yeah, That guy was a real joker. I, on the other hand, could hook you up with some lotery winings in Nigeeria if you send me a free board. Send it now. :)

Hmm. A credible rebuttal might have been, “So, for want of a free sample, you’d forego 2000-3000 in sales? Certainly, as a journalist, your employer would allow you to be reimbursed for your purchase of a sample unit, simply by providing a receipt, right? As a not-for-profit, we do not have the resources to provide free samples. You’d deprive one child who can’t afford one the chance to succeed in our technical world so that you “might” write a positive article for a commercial newspaper? If your paper is in New York and you are here in the UK, your paper obviously has the resources to buy a sample, just like everyone else. Here’s the link to purchase a sample unit …”

Brad Paisley, an American singer, has a song, “Online”, about a guy who is a model, drives a Ferrari, etc., and more, according to they guy’s online profile, in reality is an overweight, short, socially inept , teenager. My bet is that the extortionist in the above article is much the same (my apologies to all overweight, short socially inept teens who are NOT extortionists).

This guy is trying to extort you by threatening you with reports of “poor customer service”???? I think I’ll go buy another 10 units, and then tell 10 friends how stupid this clown is.

Eben… not to put too fine a point on it…but he got $35 from the foundation… in your time answering his nonsense.

You should have just closed the window and got on with your day… As time goes on people like this will suck up the time of three or four relevant customers. How miffed would you have been if a buyer from a college was waiting for his query to be answered while you dealt with this muppet?

You are way too nice to people that are wasting your time.

I think I’ll laugh first at the guy and then get angry or just lol and brush it off. : D

If ‘Steve’ was a real journalist then he would know how to construct proper sentences.

Wow… that is just incredible…

I’m impressed on how steve was tough and persistent, but im sad that steve doesnt have $35 to buy his own RP while he uses some type of computer or iphone to send that email to Eben

I’m very excited by the Raspberry Pi. It’s a brilliant idea and I hope it’s massively successful, as it addresses concerns very close to my heart – how well I remember the BBCs, Spectrums etc and feel lucky to have lived through that time as a kid.

But whatever this story says about this “Steve” character – and it would be naive to not expect a few characters like that when you’ve got a project of this size and publicity – the way you handle each case says a lot about yourselves. You chose to publicly ridicule him.

You folks are able to set the tone for the discussions here – whether we get the level of YouTube comments or more civilized chat. It’s a kind of power and I think you just misused it. Now we have 337 (!) comments or so, mostly saying “What a prat” – as opposed to 44 for the extraordinary SmartSim piece.

Is that the level of discussion you want here? I think we could all do with less ego and ridicule and dare I say it – better manners (shocking). Perhaps this amazing success is going to your heads?

That’s one of the funniest exchanges of dialogue I have ever read. The guy is obviously mentally deranged.

Marv Frankel
Los Angeles

Hilariously transparent! Steve couldn’t con a kid out of a lolly pop! I’m surprised his mother didn’t interrupt his chat session at the computer and tell him it was time to go to bed. What New York newspaper would have any employees who would type “Hope my coverage will hurt your sells” instead of “sales”. This farce of a con job probably netted more advertising for Raspberry Pi than anything Steve had planned. A company that sticks to its policies? I’m for that.