On the pre-production status

[Erik 1,487]

2 minutes ago, FlyingAntero said:

Thanks @Erik! I hope that you got public availability soon after CES and maybe win the voting competition for greater publicity. Any news about 3rd batch?

Very small batch shipping to the UK this week, and a large one covering 3/10ths of the full number will be in transit next week. 

[anonim001 105]

1 minute ago, Krzysieq said:

With the amount of extra load on logistics companies around Christmas, I would be surprised if they kept their promised delivery dates. I'd say do the IT projects' estimation game and add 50% over anything they promise 🙂

It's ridiculous, but that's the reality. They can't double their staff headcounts just for December, it's not that easy.

The fault was actually on FxTec side. If they gave the right delivery address or at least my phone number (I did give it to them while ordering) the device would be in my hands by now. Good thing I didn't take a day off...

[Doktor Oswaldo 904]

40 minutes ago, Erik said:

We want to explain why a very small number of retailers have the Pro1.

Firstly, they have approached us since we first announced Pro1 at MWC in Feb and we've been in discussions with them since. They have also promised to help with success of the Pro1 in the market place which is important for us. We have only given them a much smaller number of units than they asked for because of all the customer pre-orders. Our pre-orders are our most important customers. For us to be a strong company for you, we also have to build a sustainable business and if we turned those retailers away we would have lost their business going forwards.

Our priority is getting devices to our pre order customers, this has not changed.

Thanks for the info erik. This is nothing new for me. It sucks but of course you must keep the big customers.
But the problem is again communication (I know not your fault).
Mostly that everything changes all the time:

19 minutes ago, Erik said:

Very small batch shipping to the UK this week,

The batch goes to the UK again? I thought it will be sent directly?
Are the production issues fixed now?

19 minutes ago, Erik said:

and a large one covering 3/10ths of the full number will be in transit next week. 

This is great news but will it hold up tomorrow?

You see there was so much of change in the official Information that nobody trust anything any more.
The real problem is not that the stores already got stock. The real problem is that a lot of us have no Idea when or even if we get our phone.
Not even IGG Backers can be sure.

Personally I am sure that you are all trying your best and have good reasons for everything (and you are not greedy or evil).
I am absolutely sure you all put a lot into this project. It is astonishing what you have created! But what is left here at the moment is anger and fear. It is a shame.

It would help a lot if you (Fxtec) communicate faster and more. GIve an estimate delivery. Once you hit a delay instantly communicate it (even if you can't tell us what happens and how long it will last). Tell us what the next steps are and update us when they change and why.

Draw a Line forget everything that was and say how it is now! Forget batch 3, 4, 5 or anything that has be said, restart the communication. This would render all complaints here silent. Anybody can understand that you have to keep stores in your favour. Anybody understand that what you are doing is insanely difficult.


I hope people will stay here, it would be a pity if a massive project like this fails because a tiny bit of communication was missing.

P.S. This should not be an attack on you @Erik or anybody else at fxtec. I bet you must be working hard for months now and appreciate that. I just tried to point out that the anger does not really has a lot to do with the shops getting their stock first.

Edited December 19, 2019 by Doktor Oswaldo

[Raksura 270]

18 minutes ago, Doktor Oswaldo said:

But the problem is again communication (I know not your fault).
Mostly that everything changes all the time:

You can say that again. I'm lost. The "small batch" that is being sent this week, is it the one that was indicated as sent more than a week ago (batch 3)? Or is it batch 4? Or is it batch 5 being timely? What does "being sent" mean now? Are we back to sending to the UK for the EU, or, as per the email of three days ago, sending directly to the customers?

Edited December 19, 2019 by Raksura

[Bruce Wayne 65]

3 hours ago, pops said:

wow, hi, i'm from singapore. 

Depends on your order..........

Could be any time before cny

Thanks.

please be in touch

 

Sam

 

[Sero 89]

31 minutes ago, Raksura said:

You can say that again. I'm lost. The "small batch" that is being sent this week, is it the one that was indicated as sent more than a week ago (batch 3)? Or is it batch 4? Or is it batch 5 being timely? What does "being sent" mean now? Are we back to sending to the UK for the EU, or, as per the email of three days ago, sending directly to the customers?

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Val 75]

1 hour ago, Erik said:

We want to explain why a very small number of retailers have the Pro1.

Firstly, they have approached us since we first announced Pro1 at MWC in Feb and we've been in discussions with them since. They have also promised to help with success of the Pro1 in the market place which is important for us. We have only given them a much smaller number of units than they asked for because of all the customer pre-orders. Our pre-orders are our most important customers. For us to be a strong company for you, we also have to build a sustainable business and if we turned those retailers away we would have lost their business going forwards.

Our priority is getting devices to our pre order customers, this has not changed.

It was so hard to come forward and say the truth? Until now, "officially", IGG backers were first in line, followed by pre-orders. Maybe I've missed an official statement that says otherwise and includes the retailers...

I suspected that what you've said above it's the reality, but we found out how, by finding the stores on the net one by one? 

