Maybe that's the plan all along. dunno
I think this whole saga is bordering very close to "obtaining a benefit by deception" or whatever the equivalent offence is in the USA. Hardly anything/nothing Batteroo or the Roohparvar's have claimed in their communications can be verified to be true. I'm not a lawyer but as an "average/reasonable person" it stinks of fraud.
Rather than promising the world, they could have just as easily come out and said
"The product was a failure. We were wrong, the engineers were right. We bit off more than we could chew and the product simply didn't work as we wanted". Yes, backers would have been disappointed, but at least they could have been somewhat truthful.
Instead, now they've committed to the story of a Batteriser actually existing
and having shipped them to backers, which we can all assume is a lie.
Instead, now they've committed to the story of a Batteriser actually existing and having shipped them to backers, which we can all assume is a lie.
I still don't get the angle here. If that is the case,
why say you shipped? What's the upside?
I find it curious that Bob has been claiming actual shipping now for the last 3 weeks, when in reality we have not one single report of an actual product reaching a single verified backer.
To throw him a bone. When I shipped my uRulers it actually took 3 weeks before the first ones arrived. My mailing house used one of the world's worst drop shippers who sent them all to Sweden first for some ridiculous reason:
https://www.eevblog.com/2013/12/31/traps-for-even-simple-successful-crowd-funded-projects/It seems strange. Is this all just for show to get that "big" order, to please the VC investors....what? Surely if you claim active shipping and after three weeks there is not one single verified report of delivery to an actual real person, the game is going to be up very, very, soon ?
When my uRulers didn't start showing up, I was panicking and keeping everyone updating on what I knew.
The first waves must have petered out before they reached the shore
I find it curious that Bob has been claiming actual shipping now for the last 3 weeks, when in reality we have not one single report of an actual product reaching a single verified backer.
To throw him a bone. When I shipped my uRulers it actually took 3 weeks before the first ones arrived....
I bet you posted a few photos of the product though.
I still don't get the angle here. If that is the case, why say you shipped? What's the upside?
The only explanation is that part of their VC money is dependent on shipping something.
They say they shipped them, grab the money, run...
I still don't get the angle here. If that is the case, why say you shipped? What's the upside?
Agreed. Up to that point, the story was open ended. Once they announced the product was shipping, the clock is started. Considering how much time has passed since that point without seeing a photo from at least one customer, I have to call "bullshit".
I find it curious that Bob has been claiming actual shipping now for the last 3 weeks, when in reality we have not one single report of an actual product reaching a single verified backer.
To throw him a bone. When I shipped my uRulers it actually took 3 weeks before the first ones arrived. My mailing house used one of the world's worst drop shippers who sent them all to Sweden first for some ridiculous reason:
https://www.eevblog.com/2013/12/31/traps-for-even-simple-successful-crowd-funded-projects/
It seems strange. Is this all just for show to get that "big" order, to please the VC investors....what? Surely if you claim active shipping and after three weeks there is not one single verified report of delivery to an actual real person, the game is going to be up very, very, soon ?
When my uRulers didn't start showing up, I was panicking and keeping everyone updating on what I knew.
But, if you remember, their first shipping claim was in the beginning of august, and he said 4-8 weeks, which took him to the end of September. That was 8 weeks at that point, and now we are nearing the end of November nearly 16 weeks after the first shipping claim. I doubt even the worst shipping company in the world would take that long for even 1 to be verifiably shipped to someone
I bet you posted a few photos of the product though.
still dont get why you needed the tear proof envelopes, just tape the ruler onto a piece of cardboard.
still dont get why you needed the tear proof envelopes, just tape the ruler onto a piece of cardboard.
When you're sending out thousands of something (and want to stay in the black), you can't take enough precautions
I still don't get the angle here. If that is the case, why say you shipped? What's the upside?
The only explanation is that part of their VC money is dependent on shipping something.
They say they shipped them, grab the money, run...
Yeah I think this is the likely reason, part of a contract said that they had to ship to receive X more money, they ran out of money so simply said they had started shipping. I've seen a very similar thing with a particular pinball company, they had terms that specified 50% payment on start of production and the rest when machine was ready to be shipped. They ran out of money and simply announced they had 'started production', even though they aren't actually building the darn things yet.
still dont get why you needed the tear proof envelopes, just tape the ruler onto a piece of cardboard.
Cost.
1. You are going to need an envelope and someone to stuff it - no matter what sort of envelope you use.
2. Taping to a piece of cardboard requires additional materials and labour - a piece of carboard, a piece of tape and someone to actually put it together. Not to mention the steps of procuring the tape and cardboard as well as handling of the 'assembled' insert. Also, there is the potential for sticky residue to end up on the product.
So a few extra cents on an envelope which avoids all that could easily be cheaper overall.Edit: Just watched the video
Also, there is the potential for sticky residue to end up on the product.
Glue was used as per the video. I assume hot glue, but some kind of glue that can be rubbed off the ruler. Rubber glue?
IMHO the nr of comments on IGG for this project is surprisingly low. And so just because I can I did some statistical analysis on these comments. Here are the results:
According to IGG 1352 comments were made, but only 1101 were still visible. -> so approx 250 seem to be deleted?
Those 1101 comments were made by 395 unique persons.
Since the campaign ended 275 unique persons have posted a comment.
I have not looked at the content of these comments, but if you subtract the answers by Bob and Ali, the positive comments, and the neutral questions, I think at most 200 people have raised some kind of complaint. That's less than 3%, and ~7000 people just gave money($53 on average), and let it be. I find that amazing.
One recurring questions is "How to change the shipping address?". The answer use to be: "sent an us email, and we handle it for you". But the last 9 months they have not responded to that question. Now let's dig into that a little bit further:
Some statistic say that people change address on average every 5 year. I'll go a little bit more conservative: say every 7.5 year. That means that every year 1000 of their backers move to a new address, or roughly 3 a day. Now of course most people will forget about notifying batteroo about this change, but after a new shipment announcement by Bob they should be reminded. And in fact we can see that, right after bob's last update 10 people have made comments about their changed address.
So address changes are a big issue, and Bob must realize that, especially since he should be getting mails about this on a weekly or even daily basis. And yet he just started shipping(or so he says) without even a reminder to make sure the addresses are right.
So from all of this I can only conclude that 90% of their backers have totally accepted the fact that they will never see a return on their investment.
Well, for scampaigns I always wonder how many of the orders are shills.
I am still waiting for the excuse: over time we lost the shipping addresses of our clients ....................
Hmmm...
The packaging and sleeve are branded 'Batteriser'.
Looks like an invitation for a lawsuit - if it's fair dinkum.
Well I'll be darned...
A photo of packaging is a good start, but where is the product? Could be an empty box
I am still waiting for the excuse: over time we lost the shipping addresses of our clients ....................
While testing the Batteroo Generation 2 prototype with 25000% increase in battery lifetime Probes the monkey had too much energy left and fell over on to the keyboard hitting the delete key.
Here's the full res picture:
He is from Athens. I will try to contact him.
Alexander.