[ PRE ORDER ] Gameboy Zero PocketPi FE

[AntFJ]

my boards did arrive for those following...

[detonyle]

Anyone got one kit to sell?

[MrErickson]

my boards did arrive for those following...

Glad to hear it, I'm in Tier 2 still anxiously waiting for shipping notice.

[thebonuslevel]

While I do appreciate you somewhat dropping in to answer questions and everything else, there has been multiple questions asked about revised timelines as far as kits and other things go that you have actively avoided answering.

lets add another one to the list: Hi, I placed an order with you guys for a full kit September 6th. Is there any update on when I should be expecting my kit to arrive?


Just to clarify I am okay with delays, the reason I am upset is your consistent lack of transparency surrounding the timelines and I (I am sure I am not alone on this) feel like you should have done 1 run at a time instead of trying to piggyback TWO more preorder rounds when you probably were very aware from the start that you had bitten off more than you could chew. I understand that you have a life and everything outside of this but first it was the delay of the glass, which is understandable but should have no way affected the blank board customers who are JUST barely getting their boards. Now you are saying that building the kits takes time to do by hand, which is again understand able but ever more glaringly apparent that you had no possible way of ever adhering to your own timelines.

[Heedermann]

I'm trying to give as many details as I can so there isn't a lack of information like there was before.

We’ve put the date of the 24th Feb for that to happen. We’ve had that for a while and it looks like we’re still on target for it.

16th FEB UPDATE:
So the Round 3 dates are now the dates that will be used for all FE pre orders, which are listed below.

ROUND 3 PRE ORDER TIMELINE
20th Feb (ish) Final Boss: Orders will be packed and will start shipping

I'm no the first one and probably not the last one. Most people are not upset because of the delay, but because of the lack of information.
You have promised that you will give "as many details as you can so there isn't a lack of information like there was before".
Well the estimated dates (20th Feb and 24th Feb) have past and we have a lack of information again. Those dates should have been at least the dates, where you would provide more information. And I totally agree to the previous post:

you have actively avoided answering.

You wrote:

I get the frustrations jackya, in your shoes I would totally feel the same. The initial timeline was ambitious even if everything gone to plan. I did think so at the time and should have pushed that date back.

Well same ambitious thing done all over again. You wrote on 16th Feb that "Round 3 dates (20th Feb / 24th Feb) are now the dates that will be used for all pre orders". Yet you wrote 5 days later:

Once they'd come back from the Chinese New Year break they messaged us asking some questions about what type of soldering technique we wanted using on them. That's the last we've heard from them.

Which means, that on 16th Feb you didn't have even a shipping confirmation from the factory. Considering a shipping time from China to UK a minimum of 10 days (and promising that the date in 8 days is still on track) seems to be a very ambitious timeline to me.


My favorite part is, that a member of the team was selling a fully build PocketPi FE before all pre orders have been shipped (even before ANY pre orders have been shipped). And the best part of this story is, that it was sold even cheaper (£135) than a pre ordered fully build PocketPi FE (£150).
(see viewtopic.php?f=38&t=7330)


I still have a hope that this is not a scam, but you sure make it look like one. (e.g. compared to the Coolest Cooler and other failed Kickstarter campaigns there are a lot of similarities).

[Heedermann]

My second favorite story is how unorganized the team is. They don't even know which tier was on which date.

First example:

You two are in tier 1 I believe

Hey,

in this post https://www.instagram.com/p/BnYoyiGFjTb/ it says "PocketPi FE pre orders are closing on Sept 9th". That's tier 1.
And looking at this post https://www.instagram.com/p/BnioxFkFZl5/ it says tier 2 was from 10th September until 30th September.
carl.phelps1443 said, that he ordered on the 21st of September. He can't be on tier 1.

Good catch, you are right Carl will be tier 2 sorry about that mix up!

Second example from Instagram (December was tier 3):

[Heedermann]

My third favorite story. Again from Instagram. Promised to update the image in 2 days. This has been a few weeks ago. Still no updated image on github.

[galaxygaming]

Hey guys, want to address a few things in here...
First of all, we are not actively not telling you an updated timeline, its because we dont have the boards yet so alas do not know an exact time line yet as makerfabs is taking longer than anticipated... This is because of the fact the pololu mini mosfet slide switches we need arent available in the quantity we need them so makerfabs offered to design a board with the same functionality to go on the FE which of course means they are now making two different lots of PCBs and assembling them.

