WARNING to pandora buyers

[lkinweng]

this may contain similar contents to the post in the support section, but this serves as a warning for those considering to buy the pandora.


my queue is 450 - 500 , which was claimed. i do not understand how these estimates come about, when they are not counting exact numbers.


order #245406001259376


Order date: Aug 2, 2010 11:03 AM PDT


i asked for a refund, multiple emails to the same address as above openpandorasales@gmail.com


due to personal reasons i have to cancel the order.


no reply so far.


there is something fishy, why is it that replies are so quick for sales but it is so difficult to even get an email reply for a refund and customer support?


it is a large sum of money and if there is no reply soon, i will deem it a breach of the refund policy as stated on google checkout.


i am from singapore, but i will not hesitate to contact lawyers as quite a few are my close friends, both here and in europe. my sister in law is also a lawyer in germany.


if you are planning on buying one, you are likely taking a very large risk with your money. it is extremely difficult to contact anybody if something goes wrong.

 

[Bosbeetle]

Not fishy at all they are just very busy, and flooded in mails all the time. A little bit over the top threatening them immediately.


Anyway you cant be number 450-500 if you ordered 2 aug 2010

 

[EvilDragon]

Well, I already replied in the other thread, but I'm replying here as well:


There is one single person currently handling all this.


You never know how many eMails she currently gets, it might be a lot, it might be few.


It might also be an eMail got lost - I know some seemed to have gotten lost where people asked at the support thread and after I mentioned that to Jaquelyne (she's doing all this), she tried to contact the people there.


Have you tried to phone them?


There's a phone number on GBAX.com.


Of course there's some risk involved buying it - we're basically just a bunch of guys trying to achieve something and had a lot of problems with the nub manufacturer which delayed things a lot.


This can all be found in the Official News section.


I know it's hard for people waiting - however, a mass cancellation could probably kill the whole thing within a few days and stop the production. As parts have been paid by the preorder money (as stated), it would lead to a lot of problems - and therefore could lead to no one getting Pandoras nor money back.


We explained that a couple of times and on the website (where to buy) it's also mentioned we need the money to pay in advance.

 

[wermy]

my queue is 450 - 500 , which was claimed. i do not understand how these estimates come about, when they are not counting exact numbers.


order #245406001259376


Order date: Aug 2, 2010 11:03 AM PDT

WHAT'S YOUR ORDER NU..... Oh.


Yeah, if you ordered Aug 2 of this year, I REALLY doubt you're 450-500 in line. At least not in batch 1. Maybe that estimate was for batch 2?

 

[Pickle]

this may contain similar contents to the post in the support section, but this serves as a warning for those considering to buy the pandora.


my queue is 450 - 500 , which was claimed. i do not understand how these estimates come about, when they are not counting exact numbers.


order #245406001259376


Order date: Aug 2, 2010 11:03 AM PDT


i asked for a refund, multiple emails to the same address as above openpandorasales@gmail.com


due to personal reasons i have to cancel the order.


no reply so far.


there is something fishy, why is it that replies are so quick for sales but it is so difficult to even get an email reply for a refund and customer support?


it is a large sum of money and if there is no reply soon, i will deem it a breach of the refund policy as stated on google checkout.


i am from singapore, but i will not hesitate to contact lawyers as quite a few are my close friends, both here and in europe. my sister in law is also a lawyer in germany.


if you are planning on buying one, you are likely taking a very large risk with your money. it is extremely difficult to contact anybody if something goes wrong.

Maybe your email wasnt received or was filtered out, maybe try a different account. Looks like you ordered through Craig, theres should be a phone number around you could try too.


Also keep in mind ordering is automated, where refunds are hand processed and theres basically at the most a few people handling them.


Also your warning isnt going to hold much weight, a lot of us know the core team before the pandora even happened. Evildragon one the main guys is always here on the board. Just keep trying and give them some time to react.

 

[Lynceus Glaciermaw]

Batch 2 Pandora customer here (I'm not affiliated with the team).


It's good of you to state your case as a warning, but understand just what position the Pandora team is in. This is a team of perhaps a dozen people (please correct me if I'm wrong, those more in the know) all constructing a device based on the supply of several companies that, as far as I can tell, aren't taking them very seriously. And even when the Pandora team gets reliable, quality parts, there aren't very many people actually physically building the device, so you can't expect production to be very fast.


The same reason is why your e-mail has been unanswered so far. I won't try to talk you out of cancelling your order - you have your reasons, that's fine. But understand that if the Pandora team were actually trying to cheat you, they would not be using a service as reputable as Google Checkout. Such services are very good about dealing with fraud. The delay is caused because the team is so very swamped with matters, orders, dealing with production companies, cosntruction and cancellations like your own.


In short, I can confidently say that you have not been forgotten. Don't worry; these are good people. If this entire project were fake, there wouldn't be such a vibrant community and frequent updates (with pictures and videos!) around it. I'm sure the Pandora team hates to put you in such a situation as this - they want everyone to be happy with their Pandoras and to get their money back ASAP if they change their minds.


It can really set one on edge to know there's $400 USD floating around that you want back for a product you didn't get in the timeframe you'd expected or wanted, but I personally believe these people won't let you down.


(OP team, please correct any mistakes I may have made; I don't want to misrepresent you. I just have great faith in you, and know you'll sort this matter out.)

 

[Alec]

my queue is 450 - 500 , which was claimed. i do not understand how these estimates come about, when they are not counting exact numbers.

order #245406001259376


Order date: Aug 2, 2010 11:03 AM PDT

WHAT'S YOUR ORDER NU..... Oh.


Yeah, if you ordered Aug 2 of this year, I REALLY doubt you're 450-500 in line. At least not in batch 1. Maybe that estimate was for batch 2?

