Erik
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Posts posted by Erik
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A tiny sneak peek of devices going through last Q/Cs before an official update goes out:
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Sorry, the update hasn't gone out - I was told by PR it was meant to be emailed last week. We are likely waiting on more updates from Chen who is now back in the factory. We are on track for shipping on the 29th, that is not changing.
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Director's update is expected to be emailed to everyone anytime by the end of this week. It will contain information on the progress that's been made. Our shipping schedule remains unchanged.
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I would like to shed some light on why am i so bent and twisted.We need this device to use for our business. i am waiting for the first one to arrive and if its all good as expected then we would order 25-30 of these pro1 devices.
Did you try contacting them directly and see if you could have a chance to try out an early unit, to see how it worked for your business case, rather than just criticise them in this user-to-user forum?
I mean if I was in their place and someone had contacted me back in august with the offer of ordering and paying say 20 units, if he could borrow an early unit for a week or two for tests, I’m quite sure I would have been accommodating. So I would expect they would have been too. Of course a little late now, but just saying….
Yes i did. I actually contacted them several times. and i also offered to pay them in full for the testing device.
i also applied for the testing application back then.
but Fx never offered me any testing device.
Jhonny, could you please reply to the email from customer care? We've tried to contact you several times. This is regarding the business use case you've mentioned, and how we can assist with it.
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So I suppose regular orders will be available around late November / December?
Thanks! And I hope this comment goes through. I just don’t want to buy crap with onscreen keyboard…
Late-November is a fair estimate for general availability. We'd be at that stage once as all existing (pre-)orders are fulfilled.
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What is actually annoying? doesnt it the keep delaying and each time giving dishonest timeline?
Yes we wouldnt place the order if we knew its gonna keep delaying.
At the time of payment FX clearly specified the timeline of shipment. Its not a crawdfunded project and i wouldve never signed up for crowdfunded.
yes it was pre order but FX gave the timeline.
And the last email they sent me mid october they cleary said they assure that it will be shipped before or at most by 29th october.
I can see a clear pattern here repeating again and again, which is FX announce a shipping date and then goes absolutly quite until that date. when its getting close to that date some will start posting here that its not a big deal to delay and nothing wrong with another delay (are these people FX paid?).
this is what is happening again. now some are suggesting its ok for another delay.
so i am nearly sure after 29th october another delay will be announced with another new reason.
Its not just about money, its also about wasting time and keep getting dishonest updates.
I am definately canceling my order if it doesnt start shipping by 29th october. im not saying my order must be shipped by 29th october but it the process of shippment to any orders does not start by 29th then its clearly not happening.
And i would suggest all the ones who can see my point should cancel their orders after 29th october if shipping process doesnt start. because we should not encourage such disappointing way of doing business.
Stock from the first batch is leaving the factory on it's way to the fulfilment warehouses next week, so we'll most definitely be ready for shipping on the 29th (or before but I don't want to overpromise). We're quiet because we don't have anything new to say - everything is currently going as expected and there isn't any change in plans that would potentially need announcing. I will see if we can post an email update, although I don't know how different it would be as it's all going according to plan.
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Hi:
I am really looking forward to getting the Pro1. It will have more keys than the Blackberry Priv, which is what I have now. As a blind person, having real arrow keys again will really help with navigation. However, my issue is having to buy the phone outright. Does anyone know if F(X)tec will reach out to either US or European carriers so that custoomers could pay for the phone through installments? Thanks.
Leslie Fairall
Thanks for your comment. The keyboard of the Pro1 makes it a very appealing device for users with limited accessibility. Our challenge at the moment is to make carriers offer our device, which is highly unlikely as a new entrant. Historically new phone manufactures can take between 3-5 years to enter carrier retailers, grow enough demand and allow for an appealing deal with the network itself.
Meanwhile, we're looking at other options such as finance through our website or partners.
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Some context: I found out about the pro1 during the IFA. I owned a n900 so was immediately sold on the concept. So I went to the fxtec website and found the buy now link.
The claim was “shipping globally is estimated to start mid september”. It was early september when I ordered. I wire tranferred the money immediately. And no mention of pre-order or anything.
