Author Topic: Thinkgeek  (Read 9919 times)

EvilDragon

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Re: Thinkgeek
« Reply #15 on: June 14, 2015, 09:57:20 am »
PLEASE keep us updated on this. This forum found out how bad it can get when something similar happened to PureWicked.au

I know, I followed that as well.

Quote
I wouldn't want that to happen to you, ED. I never owned an OpenPandora but your good reputation speaks for itself after helping out people who got screwed over after ordering from Craigix. Someone like you doesn't deserve to be hassled like this.

Thanks. :)
Yes, I'm always trying to find the best and most peaceful solution.
The last thing I would like to do is take legal action, but if I don't have a choice, I will have to.

Production issues, delays, etc. - that's something I can totally understand, having gone through the same with the Pandora.
What I absolutely hate though is if someone is not telling the truth. And seeing how many "Shipping dates" I got from Justin (that never happened), I know that was simply something he told to make me stop asking for a while.

I had no problem with waiting for the first 200 units I ordered and sold (I had to wait over 1 year to actually get it), I know how complicated a first production run can actually be.

But when I ordered the next 100 units this year, it was because Justin told me they finished the next production run, he got 1000 of them lying in his warehouse and he can ship any order right away now.

I doubt that's the case, as these never shipped. Then suddenly, they needed to switch the production company somehow, then he told me they got the units here and someone is testing all of them so that no more DPad Issues will happen, then suddenly he wanted to send me tracking from the HongKong warehouse again, etc.
It's as inconsistent as everything he said on Kickstarter.

Would I have known that the units weren't ready, I would've never ordered them, as I knew I would need every single cent I got to start the Pyra production about middle of June. Now I'm getting invoices for parts we need for the production run which cost money, and I really could need either the units or the payment back (I prefer the units, as I still hope that somehow Justin will get it going and manage to have a stable production run as well)...

It's ironic, I remember that way back before Kickstarter started, Justin told me that he was happy he's in contact with me, as he wants to handle it better than Craig (Rothwell this time) handled the Pandora... he wanted to be open, honest and transparent.
Seems like that never worked out. Actually, Craig was doing better, at least in communicating with me, I always knew what was going on in the production, I just didn't know he oversold Pandoras and didn't have enough money left until VERY late in the game...

I still see a VERY good opportunity for the GCW - the device is nice, it's got a good community already, but Justin needs to sort out the production and become more honest with what's happening.
If he doesn't manage to do that, the GCW will die out faster than it should.

Last message I received from Justin was June 1st... ironically, it was "good news" that they got more experienced devs working on HDMI out, GPU, etc.

Great news - now if I would only able to get stock, I would be happy for any improvements to the software.
Without stock, the news don't really affect me.

I'm evil.

PureWicked.AU

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    • Australian GCW reseller
Re: Thinkgeek
« Reply #16 on: June 15, 2015, 08:07:10 pm »
Hi all, so lovely to see Evil Dragon on here too, he is a bit of a superstar to me, when I was having my problems with Justin Barwick I contacted him, and he was very polite and diplomatic, I started this journey with a GamePark BLU, then found out about the Pandora while looking for updates to the GamePark (had put it down for a while at the time) I got excited for the project and bought one from Craig X as I'm in Australia, what a drama that was, I wound up paying all the offered options to get it sooner, everything fell apart, one of the options was to pay extra for a 1ghz machine, I did, in order to support the project as much as I could I didn't cancel my original order either, eventually as it turns out if it wasn't for Evil Dragon I'd never have gotten both/either units if I recall..

then along came Justin Barwick's GCW Zero project, great I thought, he sounded much more confident that stock would be far more readily available than the Pandora, we chatted on the Open Pandora board and struck a deal for an initial 100 units (my first ever go at selling consoles or anything in quantity) most know the rest.. except that I'm still waiting on 8 that I sent back months ago for faulty replacements, ( he said he'd ship the replacements within 24 hours) nup, so no I haven't ordered more, still have enquiries coming in and have a list of likely customers.. ( I tried to keep my prices very fair, and prided myself in as immediate shipping as possible, in fact my Mrs (as of late last month the mother of my first child) teased me every sale for how panicked I was to ship immediately, as I believe that especially in this modern day that word spreads like lightning and reputation is paramount.. would I do it again?

