Thrill And Suspense : New Blog From Ed

[Jumpman]

Well it's not like the mould company is down the street, and they can go in and say "What's the hold up"? Craig said the PCB would get done in november, and as far as I can tell they are done, or will be in a few days. Where's the "Thank You" in regards to that, or job well done? The reality of any situation is that no one says great job when your getting the job done, but drop the ball, and everyone is all over you! Craig and Ed have ran succesful businesses for several years, and I'm sure that is the reason this project was able to get of the ground in the first place. Go to Craigs site, and see all the products he sells, and how many times the company gives a release date only to change it. That's the nature of this business. The mould company is making a one of a kind item. It doesn't matter at all that they do moulds 365 days out of the year. This is the first Pandora mould and case that they have had to do. Who here can say for sure how hard that is to do.


Jumpman

 

[GlassDeviant]

The worlds financial crisis is currently based on the fact that banks took money from consumers, and promised things, and didn't deliver(Anyone could argue the banks fault or the consumers).

I don't belive anyone here exept for Openpandora has tried such a task, and all though it has yet to be completed, I feel that they have done a great job keeping everyone in the loop.

This doesn't really have anything to do with the situation, it doesn't matter what the condition of the economy is, there is still work to be done and contracts to be fulfilled. If you're not filing for bankruptcy, it's time to put even more effort into getting jobs done as close to on time as possible or you WILL be filing soon.

The bank crisis has nothing to do with it, and it also has nothing to do with taking money from anyone. It has to do with banks GIVING money to people, in the form of bad mortgages to people who they knew were incapable of paying them off but were forced to do so by the US government forcing "equal opportunity loans" on them. If you're going to blame anyone, you have to include the US government for forcing this on the banks, the banks for accepting it instead of fighting for the right to make investments they considered safe and viable, and the people getting the mortgages for thinking they are so entitled that they deserve AND can afford these ridiculous mortgages AND the construction and real estate industries for focusing on these high-end housing units rather than building what is really affordable over the long term, irregardless of economic conditions.

And FYI I have been involved with projects roughly similar to this, and it doesn't matter what excuses you have, if an experienced manufacturer cannot manage to make an estimate taking into consideration all of the factors, which they would have encountered before, within a reasonable margin of error (a 35 day estimate taking 100+ days is pathetic, though typical of the reputation of Chinese manufacturing), they should not be playing in this particular field of industry. 50 days would be within acceptable norms (~50% over on time), even 60 days would be tolerable, but three times as long is bordering on utter incompetence.

 

[Nation.A.List]

The wait returns and balance has once again been restored to the universe.

Unfortunately quite funny.

Not a real big delay or problem

They said that 70 days ago

it's really good news they are going to get it right

True, if you can overlook the delay

I am pleased by this development.

I'm not!

 

[rv6502]

my theory is that the case maker is sub-contracting to maximize profits and the cheaper sub-contractor isn't as experienced, or like someone else said they're passing other more profitable contracts first.

if the company isn't threaten with some kind of penalties for missed deadlines they wont budge.
going there in person with someone who speak their language might also give some weight.

but the best is to start legal proceedings to get them moving.

being a foreign company makes is much harder tho.

if they haven't been paid in full yet, the OP team could get another company to get the problematic parts done.

 

[Paradox]

all this talk about dodgy chinese companies is really putting me off.. I just seriously hope it is a quality made peice of kit when I get it or i'll be very disappointed..

 

[GlassDeviant]

Has anyone seen any of the work this company has done before? Spoken to prior clients to see what the company is like on quality, deliverables, being on-time, etc.?

 

[fiori_musicali]

Craig said the PCB would get done in november, and as far as I can tell they are done, or will be in a few days. Where's the "Thank You" in regards to that, or job well done? The reality of any situation is that no one says great job when your getting the job done, but drop the ball, and everyone is all over you!

You sure talk a lot of crap considering how blatantly obvious it is that you haven't been reading the forum all that much. People pull happy face, roll on the floor with enthrallment and cover the devs with thanks WHEN IT'S WARRANTED (and even sometimes when they just give out some minor but optimism-inducing details). I think they get a pretty fair treatment in the mean (and that does exclude trolls).

