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Torbj. H. is a Wimpy Businessman, not a Cheated Customer
Jan. 2, 2003
What a headache this controversy with Torbjψrn Homelien has turned out to be!
This evening (Jan. 1), I began composing an email to Mike's attorney recommending immediate refund
of the $6,000 paid by Torbj for a unit, plus interest for the 7 month interim since the
payment was made.
To support the letter, I began compiling a series of emails chronologically to reconstruct for the
attorney just what had transpired and when.
As I meticulously reviewed those, including a whole bunch that Torbj forwarded to me back in
November, a different picture came to view for me than I had previously appreciated.
Torbj was not just the typical customer putting down money to purchase what he was led to believe
was a production-ready magnetic motor unit. He was looking to manufacture and market the
units in Norway. The license to manufacture is $500,000 USD -- a fact that Torbj repeated in
one of his emails in which he proposed a means by which they would pay that over time. His
words to wit: "When do You expect to get the initial sum for
Norway usd 500.000,- ? I asked if this can be splitted to f.ex 50.ooo usd every 6 month over a 5
year period ?" The license to market is a function of population and per-capita
income, and for Norway would have been similar to the manufacturing license.
Furthermore, in at least two of his emails, Torbj repeated knowledge of several pieces of
important proprietary information -- information that goes far beyond what is publicly
available on the Perendev website. He was also asking for drawings, and full specs.
e.g. "send contract so I can see drawings."
In another email, he mentioned that his lawyers were reviewing the non-disclosure agreement.
(side note:) I did not see evidence that Mike confused Torbj's email address [stirlinggen@start.no
<stirlinggen@powertech.no>] with
mine [sterlingda@perentech.com]. Rather,
Mike was thrown off because he did not recognize it. He did not realize it belonged to
Torbj. He may have at a later date mix it up with mine and accidentally send additional
proprietary information to that address as a result. I did not see any evidence in the
emails that I reviewed that this had been the case.
Considering all of these factors, I have almost no sympathy for Torbj -- only empathy of what it
is like to be on the other end of an inventor who perpetually thinks he is much further along than
he really is.
First of all, Torbj should have figured out very quickly in June when he first struck his
contract for a unit, that Mike was still in the stage of proof of concept -- very early in
the development stage prior to taking a product to market. Our engineers at PerenTech saw
that immediately -- long before June. We knew what we were getting into, and we choose to
keep courting anyway.
Second of all, anyone who is looking to invests in a multi-million business venture should be
prepared to loose far more than $6,000 with all the risks of a start-up technology, no matter how
good the technology may be. It is ridiculous to throw such a temper tantrum over this,
especially considering the fact that proprietary information was conveyed in the courting process.
Third, anyone who is investing in a technology related venture, should realize that inventors are
a curious breed, and that they almost always think they are further along than they
really are. It's part of what gives them the hope and drive to go forward when others would
quit.
When Torbj. H. wrote his sob story to the free_energy discussion list,
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/free_energy/message/4199 he made it sound as if he was a lowly customer who had purchased a unit for $6,000 and Mike did not deliver. That was deceptive on his part. He was withholding key information in his story.
As illustrated above, a review of the correspondence [confidential] does not support that at
all. Not in the least.
Torbj. H. represents a full-fledged company that should have known better than to cry over this
situation. They should have counted on not getting anything for the $6,000 they put down,
with fingers crossed that they would get a unit and a contract to manufacture and market the
thing. That is reality in the business world of start-up technologies -- especially with
something so speculative and revolutionary as free energy.
Sorry, Torbj, no sympathy whatsoever from me at this point.
I've spent/borrowed far more than $6,000 (time, travel) in this pursuit, and I'm still hopeful
that it is for real. I've not given up, and I'm not asking for a refund, nor will I.
It's all part of the territory.
Risk - Gain.
Go cry somewhere else, Torbj. And definitely don't even think about trying a start-up
technology venture. You're not cut out for it.
In the email where he first requested the refund, he had the gall to go on to request additional
information so he could make the unit himself. On Oct. 12, after discussing in five
paragraphs his specific understanding of how the machine works and preparations
that were being made to build the machine, and what he yet doesn't understand, implying that he
would like additional information, he then said,
"2 Can You send the
money back, usd 6000,-
"3 Must we start
legal charges - inkasso - to get money back"?
I would urge anyone who is involved in the pursuit of "free energy" technology to stay
away from this crybaby and his company, Aqua GEN AS, of address: Vargveien 50, N-2030 ANNESTAD,
Norway. They don't have what it takes to go the distance. Can you see why Mike is suspicious of their motives?
The only time you will want to deal with them is when you are well into production, with full
warranties and patents in place. And even then, I would stay away from them. They are
sure trouble.
Some of the other email addresses Torbj. H. goes by are:
stirlinggen@start.no <stirlinggen@powertech.no> boksalg <boksalg@powertech.no> reiros <reiros@start.no> toho <toho@powertech.no> frieng <frieng@start.no>
Sincerely,
Sterling D. Allan
<sterlingda@perentech.com>
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