For you to be a strong company, you should start with frequent communication and, more important, transparency. Because, so far, you've said one thing and did another thing and this is not how it's built a business, started with and based on customers. I, and maybe others, can take a hard truth, but not lies or "omissions".

[enPfzr4v 239]

2 hours ago, Erik said:

We want to explain why a very small number of retailers have the Pro1.

Firstly, they have approached us since we first announced Pro1 at MWC in Feb and we've been in discussions with them since. They have also promised to help with success of the Pro1 in the market place which is important for us. We have only given them a much smaller number of units than they asked for because of all the customer pre-orders. Our pre-orders are our most important customers. For us to be a strong company for you, we also have to build a sustainable business and if we turned those retailers away we would have lost their business going forwards.

Our priority is getting devices to our pre order customers, this has not changed.

Well, I'm disappointed that fxtec decided to do this. It feels like you asked for my payment when you were not ready to deliver my device, and now that you're late, you sold my device to someone else who better aligns with your business.

You know what builds a strong company? Trust and reliability.

[matf-kabouik 414]

Actually discussions with the retailers started in February, before any individual pre-order, so I do not think it is shoking that they receive their units at the same time as pre-orderers. The thing is it takes longer than expected to deliver all pre-orderers, so it technically is not at the same time as all pre-orderers, hence the frustration. But why should their order be postponed because of that? They ordered long in advance just like us, perhaps even more.

Edited December 19, 2019 by matf

[Guest]

7 minutes ago, matf said:

Actually discussions with the retailers started in February, before any individual pre-order, so I do not think it is shoking that they receive their units at the same time as pre-orderers. The thing is it takes longer than expected to deliver all pre-orderers, so it technically is not at the same time as all pre-orderers, hence the frustration. But why should their order be postponed because of that? They ordered long in advance just like us, perhaps even more.

The community tells fx tec since months we do not like the way they communicate and they continue to communicate the same way, even after yesterday. They still believe we have fun when they post enigma...

[enPfzr4v 239]

12 minutes ago, matf said:

Actually discussions with the retailers started in February, before any individual pre-order,

Did fxtec ever disclose this? Did they ever say something like "pre order customers are our third priority, after retailers and IGG motomod backers"?

[Noob 158]

22 hours ago, kashif said:

Here it is

/wave Bye bye Pro1, see you again (hopefully) soon.

So I sold my Pro1 to Kashif.  It's an awesome phone, but after spending days trying to deGoogle it and finding LineageOS not quite ready for prime time I thought I may as well sell it/trade orders given his his eagerness and the fact me made me an offer I "couldn't refuse"   As bad as my Droid4 is (currently turns off at random) I can live with it a bit longer.     @kashif I'm glad you're enjoying it.

[matf-kabouik 414]

20 minutes ago, abielins said:

Did fxtec ever disclose this? Did they ever say something like "pre order customers are our third priority, after retailers and IGG motomod backers"?

I do not see the link between those two sentences. They did not disclose when agreements and payments were made, but Erik said those few retailers approached F(x)tec in February at MWC.

[npatel1050 132]

3 hours ago, anonim001 said:

Billing 700€ for a device based on a 3 year old chipset is just craziness... I'm not expecting great success here and going to buy the spare parts ASAP (2 USB-C boards and one screen). To be honest now I probably would not pay even the 650€ - the device was half a year younger when the hype was high, which in mobile world is a lot.

I know but I feel like that ship has set sail. Looking back I'm sure if they knew it would take this long, they would've picked a newer chipset. SD835 for 700 is going to be a tough sell, whether you love qwertys or not

If they could've retooled for a newer chip at the last minute, I feel like they should have

Edited December 19, 2019 by npatel1050

[Doktor Oswaldo 904]

1 minute ago, npatel1050 said:

I know but I feel like that ship has set sail. Looking back I'm sure if they knew it would take this long, they would've picked a newer chipset. SD835 for 700 is going to be a tough sell, whether you love qwertys or not

The problem was they didn't got a newer chipset. 855 was not out when they started, 845 was reserved for big players (Samsung, Huawaii, etc).
So if we want to make another company great we have to live with that.

[kashif 350]

53 minutes ago, Noob said:

/wave Bye bye Pro1, see you again (hopefully) soon.

So I sold my Pro1 to Kashif.  It's an awesome phone, but after spending days trying to deGoogle it and finding LineageOS not quite ready for prime time I thought I may as well sell it/trade orders given his his eagerness and the fact me made me an offer I "couldn't refuse"   As bad as my Droid4 is (currently turns off at random) I can live with it a bit longer.     @kashif I'm glad you're enjoying it.

Noob is awesome guy! he arranged all so quick.

Thanks alot Noob 🙂

 

[divstar 164]

Seems I got mine today (at least the package says so - I'm still at work and didn't want my wife unpacking it - I want to have that fun with the phone 😂). Now I just hope fxtec will respond and refund (they still didn't reply).

[Ilrilan 54]

Have received phone from Clove store to the resender storage in UK. Now i wait photo/video of power on/packaging, then sending to my address. 

