Shipping On The 4Th?

[alucart1984]

All I can say is I am glad I didn't preorder. It's already May 2010! We are almost half way through the year and still no Pandora has shipped. If I was an investor myself I would be pulling out right about now.

 

[Jumpman]

Come on guys, I've been arguing this factory situation since late 2009. At that point, the team has already invested much time and resources with the current mould factory, so switching without at least the first 4000-10,000 cases is crazy.

Now I'm sure, if back then they would have known things would drag this long, it might have been a differant story, but right now all we can do is chill, and let open Pandora solve there own problems. Everone here has there own ideas, and opinions on how things should have been handled, and how they currently should be taken care of, but know one here knows the full story, and how much time, resources, and money the team has at stake. Like I have said before, a refund is available to anyone, at any time.

This is a typical problem(the lack of on time shipping), so it's not a super huge deal. Now if we find out next week the cases are are not even done yet, and shipping will be weeks from now, I think I will be the first one to get my refunds ASAP(to hell with my cancel date)! But right now, I'm still feeling confident customer units will be shipping in a few weeks!

Good Luck to All!

Chris

 

[Zotty]

Unless OP has been making loads of money (without us knowing), this is still a unique project. It's more community than a real business, so we can't compare it, let alone speak of investors :rolleyes:

 

[EvilDragon]

Unless OP has been making loads of money (without us knowing), this is still a unique project. It's more community than a real business, so we can't compare it, let alone speak of investors :rolleyes:

I wonder where we should've made that much money

 

[paddy]

So who was telling lies about the cases being created and the next step the case company had to do was ship them ? as stated on the blog ...

(quote)
Now we need to wait for the cases. Those cases have been produced and painted, but as it looks like, UPS won't pick them up until sometime next week (I guess they try to deliver the stalled shipments first and then start picking up new ones once their back in normal state).

Was this a mistake/misunderstanding or assumption ? or did the case company lie about the current progress ? ,if it was a misunderstanding or assumption on OPT's part then wtf ? and in that case can we really all be so down on the case company ? if however the case company has lied directly to you OP the client then kick their asses.

 

[Sugar_Kane]

@Ed: Nude calendars

 

[Wolenber]

I wonder where we should've made that much money

When you do assembly, charge a dollar for every minute you watch the webcam stream. I guarantee that you'll make more money than the Pandoras themselves produce.

 

[Esn]

No, we didn't know how this factory treated people, or how they would treat us. Now we know. Now I'm taking the business away from them.

Simple isn't it? No need for your rambling insults really, but live and let live.

To have a little bit of revenge, you should warn everyone and stop making business with this Company. Nobody should choose this chinese Factory any more. I bet this is an easy task in the modern times of the Internet. ^^

It and other companies/people will go in to the Pandora story which I'm keeping currently as a diary. I don't want to say anything until we are shipping and have the final outcomes of various situations.

Considering how long this has stretched out, you probably have enough material for a book...

 

[centrik]

I'm a little confused now.

So after the 4000 cases are finished producing, OpenPandora is moving production out of china? Or is OpenPandora halting production immediately to move production out of China?

Basically, what's the big fuss over right now? I assume there's been another delay (shocker), but I've been gone for about 2 weeks and am a little confused. I would appreciate a quick review of what has been happening these past few days.

Thanks.

 

[Dead1nside]

The cases haven't shipped from China yet. Craig has expressed a desire to take the moulds and look at manufacturing the cases elsewhere, presumably after these 4000-1000(?) are done. I've got no problem with that. The delays at the case factory have probably cost OpenPandora in lost sales, it's holding back the whole project, we're losing developing time and everything. It's not OP's fault, it's not been realistic to create the moulds elsewhere. What is more, nobody could have foreseen all the stalling tactics and troubles we've had.

Keep going guys. We're almost there.

 

[Mjlink]

Those cases are going to be the death of me.

 

[wardred]

I'm a little confused now.

Basically, what's the big fuss over right now?

If I understand it right, there are five things. First, Craig's and the whole Open Pandora team's blood pressure. :-b The language barrier so that communications pretty much have to go through Fatih(sp??). The distance - it's not practical to be at the manufacturers door every day pestering them until they make the cases to simply get rid of you. The NUMBER of huge delays and broken promises, and the initial quality they were showing - though it does look like towards the end of things they've been trying to make Craig happy on the quality side of things, at least. Also, if I'm not mistaken there's been something in the news lately about how THIS company treats its workers.

