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Microsoft Hotmail Domain Reward Check on E*Bay

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the good-money-good-cause dept.

Big_Joe wrote to us with the continuing story of Michael Chaney. Michael is the guy who paid the re-registration fee for the Hotmail domain name, after Microsoft had failed to over the Christmas holiday. He's auctioning the 500$ "thank you" check off on E*Bay and has pledged to donate the winning bid to charity, as well as matching up to $2,000 of that out of his own pocket.

12 of 295 comments (clear)

  1. Charity being supported;thoughts by dougman · · Score: 4

    First, here is a link to the charity the proceeds are going to, per the ebay item description: http://nashville.citysearch.com/E/V/NASTN/0002/13/ 67/cs1.html Second, note that the current bid price is $2,100, versus the $500 bid at the time the Slashdot story was originally posted. Egads. The Slashdot effect on eBay auctions? I can just see the call now for Malda to make karma points transferrable. It would be the next eBay craze - karma auctions.

  2. This isn't going to happen in the future... by Smack · · Score: 4

    According to this story in Wired News, ICANN is now letting registrars take 10-year renewals. Since $350 is just as much a drop in the bucket to a big corp as $35, I'm sure every one will take them up on it. The result will be far fewer cracks like this for some random stranger to fill.

  3. charity by willhelm · · Score: 4

    One of the open source funds should bid like $10,000 for the check and then have him donate the money back to the fund. Then they'd have the check, and $2,000 more!


    But seriously--what a cool guy--
    /will

  4. Howza, Howza, getcher Microsoft checks here! by Zico · · Score: 4

    Seeing as people are paying thousands of dollars for a $500 check, I thought I'd take this opportunity to offer for sale not one, but two (!) checks from Microsoft to me. Check one is a $20 rebate check for Microsoft Encarta, and check two is a $100 rebate check for a Xircom 56K modem.

    Bidding starts at $120, so lets see those offers fly! Papa needs a new pair of shoes!

    Cheers,
    ZicoKnows@hotmail.com

  5. /. ups my bid! by Frac · · Score: 4
    In the event of ZDNet baiting /. with their pro-linux/anti-microsoft articles, the success of this bidding is going to give ZDNet new ideas.

    ZDNet bids item with pro-linux description
    Posted by Roblimo on 04:15 AM April 1st, 2000

    ZDNet Employee writes "ZDNet's CEO is auctioning his old Porche for a new Ferrari. The good thing is that the Porche comes with a Redhat 5.1 CD in the back on the trunk. All proceeds go to the CEO and his girlfriend." It's worth $11,342,251 as we speak. Can I bid with my inflated Andover/RedHat stocks?

  6. Tax deductible... by SpinyNorman · · Score: 4

    If the bid's $2500 he'll pay out his max. $2500 for a total charitable contribution of $5000 which in a 30% tax bracket would be worth $1500 as a tax deduction, giving him an out of pocket cost of $1000.

    If the bid went as high as $6000, then the contribution would be $8500 - worth *over* $2500 as a deduction, and he'd actually be ahead!

    Anyway, just pointing this out for fun. The charity wins whatever the amount, so it's definitely a cool thing to do.

  7. Would be amusing... by punkass · · Score: 4

    ...but this guy has decided to give the money to people who really need it: Nashville's Table, a soup kitchen operation of sorts.


    From the link on EBay:

    Nashville's Table, formed in '89 largely through the efforts of Phil Bredesen, a healthcare executive who later was elected mayor of Nashville, collects excess prepared and perishable foods from groceries, restaurants, and caterers and distributes it to agencies that serve hungry, needy, and homeless people. Since then, Nashville's Table has collected and distributed more than 2 million pounds of food--at no cost to either the donors or the recipient agencies. Nashville's Table relies on funding by donations from individuals, corporations, churches, and foundations. Currently, Nashville's Table works with about 175 donor groceries and restaurants, but the addition of two trucks to its fleet doubled its capacity. The not-for-profit organization says that 17 percent of the population of Nashville can be labeled hungry or threatened by hunger, while 20 percent of all prepared and perishable food in Nashville ultimately gest wasted.--Bill Hobbs

    --
    "Nobody owns the fucking words man." - James Dean
  8. I hate to be suspicious, but... by Tim+Behrendsen · · Score: 4

    We have no guarantees that this is really going to go to charity, and as far as I know, his promise is non-binding (real lawyers correct me if I'm wrong).

