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.
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.