Pulitzer has been taking "pre-order" money for books titled Solomon's Secret and Commodus's Secret since at least November of 2014. He's been taking money and providing in return a "100% guarantee" that those who pre-ordered the book(s) can get their money back at any time. The estimated shipping date, meanwhile, has been a moving target. When I wrote about all of this during #Swordgate, the websites and videos advertising the books suddenly disappeared. I've been contacted by several people who tell me they've tried to contact Pulitzer to get their money back, but their emails go unanswered (PayPal does not refund money after 180 days, so that's no longer an option for those that ordered the package long ago). The last online presence for marketing the books that I'm aware of (a Facebook page) became inaccessible last night as Pulitzer made this promise on the Fake Hercules Swords Facebook group through a third party:
It's hard to know exactly where to begin with this farce.
There is no evidence that there are, or ever have been, any books to ship. This isn't a matter of a few people not getting their orders: as far as I know, no-one who has paid has gotten anything. Making it seem like it's just a problem with a few errant orders is ridiculous.
The tech mogul doesn't keep records of payments? He's trying to shift the burden to you now to prove that you already paid your money? No-one has gotten the books, and yet now each person who paid has to demonstrate that they paid in order to be put on a list of those who haven't gotten the books? It's a joke that's not funny anymore.
I got an email just a few days ago from someone (who wishes to remain anonymous) explaining his situation to me. He forwarded to me what he received when he paid for the books back in November of 2014. Here is a transcript of the communication he got from the National Treasure Society:
"From: National Treasure Society <[email protected]>
To: xxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Thursday, November 20 xxxxxxx
Subject: Solomon's Secret LIMITED EDITION KIT Purchase
Dear Xxxxx,
You can download Solomon's Secret LIMITED EDITION KIT at
https://www.e-junkie.com/d/?t=1xxxxxxx
Please note, the download link will expire after 5 attempts.
Thank you for your PRE-ORDER of Solomon's Secret. You will get a downlad link so you can downlaod your ORDER COPY- this is NOT THE BOOK. The BOOK COMES IN HARD COPY! The downlod is just your recepit and instructions."
You can tell by the typos and the ALL CAPS that Pulitzer is the probable author of the email.
When I click the link it takes me to this:
"This download link (https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/df.php?txn_id=XXXXX) has expired. Please contact the merchant at [email protected]."
"Andy,
This is what I got when I pre-ordered the Solomon's secret book. The link never gave me anything when I clicked it. Now its expired. No one responds to emails at the gmail account. I finally got Pulitzer to respond to a message on Facebook. He told me I had to get a refund through PayPal. But, PayPal only lets you do that for 6 months. Then you are out of luck."
My unsolicited advice is this: refund all the money to everyone and then let those who still want the books (should they ever be produced) order them again. That would be the responsible thing to do at this point.
I think there are probably legal options available to those of you who have attempted to get your money back but have been unsuccessful.