Chapter 16: Desperate Survival
With a stiff face, he pulled the apples in the carton and looked at them, the upper layers were a little better, and the lower ones were completely unreadable. Not only are they deflated and small, but most of them are broken, what kind of local specialty apples are this, they are obviously a box of garbage!
was originally a good deed, but others acted as monkeys, and now Xiaohu can't bear it. She took a picture of the apple, then logged on to Meigo.com, and wrote a large review with a photo.
Because she placed an order early, she was the first to receive the goods, and there are still many users who have not received it.
Seeing her comments, many people will be skeptical.
"Probably not, Meigou is still very conscientious, wasn't the sweet potato very good last time?"
"This should be a special case, I don't believe everyone receives such defective products!"
"If everybody gets apples like this, it's going to be a big deal. ”
Anyway, most of them still don't believe it, after all, seeing is believing and hearing is false, and Meigo.com's first love for poverty alleviation is not bad, and everyone is still willing to believe them.
But as more and more website users received Apple, the comment section began to explode.
"Can this apple be eaten by humans, can't you feed it to pigs!"
"A box of apples, not to mention how it tastes, you can eat no more than ten!"
"Good luck upstairs, I don't have a single box to eat!"
"This is a scammer, strongly protest against the deception of consumers by Meigo.com, and I ask for a return and refund!"
"I also ask for a refund of the money!"
……
The company's customer service staff noticed that something was wrong and immediately reported the matter to the company's senior management. At the beginning, when only a few users of Xiaohu distributed posts sporadically, it did not attract the attention of the management of Meigou.com, but now a large number of users' bad reviews have begun to make everyone nervous.
After Liu An learned the details of the matter, his first reaction was that it was broken, something was wrong!
In order to express that the company will never make a profit in this kind of public welfare project, Meigou and the recipient paid the bill in real time, and then Meigou made a guarantee.
In other words, the money that website users buy Apple has already reached the other party's account, and if something happens, the website can't escape it. Because website users will only come to find trouble with the website, it is impossible to go to Jiaodong County to find trouble with fruit farmers.
Liu An was shocked into a cold sweat at that time, this is nearly 200 catties of apples, 10 million dollars, if consumers all ask for a refund, Meigou can't afford to pay it!
This company, not long after it started, only managed to finance the angel round and the A round of financing, a total of 3 million US dollars, and used a large part of it, and now the company has less than 5 million yuan on its books.
He immediately grabbed the shoulder of the person in charge of procurement and said sharply: "Contact Jiaodong immediately and ask what the situation is!"
"Mr. Liu, I've already contacted that side. They said that they were selling this kind of apple, and the product photos provided to us were not fake, the same thing. And...... And ......," the person in charge of purchasing said with a sad face.
"What the hell is it?" Liu An's head was sweating.
"And the other party said that once it is sold, it will not be returned!" The person in charge of procurement gritted his teeth and finally told the bad news.
"It's over...... This is ready, just to trick us......" Liu An now understands that this matter is not an accident at all, their company is being used by people with intentions.
What kind of "ugly apples" are horses! Obviously, they are inferior apples that no one wants to buy, and they cannot be sold at all.
Sure enough, it was a deep routine of doing business, or it was relatively simple to engage in technology, Liu An fell into deep sadness and self-blame.
At present, Meigo.com is caught in the quagmire of public opinion and can't extricate itself. On the one hand, there are thousands of website users who strongly demand that the website side return the goods for a refund. On the other hand, the media that was still praising Meigou a few days ago turned into a frenzied attack on Meigou.com, saying that it was taking advantage of the kindness of the general public to earn black money.
The conscience of heaven and earth, Meigo.com really didn't make a penny in the middle, but now no one listens to Meigo.com's explanation, it's all accusations.
Although Liu An is from a technical background and is not very good at doing business, he knows that for this incident, Meigou must be responsible, otherwise its reputation will be completely stinky, and the website will not need to be engaged.
The easiest way to be responsible is to refund all your customers, which will save your site's reputation. But this method requires real money, and there is not so much money on the account of Meigou.com......
There was no way, he could only find the investors of the website, angel round investment and venture capital of A round investment, but the two investors were unwilling to pay any more money when they saw the current predicament of Meigou.
The capital side is the most shrewd, they know very well that Meigou is definitely going to hurt its vitality this time, even if they pay money to help Meigou get through this difficulty, it will also be a big loss of reputation, and then they want to operate back to the previous situation, and they don't know how much money they will burn.
In a word, investment and rate of return are not proportional, and no investor wants to do such a stupid thing. With this money, it is better to re-support a new company!
