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Worlds First Drum Machine in Pedal Form!

#641
Becoming a little concerned here as well...
The software and drum library were initially promised to be _done_ and available for checkout for the initial April ship date - the July delay was attributed to parts availability - not software.
And as far as we know - it's not.
Software design is my business and has been for a long time; I know how delays happen.
The last official update was from David in China where they had _just started_ molding housings.
I get the 'JIT' concept but it seems like the diecast fabrication (also not a part of the component-availability issue) should have been underway if not done (at least) weeks ago.
Hoping the next official update is more substantial than another pep talk...
Especially after having sent them another lump of cash for footswitch despite having seen no real progress on the initial investment...
 
#642
I am surprised you guys actually thought that a brand new company, producing a brand new product with a brand new relationship in China, that is this complicated would be able to deliver on time. I don't remember the April promise, but July always felt like a stretch.

The regulatory bit should not be under-estimated. I would imagine that David will need to get them all sorted before beginning to sell anywhere for various liability reasons.

If you guys get your units before Sept, I would count yourselves lucky.
 
#643
Mosfed said:
I am surprised you guys actually thought that a brand new company, producing a brand new product with a brand new relationship in China, that is this complicated would be able to deliver on time. I don't remember the April promise, but July always felt like a stretch.
Click to expand...
I never believed April, and I agree July is still a stretch.
I actually never believed April for the editing software or the device firmware either.
I just hope what we're seeing is not a case of "the other piece is late anyway."
What I have seen happen more than a few times is that the production parts don't match the prototypes or the pilot production parts, and the firmware guys have to scramble to adjust pin assignments and implement other 'fixes' in software because there is no budget to scrap a production run and buy new parts.

I get all the headaches associated with multinational product sourcing.
None of which address where is the software...

My money's spent so I'm in it now for the entertainment value.
I can handle the ups and downs of the product development adventure saga - I live this stuff every day.
I'm less tolerant of hearing nothing of substance from the project principals...
 
#644
Mosfed said:
I am surprised you guys actually thought that a brand new company, producing a brand new product with a brand new relationship in China, that is this complicated would be able to deliver on time. I don't remember the April promise, but July always felt like a stretch.

The regulatory bit should not be under-estimated. I would imagine that David will need to get them all sorted before beginning to sell anywhere for various liability reasons.

If you guys get your units before Sept, I would count yourselves lucky.
Click to expand...
+1. You will hear precious few stories of any crowd-funded, bottom-up manufacturing product that actually met its deadline. Unfortunate, but these campaigns are often not projects of experienced business-people, but projects of passion that otherwise could never get funding to become a reality. Thats what makes Kickstarter/Indie-gogo/ etcetera great, but you have to have realistic expectations- these aren't exactly hardened/experienced people in the business of manufacturing like the countless other pedal producers (many of whom also rarely deliver promised products when expected quite honestly- though you usually haven't put in your money up front). Any promised deadlines should always be viewed as best-case scenario with folks that have never dipped their hands into this stuff before. I have kept up on updates for the BB and haven't personally seen anything to suggest that they won't eventually follow through- you just have to put the whole process (conception to delivery for an inexperienced company) into some perspective.

A quick Google search for Mr. Packouz will show you that BeatBuddy isn't his first business, but you could say that he seems to have a tendency towards "big thinking" possibly a bit over his head for lack of a more graceful way to put it...from what I've seen this product launch is no different, but so far I just haven't seen the warning signs of failure in the BB.
 
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#646
Mosfed said:
I am surprised you guys actually thought that a brand new company, producing a brand new product with a brand new relationship in China, that is this complicated would be able to deliver on time. I don't remember the April promise, but July always felt like a stretch.

The regulatory bit should not be under-estimated. I would imagine that David will need to get them all sorted before beginning to sell anywhere for various liability reasons.

If you guys get your units before Sept, I would count yourselves lucky.
Click to expand...

I really agree with the first paragraph. I sadly agree with the second paragraph. I hope I am not eventually forced to agree with the third paragraph.

I would add, even though at times I could probably have been accused of being an apologist, that the path to getting TO a crowdfunding campaign took longer than we all expected/hoped. It was always "a few weeks away" for, IIRC, like 6-8 months. So I went in optimistic but not naive. This delay is disappointing but not particularly surprising.

ArtechnikA said:
My money's spent so I'm in it now for the entertainment value.
I can handle the ups and downs of the product development adventure saga - I live this stuff every day.
I'm less tolerant of hearing nothing of substance from the project principals...
Click to expand...

Throughout the entirety of the process, I would give David a B/B+ for communication and transparency. He has answered questions I asked on Facebook within the past week. He takes breaks from this thread but then always seems to come back. I don't think it's all that fair to say we've heard "nothing of substance" from him. Also, he is the only "project principal" who has been here, FWIW.

sunbeast said:
+1. You will hear precious few stories of any crowd-funded, bottom-up manufacturing product that actually met its deadline. Unfortunate, but these campaigns are often not projects of experienced business-people, but projects of passion that otherwise could never get funding to become a reality. Thats what makes Kickstarter/Indie-gogo/ etcetera great, but you have to have realistic expectations- these aren't exactly hardened/experienced people in the business of manufacturing like the countless other pedal producers (many of whom also rarely deliver promised products when expected quite honestly- though you usually haven't put in your money up front). Any promised deadlines should always be viewed as best-case scenario with folks that have never dipped their hands into this stuff before. I have kept up on updates for the BB and haven't personally seen anything to suggest that they won't eventually follow through- you just have to put the whole process (conception to delivery for an inexperienced company) into some perspective.

A quick Google search for Mr. Packouz will show you that BeatBuddy isn't his first business, but you could say that he seems to have a tendency towards "big thinking" possibly a bit over his head for lack of a more graceful way to put it...from what I've seen this product launch is no different, but so far I just haven't seen the warning signs of failure in the BB.
Click to expand...

Really well said, sunbeast.
 
#656
chuck norriss said:
but has anyone received the pedal?

What's so funny
Click to expand...
If you read any of the recent posts on this thread or any of the updates from the company you would know that the original funders aren't even scheduled to get theirs until August (and that is optimistic at best). You can still order them from the companies website, but who knows when they'll ship....
 
#657
Somebody should call the police and then we should all eat tacos.

Wait...it's just barely possible that I'm in the wrong thread.
 
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#659
If asking for a refund is what you want to do, that's up to you. But personally, I think filing a Paypal claim after only one day of non-contact is a little extreme.
 

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