Personal Blog of Carl Pei

Most people would want to attach a moral negativity around the word revenge. But is it really wrong? They say that two wrongs don’t make a right, but does revenge have to be wrong?

This story goes back to the release of the second generation iPod (the first version compatible with PCs) in 2002. Back then, iPods were not common, but I was an early adopter - the second kid in school to own one. As it was my first MP3 player, I didn’t expect much and was overall pleased with it.

After a few months I began hearing that something was loose inside every time I shook it, and decided to send it back for repair. I packaged my iPod and earphones and sent them away. After approximately a month, I got it “fixed”, and by “fixed” I mean “looked at, but not fixed”. There was still something loose inside, and my white iPod earphones were gone! So I called support asking for my earphones, and they wanted my serial number. Fair enough, I gave it to them, but they couldn’t find it in their database. I explain that I’ve got a refurbished unit to them, give them the serial number of the refurb, and they still couldn’t help me. I get pissed off, hang up and swear that one day I’ll have revenge.

Some time after, I chat with a friend who says he’d tricked Apple support into sending him a pair of iPod earphones for his Creative player. I who owned an iPod wasn’t even allowed a pair! After that, I didn’t use the iPod for a few months, and when I did, the headphone jack broke. This was around one week after the expiration of the warranty. I get pissed and buy a Creative player, and tell myself that I will never buy an Apple product again.

Summer 2006 I visited China and identified a Chinese company (Meizu) with potential to hit it big abroad, I bought their Mini Player M6. When I got back home, I realized that they had a great fanbase and support in China, but very poor support in English. So I quickly set up a website where international owners of Meizu products could discuss and help each other; Meizu Me.

From there, things have shot upwards. Today, Meizu is a well known and respected brand in the MP3 player scene. Meizu Me receives around 2,300 unique visitors daily. The marketing people over at Meizu have told me that their clients often refer to Meizu Me news articles when asking them questions. Recently during an interview, the Meizu chief designer said he visits Meizu Me every day! These are all great accomplishments for me.

Today, Meizu is one of Apple’s threats, and have no doubt grabbed market share from them. During a recent poll on Meizu Me, it was revealed that around 80% of the people could have been positively affected by the existence of Meizu Me while picking a new MP3 player. By no doubt it means I have lead to the direct conversion of some iPod customers to Meizu customers. It might not be very damaging to Apple, but I feel this is already a very big thing for a normal citizen to do against a multinational corporation.

Revenge, in this case, is sweet and not negative. Meizu Me was created to help Meizu owners word-wide, but did so much more.

You see, I remember stuff. Apart from corporate irresponsibility, I have also made mental notes on various other things. For instance on the misconducts against me done by a teacher. I’m not sure how I’d execute revenge on him in a positive way, but if it doesn’t work - there’s always plan B. To hire an assassin/revenge crew if I ever get rich/impatient enough.

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 7th, 2007 at 10:33 pm and is filed under Internet. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.