We flew to EKWB HQ to get answers from CEO
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- čas přidán 9. 06. 2024
- Original GAMERSNEXUS investigation - Watch this first: tinyurl.com/236wp25f
On the 28th of April 2024, highly respected youtube channel GAMERSNEXUS created a one hour video delving deep into the practises of Slovenian cooling company EKWB.
GamersNexus video entitled 'Exposing Corruption: EK's Prison Threats, Lawsuits, Dangerous Workplace, & Leaked Documents' was staggering - both in the depth of research and in the allegations presented by GamersNexus own Steve Burke.
Would it be possible to get EKWB's CEO Edvard König on camera - asking him the hard questions? We don't know Edvard well, we heard he is a quiet man - but this is his company, he is responsible.
At completely our own cost, I booked our team some flights, hotel rooms and we brought all our own camera equipment so we always had complete control. We headed into EKWB HQ to get a face to face with Edvard himself.
We didn't know if Edvard would answer our questions, and we didn't know if what he would say would genuinely give any insights. EKWB could have kicked us out out at any minute - that thought had crossed our minds as the KitGuru team boarded the plane from London in the United Kingdom.
What you see in this video was shot on 16th May at EKWB HQ, d.o.o. Komenda.
Nothing has been removed. I made sure of that.
Edvard explained there is an email set up to contact them directly regarding any matters we discussed in this video - reachout@ekwb.com
If you worked for EKWB, or want to share anything with Kitguru directly - send to allan (at) kitguru.net
Allan Campbell - Kitguru Founder and Editor in Chief
00:00 Intro
01:11 Dan Henderson - breaking NDA and lies (EKWB claim)
05:50 Cease and Desist
06:25 EKWB operations, leadership and people in charge
14:32 $5 million dollar ‘loan’
17:46 Accepting responsibility -US operations and labour laws
20:35 US Staff mistreated
21:33 A channel has been open to contact EKWB - no one has
23:40 Racism and screenshots
25:48 Cultural issues
26:57 What changes does EKWB need to make?
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#EKWB #gamersnexus #edvardkonig - Věda a technologie
What do you think? ---- Be sure to share your thoughts below!
I smell bullshit.
Nice work Guys! Jump on a plane and get it from the horses mouth! Quality Control? RMA faster turn around? … Quality Control? Don’t suppose these were mentioned off camera?
Very much enjoyed this piece, well worth the plane ride!
His first answer is not related to your question and is entirely evasive. I’m not even 10% through the video and my bullshit alarm is going off
2:35 WOW. The actual answer was somehow even more insulting to the viewers intelligence
Man that stare from Leo and slight pause before the "Fair enough" was brutal.
I think he was just concentrating really hard to understand that man.
I'm 5 minutes in and i already lost the plot XD
lol. Yeah Leo looked mean. 😂
I laughed 😂
@@Necromancerbob-zp7us Glad he's on our side! 😅🤣
So glad he's like, that's not the point in this- back to the question. What a legend
When PC Hardware reviewers have better journalistic integrity than most modern Journalist.
Well said 👍🏻
💯
Yes great channel it’s under appreciated
Well Said, Well Said, but they are Not journalists anymore. They have become activists!
When PC Hardware Reviewers have better journalistic integrity than even PC Hardware Reviewers who claim to be moonlighting as investigative journalists due to reading an reddit thread.
I'll say it... they didn't pay him, then EKWB in breach of contract first, and that voids any NDA.
I find the argument that "the invoice went to the wrong address" is weak at best. Almost as good as "the check's in the mail".
yeah sounds shady that he ALL the other times send to the correct one but suddenly it's the wrong one... and that doesn't explain the countless other issues and people and companies saying they were not paid
Hard to know until you work in a place. Our own it department and mail system is shocking too
Feels weak to me. Unless dans autofill went to some random person. But most people in a company would reply to that person and let them know ? Surely ?
I have that from some of my clients too. One of my regular clients would send me a payment 3-days after the invoice is sent, never faltered.. But whenever there is an email change or anything then the auto process doesn't go through and someone has to step in, which usually delays the payment by a few more days. Automated payment systems are a pain, but it happens.
He is an EX employee that sent an invoice to the wrong email address...
How can that happen...hmm maybe because the work laptop has been locked and returned and he just sent an invoice to the first email he had in his home PC/laptop. Is that so hard to believe? That a sacked employee will be angry because he was sacked and now he is on vandeta and is lying and misinforming anything he can to get attention.
