On the pre-production status

[Zamasu 258]

3 hours ago, Rob. S. said:

Just because they also shipped ... to ... retailers which had been promised to get some, long before it was clear that most orders wouldn't be fulfilled until Christmas, that doesn't mean they "gave preference" to them.

Okay, but they didn't just do that. You're omitting some important details that indicate that retailers got prioritized over pre-orderers, they gave preference to retailers. Also, just because they promised to do a "bad" thing doesn't make that "bad" thing any better. If somebody promised somebody else that they'll kick me in the genitals, I'd still be pretty pissed if they went ahead and did it. And we got promised something as well, they literally gave preference to the promise to the retailers over the promise to the pre-orderers.

[Zamasu 258]

7 minutes ago, VaZso said:

This topic was not really had much information about production status anyway.
Instead, it seems like a general thread... also that is why it is so long...

It was mostly on topic, only occasionally have people been talking about other things. But even so, just because others are being off-topic is no good reason to also be off-topic.

But yes, all those other times were very annoying as well. But they were also pretty short.

[Polaris 423]

6 hours ago, omikr0n said:

Like most of the IGG supporters, the only thing I got in return to supporting the campaign financially was a promise.

This also effectively meant that FxTec was able to sell the same devices twice - they already had money from all preorders, so why not sell devices which were supposed to fulfill those preorders to general public? Thus they willingly exchanged goodwill of their supporters for immediate financial gain.

While I agree with your overall point that IGG backers should have received their phones before non-IGG backers, in all fairness these two statements (above) are incorrect.  You received more than a promise, you also received the option of a full refund (out of their own pocket).  This is almost unheard of and you could have lost your investment, but instead they acted honorably.

They didn't sell the same device twice, they sold the ones that shipped early on as preorders.  There might have been other legal obligations (I'm not privy to this info, but it's often how it works) that we are unaware of that forced them to ship to the retailers first.  I agree it looks bad, but the phones weren't effectively sold twice.

[Rob. S. 1,661]

1 hour ago, archseraphim said:

Using two SIM cards and an SD card was never a feature of the device in the first place

True, but that exactly is the problem. If someone needs two SIM cards and an SD card, what do you suggest? That they go and buy a phone without keyboard? 😉 
 

[omikr0n 10]

20 minutes ago, Polaris said:

While I agree with your overall point that IGG backers should have received their phones before non-IGG backers, in all fairness these two statements (above) are incorrect. 

I understand your point of view. To be honest, of the 3 situation that I've mentioned, the one with retailers is the only one which seems to have a somewhat reasonable explanation, even if it's still completely unfair to IGG supporters.

What about the other two, though? Especially sending phones to non-IGG preorders this week? Do you see any reasonable explanation? For me it really looks like they are attempting to force IGG preorders to ask for a refund.

The email I sent to the support in this matter yesterday wasn't answered yet. Erik didn't bother commenting in the forum on this either.

Edited January 3, 2020 by omikr0n

[VaZso 1,998]

15 minutes ago, Polaris said:

There might have been other legal obligations (I'm not privy to this info, but it's often how it works) that we are unaware of that forced them to ship to the retailers first.

They may also have a contract which had to be fulfilled but anyway, resellers are also important in long-term run.
However, I don't think pouch is part of the non-preorder packages and the Pro1 I bought from Dragonbox (as I still have no info about my own pre-order) also had a pouch inside.

So it seems they are also some type of pre-orderers.

[omikr0n 10]

1 hour ago, dreamflasher said:

From support:

So yesterday only qwerty should have received tracking numbers, and it means that all IGG qwerty are delivered… what are our observations?

That's simply incorrect. I have a QWERTY preorder with IGG coupon in EU and mine wasn't shipped.

Edited January 3, 2020 by omikr0n

[Polaris 423]

6 minutes ago, omikr0n said:

What about the other two, though? Especially sending phones to non-IGG preorders this week? Do you see any reasonable explanation? For me it really looks like they are attempting to force IGG preorders to ask for a refund.

I don't see a reasonable explanation, but this might be because their communication is awful, and a textbook example of "what not to do."  There might be one, like maybe most of the IGG ones are a certain keyboard layout phones and they didn't have enough of those.  I have no idea, but, again, I agree with you about the lack of (seemingly) prioritizing IGG preorders (and I'm not a IGG backer).

[Rob. S. 1,661]

44 minutes ago, Zamasu said:

Okay, but they didn't just do that. You're omitting some important details that indicate that retailers got prioritized over pre-orderers, they gave preference to retailers. Also, just because they promised to do a "bad" thing doesn't make that "bad" thing any better [...]

That is grossly wrong on two accounts.

First, they did not prioritize retailers – that would have been true if Amazon and all the other big players would have gotten substantial numbers of devices. In reality, they only prioritized two or three ridiculously small retailers for a vanishingly small number of devices, which is something that shouldn't even be worth mentioning, let alone discussing. 

