With the reported closure of Apez, rumours started circulating to the effect that CasperVend, which had produced a means of helping content creators utilising the Apez iVend system to migrate to Casper’s own systems, were in fact Apez rebranded.
Such were the scale of these rumours, that Casper Warden, head of CasperVend, issued a strongly-worded and entirely open rebuttal to the claims – and full marks to him for doing so. While there are still issues surrounding Apez itself none of them have anything to do with CasperVend, which has provided an extraordinary opportunity to ease the pain of existing Apez customers – and has done so with the minimum of additional headaches.
So, kudos again to Casper.
In the meantime, Apez have sold their land holdings in Second Life, with the monies raised being put towards honouring outstanding withdrawal requests – which is also good news.
However, as of today, Weds. 8th December 2010, account balances that have not had a withdrawal ticket posted against them have apparently been voided. It is unclear as to how many accounts are affected, but again, given that Apez was not operating as a bank, nor – I understand – were monies deposited via in-world ATMS or pending withdrawal by merchants intended to be used in support of other aspects of the Apez business, it still seems extraordinary that they are now apparently baulking at honouring all outstanding accounts by introducing an entirely arbitrary deadline by which account withdrawal tickets must be submitted.
If it remains the case that Apex are unable to honour all account holders with a full repayment of funds deposited (less the obvious commission, in the case of deposits via vendor sales). then it is hard to see how any potential purchaser will benefit in taking on the Apez brand.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 