Oh BTW Yertle/Justin Baze is a bloody legend and I want to share a beer with him :-D

aaand, if I'm to ever buy another handheld for myself it would probably only be from Evil Dragon, likely the Pyra which I've been following with great interest, so please Justin Barwick, even if you don't send me the 8 units at least send ED the 100 you owe him so I may get my Pyra :-P
« Last Edit: June 15, 2015, 08:28:08 pm by PureWicked.AU »

lemmywinks

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Re: Thinkgeek
« Reply #17 on: June 15, 2015, 11:24:01 pm »
Congratulations on the baby PureWicked AU!
Handhelds:
GPD Win, GPD XD 64gb, Pap KIII-Plus, 3DS XL, DSi XL, GBA SP, GBBC Clone, Gameboy Pocket, PSP Go
PC:
HP Envy M6
Acer 522
Psion 5 & 5MX

PureWicked.AU

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    • Australian GCW reseller
Re: Thinkgeek
« Reply #18 on: June 16, 2015, 08:16:29 pm »
thank you lemmywinks :-D

stan

Re: Thinkgeek
« Reply #19 on: June 18, 2015, 10:30:46 am »
Since then, I got at least three or four "We'll ship them for sure at that date"-messages, even got a few messages that they've been shipped (but never got a tracking number and they never arrived), followed by excuses why they hadn't been shipped and that they'll ship for sure on date XX.

I'm still waiting for them. Or anything, as Justin simply didn't reply anymore for the last 1,5 weeks on Skype.

Potential customers are getting annoyed, I'm getting regular emails when they'll be available again and can tell them... nothing. As I have no idea, and every shipping date I get from Justin simply doesn't happen.

It's a nice device, and I'd happily support it, but how would that work if I can't get the units?

If it's the same with other distributors (and it seems to be, as ThinkGeek removed them as they didn't get new stock), I don't see how it will survive.

Well, this was the last time I paid for the GCWs in advance. If any future orders ever happen, I will pay after delivery.
And I still have to get the current order - and hope it will arrive soon (or the money back on my account).
I don't really want to take legal action, but if I have to, I will. It's over 10,000 USD we're talking about, and I urgently need them for Pyra development.

Let's hope for the best. I still wish for a steady order flow for the GCWs, but right now it's looking rather dim.

S...M...H...

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!?!


PLEASE keep us updated on this. This forum found out how bad it can get when something similar happened to PureWicked.au

I wouldn't want that to happen to you, ED. I never owned an OpenPandora but your good reputation speaks for itself after helping out people who got screwed over after ordering from Craigix. Someone like you doesn't deserve to be hassled like this.

Please keep us informed with information as you get it.

And full disclosure: this affects me personally... because I look forward to owning a Pyra  ;)



Edit: to clarify that the "Craig" I referred to is Craig Rothwell ("Craigix") from the OpenPandora debacle.



Really sorry to hear about your troubles Evildragon - I have just emailed you directly as guess what, we here in the UK are suffering the same fate.

Justin ignoring phone calls, emails - we have sent him $1000s of dollars upfront for stock he just is attempting to run away with the money. Well, lets track him down together. I have told him he has till Monday 22nd June to refund us in full or else we will be going after him.

Contact us direct and we will work together on this.

Stephen Staley
Managing Director
GameSeek LTD

Web site: http://www.gameseek.co.uk
GameSeek Ltd, Unit 16, Premier Park, Winsford Industrial Estate, Winsford, Cheshire, CW7 3PH

Pardue

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Re: Thinkgeek
« Reply #20 on: June 18, 2015, 11:21:50 am »


Wow. So there's more out there.

Part of what I can't understand is this- if he really is trying to evade retailers, how long did he think he'd be able to hold off ED?? The guy has experience manufacturing handhelds himself! He's going to know once something doesn't look right.

What a disaster. And think about how it ties in with this thread. Just from what I hear, some people have spotted ThinkGeek-like merchendise showing up at GameStops. Now imagine how well this could have turned out if ThinkGeek had been supplied with a steady stream of Zeros. You have the biggest video game retail store in the US taking over the website you supply your gaming handheld to. This could have been the big mainstream breakthrough the Zero's been waiting for and it looks like they blew it.

