EvilDragon's Pre-Order Survey Thread

[Wrath Of Khan]

^^^^He is the mafia

 

[ElPoco]

You mean the Pandora is the new Gizmondo?

 

[elwing]

Indeed, sounds interesting.

I offer him to help out, get enough money (or Pandoras) to him to fulfill more orders than I had left, for some reasons he's got 500 orders left after that, does bad-mouth me afterwards and then he tries to get legal advice...

What for? To try to find a way to get out of his mess without getting hurt much...?

he seems to be clearly in personal damage mitigation mode for the last 2 years at least...

 

[hedwards]

He always manages to somehow make himself look worse, doesn't he.. I knew that he'd claim that all of his preorders were now ED's responsibility, but legal action? The funny thing is, any time someone asked him if he'd take legal recourse against CC (after he went on quite a bit about how much they screwed him over) he'd just say that these things happen and there's nothing that can be done about it. But now he wants to take action against ED??

Pretty much. It's hard to say what the situation really is, but because of the way that Craig has mismanaged things on his end, he comes off looking terrible. Now, I guess I am assuming that the situation isn't worse than it looks, which could well be off base. I suppose things could be worse than what we're seeing, if that's even possible.

Unmitigated Bullshit! Craig is patethic. Eds a good guy. Talk to him for 5 minutes and this is apparent.


Im seriously wondering what really happened with circuit co. Quite possibly more lies from craig.


Perhaps he fucked up or misled them in some fashion.did he really lose that money.


Craig does not have a legal leg to stand on and no chance of suing ed.

Well, ED did get me a Pandora, Craig not so much. So, I tend to side with ED as he's pretty open with what he can share and acknowledges when he can't say anything.

 

[RobeeJay]

I'm still waiting for my Pandora (first batch too, which makes me wonder how long second batchers will have to wait), and hopefully at some point I can afford the 1Ghz upgrade and get it from Saint EvilDragon (that should be a shoot-em-up).

I feel sorry for anyone who pre-ordered a Pandora and is still waiting, and then went and backed the iControlPad2.

I'm guessing that Craig thought he'd learnt from his Pandora experience going into that, but obviously it turns out he learnt very little. Hopefully he realises now that making things rather than reselling them is beyond his management ability, and not start any more. Though I very much doubt there is any goodwill left in the retro community for him to find anyone to give him money up-front ever again.

 

[ponlork]

Hello I purchased a Pandora in 2010 and I've been patiently waiting for years. I recently received this in my email. I don't understand all this Legalese talk.  Does this mean I'm not going to get my Pandora or a refund?

Hello,

If you have received your Pandora you can ignore this email.

OpenPandora Ltd (UK) has ran out of funds and we have requested the company to be struck off.

As you may know the original company producing the PCBs failed to deliver around 1000 units
due to manufacturing defects, this, along with the intermittent failure of the LCD cables
drastically damaged our finances.

Earlier in the year we tried everything possible to continue business but 3 months ago, after
legal advice, it was shown to be very unlikely to succeed. The company has no assets of any
significant value.

There is no money to pay for liquidation (it would require around £4000) and since no one
has applied to liquidate us it is with regret that we have had to take this action.

You can find a copy of the strike off form here:

http://craig.gp2x.de/liqform.zip

OpenPandora Germany continues to trade and may be able to help you in regards to outstanding
orders, you should email them if they don't already have your details. (openpandora.org).

OpenPandora Ltd.

 

[vcoleiro1]

^ Unless you upgrade with ED or are fortuitus to get a standard Pandora, via ED, funded from community donations or new purchase profits, then unfortunately the answer to your question is yes.

 

[ponlork]

Unbelievable. I'm not even really into all this open source homebrew stuff. I sort of just purchased it on a whim. And I was recently laid off a few months ago I don't have time, money or even interests to experiment with the gadget. I peeped the forums a couple of times but I didn't really feel like voicing my opinion but that's pretty sad how they're going to pretty much force me to pay extra. I mean what's the point of waiting all those years? Ridiculous.

 

[PokeParadox]

No one is forcing you to do anything.


Evil Dragon has a special upgrade option for Craig's preorderers.


At this point you have few options...


Pay ED the upgrade/transfer fee and you will get the Pandora and he will only charge you when it ships.


Wait until the price is brought down to a level you can pay - this may take a while.


Forget about it and it may eventually be shipped donations.


It is sad to say that OpenPandora Ltd based in the UK is not going to do anything further in regards of sorting the issue. There is only ED's separate company that is offerring help but is not legally liable for the outstanding orders.


I'm sorry you were unfortunate to be left in this position.

 

[Klumpen]

Unbelievable. I'm not even really into all this open source homebrew stuff. I sort of just purchased it on a whim. And I was recently laid off a few months ago I don't have time, money or even interests to experiment with the gadget. I peeped the forums a couple of times but I didn't really feel like voicing my opinion but that's pretty sad how they're going to pretty much force me to pay extra. I mean what's the point of waiting all those years? Ridiculous.

There is no "they". Craigs company OpenPandora ltd. (UK) is an entirely different company than EvilDragons company OpenPandora Gmbh (Germany).

ED never got money from Craigs customers (and not even for all the parts he sold to Craig) but helps out anyway out of his own pocket in combination with donations for Craigs old preorderers.

All the people who ordered from EDs shop got theirs ages ago.

 

[worldcitizen]

What will be the way forward. Does it mean that I've lost my money?

What I didn't understand is that when I ordered the device from the Netherlands I had to order it from the UK. A country with a different currency and further for the Netherlands as Germany.