“We didn’t shutter US Operations we optimized it “ 😂 I’m using this line lol
Having worked manufacturing for roughly half as long as I've been here, there is no amount of air freshener or shovels that can get rid of that stank. I might be a bit salty after hearing such cookie-cutter nonsense for so long, and how horribly it can impact people's livelihoods and lives in general......
That face Leo made after he said that line is absolutely amazing
They were running out the lease and then closed shop when it ran out. They could easily have told employees that the lease was ending and what the date was
Right off the bat, first question was a tough one, and gets replied to in CEO speak talking about how things are fine. Edvard showed immediately he didn't want to be here to set the record straight, he wanted a PR boost.
Had to edit for my favorite bit when Leo asks about allegations of racism between the Europe and American branch and Edvard is like "Oh you know about the cultural difference between Europe and America, right?" And when Leo isn't onboard with that answer and pushes for more info he essentially gets, we weren't being racist, don't look too hard into it.
The guy being interviewed: seems to be doing something like a last ditch effort to control the perspective of the situation.
At least we now know what is his response to this.
Totally, if I understood the timeline he decided to take back control relatively recently (February I think). As almost every CZcamsr has shown the damage was already done and he took back control too late to make any real difference. Hopefully he himself will make the right decisions and save the company which has his own name on it!
Yeah fingers crossed. He isn’t a native English speaker and clearly an engineer. So I can forgive the awkwardness on camera.
@@helljester8097take back control but always remained the majority owner. Basically "blame the other guy" and act like he was clueless to how terrible his own company was being run but I'm sure he knew more than he leads on because he's best buddies with that old CEO as well.
@@theduck17 Yeah he essentially threw all leaderships and management under the bus. haha yikees.
Ugh, that Computex "answer" to the Dan question at the start is just tone deaf. I hate it when people are being interviewed and they don't actually answer the question!
Thank you for keeping Eddy accountable and not letting him slip out of answering.
Sensational work Leo!
Agree !
Thanks for the support.
wow good job leo, remind me to never get on your bad side, that stare with 'fair enough, lets get back to the question;' was intimidating !
Yeah...told you everything you needed to know about the threats and how his company is ran.
I appreciate you giving EK an opportunity to give their side of the story, it’s extremely fair, as well as the professional nature of the interview. Excellent work!
Thanks, Steve
That guy seems to be very keen to answer the questions with totally irrelevant points
Sounds like a politician. 😆
I guess he is a politician of his company !
This... Was a painful watch, not on the KitGuru end, rather then EKWB, its... not okay anymore.
"Weirdly enough, nobody emailed us. Crazy right?"
Dam! Leo Paxman! Need to get him interviewing politicians next! Great video!
I think he just did 😮
Damn, i can't believe edvard felt the need to start with a quick promotion of computex.
The worst move you could do and it further soured my image of EKWB
"Did you really blackmail someone?"
"Oh, but first lets talk about my upcoming book-"
The entire interview felt like edvard trying to redirect the blame to the employers.
"But they didn't contact me!"
Can't wait to see the follow-up video.
They spent a lot of money on that booth, so he really wants the media to visit them there (and perhaps not talk about the US situation.. please?).
its still weird to bring it up in an interview first thing. He could've left it at "i can't talk about it" or leave the computex part out. But honestly i'm pretty unknown at policies for NDA's and law's about it.
You mean you watched a one sided video blaming the company which is different how? Everyone has their set of documents and proof.
@@JCustom yeah fair, the computex bit threw me off and made me assume intentions.
Yeah everything else he said was so much more professional than that stupid plug for their booth he made at the beginning.
having been a Sub-Postmaster while the post office where falsely imprisoning them for their defective computer system, this person sets off the same warnings to me as the PO team did; I am press x to doubt. Good work from KitGuru, the best PC Hardware channel
I'm afraid your statement makes no sense.
@@Safetytrousers UK Post service had an issue with their computer system. Lead to 800 postmen getting jailed for stealing/embezzeling which later could be traced to a faulty computer system. The company downplayed it for decades...
@@stennan It was the while the post office where that got me. And the lack of explanation of why any such an incident would connect to this. 900 were prosecuted and 236 people were sent to prison.
@@Safetytrousers It means I know corporate speak, deflection and flat out BS when I see and hear it. This is mirrored but not limited to 'no one has contacted us' type starements, legal threats and attacking / been dismissive of people making complaints. Also the strange behaviour of people and even whole organisations defending said companies. spoiler there is usually a money trail /personal investment
@@ravenspire9691 This is about a business that exists to make money. The person being interviewed owns the company.