As a result, Liu An's Meigou was sadly abandoned by the capital, and the two venture capitalists clearly told him that he would either solve the problem by himself or declare bankruptcy!
In just a few days, Liu An's hair has turned gray by half, and the spirit of when he first returned to China to found Meigo.com has long disappeared, and now he looks a lot older.
The employees in the company are also panicking, everyone feels that the company can't survive this hurdle, and some people have begun to secretly submit resumes to find another way.
"Xiao Li, the price of my house will be reduced by another 100,000 yuan! Yes, I will sell it as soon as possible, but I will only accept the full payment at one time! Hurry up and sell it, thank you." "Liu An has already listed his property in the intermediary.
Although the house and car were sold, plus the cash on the company's account, it was not enough to fully pay the compensation to the user. However, this can at least compensate seventy or eighty percent of users, and do their best to obey the fate of God, just ask for peace of mind.
If Meigou can't survive this hurdle, Liu An is ready to bear this part of the compensation by himself, and it's a big deal to find a job and pay it back slowly.
Although the two venture capitalists are also shareholders, he does not plan to let the other party pay for it. Originally, others had invested millions of dollars in his company, but he didn't help others make money, not to mention, he even closed down the company. Now how can I have the face to meet investors, let alone ask for money.
Just when Liu An was already at a dead end, he received a phone call.
"What, you're going to buy Meigou.com?" asked Liu An in surprise.
"Yes, we can meet in person if it's convenient. A hearty man's voice came from the phone.
"Then do you know what is going on with Meigou now, you can see the recent news. Liu An did not hide the desperate situation faced by Meigou.com, and it is impossible to hide this kind of thing.
"Haha, of course I know, don't you just need compensation, if the acquisition is successful, I will pay this compensation. ”
Liu An was very pleasantly surprised when he heard this, and now if someone is willing to take on the debts of Meigou.com, he is even willing to transfer the shares for free. Although Meigou has burned 10 million or 20 million dollars since its establishment, there are basically no fixed assets.
It's all about advertising, publicity, or renting servers and bandwidth traffic, plus what's going on right now. It can be said that even if he gave the company away for free, no one would dare to ask for it.
Now that someone said that he wanted to buy Meigou, could he not be surprised, so he hurriedly replied: "No problem, I am in the company every day, you can come over at any time!"
"That's it, I'm also in Pengcheng, and I'll go directly to your company to visit in a while. ”
"Welcome! Welcome!"
Hanging up the phone, Liu An breathed a long sigh of relief, although he didn't know what the intention of the person came and why he wanted to buy Meigou.com. But for him, there was finally hope.
It didn't take long for the front desk of the company to call.
"Mr. Liu, someone said that I made an appointment with you to meet. ”
Liu An hurriedly said, "Invite him in!"
While waiting for the front desk to bring people in, Liu An tidied up his clothes and carefully wiped the glasses with a tissue. Then he got up, stretched a little, and patted his cheek hard with the palm of his hand to make himself look more energetic.
Just as I was getting ready, the front desk led two people in.
"Welcome, welcome, what do you call the two of you?" Liu An hurriedly greeted him.
The person who looked older among the two opened his mouth and introduced: "We are Weiye Jiahua Company, this is Mr. Wang Ye, the chairman of the company, and my name is Li Xin. ”
Liu An looked at the young man in surprise, thought of something, and asked cautiously: "Wang Dong, I don't know ...... with that Wang Dong of Huamei International."
"Haha, it's actually just one person, it's all me. Wang Ye said with a hearty smile.
"Ah?!Disrespectful and disrespectful, I didn't expect it to be Wang Dong's arrival. "Liu An is really a little busy now.
Who is Wang Ye, who is the richest man in Pengcheng a few days ago, a billionaire who is only 24 years old! Now in Pengcheng, which entrepreneur does not know Wang Ye, everyone regards him as their idol, and they all hope that one day they can be like Wang Ye! Liu An is also one of them!
Now that he knew that the person who came was Wang Ye, Liu An was very sure in his heart, he knew that the compensation of 10 million yuan was a drop in the bucket for Wang Ye.
Now I just don't know why Wang Ye bought Meigou.com, I haven't heard that he makes agricultural products.
After the three of them sat down on the sofa, Liu An asked his own questions.
"Dong Wang, we have always been engaged in group buying of agricultural products, is it difficult for you to do this industry now?"
Wang Ye shook his head and said with a smile: "No, the reason why I acquired Meigou is for your technical team and for the domain name of your Meigou.com!"