The Truth is out there (2010-12-11)

[levi]

Ouch, unlucky Klaus! That's an impressive show of optimism - the best this news got from me was a quiet sigh.


I'm actually okay about this news. Sure, it's a black mark against circuitco, but frankly this is typical of the strong tendency of sales departments to overpromise and for engineering departments to be more pragmatic. That said I'm not sure I follow their reasoning re not starting production earlier. Sure, the nubs have taken a lot longer to produce correctly than expected, but a few months ago it looked like they were ready, and they didn't start then. I don't buy the 'they might go bust' argument personally - sure, you might go bust, so isn't it better to get the invoice sent out as soon as possible and get the money before that happens? It's probably just that thanks to the sales guy(s) they've overcomitted and have bigger customers to worry about. I am confident that Trey's visits will help show them that we expect better of them.


All OPT needs now is for Trey to continue visiting and getting accurate production stats, and to be ready to follow through on any threat to move production. If you've not paid yet you're in the best position you can be to make that sort of threat.


Overall I'm just relieved to know that they've been buggering us. Better than waking up with a sore arsehole and not knowing why

 

[Caine]

How's this for further bad luck? -

Ouch Klaus, that sounds pretty horrible. I hope you are ok.

We asked for a 500 boards shipment as soon as possible.


We never intended to wait for the full 3000!

I didn't expect you would. Could you indicate how many of those first 500 boards will go to gp2x.de customers?


<edit>To clarify a bit, I mean to customers who haven't received anything yet (so your share excluding repairs and spare parts).</edit>

 

[TylerAW]

We asked for a 500 boards shipment as soon as possible.


We never intended to wait for the full 3000!

And 500 Pandora's fully shipped would bring the total number out there to 1400?

 

[darkborn]

Wow, that's really aggravating. I'd suggest you file complaints with the Better Business Bureau and file a report at http://www.ripoffreport.com/ so other people dealing with this company might be more cautious when dealing with them in the future. You could also leave a review for the business on google maps. I'm tempted to do things more malicious, but for the time being I think it's best to give them a chance to fulfill their end of the bargain, and if they screw us again, start the real fuckery.

I hope that some CircuitCrap employee follows this...


Anyway, thanks guys! Keep on...

 

[Link]

Wow, that's really aggravating. I'd suggest you file complaints with the Better Business Bureau and file a report at http://www.ripoffreport.com/ so other people dealing with this company might be more cautious when dealing with them in the future. You could also leave a review for the business on google maps. I'm tempted to do things more malicious, but for the time being I think it's best to give them a chance to fulfill their end of the bargain, and if they screw us again, start the real fuckery.

They had no nubs to finish the job. Why make 1000, 2000, or 3000 boards if you aren't sure the frogs across the pond have enough lillipads to pay for the order?

 

[Blue Protoman]

They could have at least said so. I say that the OP team should do exactly that, or at least threaten to. Show that they mean it by having the community back them. Perhaps they'll wisen up and tell the truth next time.

Anybody else have any associated tales of woe.. ?

One time I accidentally gave myself a small cut on my wrist...with my toenail.

 

[andyhamer]

Ouch Klaus, that sounds pretty horrible. I hope you are ok.

Yes fine thanks, hand hurts a bit (bandages stay on for a week) could have done without the unforseen financial outlay though, but you never know i may get a replacement mug for Xmas..

 

[Blue Protoman]

And I thought OP's case of Murphy's Law was bad. That's FML material, Klaus.

 

[WizardStan]

They had no nubs to finish the job. Why make 1000, 2000, or 3000 boards if you aren't sure the frogs across the pond have enough lillipads to pay for the order?

As has been said many times, that's fine, if that's what they said was happening. ED has told us they repeatedly said all boards were finished. OPT gave us estimations based on the premise that all they had to do was solder on the nubs, a task that can be completed in days. Instead we find that that information was an outright fabrication, adding weeks to the estimation instead of days.

 

[emcee]

The whole community bad-mouthing campaign just seems like a really bad idea to me. Especially since there's no control over what people say, it could easily descend into libel. This is something that should be handled in professional manner between the companies involved.


That said, being lied to for 4 months straight, to me, seems like the business equivalent of being pants and given a swirly. OPT has been jerked around by other companies for this entire process. If they let something like this slide it's just going to continue to happen.


Hell, a few days ago there was talk about getting a lawyer, and now that it turns out that they've been lying the whole time, the response seems to be "Oh well, whataya gonna do?". I don't know, maybe there's more going on behind the scenes to deal with this. I hope so.

 

[Link]

What a company says is happening and what a company is doing are sometimes not the truth, ever hear of BP? And there are countless others, and they are in Texas, need I continue?