I believe you're in good intent but there is nothing here that really needs your extended defensive speeches (that will not decrease the frustration at all).

 

[mali]

fiori_musicali killed jumpman
[quake voice]
One frag left.
[/quake voice]

 

[SirAileron]

See again: this is not some rag tag group that missed a deadline because they didn't know what to expect. This is supposed to be a professional company that has been doing these types of things for years. It didn't just miss one deadline, it missed many deadlines, all self imposed. No one is chewing out Craig and company (this time), it's all about the plastic manufacturer failing the team several times. I will say again, we have passed 100 days of what was projected to be a 35-40 day job, and only JUST discovered a shrinking problem. Does that sound professional to you? There are "oops, we made a mistake or didn't think of something" delays, and then there's "we weren't actually working on your work order even though we said we were" delays.

This sort of treatment is to expected anyway, since OpenPandora isn't a big name, which makes things difficult as far as imposing a deadline having it followed. What's a small bunch of guys running a pet project going to do if we don't get everything in on time? Stare intensely with disapproval? Oh no, how scary. If the mould company has been doing what it does for many years already, it gives them even more 'entitlement' to push aside a 'needlessly complicated' case design from a small, no-name group of people.


Who would you focus on, anyway? A bunch of large companies that you have a long-standing history with, or the new guy?

 

[gaterooze]

Has anyone seen any of the work this company has done before? Spoken to prior clients to see what the company is like on quality, deliverables, being on-time, etc.?

IIRC, TI themselves recommended them?

edit: I did not recall correctly! It was the board manufacturers recommended, and they turned out great it seems.

 

[Sugar_Kane]

Want a black market kidney? Quick as a flash. 4000+ injection moulded cases on time? No chance.

 

[SirAileron]

IIRC, TI themselves recommended them?

Haha, if that really is the case, that's not only a fine bit of irony, but it also enhances what I noted earlier.

 

[Esslan]

IIRC, TI themselves recommended them?

You are thinking of the company making the boards not the cases

 

[fretfrenzy182]

fiori_musicali killed jumpman
[quake voice]
One frag left.
[/quake voice]

Hahaahaha. Fanboys losing? Hard to tell. Anywhoo, I don't see how there can be this much complaining going on, its not like me, (And anyone else who can detect the slightest hint of a pattern) didn't expect another delay. Just enjoy the wait. Pass the time by dreaming about the day you get the rub the actual device in the non-believers faces.

 

[Titcher]

It's like the universe is doing everything it can to ensure the pandora isn't released. I guess it doesn't want to make the same mistake twice after what happened the last time someone opened a pandoras box.

 

[srusoff]

there is always January 2010, as for getting them out before christmas, not sure, they would have to start shipping around December 20th and that would only give them about 20 days to build and test them before shipping.

 

[mali]

It's like the universe is doing everything it can to ensure the pandora isn't released. I guess it doesn't want to make the same mistake twice after what happened the last time someone opened a pandoras box.

Hehe
One day it will be released and we will lose these thrilling moments. I remember the exciting times we had when the re-pre-order fisco happened. It was tough but standing together and steering this ship on track was fun

 

[conso]

Personally, I think this is the wrong time to get angry. Sure, it's been a long while for production and I'm as fed up waiting as everyone else, but really, after all this time, what are another week, weeks or even months when you see how far the preparations have come? Whoever is mad about this little delay should really have left last february or march. You are not angry because the case company needs another week (or more) to finetune the molds for production, but because of all the time it took to come to this stage. Christmas is just a date and if you have family or friends, you probably wouldn't have time to test the pandora in the holidays, anyway.

 

[WizardStan]

IIRC, TI themselves recommended them?

You are thinking of the company making the boards not the cases

And it wasn't TI, it was the factory doing the population and assembly, and the boards do appear to have been of excellent quality, assuming that 98% success rate holds up. It just goes to show that you can get cheap, good, and fast sometimes. Other times you can only get one of those three.
Maybe that's the problem. They say "Cheap, fast, quality: pick two", but with the boards we got all three. The extra selection had to come from somewhere, so it was pulled from the case's stats.

 

[aq21]

At least now we can stop hoping that the Pandora ships in 2009 and start hoping that it ships in 2010.