Now I am finding out that shipping will start end of october for pre orders only with some estimates that regular orders might ship only in december or not even this year.
I totally understand prioritizing pre orders or backers, but I am incredibly pissed at the dishonesty of putting a buy now button and the pre order shipping as an estimate.
If you do not mention pre orders and use a buy now wording, people expect it to be, you know, a regular order. One that’s not delayed by a massive pre order backlog.
So now I am looking into canceling my order. But please fix the text. Change buy now to “very late pre order now” or something and set the estimate to early 2020.
I’ve contacted the team that maintains our website, it should be updated shortly :)
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I don’t think there are many orders anyway. Look at the number of views on Adrian’s video and imagine from there.Indeed, 700+ views is fairly disappointing considering how many times the launch has been postponed. I’m just hoping that the device gets finished and starts shipping – it would be a huge letdown to see this project flop.I honestly no-longer trust the pro1 to be successfully enough anymore to bet a LTS phone.
I wanted that phone to be a very long lasting phone, but with how many view there is on the video, the hype going down and people giving up because of delay… i’m not sur fxtec will win enough money on the product to justify LTS.
So i am thinking about cancelling to. I love that phone, but i no longer trust it’s future, and i already have a samsung Q1 ultra on my shelf. I don’t need another awesome but dead piece of tech.
We have achieved a fairly large amount of orders, given the little publicity we've had so far. I'd like to remind we have funded the development of the Pro1 privately, we've never had the large exposure crowdfunding platforms such as Indiegogo provide. And yet, we have very similar order quantities compared to some of the largest campaigns on startup funding platforms. We chose to privately fund the Pro1 due to the message its ads and the customer trust that it builds - despite the several unexpected delays here and there. Neither one of the crowdfunding websites come with any form of refund assurances whatsoever, as they wouldn't fall into the category of consumer purchase or pre-order, hence VAT could never be reclaimed. In our case, the pre-orders are consumer purchases. Meaning you are entitled to a refund/return anytime before shipping and 14 days after delivery, in addition to being able to place VAT-free business orders.
Another thing that could affect the views on our video is simply how easy our mail provider, Mailchimp, allows to unsubscribe :).
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The 29th is when we expect the first batch to leave the fulfilment warehouses on it’s way to our pre-orders. Potentially earlier, but definitely not later. The consecutive batches will follow with just a few days of difference. They come in batches to allow shipping as soon devices are manufactured, instead of delaying all pre-orders to ship at the same time.
Thanks for the details. Just curious, is the first batch(es) a mixture of shifted QWERTY and unshifted QWERTZ, or should we expect the QWERTZ slightly after the QWERTY?
Some of us are a little concerned about the whereabouts of the fulfilment centre and the date IF it ends with a hard Brexit on Oct 31.
As far as I am aware, all batches will be mixed with QWERTY and QWERTZ, although QWERTZ accounts for a relatively small percentage of the full number of pre-orders - so the factory will likely complete those earlier than all of the QWERTY devices.
The Brexit VAT concern is currently something I am not entirely sure about. However, even in the worst case, our customers will not have to pay anything additional as they have already paid VAT (which isn't accounted for as the orders are not complete until they're shipped) would be more than enough to cover the customs cost. Assuming, of course, that Brexit even happens.
We are also looking to establish a fulfilment location in the Netherlands for future orders, but either way, shipping from the UK for existing pre-orders will not add up any additional expense to our customers.
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I wonder if the 29th shipping date applies to pre-orders or general availability.
That'd be for pre-orders. We can't go into general availability until all pre-orders are complete.
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Well to me its another disappointment. i know some people want to be positive but its not the matter of positive or negative. its about the facts. by now we all should have it but instead its no where to be seen.
just two days ago Erik said they will start shipping in mid october and all of pre orders will be shipped by end of october. but now they say its not gonna start until 29th october.
so basically they have bought another month now until they announce the next delay.
unfortunately and sadly i am not seeing this device shipped in this year.
We don't need to be optimistic, but we can be realistic, and all pre-orders will ship by the end of this year. With consecutive batches arriving within just days after another, I don't want to overpromise, but we should complete most, if not all, by mid-November - leaving you with 1.5 months before the end of this year :).