Second, they did NOT promise a "bad" thing when they promised those retailers devices. If we could even call it "bad", what I strictly reject, it would have only become "bad" on the day that it became obvious they couldn't send out the pre-orders before Christmas. 

As I said earlier, while I understand that people got disappointed that it takes so long, just as I am, I find it deeply pathetic and immature to become envious of others just because they got their toy earlier, especially when that happened through a transaction that was very important for the manufacturer we all depend on here (that latter point would be a completely different one if this was Apple or Samsung, but it isn't). 

Edited January 3, 2020 by Rob. S.

[resister 10]

Quote

two or three ridiculously small retailers for a vanishingly small number of devices, which is something that shouldn't even be worth mentioning, let alone discussing. 

So their size disqualifies them as retailers? Forgive me for not understanding and discussing what seems reasonable.  Retailers were prioritzed over IGG backers.

 

Quote

pathetic and immature to become envious of others just because they got their toy earlier

"First come, first served" is a basic rule of business. More so in this situation. No one has displayed any envy. Just pointing out the lack of good business practices. Which as a customer, I think is legitimate.  

First time companies make mistakes. It would help if they took responsibility, apologized and said this will not happen again moving forward.   I love this tech.  This is  an opportunity for them. 

Edited January 3, 2020 by resister

[Rob. S. 1,661]

47 minutes ago, resister said:

First time companies make mistakes [...]

I already said all that needs to be said:

And mistakes? Oh, there were many mistakes. The many delays, the many miscalculations and misjudgements regarding time frames, regarding production and shipping obstacles, the rare, but often overoptimistic announcements and the general lack of official communication, and, yes, some chaos in the order in which shipments occured, with even some IGG backers still not having gotten their phones. But this one, i.e. serving those retailers with a negligible number of phones, wasn't a mistake. After Erik's explanation at the latest (which shouldn't even have been necessary) it should have been completely understandable for anyone, because from a business perspective it was an important fulfilment of a promise. In that situation, there were two promises of which only one could still be fulfilled, and F(x)tec decided to fulfill the one which was clearly more important for their future, while hardly hurting anyone through it – except, of course, the feelings of the aggressively envious.

And that is my last word on the subject.

 

 

Edited January 3, 2020 by Rob. S.

[Tim6263 134]

1 hour ago, Rob. S. said:

...   except, of course, the feelings of the aggressively envious.

And that is my last word on the subject.

"last word" - your prerogative, your opinion, ok; mine is to differ with you:

https://community.fxtec.com/topic/2596-on-the-production-status/?do=findComment&comment=38853

esp. with "aggressively envious" which is also just  your opinion, & for me, unnecessarily judgmental.  I have more than voiced an opinion: I have withdrawn my financial support, because, for me, their business model has clearly changed.  If they wish to support resellers over long suffering, till now loyal, pre order customers: fine, that's F(x) prerogative; but that was sufficient cause for me to withdraw both my trust, & therefore my custom.  I am now free - to choose to buy a Pro1 (if/when Clove are restocked) or something different - my choice; I am no longer beholden to the whims of F(x)'s hit-&-miss half-hearted notions of customer service(!)

And so my last word, is to disagree with you.

[ksal95 227]

New year, same old thread 😊

[rpimonitrbtch 8]

5 hours ago, omikr0n said:

That's simply incorrect. I have a QWERTY preorder with IGG coupon in EU and mine wasn't shipped.

QWERTY, US, with coupon, Order# 12xxx, also still nothing.

[glumreaper 144]

13 hours ago, VaZso said:

However, I don't think pouch is part of the non-preorder packages and the Pro1 I bought from Dragonbox (as I still have no info about my own pre-order) also had a pouch inside.

At a guess, the situation here has changed. The original idea was that preorders would include a 'case'. This was dropped at some point (for understandable reasons, but with no customer communication, of course) and switched to a pouch. They've said that preorder customers will still get a case sent when they become available. So it sounds like the pouch is a different thing and may come as standard with all phones. It's likely that the pouch is cheaper to produce so it's not unreasonable to add in.

Did you get the boxed FXtec branded Earphones with your order? They were supposed to be a preorder bonus.

Edited January 4, 2020 by glumreaper

[kin9 12]

Hi there, I placed an preorder in August and cancelled it last month. When i was cancelling, they told me that my order should be shipped before Christmas.

Christmas was passed 1-2 weeks already. However, i found that lots of poeple still discuss the status of the order.

I would like to ask whether the guy who placed pre-order before August have still not received their device??

[Guest]

40 minutes ago, kin9 said:

Hi there, I placed an preorder in August and cancelled it last month. When i was cancelling, they told me that my order should be shipped before Christmas.

Christmas was passed 1-2 weeks already. However, i found that lots of poeple still discuss the status of the order.

I would like to ask whether the guy who placed pre-order before August have still not received their device??

The latest plan based on fxtec info is that a big batch will leave the factory by end of next week.

