Corporate Responsiblity

[shouldhaveorderedaraspberrypi]

Does PINE64 Inc. plan to make up for this mess?

How should PINE64 Inc. make up for the fact that they failed to fulfill their commitment to the community that funded this operation?

In my opinion, PINE64 Inc. should do more to foster a positive relationship with the community that funded their entry into the marketplace.

[lenny.raposo-pine64.pro]

Mind telling me what your grievances are?

[shouldhaveorderedaraspberrypi]

Mind telling me what your grievances are?

$77.96 and the corporate response to the failure in fulfilling shipment. It's "2-3 weeks" every week. No refunds. Project Update #34 began the unraveling for me:

Johnson begins his update by condescendingly saying "I'm going to try and explain this as easy as possible in laymen terms so everyone can TRY to understand." and then goes on to compare his project with being tasked with buying drinks for a party, and not having the right vehicle to get the drinks home.

Truth is, I've paid for my drinks, there were no drinks, PINE64 Inc. is saying "Hang on! The drinks are coming!" and I just need my money to take a cab home.

[Ghost]

Mind telling me what your grievances are?

$77.96 and the corporate response to the failure in fulfilling shipment. It's "2-3 weeks" every week. No refunds. Project Update #34 began the unraveling for me:

Johnson begins his update by condescendingly saying "I'm going to try and explain this as easy as possible in laymen terms so everyone can TRY to understand." and then goes on to compare his project with being tasked with buying drinks for a party, and not having the right vehicle to get the drinks home.

Truth is, I've paid for my drinks, there were no drinks, PINE64 Inc. is saying "Hang on! The drinks are coming!" and I just need my money to take a cab home.

Haha, I like your adaptation of that analogy.

Truth is, the shipping aspect of this kickstarter could have gone much better. It could have gone worse, and there are many examples of kickstarter projects that HAVE gone worse, but it definitely could have gone better. 

That said, it was a kickstarter, and the no refunds thing is a kickstarter thing. You are pledging money to help a company realise an idea, not specifically to get merchandise, yada yada, etc etc.

So yeah, whilst I see your point, you're probably going to have to wait for your drink and then walk home.

[lenny.raposo-pine64.pro]

I know it's a pain to wait for the boards and I understand the frustration all too well (my own order has not arrived as well), but that's the nature of crowdfunding.

I ordered 2x 2GB, 5x 1GB, a WiFi module, RTC Battery (AAA) and an Acrylic case.

I think that the issue here is handling the logistics but I can say they are shipping boards as I was provided with a sample board for development (I maintain/develop the Debian Images and test).

Just be patient and I assure you the wait will be worth it (they do perform rather well for their price point). You will also get skip a lot of initial issues the earlier OS images were suffering from (ie the 2gb boards had issues with the Android/Remix OS initial builds as well as Linux).

Can I ask if you received a confirmation email with a tracking number as of yet?

[rahlquist]

Does PINE64 Inc. plan to make up for this mess?

How should PINE64 Inc. make up for the fact that they failed to fulfill their commitment to the community that funded this operation?

In my opinion, PINE64 Inc. should do more to foster a positive relationship with the community that funded their entry into the marketplace.

I am just another backer like you. This was my 10th kickstarter or so. I have been lucky that all the ones the reached funding that I put money in, I did get a reward in the end. That said;

Was the pine tardy?
Yup
Could they handle communications better? 
Hell yes
Could they make sure vital updates and information are disseminated better even today?
Yes

But here is the thing. I invested in their dream because to me it sounded worthwhile, and I knew I would eventually possibly get something cool out of it. I also knew that 9% of kickstarters fail completely. So almost a 1 in 10 chance of never seeing anything for my money. I knew that the vast majority of kickstater rewards arrive late. 

In 2012 CNN stated that 84% of the top kickstarters had delivered late. 

So when you invest in a kickstarter in the future keep in mind you have a 1 in 10 chance of never seeing anything and an 80% chance it will be late. Right now this one is delivering, albeit slowly. 

Its agonizing to watch but if this was a perfect idea with a perfect business plan and all the resources to handle selling 53 times as much product as they were trying to sell, they probably would have gotten a loan from someone, ramped up production, and made better profits. 

Thats not what this was though, this was some people with a dream. You helped them to get the funding to try to live that dream. In the end its very likely you will be rewarded for your faith in them that you showed by investing money in them. 

If you demand performance perhaps consider sticking to just purchasing retail. 

They dont owe us anything but gratitude. In the end this is an investment, thats the reason PayPal is stopping refunds on campaigns like this. You took a risk, you learned something. In all likelihood you will get a reward. 

Delays happen, even to retail giants, even to companies with huge amounts of funding, just look a Occulus. Google has delays, MS has delays. It happens. Sh*t happens.

[gubaguba]

I wouldn't mind so much if it was late. Here is what I do mind. Order some more stuff, we haven't even seen prototypes of yet but lets not mention that. Now your order is even more late. That is no way to do business. That has nothing to do with Kickstarter. That is a total lack of understanding of proper business or simply not caring take your pick.

[CaptainZalo]

It has all to do with kickstarter as the boards from the actual kickstarter campaign are not all delivered. We all have to patiently wait in line and given time, Pine64.com peeps will deliver. In the meatime, the OS builds are getting better and more complete (unfortunately the linux-distros are all over the place instead of all chipping in to get longsleep's Debian the best possible) and the Pine people are actually working their asses off to deliver.
Yes, it's late and the production lines are not working as well as expected, but they are delivering.

If you can't handle waiting, I'll be more than happy to take over your items on order if possible and reimburse you directly. The hardware is working a lot better than I expected. But then again; I knew I took a risk with a Kickstarter project but the risk delivered.

@tllim Is there any way other backers (like me) can reimburse people wanting to get out (like @shouldhaveorderedaraspberrypi) and have the order(s) shipped to the reimburser instead of the one backing out? I know it's a little more to handle for you lot, but the end result is a lot more satisfying for all parts.

[Nitrogen_Widget]

I received my pine just last week.
But, it's a kickstarter.

I really don't see anything different with this kickstarter from any of the others i've backed.
Mini-Remix & C.H.I.P.

both took FOREVER to arrive.
But they got here.

Again, it's a kickstarter. 
It's how they work.
Starting angry threads on the forum because a kickstarter is slow to ship like almost every other kickstarter out there doesn't seem productive to me.


My personal opinion, if aren't ready to kiss the cash good-bye when crowd-funding you probably should find something else to spend your money on because i've seen how people take the money and run with some of these.
It hasn't happened to me yet but it can happen.

[shouldhaveorderedaraspberrypi]

---

Haha, I like your adaptation of that analogy.

Truth is, the shipping aspect of this kickstarter could have gone much better. It could have gone worse, and there are many examples of kickstarter projects that HAVE gone worse, but it definitely could have gone better. 

That said, it was a kickstarter, and the no refunds thing is a kickstarter thing. You are pledging money to help a company realise an idea, not specifically to get merchandise, yada yada, etc etc.

So yeah, whilst I see your point, you're probably going to have to wait for your drink and then walk home.

Ghost- thanks very much for your reply, and for clarifying why a refund is not possible. Although my expectations were not met, it seems this is par for the course, unfortunately. Lesson learned: BYOB