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The give-away comment in Adrian’s video is “ramping up production”. By that, I’d understand that they haven’t even really got started make the Pro1 yet. We can therefore infer that, they don’t know the actual production rate. And therefore they can’t know either shipping time(s) or quantities!
This is the original statement. (Thanks for the transcription, netman!)
So, what’s the latest? [*clack*, casually opens Pro1] The hardware is ready. We started production last month, and whilst we are currently on a break due to the Chinese national holiday we’re ramping up again from the 8th of October.
I feel like the key word there is “again”.
They’ve been in production for a month now, so I’m guessing they’re using the term “ramping up again” simply to say they’re going to start production back up after the holiday. Of course, it’s hard to know without hearing the numbers, but I’d still say they probably have enough data by now to make a call on when shipping will happen, hence why they gave an exact date this time. We still don’t know whether that date is referring to shipping from the factory to the distribution hubs, or from the hubs to the customers, but it’s nothing a statement from Erik can’t clear up. :D
The 29th is when we expect the first batch to leave the fulfilment warehouses on it's way to our pre-orders. Potentially earlier, but definitely not later. The consecutive batches will follow with just a few days of difference. They come in batches to allow shipping as soon devices are manufactured, instead of delaying all pre-orders to ship at the same time.
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I assume this only applies to phones, that have been already pre-ordered? What about those, who buy today or in a week or two – would it be likely for me to receive it this year? The problem is, that while the phone sure has its advantages, the chipset etc. already started aging…
If it’s a recent order, for example one placed today, it is unlikely, but still possible that it will ship by the end of October. Most likely in November, as we have to prioritise the thousands of early orders that we have.
Hi Erik. I believe I have understood from your replies on this thread that all pre-orders which were placed up to the time that the first please pay requests were emailed (all pre-orders placed between first quarter 2019 and August 1st)
WILL BE in that first batch of orders that will begin the shipping process (factory to fulfillment centers) in mid-October, which will then be dispatched (leaving fulfillment centers to postal services) to customers before the end of October (with expected final delivery — in hands of all these early customers — in early November)?
Could you confirm if this is all correct?
That is correct. While the first batch will be a relatively small proportion of all orders, the next batch which comes pretty much immediately after, should fulfil the majority of pre-orders that we have received. Orders will come in batches to avoid our customers from waiting additionally, as otherwise, we'd need to wait for all the pre-orders to be assembled, which delays shipping - and we know no one wants that :). The first batch will deliver by the end of this month. We prioritise based on the 2 factors below:
1. Indiegogo Moto Mod backers
2. Order in which the payment was complete
Erik
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Your words mean a lot to us, thank you for sharing @doktor.oswaldo :)! I believe everyone should hear back from our directors by email later today.
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My understanding of the text: they have two locations for “order fulfilment warehouses”, both the UK and US. Devices to the whole world will ship from there. Not only UK and US devices but all devices will be sent out from these two locations.
Correct, but we're also looking into a third fulfilment location - Hong Kong, it just hasn't been established yet while the UK and the US are ready to process our orders as soon as they arrive there.
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I assume this only applies to phones, that have been already pre-ordered? What about those, who buy today or in a week or two – would it be likely for me to receive it this year? The problem is, that while the phone sure has its advantages, the chipset etc. already started aging…
If it's a recent order, for example one placed today, it is unlikely, but still possible that it will ship by the end of October. Most likely in November, as we have to prioritise the thousands of early orders that we have.
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There is a conflict between that email and what @erik-fx is stating. Leaving the factory in 1-2 weeks, on the way to the fulfillment centers, is not necessarily the same as being ready to ship to customers in 1-2 weeks. The gap here is how long it takes to get from the factory to the fulfillment centers (both in transit time and customs hold time). If, for instance, it takes the slow boat from China to the USA, then that could be the middle of November before it hits the USA. If customs holds it for a few days and the fulfillment center takes a few days to package it for delivery, then it could be closer to the end of November before it reaches customers. If the phones are sent overnight from China to the USA (and other countries), then it could be a much different timeline.