Edited December 19, 2019 by Ilrilan

[agent008 243]

Seriously, the flamethrowing that happened since I last visited the forum a day and a half ago, got me by surprise.

I can understand the disappointment, I am also disappointed too in a way, but it'd be naïve of us to think they could get by without making deals with some retailers. The timing got screwed up and I can guess that certainly it wasn't Fxtec's plan for the retail units to be available before the pre-orderers'. Because that is absolutely hell in terms of business image. Gives an impression of dishonesty as some have expressed here.

I feel the flaming and complaining is weighing more on me than the actual delay... Is it only a trick my mind is playing on me? A projection of my unsatisfaction for not getting this phone, into other forum participants? Maybe.

I am reevaluating if I should be coming back here daily for news, or should just abandon the forums and monitor my order page & email account for news...

[gfragkistas 9]

5 hours ago, Erik said:

We want to explain why a very small number of retailers have the Pro1.

Firstly, they have approached us since we first announced Pro1 at MWC in Feb and we've been in discussions with them since. They have also promised to help with success of the Pro1 in the market place which is important for us. We have only given them a much smaller number of units than they asked for because of all the customer pre-orders. Our pre-orders are our most important customers. For us to be a strong company for you, we also have to build a sustainable business and if we turned those retailers away we would have lost their business going forwards.

Our priority is getting devices to our pre order customers, this has not changed.

Well probably Erik you (not personally) have your priorities mixed. You can write any sort of bs for the tenth time however the fact of the matter is that people have been deceived. You are sitting on people's money for months without delivering the goods we paid for and personly I feel very bad about knowing that the public could/can just order one from an online shop and have it in 2 days. You probably don't understand this though. 

To be candid I find this to be totally disrespectful and quite unethical. 

[Hook 3,020]

37 minutes ago, agent008 said:

Seriously, the flamethrowing that happened since I last visited the forum a day and a half ago, got me by surprise.

I can understand the disappointment, I am also disappointed too in a way, but it'd be naïve of us to think they could get by without making deals with some retailers. The timing got screwed up and I can guess that certainly it wasn't Fxtec's plan for the retail units to be available before the pre-orderers'. Because that is absolutely hell in terms of business image. Gives an impression of dishonesty as some have expressed here.

I feel the flaming and complaining is weighing more on me than the actual delay... Is it only a trick my mind is playing on me? A projection of my unsatisfaction for not getting this phone, into other forum participants? Maybe.

I am reevaluating if I should be coming back here daily for news, or should just abandon the forums and monitor my order page & email account for news...

Don't abandon the forum.  Just abandon this thread (if you click on Eric's profile, you see just his contributions to this thread 😉 ).

[dt.white 62]

It is very disappointing to see that @Waxberry and others have not taken on board previous constructive criticism regarding communicating clearly and accurately.

I think most would understand the reasons for partnering with retailers alongside the pre-orders with the incentive of a reduced price being enough, but that should've been made clear.

With that said, you can see from my first post that I have had plenty of false communication and frustration but now have the device - I know it is hard to wait (and easier for me to say now!) but I think (and hope) everyone will get their device.

[npatel1050 132]

They're a business that needs to make money, no problem with that. But claiming you'll lose business to resellers and dealers because you don't supply to them before pre orders is crazy. If there's demand, people will buy the device, doesn't matter who sells it. And enough demand, retailers will be more than happy to stock it, even if they have to wait. They really should be processing everything in chronological order, regardless of dealer, individual, bulk, whatever.

[EvilDragon 164]

1 hour ago, npatel1050 said:

They're a business that needs to make money, no problem with that. But claiming you'll lose business to resellers and dealers because you don't supply to them before pre orders is crazy. If there's demand, people will buy the device, doesn't matter who sells it. And enough demand, retailers will be more than happy to stock it, even if they have to wait. They really should be processing everything in chronological order, regardless of dealer, individual, bulk, whatever.

Yes, but the problem is: I think they planned to deliver the preorders first, then to the retailers.
So they made a few deals with a few smaller retailers a while ago that they will have units available shortly before christmas.

That didn't work out, unfortunately. So in order to NOT risk having to pay a retailer back (which are quite huge sums of money), they decided to do it like this. It's doubt it's because they want to piss anyone of. And yes, even if demand is high that won't help if they might need to pay back huge sums of money NOW.

I'm pretty sure this company is working their ass off getting the devices to their customers.
But it's not Sony, Huawei or Samsung. They don't have infinite amounts of money available, so they might have to take action they would rather not in order to keep the business running.

But one thing is for sure:
They created a phone no huge company wanted to create for years. So if the company dies, it's out and over for any future projects.
So give them some credit for what they're trying to do - not for stuff that didn't work out as planned.

 

 

[Gon009 70]

I got my Pro1 from Clove, sent yesterday, picked up today. This is phone no.119 so it's quite interesting because this is a second batch phone.. So how many phones really were in first batch?

I asked for a refund of my original preorder already.

In my eyes it's extremely unfair towards everyone else, especially IGG backers but that's just Fxtec fault for allowing something like this to happen, especially because batches are supposed to be extremely small now, again, like first batch.