I can't help but doubt almost everything König said. There is so much evidence against EKWB, and König's argument is essentially _"Nuh uh!"_ with no evidence to disprove the allegations against his company. He could've brought screenshots and documents to backup his counter-argument, but I imagine he didn't because the evidence doesn't exist, and he knows it. Basically he's trying to save face without admitting anything.
he indeed does not have receipts, everyone else has their receipts again this question dodging though
this interview was actually hard to watch.
This makes me want to have everyone contact Edward to ask him why they haven't been paying their suppliers, advertisers, and etc?
When one owns 85% of a company and seemingly is blissfully unaware of financial issues. The US division had not paid state sales taxes. Evard took over in Feb 2024 as CEO and he only came out with a statement in April 2024 after Gamer's Nexus first video. Almost 3 months after he took over.
Good video/interview, they are still having delays from the companies that are making their waterblocks. We'll watch this space.
Whole thing is quite frankly astonishing. Very interesting interview from Leo.
What about the missed payments to jayztwocents?
We heard they paid him half what they owed him - but thats just what we heard
@@upyermaw2732 Honestly no idea, I assume they came to an agreement with Jay directly. This is what we heard anyway.
He sent the invoice to the wrong address 😂
Its not just jay, theres many creators in the same situation, he is probably just the largest creator
@@KitGuruTech Jay has said in a video that he agreed to payments in halves, at least. So it's good to see things moving in the right direction.
Great content Leo and kitguru
Thank you. This was great to see
Very respectful interview, cudos! I think you found a good balance between touching on important points and treating König in a humane way.
the way he k9nig didnt do with his employees
Absolutely amazing work, Leo! Very well played pushing back and making sure he could not just explain everything away.
He claims in public, that all his employees will be paid what they are due, including overtime. That is great.
As for the rest, apart from acknowledge a lot of facts, he did not really explain them. Nor did he say anything like "we are sorry that people have not been paid, and we are working hard to correct that." Rather he said in essence that, "we put up an email address, and nobody has contacted us", blaming his employees for him not paying them. That is victim blaming. Also, the working conditions that were illegal and unsafe, there is nothing here that is like "I was shocked to hear that, and I am doing everything within my power to make sure all our employees have safe working conditions". Those are such easy things to say, that with assistance from a layer, you will be able to formulate. Simply because you have to abide by laws regulating this anyway. You are just stating the obvious. But he actually don't.
In short, he is probably a technician, and he probably should leave management to others. Not understanding the gravity of unsafe working conditions and failing to pay employees, and being exposed for it like this, well, then you deserve to go down. Hard.
Whenever someone asks me a tough question from now on, I will reply with “come to Computex!”
Yeah totally out of place. Jesus. No shame.
Well this was a lot more interesting than what EKWB did on their own channel - not sure who to believe- what NDA did Dan Henderson break? did he leak information?
you'd have to look at his employment contract but typically at minimum there is a 1 year clause in it after being terminated or quitting that you're not allowed to publicly speak about said employer, take any internal business to the media, etc, etc. the US and i'm sure europe does as well has protections for current/past employee's whistleblowing employers though.
If they didn't pay him then the NDA would be voided
"they didn't pay me" might be leaking information?
Wow really ?
@@gamebuster800 If you don't pay, you can't ask the contract to be honored.
Great work Leo, thank you.
Glad you enjoyed it
Wild stuff, amazing work !!
Thanks a lot!
18:55 They optimised it? really? thats some spin lol. leos response was epic.
Great work, direct questions asked & none of you own spin added so we get to make our own judgements on the responses. There's a few more questions I'd like to have seen asked, but you covered most of the bigger stuff.
Great work!
Thanks!
Thank you for your honest journalism! We need more of this to keep these companies honest.
Hell yeah, we're gonna get another GN vid on this... Let's gooo!
Back to you Steve 👉
Wow the hits just keep on coming.
Great job Leo
I seriously thought this was a gamernexus video…
you are not the only one that thought this :D
Same
with less hair 🤣🤣🤣
@@martinmalone6324 ouch 😵
This dude don't got the balls to sit in a room with Steve. Lol.
Cannot wait for next nexus video...
I feel like this just affirmed most of the allegations… not to mention the JTC video, it sounds like EK is really trying to play all this off as if it’s just hearsay at this point.
26:18 No we don't Edvard, that's why Kit is asking for all the hardworking Americans from every background. Edvard is a trip. Hardest hitting interview I've seen in years. Thanks, KGT!
Great work Leo 👍🏻
Thanks 👍
What about Jayztwocents? Let’s. Or forget his perspective too. But as always KitGuru delivered a great interview. Love your videos keep up the great work !!!