Unless something changes soon then we might be watching Rome burn right now.

lemmywinks

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Re: Thinkgeek
« Reply #21 on: June 18, 2015, 01:00:00 pm »
Now imagine how well this could have turned out if ThinkGeek had been supplied with a steady stream of Zeros. You have the biggest video game retail store in the US taking over the website you supply your gaming handheld to. This could have been the big mainstream breakthrough the Zero's been waiting for and it looks like they blew it.

Yup. I've seen retro stuff sell amazingly well on Facebook groups when the users are introduced to it, places where people don't really know about this sort of thing and wouldn't think to do an internet search. For example the JXD S7800b (which has been out for ages) was featured on The Gadget Show (a UK trend/tech TV show) and they went crazy for it. Within a few hours loads of people were ordering them, completely oblivious that similar consoles have been available for years. Same with the crappy AtGames/Blaze consoles and knockoff PSP tat - as soon as they know this sort of thing exists they lap it up and pay more than the new price.

People on those Facebook groups still think the PSP is the best handheld emulator out there and don't look further than IGN or Gamespot for their gaming news. These are people who will pay hundreds for a single retro game.

The hardest thing with a niche device like this is actually getting it beyond specialist websites and making it visible to a wider audience. Lets face it the people who come on sites like this are a tiny part of the possible market, important (because of early adoption and publicity) but still tiny. You could shift hundreds of thousands of units with an opportunity like that, lets say Thinkgeek had a few thousand units at the time of the buyout and they were put on trial sale in selected shops to clear existing stock, that could be a huge breakthrough.

Instead we have resellers wondering if they will ever see their money again.
« Last Edit: June 18, 2015, 01:01:44 pm by lemmywinks »
Handhelds:
GPD Win, GPD XD 64gb, Pap KIII-Plus, 3DS XL, DSi XL, GBA SP, GBBC Clone, Gameboy Pocket, PSP Go
PC:
HP Envy M6
Acer 522
Psion 5 & 5MX

xXFrostXx

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Re: Thinkgeek
« Reply #22 on: June 18, 2015, 01:34:29 pm »
Yikes... if every retailer goes after Justin to sue, that's going to really throw the company to the ground.

I'm really hoping that he ships these by Monday, because I doubt it could get any worse than it is right now.
Dingoonity is the place to be!

Pardue

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Re: Thinkgeek
« Reply #23 on: June 18, 2015, 08:55:02 pm »
Now imagine how well this could have turned out if ThinkGeek had been supplied with a steady stream of Zeros. You have the biggest video game retail store in the US taking over the website you supply your gaming handheld to. This could have been the big mainstream breakthrough the Zero's been waiting for and it looks like they blew it.

Yup. I've seen retro stuff sell amazingly well on Facebook groups when the users are introduced to it, places where people don't really know about this sort of thing and wouldn't think to do an internet search. For example the JXD S7800b (which has been out for ages) was featured on The Gadget Show (a UK trend/tech TV show) and they went crazy for it. Within a few hours loads of people were ordering them, completely oblivious that similar consoles have been available for years. Same with the crappy AtGames/Blaze consoles and knockoff PSP tat - as soon as they know this sort of thing exists they lap it up and pay more than the new price.

People on those Facebook groups still think the PSP is the best handheld emulator out there and don't look further than IGN or Gamespot for their gaming news. These are people who will pay hundreds for a single retro game.

The hardest thing with a niche device like this is actually getting it beyond specialist websites and making it visible to a wider audience. Lets face it the people who come on sites like this are a tiny part of the possible market, important (because of early adoption and publicity) but still tiny. You could shift hundreds of thousands of units with an opportunity like that, lets say Thinkgeek had a few thousand units at the time of the buyout and they were put on trial sale in selected shops to clear existing stock, that could be a huge breakthrough.

Instead we have resellers wondering if they will ever see their money again.

You are absolutely right. I've had friends that still marvel at my A320 and if I'm remembering correctly, ThinkGeek was selling the A380 long after it was obsolete. It's hard for us to understand because we've been in this scene for so long but there are people out there who have never even used a forum. For the vast majority of gamers they get their news from ads, big gaming news sites, and YouTube. It's like they say "If you're not at the table, you're on the menu" and it's very easy to get skipped over by gaming media and locked out of the market.