I think they're getting 10K cases from the factory unless something changed. That was the minimum order for the price point they needed to hit.

Once that 10k has been produced, it shouldn't cost much more to have the molds shipped back to Craig and then he can find a local, or reasonably local, company to do the plastic injection for not that much more than the Chinese, and hopefully faster. The Chinese get paid, Craig eventually gets his cases and molds, we eventually get product, and he can go with a different company for round 2 so they can get that round out the door in a time meaningful to man.

A business decision that should, hopefully, make things go smoother in the future for everybody.

 

[valhalla]

If Craig published the diary into a retail book I would buy it. Especially if he embellishes the truth a little. Add a vampire or a werewolf. Or add a crack commando unit was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn't commit. Or Craig could conveniently change his surname to Bond and write about times of international espionage while creating the Pandora hand-held computer.

I expect nothing less than a text adventure with the embellished truth of pandora making.

 

[Alpha2]

Maybe we should just lock this thread and move on to other discussions since it's clear this 4th business wont be happening and the thread is just becoming another pit of boiling anger.

 

[x68000]

No, we didn't know how this factory treated people, or how they would treat us. Now we know. Now I'm taking the business away from them.

Simple isn't it? No need for your rambling insults really, but live and let live.

Yea well done for completely ignoring the criticisms leveled at you in your reply. You're pretty good at that.

The issues surrounding workplace ethics in China are well documented and there's no way you went into this contract with any reasonable belief that the workers in this factory were treated in a well/humane mannor.

Don't try and make yourself sound like an ambassador for the human rights movement when talking about your decision to move production away from China. The only reason, which is a perfectly valid reason, for you deciding to move production away is the poor service you have received. There was absolutely no reason for you to bring human resource ethics into this and try and score a few points by coming across as somebody who genuinely cares in situations where you really don't give a damn.

If you are a preorderer yourself, this barely qualifies you to be taking the moral high ground.

I cannot see any reason for your flamefest in this thread so please keep posts relevant and constructive.

 

[Jumpman]

Maybe we should just lock this thread and move on to other discussions since it's clear this 4th business wont be happening and the thread is just becoming another pit of boiling anger.

+1

Chris

 

[ben_dash]

If Craig published the diary into a retail book I would buy it.

Definitely! Make a DVD too! Hilarious!

 

[maplesugarlover]

no, lets make a documentary after this ordeal is over.

 

[hobbyman II]

seriously, if the case makers work twice as fast as they have done, then it would be faster to make the cases here in the UK from hand carved oak, the cases have been the sticking point for ages, you can see how it works, every time it looks like you might pull out, they say they are going to have the cases ready "next week" or "after holidays" or just "soon", so you wait, cause it would be dumb to pull out just as they where ready, right?, then the cases fail to appear, or they are bad quality, or something "happens" (new machine makes better cases!, we paint them!), and we wait "a bit" more

if OP had infinite money then they could have cases made here in the UK at a higher price to fill the first batch, all the while kicking the Chinese factory in an effort to get their (paid for) 10,000 cases, and all would be well, but since they don't happen to be millionaires, all they can do is keep trying to get some cases out of the Chinese plant.

the only other option I can think of is to start a fund for "express" case manufacture, some modern tooling and CNC mould carving could have cases made by the end of the month imo, not cheap, but we would have cases, Pandora would be justified, vaporware trolls would be slain, Pandoras would be born and fostered by loving parents :rolleyes: , software and developers would materialise as if by magice, a "scene" would start to grow, Craig could take up sleeping nights, etc

hmm!, other ideas, could we find a plastics firm that would be adventurous enough to make cases on a "x% of profits" basis?, or maybe one that needs to offset some cash for tax reasons?, or someone who would like to get in on the start of the "Next Big Thing (tm) " in return for a licence to make custom cases?, or cast some in resin in moulds ripped off the original Pandora cases, or design a basic, low cost, none hinging case that holds the circuit/keypad and screen/speakers (would make it about the size of a large calculator or paperback) with a sliding sleeve for protection and get it made in a hurry (simple should be cheaper, right?)

 

[craigix]

We are planning to buy a 3D printer for our future endeavors. It's a credo of mine that we should be more in control of these things.