[Zamasu 258]

16 hours ago, Rob. S. said:

First, they did not prioritize retailers... they only prioritized ... retailers

This is just semantics. I meant those retailers you're also talking about. I'm sorry I didn't overly qualify it to suit your standards, I thought it was clear I wasn't suddenly talking about different stores that haven't been mentioned before.

16 hours ago, Rob. S. said:

Second, they did NOT promise a "bad" thing when they promised those retailers devices. If we could even call it "bad", what I strictly reject, it would have only become "bad" on the day that it became obvious they couldn't send out the pre-orders before Christmas. 

True, but that was merely a side analogy to indicate that promises don't make things okay. Not my main point. I agree that the problem was that they decided that promise was to be taking preference over their other promises.

16 hours ago, Rob. S. said:

I find it deeply pathetic and immature to become envious of others just because they got their toy earlier

Again, not the case. You're misrepresenting the situation by omitting information and saying it's only because of a few factors. AKA a strawman argument.

[glumreaper 144]

1 hour ago, kin9 said:

 

I would like to ask whether the guy who placed pre-order before August have still not received their device??

It's hard to say really. Some people have. The poll "have you got your Pro1" had 19 people respond that they had.

The thread "what's the highest serial number in the wild" found #158 to be the highest.

The total number of pre-orders is not known but the most consistent and reasoned estimates on here put it somewhere between two and three thousand. It's unknown how great an impact cancellations have had on this number.

It seems that the allocation of hardware to the 'queue' is impossible to predict. This is down to the different numbers of QWERTY/Z orders, and due to at least one acknowledged mistake in the order of allocations.

By my own estimate based on what I've seen on here and as mentioned above: so far they've manufactured and delivered enough hardware to cover about 10% of orders. So in answer to your question - the chances are not good that you would have your device.

But! We are told in the latest information that it is hoped you'd have it this month.

Edited January 4, 2020 by glumreaper

[Tim6263 134]

1 hour ago, glumreaper said:

It's hard to say really. ...

By my own estimate based on what I've seen on here and as mentioned above: so far they've manufactured and delivered enough hardware to cover about 10% of orders. So in answer to your question - the chances are not good that you would have your device.

But! We are told in the latest information that it is hoped you'd have it this month.

A thoughtful, balanced response, given the often inaccurate estimates from F(x), well done! Here's hoping their latest eta holds up...

[VaZso 1,998]

5 hours ago, glumreaper said:

Did you get the boxed FXtec branded Earphones with your order? They were supposed to be a preorder bonus.

No, but they also told somewhere that they will ship it afterwards (for pre-orders).
...so as far as I know, only a very few of pre-orders received also earphones.

It also has a printed welcome card with the (printed) signature of Adrian & Chen.
I don't know if it will also be included in non-preorders.

[EskeRahn 5,460]

40 minutes ago, VaZso said:

No, but they also told somewhere that they will ship it afterwards (for pre-orders).
...so as far as I know, only a very few of pre-orders received also earphones.

It also has a printed welcome card with the (printed) signature of Adrian & Chen.
I don't know if it will also be included in non-preorders.

I got an e-mail shortly after the phone, where they told they would be sending he earphones shortly after

 

Quote

 

Hi,

 

Hope you are well.

 

I just wanted give you a quick update with regards to your headphones. They are being sent shortly, so you should receive them by middle to end of next week depending on postage times from London. 

 

Please do let me know if you have any further questions in the mean time. Thank you for your patience!

 

Regards,

 

Elysia Hodgson | Sales & Marketing

elysia@fxtec.com | +44 (0)7940 169 276

 

 

F(x) Technology Ltd  

www.fxtec.com

 

(I replied they should save the money, as I most likely would never use them, no matter how cool they look)

[Craig 1,435]

23 hours ago, Rob. S. said:

True, but that exactly is the problem. If someone needs two SIM cards and an SD card, what do you suggest? That they go and buy a phone without keyboard? 😉 
 

There are USB-C SDcard adapters.  That's the only solution I can think of.

I was just looking up hubs with sdcard slots myself, here's a couple examples of cheap ones I'm considering:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07L4LW316

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B073QNWGLW

While browsing, I did see ones that plug straight into phone (without the short attached cable), and I'd imagine sdcard only variant if you want something smaller than multiport hub.

Edited January 4, 2020 by Craig

[Rob. S. 1,661]

@Craig There is also this: https://www.simore.com/en/dual-sim-and-micro-sd-card-simultaneously-hybrid-dualsim-slot-x-extender-2.html – no idea whether it would work with the Pro1, though.

[VaZso 1,998]

32 minutes ago, Rob. S. said:

@Craig There is also this: https://www.simore.com/en/dual-sim-and-micro-sd-card-simultaneously-hybrid-dualsim-slot-x-extender-2.html – no idea whether it would work with the Pro1, though.

It works - at least currently I am using a similar adapter (a cheaper one bought at Aliexpress).