Sorry for the lack of communication, we are going to improve this in future.
It is hard to find a balance between transparency and what you are actually allowed to say without causing damage.
For example if i say "We start shipping monday" but because of a delay we could not account for (is it delayed shipment of components or whatever) we do not satisfy this deadline, then everyone will be upset "you promised us monday!" so previous communications were a bit conservative with what we are telling to the public.
But as said earlier, we really try to improve there and apologies if it troubled anyone.
At least from a software point of view i am here for questions, answers, anything that comes to your mind (I am a ShiftOS developer and deeply in touch with the Chinese software development team) and what i can tell so far, i have just built the final software image for the assembly stage, so the software at least is not a blocker
Hi amartinz
First of all:
Thank you for the info amartinz!
I am very glad to get some information.
I can't tell how relieving it is to finally get some trustworthy news (FB posts and shiny pictures aren't news in my eyes).
Just to warn you - this is definitley getting off-topic (Delivery 6m) but I still judge it important to explain my point of view:
I can fully understand your concerns related to releasing premature information or making false promisses and the consequences linked to that.
You are right that selling predictions (It is planned that we receive parts on monday) as facts (we receive parts on monday) can create misestimations and disappointment on the customer side.
But in my eye this is exactly what happened:
1. 13/04/2018: The announcement:
"Die Auslieferung startet Ende April!" (
https://www.shiftphones.com/shift6m-auslieferung-ab-ende-april/ )
The announcement includes the info that asking for information slows down the team which are responsible to deliver the goods.
2. Nothing happens after this announcement.
3. Customers start asking and nothing happens. Due to the request not to slow down the team, they only start asking because they are already frustrated.
4. 03/05/2018: Post on FB (not trustworthy) with update concerning the delivery. (
https://www.facebook.com/shiftphone...774093107568/1051182238366746/?type=3&theater )
5. Nothing happens.
6. Customer start asking and for two more weeks, there are no reliable information.
So you see that the error you wanted to avoid has been commited twice within a month and created a loss of trust and frustration.
For me, Shiftphone could clearly have anticipated this development.
How?
Shiftphone as a company uses a businessmodel which requires its customers to put money on the desk long before getting the product they paid for. The customer awaits that the money he paid in advanced is handled with responsibility. Therefore Shiftphone needs to build a trustworthy relationship to its customers based on equal communication-levels.
The important thing: the trust has to be on both directions.
That means that Shiftphone needs to have trust in its customers too.
So please don't fear to be judged because there are delays with the parts. This is quite normal for small productions.
Your customers in general don't want their product right away, if the product is linked to a preorder-phase (okay, it's getting close after waiting for 3 months...
).
If they wanted something directly, they would go to a shop and buy a f*$k!ng Samsung or whatsoever.
So you see, that you should be able to count on the patience of your customers.
But please don't put your customers trust at risk by misleading information or a lack of communication.
I hope you can read this in a constructive way.
It is hard to find a company which produces a solid phone without trying only to maximize the profit.
Please keep doing your work!
Best regards
alben