What I don't understand is how the hell did the GCW project get this bad? Wasn't the point of the Kickstarter to make a 3,000 unit production run? And that was with a goal of just $130k. There were only about 1,600 KS units to send out, the rest get sold for profit. It doesn't make any sense.

But in the next few years there might be a bigger threat to the retro market. I think this retro trend is a bubble and it's ready to pop. Games always made a gradual improvement in graphics ...well, almost, let's forget FMV era. When graphical improvement stagnated and became too boring, the retro graphics trend took off because it was a nice distraction. But it's always just been a small part of the whole "sitting in front of a TV" market. But that might change with VR/HoloLens. I really think the market is ready for the change. Once a demo station is installed in every Best Buy this tech is really going to take off and the mainstream is going to move on from the retro craze.

EvilDragon

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Re: Thinkgeek
« Reply #24 on: June 19, 2015, 03:09:03 am »
Part of what I can't understand is this- if he really is trying to evade retailers, how long did he think he'd be able to hold off ED?? The guy has experience manufacturing handhelds himself! He's going to know once something doesn't look right.

Well, manufacturing handhelds and manufacturing handhelds can be totally different.
I'm doing everything here in Europe which basically triples the price but is secure.
The GCW is being done in China, and there it totally depends on the company... The Revo K1GBA guys, for example, are superb, while others deliver cheap crap (if they deliver at all).
That's too risky for me - and AFAIR Justin wanted to move the production a few times (or did?) so it seems he had quality issues with them.

However, last thing he posted to me is that he had some guy in China testing all the units and they had a failure rate of 4% (2100 units were tested).

If that wasn't a lie, then the units SHOULD'VE been finished and ready to be shipped... that's the weird thing.

Quote
Unless something changes soon then we might be watching Rome burn right now.

I still hope for the best.
Last thing I want is taking legal actions against guys who try something and fail...
The main thing I'm pissed off is those lies and promises he was always doing. And telling me he got 1000 at stock which need to be sold fast, so I ordered 100 more because I expected they would arrive within one or two weeks.
I'm evil.

EvilDragon

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Re: Thinkgeek
« Reply #25 on: June 19, 2015, 03:12:35 am »
What I don't understand is how the hell did the GCW project get this bad? Wasn't the point of the Kickstarter to make a 3,000 unit production run? And that was with a goal of just $130k. There were only about 1,600 KS units to send out, the rest get sold for profit. It doesn't make any sense.

That's actually a very good question.
Unless he sold them for a lower price than production costs (which I cannot imagine, as he raised the price later after I already ordered and paid the first 200 units), I wonder where the money did go...?

Trying to hire coders for HDMI, etc.?

No idea...
I'm evil.

Scoobysnaxx

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Re: Thinkgeek
« Reply #26 on: June 19, 2015, 05:20:17 am »
I've once wondered if console funds were used to prop up the GCW Retro-Cade. Justin has stated otherwise. Every so often though the thought still crosses my mind (the GCW Retro-Cade hasn't exactly been a runaway success if the Facebook posts are any indication).

Edit: I had more written, but it's all just beating a dead horse at this point.
« Last Edit: June 19, 2015, 12:55:36 pm by Scoobysnaxx »

EvilDragon

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Re: Thinkgeek
« Reply #27 on: June 20, 2015, 01:43:28 am »
Finally, Justin replied via Skype to me.

Units should be ready, and he promised to either send the units or a refund until June 30th.

I won't give out any details from our conversation (as there was some personal stuff included as well), but let's hope it'll work out this time and the GCW will finally see the true light of day and will not die.
I'm evil.

dreamesper (OP)

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Re: Thinkgeek
« Reply #28 on: June 20, 2015, 02:01:20 am »
Wow, thats great news Dragon. Keep us all informed, if possible, when you get the units... I know a lot of people within the community are eager to get their hands on one.

 ;D

Pardue

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Re: Thinkgeek
« Reply #29 on: June 20, 2015, 04:34:42 am »
Thanks for the updated info! Somehow I doubt this will get resolved by the 30th, but for your benefit I would love to be proven wrong!

Keep us in the loop.

 

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