Justin,
I know for certain that there was no intent to defraud. We signed contracts with Via to license their drivers, and so Fiire committed and bought a bunch of Via hardware under an OEM agreement. Everybody was under the expectation that Via's drivers would work as stated in the contract. Personally, the people I hold most responsible are Via because everybody moved forward based on their promises that their drivers would work well. But that's beside the point, and doesn't ease your frustration....
One thing you could do is check your credit card statement. As far as I know, all U.S. customers were actually charged by Polywell, not Fiire. I know there were many refunds issued; that's what caused this mess in the first place. Most people who bought the Via-based md's were content to use Xine for media playback and only used MythTV to record from the linuxmce core. This is what was shown in the LinuxMCE demo video, and that's the reason why you never see MythTV running on the Via boxes. I've been told the people at Fiire's call center were told to advise customers that Via's drivers don't work with MythTV, and that there was some reference to this on the web. Of course I don't know if that actually happened since it was, after all, an outsourced, overseas call center. AFAIK, Polywell and Fiire did issue lots of refunds to everybody who complained about it not running on MythTV. I was also assured that despite all the returns, everybody who ordered a Via system got a brand new one and that they never tried to pass off a previously returned unit as "new", but instead sold them at a used PC auction (apparently for a fraction of what they paid for them, which is why they lost so much money)... I do believe that nearly everybody who complained sent back their Via-based station got their refund and there were only a few at the very end that slipped through the cracks. I know they bought back lots (like hundreds) of Via stations and I've only seen complaints from a couple people who bought right at the time that Fiire stopped selling Via systems from Polywell. I'm sure there's no genuine attempt from anyone at Fiire to defraud. The Via boxes that came back were, afaik, all returned to Polywell.
RE: Jeff,Blake,Jane,Adrian not responding.... I know Blake was a U.S. guy and he stayed on after the Via mess and Fiire's financial problems and worked a few months without a salary, but eventually had to leave to support his family. I assume Jane and Adrian were part of the overseas call center which isn't there anymore. Jeff, the owner, has been having some health problems so I've had a hard time getting through to him either. Like I said, the Via driver debacle really hurt them a lot.
Going forward, starting with the new gen of stuff, all the fulfillment and orders are now handled by PC Design Lab. AFAIK, essentially all the operations are now handled by PC Design Lab, and I've heard only positive things about the service PC Design Lab is giving current customers (CAVEAT: PC Design Lab aren't Linux experts, so the service is limited to order fulfillment type stuff, not LinuxMCE trouble shooting). Justin, what I wasn't clear on from your post is... Did you actually return your Via-based Fiire Station and not get your refund? Or do you still have it, and you didn't get an RMA? Also, who did you pay? Fiire or Polywell?
