Answers to e-mails and PMs are non-existant?

[pineresearch]

Hello.

I felt the need to ask you guys about this now.
I've asked very general questions in a mail to both tllim directly, and to the sales e-mail now. It had nothing to do with "when I'd recieve my pines".  But rather just some general questions that should be fairly straight ahead answering.
Now you'd think that they would get back to me in a matter of 72 hours, so I waited patiently, checking my mail every few hours. Now it's 6 days later. I've ordered, no less than: 16 pines. I went all in on their project. And they still don't respond to me.

So: I sent a followup PM to tllim, telling him that I was concerned with the lack of a reaction to my mails/PMs. According to tracking he has read this 1.5 days ago, and chose not to respond to that either.

So what I'm now pondering is: What is going wrong? My e-mails were rather optimistic, had no accusations of anything. They were written in an excited tone, asking some general questions about some of their FAQ answers and OS compatbility.


Ultimately this leaves me with a bitter taste in my mouth, as it just seems like such a fundamental thing for any business to respond to their customers -- especially when they're asking questions about the project, and not in any way being negative.

So now I ask tllim in a public fashion: What's the reason for the you and sales and support systematically not to respond to it's larger customers. I'm assuming this is happening to everyone (as I've seen complaints of this before).

-- pineresearcher

[rahlquist]

I believe in the 5/2 KS update he stated support queues are now 4 days deep.

Yep. found it.

9) Support. Support is not non-existent. Support has just gotten incredibly slow due to massive influx of inquiries regarding shipping statuses - currently up to 4 days response time. We're working on this.

[pineresearch]

I believe in the 5/2 KS update he stated support queues are now 4 days deep.

They should really start making these announcements public as they're now also selling outside of Kickstarter.
Thanks for the update. Luckily the community is really nice, because of people like you.

[rahlquist]

I believe in the 5/2 KS update he stated support queues are now 4 days deep.

They should really start making these announcements public as they're now also selling outside of Kickstarter.
Thanks for the update. Luckily the community is really nice, because of people like you.

Well in their defense they did email that to everyone from KS. And the Pine store has stated they wont ship anything till all the KS orders are out. As late as June. Perhaps they should state that support will not be available until July  

Your best bet for technical questions is in the forum. For sales support, well, your best bet is a lot of patience.

[pineresearch]

I believe in the 5/2 KS update he stated support queues are now 4 days deep.

They should really start making these announcements public as they're now also selling outside of Kickstarter.
Thanks for the update. Luckily the community is really nice, because of people like you.

Well in their defense they did email that to everyone from KS. And the Pine store has stated they wont ship anything till all the KS orders are out. As late as June. Perhaps they should state that support will not be available until July  

Your best bet for technical questions is in the forum. For sales support, well, your best bet is a lot of patience.

• First off: I understand that, like most of these single-board computers, it's carrying a 1.2 GHz ARM processor. Does this mean that it'll flawlessly run ARM Arch Linux, and Raspian?
  
  
• Under your FAQ it says "You're working on getting Windows running." however I do not see a proper version of Windows running on Pine64 as it is in it's current state, ever. This would require Microsoft to rewrite a GUI version to support an ARM processor. I think Windows 10 IoT is the best we're gonna get. Perhaps you could explain how you are actively working on getting windows running?
  
  
• Speaking of Windows 10 IoT: does it run?
  
  
• Do you have any major plans to upgrade any hardware units in the near future that would make it worth holding with this bulk order?
  
  
• What's your warranty policy like?
  
  
• Have you tried clustering Pine's before. If so, are there any papers written on this?
  
  Were all of the questions in the e-mail. Do you think the community will be able to answer most of this?
  

Update: Also, tllim just PM'd me explaining that he's very busy and will reply to inquiries before friday. So it's all good.

[rahlquist]

I believe in the 5/2 KS update he stated support queues are now 4 days deep.

They should really start making these announcements public as they're now also selling outside of Kickstarter.
Thanks for the update. Luckily the community is really nice, because of people like you.

Well in their defense they did email that to everyone from KS. And the Pine store has stated they wont ship anything till all the KS orders are out. As late as June. Perhaps they should state that support will not be available until July  

Your best bet for technical questions is in the forum. For sales support, well, your best bet is a lot of patience.

• First off: I understand that, like most of these single-board computers, it's carrying a 1.2 GHz ARM processor. Does this mean that it'll flawlessly run ARM Arch Linux, and Raspian?
  
  
• Under your FAQ it says "You're working on getting Windows running." however I do not see a proper version of Windows running on Pine64 as it is in it's current state, ever. This would require Microsoft to rewrite a GUI version to support an ARM processor. I think Windows 10 IoT is the best we're gonna get. Perhaps you could explain how you are actively working on getting windows running?
  
  
• Speaking of Windows 10 IoT: does it run?
  
  
• Do you have any major plans to upgrade any hardware units in the near future that would make it worth holding with this bulk order?
  
  
• What's your warranty policy like?
  
  
• Have you tried clustering Pine's before. If so, are there any papers written on this?
  
  Were all of the questions in the e-mail. Do you think the community will be able to answer most of this?
  

Update: Also, tllim just PM'd me explaining that he's very busy and will reply to inquiries before friday. So it's all good.

Here is the best answers I can give and I am sure there are people even better suited. 

A lot of the flawlessly running linux when you are talking about a not completely OSS dependent platform depends on the manuf providing the BSP. Allwinner does not have the best record out there with providing stable linux pieces. Tkaiser I am sure can furnish examaples. Is it possible it would be stable enough for a production environment one day, possibly. 

Windows 10 IOT, its likely they supplied MS with hardware and MS may have the proper clearance with Allwinner to get full source. If MS does and they do a good job, its possible it may be a very robust choice, if windows is your thing.

The HW plans are all on them. 

Warranty, thats a good question on board purchased from the site, not part of the KS what is the warranty? 

As for clustering, never something I have had any dealings with.

Hope that helps a bit. If Tllim gets you better answers, please share them (may stop someone else from emailing him).

[pine.tree]

Warranty is a bit fuzzy right now- but if a board is legitimately dead on arrival, we'll try and send a new one your way. Just let us know and we'll try and verify it's the board and not your peripherals that are broken.

[rahlquist]

Warranty is a bit fuzzy right now- but if a board is legitimately dead on arrival, we'll try and send a new one your way. Just let us know and we'll try and verify it's the board and not your peripherals that are broken.

Dont envy Pine folks on this part, there are so many different laws about warranties, I hope you saved money for an expert.

[pineresearch]

Thanks for the answers rahlquist. That definitely cleared some stuff up.

[MegaMech]

Give the Pine64 crew a break. Stop pestering them. If you had been reading the update e-mails you would already know that they're working really hard and are swamped with emails. The more emails they get, the less actual work they do. At this point their focus should be manufacturing not support. If you have general questions you should be asking them on the forum.

Its so simple. Everybodies questions are answered in the e-mails yet for some reason hundreds of people ignore them and send emails to the pine64 guys anyway. Or DOA boards that are not DOA because they didn't bother reading the forums.