    The reason I'm suspicious is his original quotes saying that he felt he deserved a large sum of money from Microsoft, based how much theoretical money was "lost" (which, of course, was really zero).

    Call me cynical, but based on his past behavior I think a grain of salt is prescribed here.


    ---

    1. Re:I hate to be suspicious, but... by Carnage4Life · · Score: 5

      Hey chill out, I remember being online and reading slashdot when passport.com went down (yes I know it was Christmas day), and reading the article and all the threads when Micheal Chaney paid the bill. I remember that his post when he paid had "Merry Christmas, Microsoft" on it.
      I was actually surprised it took that long for 1 of us to pay it because several people (myself included) went to the NSI payment site to verify if it was down but for hours nobody paid it until Micheal Chaney did. Upon reflection it seems very telling upon the character of slashdot readers (during Christmas) that it took that long for one of us to pay it...(it's not like we suspected MSFT wouldn't reimburse the check).
      Here's the offending ZDNet and C|Net articles that made everyone start calling him a money hungry opportunist.
      Quotes...
      ZDNet : Microsoft said it would refund Chaney the $35, although Chaney hinted his bailout of the world's biggest software company was worth more. "Microsoft is under no legal obligation to repay the $35 to me, and it doesn't really matter to me if they do or not. If they do ... I would ask that when they make out a check they consider how much revenue would have otherwise been lost had this been down for another day or two, "

      C|Net: As for Microsoft's promised check, Chaney said he plans to frame it. "I'm not going to cash it," he said, "unless it's a huge amount." Pointing out the value of restoring service to millions of Microsoft customers and the preservation of advertising revenues, Chaney suggested that his Christmas charity is arguably worth more than a simple thanks. "In a perfect world, I wish they'd take that into account," he said. "But I'm not relying on it. It's their choice."

      What he claimed is that he felt what he did was worth more than a $35 check and a thank you. .He pointing out that he saved a multi-billion $ corporation's most popular Internet service (yes, Hotmail provides the most hits to MSN.com via the cute little logout redirection trick) from at least 24 hours of outage maybe more and that is worth more than a thank you and $35. I've seen his web-page he's a regular hack just like me (i'm probably worse off since i'm still in school) and I would have done the same thing, the least they could do was give a little extra (rebate check, free software, extra $$$). If that's greed to you then I say not giving a reward would have been the height of ingratitude and corporate penny pinching from a company who's CEO can afford to burn a million dollars a day from now till he dies and still will die a billionairre.

  9. Re:Ebay Link by kwsNI · · Score: 4
    I hate spelling and grammar nazis.

    You should have capitalized the N in Nazis.

    kwsNI

  10. Ebay Link by GeorgeH · · Score: 5

    http://cgi.ebay.co m/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=239850613

    Gentlemen (and women) start your bidding.
    --

    --
    Why can't I moderate something "Wrong" or at least "Grossly Misinformed"?
  11. Re:Now he's just being silly by Nimmy · · Score: 5

    Why?

    I mean, I see your point, he's just doing this for good press (I'm not agreeing, just seeing). But honestly, if you can get someone to do a good deed just for some (free) good press, thats great! More good deeds will happen, and the world will be a better place.

    Why does a good deed become bad just because it will get you covered in the media? This guy is giving $2500 of his own money to charity not to mention spending some of his time to raise yet more money for charity. HE'S USING HIS GOOD PRESS TO RAISE MONEY FOR CHARITY! I think it is in remarkably poor taste to critize someone who is doing their best to get as much money as possible to a food bank. Sure, he gets his name in print, but in 3 weeks who will remember it? By your logic, Mother Theresa was extremly petty. I mean, her whole life she just kept trying to make headlines by helping people.

    In short, I have a greal of respect for this man for donating his time and money to charity and very litte for you for critisizing him.

    --Nick