As far as I know, the stock would be transported to our warehouses with an express courier service such as DHL, therefore the shipment would only take around 3 days to reach the US and the EU from the manufacturing facility in China. The only thing that could delay transportation would be customs clearance, but that doesn't usually take more than 3 days even if it's delayed.
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Exact shipping dates are not available yet, due to the above potential complications my colleague mentioned. I know for a fact UK and US customs will sometimes hold a large shipment for a couple of days, completely out of line with the courier’s shipping deadlines.
Erik
So Erik does that means that customers in other parts like i am in Australia has no hope to be shipped before november or beyond? i ordered in early march and it seems unfair that we in Australia will miss out the shipment in october?
Not quite. As far as I am aware, orders to Australia will ship from Hong Kong or the US. We wouldn't delay orders based on regions.
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I cannot confirm that this message was authorised to be shared, but either way, we are happy to elaborate. The confidentiality statement is there is to avoid mass misunderstanding.
As per my previous communications on the forum, we don't yet have a precise shipping timeframe, we only have an expected window within which we will have our devices in the fulfilment warehouses (US, EU). As my colleague mentioned, this is expected to happen between (not after) 1-2 weeks from today. After those 1-2 weeks, we'll be ready to start shipping the Pro1 to our customers.
Exact shipping dates are not available yet, due to the above potential complications my colleague mentioned. I know for a fact UK and US customs will sometimes hold a large shipment for a couple of days, completely out of line with the courier's shipping deadlines.
As some of you found out, we're working very hard to meet yours and our expectations, despite previously making false predictions due to unexpected factors such as licensing, and I think we can all agree that's a big one that can strike companies of any scale at any time :). Our CTO Liangchen is currently in the factory and we should soon have some more info from him, which will be emailed to you as soon as we hear.
Our customers will have their devices delivered, or at least shipped by the end of this month, starting from the second week of October.
Erik
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Please follow the article above for my updates.
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I think it’s a limitation of the forum. Open the full resolution image at https://ibb.co/PCv45n4
When only two colours are available I would suggest a layout that can be used in Sweden and Norway.
Note that by sound and name Ä=Æ and Ö=Ø it is just the way it is written that is different.
So this ‘bastard’ print I guess would be understandable by all parties
And then we as Danes has to accept EITHER to use Norwegian logical layout (ÆØ swapped) OR to use the correct Danish layout accepting the print to be swapped.
That's a very interesting idea, Eske. Thanks!
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But I think you got the whole idea wrong. It is NOT to be used to enter Swedish/Danish/Norwegian simultaneously so we do NOT want the ‘other’ sets of ÆØ, ØÆ, ÄÖ accessibile via the yellow arrow.
We want to select the language in the menu, and have the letters active as directly accessible letters like A-Z with no modifiers, so yellow arrow and the two keys could be used for other purposes.
That is actually something we have in mind, but we haven't yet decided how to implement it. We plan to have Swedish and Finnish as one layout, and Norwegian/Danish as another in software, but physically the layout would look the same - it would just act differently depending on which language you choose. This way you won't have to combine them with the arrow to get Ø and Æ. Ideally, I'd push for the Ø and Æ in Norwegian/Danish to be a different colour so it's more clear they're for use in Norway and Denmark only. For this to work, however, we'll need to know what the cost implication will be for the existing machinery to add a different colour. As you might know, it's not as simple as printing or lasering it, the letters that light up are filled with different material than the surrounding "black" which the key is formed of.
Or we could go with @raphaelcno 's idea, which is adding the Ø and Æ letters right on the Ö and Ä keys. We are still accepting and reviewing opinions between the two options.
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Scheduled Maintenance: Forum Migration
in General Discussion
Posted
Hi everyone,
Just a little heads up about tomorrow, the 24th of October. We'll be taking the forum down for a couple of hours after 1 pm UK time to migrate everything over to our new forum. We expect a few issues here and there - avatars will be missing, we'll have to manually add a few things such as the "thanks" count. Besides a few expected complications with the migration, this will be an overall great improvement for spam control - no more manual approval, performance improvements, user timelines, better formatting, etc.