I'm sorry but, I bought my Pandora more than two years ago(more like 2 and a half or three quarters), and now that I finally don't know what I would do with it even if I got it, I asked for my money back.
But I didn't get my money back, and I didn't get a Pandora, so I have to ask: is this a scam? Did I just give someone $375 out of the kindness of my heart?
thank you.
Hi
I am very sorry to hear about this case and be assured, your anger and frustration is understood (I have had enough money problems myself and).
I know excuses and explanations will not help you mutch, but I would be very happy if you would read the follwing understaning of the situation I have:
Craig is playing a game which i am sure you will understand as well as I do. After the first company in Texas (Circuit Co, also producing the Beagle Board) stopped producing boards for the pandora, Craig ran into heavy financial issues. Parts for over 700 boards (I don't remember the exact number) have been paid and also production of some of the boards have been paid. Since Craig has many customers he owes them a pandora or the money, he came into trouble: Part of the money is gone into parts and production worth quite a bit but no pandoras came out of it.
For now, this money is lost (
http://boards.openpa...why-not-sue-cc/ ). ED than took over and brought the production to Germany where it is running reliably (yet much more expensive). When ED was searching for investors (They want their money back some time with profit) he made a businesses plan saying that all the old pre orders will be fulfilled with new sales (This is expensive, a lot of the original money is still lost in Texas, it is not just the difference for production that has to be paid). So, ED is funding units for old preoders with his income from the Pandoras and running the shop with everything else he sells on www.dragonbox.de (<- former gp2x.de Source:
http://boards.openpa...ne/#entry163785 ). So Craig gets free units from ED to send to his old customers. Upgrades (and maybe other things) keept craig liquid and he could refund some old preorders and send the units from ED to them (Although this was not working well, read the full topic above...).
Then the 1Ghz "scandal" came (
http://boards.openpa...rent-situation/ ). Now it looks like, Craig is in serous financial problems with his pandora company. So, until he gets the financial boost from the tax return, he is probably not very liquid right now. I assume he will be liquid in mid November again (
http://boards.openpa...ing-next-month/ ).
One reason he is not responding right now might be that he does not have the liquidity to refund you right now. "Craigs game" is waiting and see what you (and probably other waiting for a refund) are going to do. He has to refund when you thread him legally. To assure his Pandora company will not go bust (for whatever reason) he probably wants to wait until better times have come (and refund one after another in order to guarantee liquidity [this is very important for a company, at leas I learned so in school]).
Another reason for him to not respond could be that his E-Mail backlog is just to big and he has no time to respond to your request (A bit unlikely with all your effort to reaching him in my opinion).
Many of the members of this board (me included) are very sad about what happened and honestly, reading about people like you, waiting for such a long time and putting all the effort into getting a refund, really stings. This is not what we like to read, which does not make it less real. Sarcasm i a way of dealing with this. I am sorry for that and understand all the critics Seamus has expressed about sarcastic comments.
They really should stop these stupid replys to serious posts on these forums.
The thread eventually fizzles out because of the really childish
stupid remarks by some forum members.Have every right to be here so go on bury yer heads in the sand along with your
silly remarks .
Let us recap on the nightmare scenarios for this machine:
Money was taken in 2008 for the first batch machine, still over 300 orders not filled still case cable and physical build of machine issues
not good enough.
The case should have been made of brushed alumimiumn .(not crap plastic rubbish}
The first priority should have been the case this is still a major issue.
Nubs are still hit & miss
Why has this not been fixed.
The internal working board etc are ok. For a dream machine to be let down by physical build disaster is unforgivable.
Why are you pursuing new machines when these issues are not fixed?
The Pandora has been a nightmare machine for me
It is virtually unuasble whay am I not getting any answers??
Is everybody but a few of us looking at this like the Emperor,s new clothes.
Because money was lost at the beginning of this project it looks to get as much in as quick as possible
Pay for inferior device and shut up if it falls apart
Hi
Every flaw you mentioned is in fact fixed in the new devices, the new silver case is more sturdy, the broken nubs are long gone (Some user had problems with calibrating their nubs, that was more a software issue). ED was a little angered about your post, because the LCD cable where also a problem. That was fixed to, but as he mentioned a new patch of "the same cables", as the cable manufacturer calims, does not seem to be "the same". I think ED is pretty angry and will unleash his evilness (if it turns out the cable company produces old/less quality cables for the higher price) when the results form the laboratory are back he send the cable to. I also read somewhere that he will get other cables with an even more flexible material (so even better than the good cables from the cable company, of which none failed AFAIK).
I don't know who you ordered from or if you are entitled to replacements, but some parts are available here:
https://www.dragonbo...placement-parts
To fix your nubs, i am afraid there is no other option but sending your Pandora to ED. I do not know how much this would cost. If you are entitled for an RMA, i think this is doable for free and other users have been very happy with the fixes ED made... (The only question right now is, will ED do repairs for you if you orderd form Craig??)
The reason there is no aluminum case is, that it would make it extremely hard to have build in WirelessLAN. I read somewhere on the forums here that a part of the aluminum case would have to be plastic and connecting aluminum and plastic in a seamless manner seems to be an art all by its own. One could now argument that the WLan is not working very well anyway, and indeed, some users would not mind having the option to buy an aluminum case even if they would completely loose the internal WLan (same the same problem with bluetooth?!). Others are happy with the WLan performance of their pandora and use it regularly (I think I read somewhere that the range is not the best...). Those would maybe not be so happy with an aluminum case...
Well, I am very sorry for both of you that thinks turned out to be not so good.
Hope my post helped to soothe the pain a bit...
Disclaimer: Although I am pretty sure that everything is more or less right, i do not want to be held responsible if i got something wrong. Naturally, everyone is welcome to correct me

especially ED and Craig