Also, is that what order numbers look like now? Mine looked very differently.

 

[Anihil8ion2199]

Also, is that what order numbers look like now? Mine looked very differently.

When I preordered in June the understanding was that it would take a while, and I'd rather have a proper good product than a rush job. Kudos to the team for giving us all of these updates on production and keeping us in the loop regarding how our money is being used.

 

[Mido]

Similar thing happened to me. Took 3 e-mails and just under a month to get a refund. In that time I lost extra $$$ on currency conversion. I don't buy that busy e-mail crap either. OPT only has a few hundred customers to service and if your question is about a new sales order they respond in 3 days max. I personally think they are financially in trouble and have to wait til more money comes in to pay your refund.

 

[THB]

You ordered in August this year and already want to cancel, you emailed them a few days ago and they havent replied yet.


Are you sure you have the patience for legal action?

 

[EvilDragon]

Similar thing happened to me. Took 3 e-mails and just under a month to get a refund. In that time I lost extra $$$ on currency conversion. I don't buy that busy e-mail crap either. OPT only has a few hundred customers to service and if your question is about a new sales order they respond in 3 days max. I personally think they are financially in trouble and have to wait til more money comes in to pay your refund.

Jaquelyne handles all the eMails. I had a chat with her today, she is doing all the taxes and booking as well, which is a lot work as well.


I know I sometimes have a backlog of about 5 - 10 days with my eMails as well, and they get a lot more inquiries than me.


Aditionally, they also handle all the ordering and moving of the needed parts internationally.


There might be days where she is able to reply instantly but there might also be days where she's just doing taxes and booking.


Also, I remember I read somewhere that someone tried to order and didn't get a reply after 5 - 10 days, so it's not that all sales go faster.


It can really depend on what's happening at the moment.

 

[fuji99]

You ordered in August this year and already want to cancel, you emailed them a few days ago and they havent replied yet.


Are you sure you have the patience for legal action?

Beat me to it :lol:

 

[WizardStan]

Similar thing happened to me. Took 3 e-mails and just under a month to get a refund. In that time I lost extra $$$ on currency conversion. I don't buy that busy e-mail crap either. OPT only has a few hundred customers to service and if your question is about a new sales order they respond in 3 days max. I personally think they are financially in trouble and have to wait til more money comes in to pay your refund.

Your argument is laughable. OPT has a few thousand customers for the Pandora alone, but Craig's shop sells far more than just the Pandora. Sales from that shop partially funded the Pandora and I don't believe he closed it down and stopped selling all the rest of the stuff he does just because he's busy with the Pandora and iControlPad projects. From what I understand, Jaqueline is basically the secretary, accountant, boxer/shipper, and front line tech support (after the forum) all rolled into one, so it seriously doesn't surprise me that she would be busy.

 

[Prometheus]

^ Come on, now, Stan, let's not let logic get in the way of making up conspiracy theories! One person should easily be able to deal with all of the correspondence with thousands of customers, potential customers, suppliers, the taxman, and those in need of warranty service, nigh instantaneously!

 

[Eridger]

Jaquelyne handles all the eMails. I had a chat with her today, she is doing all the taxes and booking as well, which is a lot work as well.


I know I sometimes have a backlog of about 5 - 10 days with my eMails as well, and they get a lot more inquiries than me.


Aditionally, they also handle all the ordering and moving of the needed parts internationally.


There might be days where she is able to reply instantly but there might also be days where she's just doing taxes and booking.


Also, I remember I read somewhere that someone tried to order and didn't get a reply after 5 - 10 days, so it's not that all sales go faster.


It can really depend on what's happening at the moment.

It sounds to me like she's scrambling a lot, and people who happen to not get a reply email immediately get pissed at her/OP... This is probably a long shot, but is there anything we could do to help her/OP out a bit? Is she falling far behind, or is she used to this sort of pressure?


Personally, when I sent an email requesting an order she responded within about three days, but took maybe five to confirm that order. This doesn't bother me in the least, but apparently some people are... how can I put this nicely... impatient?

 

[Sugar_Kane]

Well, I'm an out of work administrator if I can be of service

 

[doublebeta]

:wacko: Dumb idea alert! :wacko: Disregard this if you don't feel that open minded and forgiving/etc today! (yeah : wacko : was the nearest thing to the police light thing)


How about running a - probably modified - mail server at open-pandora.org to direct emails to maybe 5 addresses- like the first, Jacquelyn's, being the most prioritised, receiving the most, with the other addresses monitored by (well respected!) volunteer community members? Every 4 get sent to Jacquelyn(because she's an actual OPT staff member) with then every one after that sent to another address until the other addresses in the list are exhausted, beginning the process again? It'd make handling easier but finding volunteers could be difficult (or not!). Maybe it's an idea for the phuture . It shouldn't be too hard to code, really - I've got a flowchart in my head if anyone's interested. The hardest bit would be keeping a priority counter threadsafe.

 

[centus]

Here's another silly thought, hire help for her?


It sounds like you might be losing money because she's so over-worked, why not invest in a temp who helps her with all the trivial stuff like going through emails and sorting them by priority?


Shouldn't be too expensive...

 

[andyB911]

Here's another silly thought, hire help for her?


It sounds like you might be losing money because she's so over-worked, why not invest in a temp who helps her with all the trivial stuff like going through emails and sorting them by priority?


Shouldn't be too expensive...

Hmmm. Take it you've never run a small business. HR costs are expensive. And I don't think their cash-flow is too rosy at the moment.


Better that there is a bit of perspective and patience I'd say.

 

[doublebeta]

Yeah, that's why I had said community members - OpenPandora cannot really afford more employees - but the phuture(yes I can spell future) might require more employees and that would become viable then (more dosh too).


Your idea isn't silly at all!