As for the build I (KonnorJ) sold, that console was 100% made of my own volition, it is completely separate from the kits and not at all linked to orders on galaxygaming.co.uk, I had a couple of PCBs that I obtained from Rich and Bluup way before pre orders even started as i posted on discord if any of you follow there. I made up a board to test them out for Rich and Bluup and give feedback on to make sure the kits were as good as they could be. After I finished that build (again which was completely separate from the pre orders) I decided to sell it for what I personally wanted too, which I do not see problem with.

The image is in fact uploaded to Bluup's GitHub, in the link from that pic in fact. https://github.com/withgallantry/RetropieFE/releases
Not sure what the problem is there.

Hope that clears some things up

Konnor

[Heedermann]

makerfabs is taking longer than anticipated... This is because of the fact the pololu mini mosfet slide switches we need arent available in the quantity we need them so makerfabs offered to design a board with the same functionality to go on the FE which of course means they are now making two different lots of PCBs and assembling them.

This explains the delay and it is fair enough. I think most people get that and are ok with that.

It doesn't explain though, why you still said on 16th Feb "we’re still on target for 24th Feb", which obviously is not enough time at all, when you haven't even a shipping confirmation from makerfabs.
It's not like "obvious in hindsight", it's like "obvious because shipping from China takes damn long".

And taking that aside: You assumed/hoped that the boards from makerfabs would arrive just in time.
(making us and yourself a false hope.) Still it doesn't explain why there were no news from you on the deadlines, neither on 20th Feb nor on 24th Feb.

As for the build I (KonnorJ) sold, that console was 100% made of my own volition, it is completely separate from the kits and not at all linked to orders on galaxygaming.co.uk, I had a couple of PCBs that I obtained from Rich and Bluup way before pre orders even started as i posted on discord if any of you follow there. I made up a board to test them out for Rich and Bluup and give feedback on to make sure the kits were as good as they could be. After I finished that build (again which was completely separate from the pre orders) I decided to sell it for what I personally wanted too, which I do not see problem with.

I get that. But it still has a bland connotation when a team member is selling a fully build product for a cheaper price, while there are still people, who pre ordered on September, paid more and are patiently waiting delay after delay for 4 or 5 months and still don't have their product. It's like a slap in those peoples faces.

If it was someone else who sold it, that would be different. You have to keep in mind that your act as a public team member also casts a shadow over the team.
-> "With great power comes great responsibility."

The image is in fact uploaded to Bluup's GitHub, in the link from that pic in fact. https://github.com/withgallantry/RetropieFE/releases
Not sure what the problem is there.

There was/is an image on the github page indeed. And that's not the problem there.
At the time when he wrote the comment there was image version 1.0 on github. The problem is, that he said: "I'll be updating it in the next two days"
Which means, that he will upload a new/updated version of the image, so a version 1.1 or 1.0.1. And that hasn't happened in those next two days nor in the next few weeks.

Since he's also a public part of the team, his promises also have an impact on the project. Combined with all the other delays, this shows that there seems to be a big issue with timelines/deadlines within the team.

This one is even worse: Even a timeline of 2 days has a delay of few weeks. And in this case there is no 3rd party involved.


Btw you should avoid the expression "soon", because it's a completely useless time indication. (Imagine Amazon and Aliexpress would say "Delivery: soon". In the first case it's 1-3 days and in the latter case it's 10-60 days.)
Also you shouldn't call customers "dude". It's unprofessional and the customer can get the feeling that he is not taken seriously.

[galaxygaming]

In regards to my build... Im really sorry you feel that way, but it was never intended to offend or be an insult to anyone. I asked Rich if he minded if I sell it and he said it was fine, as it was mine I was free to do as i wished with it, so I decided to sell it as at the time I wanted to fund other projects. I do get what you are saying so again sorry if it gave off that impression.

As for the image... the image on the github is 100% working and usable in builds, I confirmed this in my own build and was happy enough yo go on and sell that. The final tweaking and revision that bluup chooses to do will be out ready for the kits to be used. Best to go slow on the final touches rather than rush and ruin it especially when we have a working version already and there is no rush to get the tweaks out yet anyways.

Now on a positive note we have been working hard on getting the kits assmebled and boxed up....
https://www.instagram.com/p/BuccQy8jHm ... 9xzjuoepx9