I'm sorry to say but I think this project has harmed the open source community a lot.

Do we have any legal ways to get our money back from Craig?

 

[EvilDragon]

Well, you didn't lose your money, you can still get the upgrade to the 1GHz unit. Yes, that does cost money, but your original payment + the upgrade payment is cheaper than the 1GHz price when the unit has been released.

 

[Asiyura]

I had to order it from the UK

You didn't "have to", at the time (I was in the first batch) I was in Belgium and choose to order from ED's shop because he allowed bank transfer payment.

Nobody forced me to choose either shop.

I think this project has harmed the open source community a lot.

I don't think the project harmed anything except Craig's reputation and credibility as project manager, ED's bank account and our patience.

Even open source community itself barely heard about pandora, so people outside it…

Now, I've voiced my opinion

 

[Klumpen]

^^^^He is the mafia

https://www.youtube.com/embed/wMEq1mGpP5A?feature=oembed

 

[WizardStan]

Do we have any legal ways to get our money back from Craig?

When he says there are no assets, that is the one thing I'm prepared to believe. I don't know how he burned through it all, but if there's nothing then there's nothing. If someone contacts a lawyer and they request liquidation there may be some stuff they could sell, but what? Maybe $10'000? $20'000? That'd work out to a $20-$40 refund for everyone, assuming he doesn't have any creditors beyond the customers he never sent to. I don't think it's worth your time, but a lot of lawyers do free consultations and could offer you actual legal advice.

 

[ponlork]

No one is forcing you to do anything.


Evil Dragon has a special upgrade option for Craig's preorderers.


At this point you have few options...


Pay ED the upgrade/transfer fee and you will get the Pandora and he will only charge you when it ships.


Wait until the price is brought down to a level you can pay - this may take a while.


Forget about it and it may eventually be shipped donations.


It is sad to say that OpenPandora Ltd based in the UK is not going to do anything further in regards of sorting the issue. There is only ED's separate company that is offerring help but is not legally liable for the outstanding orders.


I'm sorry you were unfortunate to be left in this position.

What you don't understand is not everybody follow up on this stuff. I'm a honest and hard working man, purchased something I thought look interesting. Was told that it should arrive around November 2010. Then 3 years later I lost all interest and have little time or desire to play around with it. And now if I don't upgrade I'm out $400 (yes i purchased added accessories and a extra battery). That doesn't sound a bit like extortion to you? Much love to the Open Source community but I don't even know what Open Source is. I'm just a consumer who fork out a lot of money and who was very patient, could care less about who they or whoever is I just purchased it from this site and no matter how you look at it, whoever had a part in organizing it is in the wrong. Then when I complain I'm told to consider it a donation. Oh brother. If I had known I was going to be donating I wouldn't have agreed to purchasing it.

 

[Klumpen]

The OpenPandora is not even manufactured in the same works anymore (it was CC in Texas, now it's Global Components in Germany),

it is a bit strange to sent money for something built in Texas from an English shop and when it does not get delivered, to rant at another shop and another company that builds it somewhere else.

It's not even the same product anymore but a better one (hard- and softwarewise), that is made here in Germany now and everyone should be thankful, that this cheaper crossover update is even possible,

because the guys here have no obligations towards the customers of the other product at all but pay a lot to make this possible and get nothing but work for it (including the awesome support).

If you want to sue OpenPandora ltd. I would even encourage you to do so and am surprised, that nobody seems to do that,

because now everyone thinks, the obligations lie somewhere else, because of Eds generous crossover-upgrades.

 

[ponlork]

excuses excuses. all i know is i bought it from this site. yes i'm aware there were difficulties but to just try and act like openpandora.org had zero fault at all is pretty irresponsible if you ask me.

 

[WizardStan]

That doesn't sound a bit like extortion to you?

I lend you $300. You lose your job, your home, and are panhandling on the street. One day I come up to you, on the street in your bedraggled clothing, and say "where's that $300 I lent you" to which you reply "I've got an interview this afternoon but I need some clean clothes or I won't stand a chance. Help me get something and my entire first pay cheque is yours"To which I say "you just want more money! F-you, that's extortion. Give me my $300 now because you obviously have it!"

Perhaps, under the broadest definition (where "harm" is not getting back what you originally invested) it is extortion, but I'm almost certain it wouldn't fly in any court if you tried to charge them with that.

EvilDragon and Craig are two completely different entities. Think of it like Walmart and Target selling a pre-order WiiPlayBox 87. You bought yours from Target. Target suddenly goes out of business for some reason days before the console was to come out. After liquidation there is nothing left with which to refund your pre-order, that money is gone. Walmart, having grown into a benevolent leader in commerce, takes pity and offers those that pre-ordered from Target a super special: buy $400 worth games and accessories and you can trade your Target receipt for a WiiPlayBox. "That's not fair!" you scream. "Extortion! If I don't pay $400 I'm out the original $800 pre-order!" so you try to sue Walmart, because Target went out of business, and everyone forever calls you "that guy who tried to sue Walmart for doing actually doing something nice".

If I had known I was going to be donating I wouldn't have agreed to purchasing it.

And if any of us had known that Craig was going to turn everything he touched into a mismanaged pile of steaming cauliflower none of us would have gone anywhere near it. Hindsight is 20/20.

 

[ponlork]

I didn't lend anybody money  bro, I checked out and purchased a item you added into a cart like any other web store. There was no mention of loaning or donating in the site. So then you're saying it's the consumer who should lose out on his money because of the manufacturer's failures. Riiight.