 

[htl2001]

(sorry if this has been said I only skimmed the thread)


I am a bit disappointed the company didn't start before as they had said, but it is the expected behavior considering the payment deal. On the other hand, if they just recently went back to making the boards, this does say something about how fast they can crank these out. I'm at least glad to see that.


edit:


regarding the funding thing... whats going on with the proposed investment plan?

 

[doublebeta]

Seems fitting for the title of this thread.

TrashyMG, I was thinking this exact thing .


EvilDragon, damn you have some real skill at posting with neutrality and honesty. Why are the good always pained so? In honesty, I really believe without ED's careful posting, the Pandora would lose support in an instant. You're awesome. We love you.(Like, in a friendly way, mind you )


Well, some bad news, but as i've said, ED's really put it into perspective. I can see why some people are really grinding their teeth now, thinking they might finally get their Pandora before xmas...and I believe fully we should move to a new company for the next few batches, but a new case company too, if not already done...the nub manufacturer seemed kindest, even after a MAJOR fuckup, they were very very apologetic...but meh. I'll shut up now. Too much ellipses.

 

[THB]

In the board companies shoes... I would do the exact same thing. We must focus our hate toward the nub company. They are the ones who screwed up and are now holding up production.

 

[Bigun]

..stuff..

Pics or it never happened.

 

[ardje]

TrashyMG, I was thinking this exact thing .


EvilDragon (....) You're awesome. We love you.(Like, in a friendly way, mind you )

Are you sure you don't mean it in an Angry Dragon way?


Warning: Don't visualize!

 

[EvilDragon]

They had no nubs to finish the job. Why make 1000, 2000, or 3000 boards if you aren't sure the frogs across the pond have enough lillipads to pay for the order?

That would be no problem. Then they could just tell us they want to wait for the nubs before production resumes and that's it.


But telling us they are producing the boards, all of them work fine, no issues here and they do this so they can put the nubs on ALL boards within two weeks is NOT okay.

The whole community bad-mouthing campaign just seems like a really bad idea to me. Especially since there's no control over what people say, it could easily descend into libel. This is something that should be handled in professional manner between the companies involved.

Definately. I don't want any badmouthing here, I just wanted to tell the truth what has been happening.

Hell, a few days ago there was talk about getting a lawyer, and that it turns out they been lying the whole time, the response seems to be "Oh well, whataya gonna do?". I don't know, maybe there's more going on behind the scenes to deal with this. I hope so.

I'm in contact with one already. But I don't want to do anything unless Trey finds out they really don't do anything.

 

[Trip]

As they won't be getting paid until the boards are finished and shipped out, you can't really expect them to put in all the work until the nubs were ready. That would be money out of the companies pocket and something that most companies wouldn't have done either. The nub company screwed up and are fixing the mistake, the board company couldn't finish until they had the nubs.


I normally don't condone lying at all from a business, but after seeing all the hate mongering and how things have been blown out of proportion on this forum before (just reading through this thread is enough proof of that), I can see how it would have been easier for the company at the time just to say that the boards were done. It might not have been the right thing to do but I can see why they went that route.


People on the forum should stay the hell out of it and leave the business up to those that have all the information at hand. Stirring up trouble with the companies will do nobody any good, and will only make it harder to find companies that will work will small projects such as the Pandora in the future.


As long as the board company gets it's employees working on this full time and gets all the promised boards out quick sharpish from now on, I don't see much of a problem myself.

 

[Gren]

So after all the fun and games, do we have a revised schedule?


Is there any chance at all of units being shipped before Xmas (however small)? At least someone could maybe celebrate a Panda for Xmas?!


With last postal deliveries before the holidays looming large on the horizon, I'd imagine the chances are dwindling away...

 

[EvilDragon]

Yes, exactly, as I said before in this thread:


If they now start working properly, I don't see a problem.


I can understand if they wanted to wait for the nubs before continuing production, but I was expecting that they would tell us - and not lying around.


We'll see what happens within the next months and we'll continue to look for backup plans in worst case.


As soon as another company is setup, moving the parts is easy.


The company that produces the iControlPad is one of the biggest in Europe.


Over 2000kg bare as well as assembled PCBs every week leave the factory to nearly 500 customers...


I'm in good contact with them (and their employees wanted to buy a few Pandoras when they visited me and I showed it to them ).


So if CC doesn't manage to produce boards within the next weeks, we could move there and they could produce the boards probably within a few days.


3000 iCPs are being populated within two days there... geez.

So after all the fun and games, do we have a revised schedule?

No, but we'll try to get one next week... signed and confirmed by the CEO!

Is there any chance at all of units being shipped before Xmas (however small)? At least someone could maybe celebrate a Panda for Xmas?!

Yes. They had 50 finished boards with new nubs on Friday. We told them to include those boards with the shipment of the iCP parts to me on Monday.


Whether they'll do that or not is something else, but if they do, there will be 50 new units out before christmas.