If theyre as bad as it looks like they are then they need to go under. This will send a messege to the rest of the industry to sort your shit out because there could be actual consequences
One would think, but look at asus and the rma saga. All these companies are too smug to adhere to anything for very long. Here lately it seems the pc market space is all basically ran on corrupt principles.
@@Mc-Derpulous you just described the entire capitalist system
@@Mc-Derpulous The US government doesn't F around when it comes to overtime laws. It's one of the few things that they are willing to punish large corporations over.
Leo! Absolutely love this interview and your staunch fact-based approach. Thank you so much for putting in all the time and effort to do this. I'm sure this was not an inexpensive endeavor.
Good interview Leo.
Glad to see this Leo and Kitguru crew! I'm glad the questions were asked, but I felt some of the answers were not great enough and/or Eddie kind of came off as combative at times. I get it though. He probably cannot answer a lot of things due to possible litigation going on. I also think any of the money woes currently going on might be a result of some good ole fashion embezzlement by the prior CEO, and I say this based on how GN posited the web of things when it came to the organization and people.
Ultimately, I'd like to see EK find its north star, simplify its product line, increase quality, increase customer support, and reduce prices.
Question, what PC case was that being shown in the background?
Thank you for your work (and hopefully an answer to that case question).
This isnt over - keep your eye on the channel.
I swear I've seen this exact interview, or style at least, seven plus years ago lmfao
Even the adds hit at the key moments and the adds CZcams is pushing are some I feel like I've seen all those years ago too! 😅
Or my memory is just getting that bad...
Cain't wait to see GamersNexus do a highlight reel of this exact vidjeo! Thanks Steve, back to you Steve.
I miss good old journalism
Yeah, I'm not so sure i believe ol' Eddie. Glad i don't run their stuff anymore.
Fantastic interview 🫡🫡
Great job Kitguru team! Outstanding Leo! EK strikes me as evasive and condescending during interview. In 2016 i had good customer service with EKWB and overall quality products. My current open loop system still working fine. Time will tell all with EK. May not use EK on upcoming build. I'll be watching.
as a former employee of ek , i have reached out to the email provided. i will update this comment if anything changes
He look and sound's like a bond (007) villan !!!
Out of context question: What case is that in the background, and when can I buy it?
I don't even know whether I can believe a word he was saying, every question he answered had a number of feelings to it for me
- Shift the blame
- people are lying
- invoice went to wrong address (possible but surely this is a very quick fix).
- people didn't contact the senior people, I find that hard to believe.
Starting off this interview promoting EKWB at computex puts a seriously bad taste in anyones mouth. Dancing round questions like it didn't matter, does the exact same thing... There is a definite bad taste and smell around the whole situation, for me I will keep away from anything EKWB for a while. Cause this just isn't looking good in anyway shape or form.
It's possible that people didn't use the e-mail address provided, because they were advised not to by their lawyers.
@@markbooth3066that what I was thinking too. Once they engaged with the labor lawyers it was a done deal. EK trying to set up an alibi months after the fact (and after they shut down the location, I mean optimized it)...the email they created was a way to say "see, nobody emailed us...that means they were all lying!"
Lawyers def did a couple practice sessions with the CEO before this happened.
as CEO and owner, he has to walk the fine line and try to be diplomatic yet convincing enough. I'm sure that there might be some heads that will roll in the future but the company is on edge and try to re-strengthen itself. I can't imagine him dealing with all the suppliers, contracts, employees, etc., that he has to re-manage and somehow come out of this. But, I will admit, he did skirt around the issues that are plaguing his company and right now, he is in damage control.
I understand that he and his 'friends' are forced to face lots of various and complicated issues and these are the reason why he didn't want to explain and reveal it more specifically. But the thing is, THIS IS NOT WORKING FOR THEIR EMPLOYEES, CONTRACTORS AND CONSUMERS. I think what he needs to answer is not making things more vague but showing how to rebuild the trust of employees especially on communication. 'No reports' can't be a good excuse for this chaos
we need a Leo for all types of news and interviews. he is the best.
It's not easy to run a business without business knowledge and on top of it providing product globally and have to navigate business practices in a foreign country
boy, that was painful.
thank you Leo
Welcome!
I thought Prince Andrew's Pizza-gate interview was bad..what a car crash! I can just imagine using the reach-out email and then getting sacked the following day.....god, working for Boeing must be better than working for this guy!
this was incredible...ly bad for ekwb. im glad they're talking but man this was not the interview he needed to put out there to 1) save face and 2) keep customers.
Didn't watch more than a minute or so, his ummm, ahhh, hey computex! Says it all.
IMHO communication error.
I think it's very important to see this European side of the whole situation. So far I only saw GN's and Jay's side, which were fair criticism, but limited to what the US side of EK were willing to share.
I do hope everything turns out good for everyone involved, that has been wronged, and that everyone that wronged people pays accordingly.
Hopefully EK will survive, as it seems like a well rounded product still.
Why would you believe his answers when the company’s policy was formed under his tenancy?
Lives are cheap, replacement workers easy to get in all the countries that they have factories in!
That is of course just my personal opinion, free to own and share!
Steve is the nice cop, Leo's bringing out the phonebook.
Steve rushes stories out before getting the full story
Not sure the point ? Leo hasn’t taken sides. He has asked questions and lets us form an opinion. Like adults. Unless you just don’t want information at all? Or are unable to watch someone and make your own judgement. Seems a stupid thing to say
Clearly hasn’t watched the videos I have with Steve saying how much he respects Leo. Since when was interviewing someone and letting them dig their own holes bringing out the phonebook. Good interview. I’m fairly certain now I’ll never buy Ekwb.
@@Drunken_Horse If you think Steve's story is rushed, you have an IQ lower than freezing point of water or you are shilling for EK. He seemed to have all his ducks in a row for this before it released.
@@Drunken_HorseHe covers most of the bases. Otherwise, he would get sued.
If you're a employee of a company "WITF" do you have to invoice you're employer to be paid?
Depends on what your doing and how your employed. You can work for a company on a self employed basis in which case you usually invoice your employer.
Most likely self employed contractor.
If you're a contract worker, most of the time it's yes.
A contractor is also an employee...which means he needs to put out an invoice to get paid.
It’s all so complicated. Hard to follow half of it. 😢
They may still be going, but no one will buy from them.
Seems to be a lot of deflection going on here. I don't believe everything he says, actions speak louder than words. This sounds like he might have learned a bit from the Fanatec challenges and is trying to be a bit more responsive while not really answering the questions or providing clarity on the situation. I still think the truth lies closer to what GN reported and appreciate your work to put EK on notice and in the public eye. I will not buy EK products in the future.
I don’t think we will ever know the truth of this sadly.
That everyone is how to do an interview. Let the person talk. And don’t let them get away with trying to avoid an answer.
fitting backdrop for an eel
Too much drama for sure. EKWB it's over
Man I love Leo’s no nonsense attitude to everything 😂
The CEO sounds like any other politician incapable to give a straight honest answer.
I feel like there’s still a lot being unsaid from everyone involved and good dose of misunderstanding. However the buck stops with management and they are certainly lacking in that regard.
Kitguru said there is more to come so I’mCurious to see what that will be
Wish dan Henderson would ask Leo to interview him. He is likely under a lot of litigation and worried.
Damn!!!
Great Interview, but holy hell EKWB is a mess and these answers are so short sighted in my opinion
Any chance anyone is going to see some paperwork to back any of this up on either side?
It can't have been easy to do this interview but I'm glad Leo took a crack at it.
What comes to mind with this whole scenario is Fremdschämen: vicarious or second-hand embarrassment.
Yeah nothing said there makes me trust EK. My current open loop project is going Alphacool and bitspower instead.
This man doesn't seem to understand that it's the employer's legal obligation to keep track of and pay overtime. The legal responsibilty isn't on the emplyees to send or reply to emails about how much they are owed. It's the company's legal obligation not the employees.
holy shit kitguru and GN tag teaming!
I get you the perspective of the interviewer not wanting to burn bridges and go from an interview to an interrogation but on the other hand I don't feel these responses were honest or that enough pressure was placed. You don't get other CZcams influencers that had six figure contracts coming out saying we are getting the run around on payment and a CEO of a mere 160 person company trying to suggest he had no clue.
So many softball questions thought I was watching softball playoffs.....good journalism....NOT
@26:10 "Is there a cultural issue between the Europeans and American's?" Edvard replies "Do you understand the cultural difference between Europe and America?" lol, Like it's a great divide that can only be conquered by a select few..... 🙄
Agreed, what a silly take. It's not Europe vs China or US vs Japan or whatever.
The only cultural clash i could think of is MAYBE some american CEO not liking euro labour laws and being a dick about it, like with Walmart in Germany or whatever. But this is not it.
So much hot air in 5his interview from EK.
Trying to pull a fast one on Leo was far fetched. Leo is no fool.
Thank you for holding this interview
❤❤❤