At this time, I am seriously reconsidering my choice in putting faith in the empeg. On June 7th, I read in my e-mail the following:
The title of this section says it all! Earlier today we were delighted to be able to contact our first few hundred registered clients and invite them to place firm orders. Their players will be shipped over the next few weeks, with thousands more players then going into production to satisfy clients currently in line to own an empeg Car.
--end--
It is now July 15th, and as far as anyone can see in these fourms, not a single person has been contacted, or recieved an empeg unit. Hugo himself even said they are not shipping yet a few days ago. So wheres the newsletter that explained that newsletter 8 had a mistake? Where was it officially said that the unit is still not shipping even though an official e-mail said it was?

Why are the possible future consumers being left in the dark? Honestly, I can't imagine anyone complaining about a mailing every 2 weeks saying what the status is. Instead, we get a newletter every once in a while with good news that turns up not to be true.

So my question is, how much can a company be trusted to not only provide a product, but provide support for it is as well down the road when that company can't even provide accurate information to it's loyal and waiting customers?

I think this is a little harsh: we just want to provide a good product. This is why shipping was delayed - several units have been sold to local (geographically) testers, allowing us to provide installation support, sort out problems and so on: we can't test the unit ourselves on lots of different car setups, so we need this sort of feedback. As a result of this, two modifications (a regulator voltage change and grounding cables for the amp end of the installation) have been implemented, and we're currently waiting for production volumes of these cables/regulators to come through before we can start to ship to "distant" people (I'm not going it sit here with a soldering iron making up hundreds of cablesets :) ).

Newsletter#9 should be going out today, which details the mods above. We *have* been very busy - including getting a new employee (John) introduced to the codebase, trying to sort out bits for our new offices (phone lines, net connection, alarm...) so that we can move in.

The secure ordering site is now up - if you're one of the lucky people in the first batch, you'll be getting a mail telling you the details of how to order *very* shortly (maybe even today - I've seen the mailshot, but I'm not sure if it's going out today).

Development isn't easy to tie down to specific dates - ask Microsoft about win2000, Linus & Alan about the 2.2 kernel series, etc. We're not lying back sipping drinks and watching everyone stew :)

Hugo

To quote from the customer announcement that WAS supposed to have gone out recently, but hasn't because the online ordering site has just gone down and our web guys are fast asleep in California right now..

- Cut Here -

Last month we announced that we were about to ship. As has
often been the case, fate failed to smile upon us and we have
experienced one or two glitches.

The main delay has been caused by a problem with high end
amplifiers. Good quality amplifiers usually have floating
ground - this is a technique to reduce ignition noise pickup
onto the line inputs. Most head units, however, do not have
floating ground - the exception being empeg car, which has a
top quality Burr Brown final stage.

If a floating ground pre-amp is connected to a floating ground
amplifier the noise reduction effect is reversed and ignition
noise is experienced. This is corrected by fitting a small
in-line grounding cable to the line inputs of the amplifier,
totally eliminating the problem.

Unfortunately we didn't pick up on this problem until one of
our beta testers upgraded his amplifier. We feel that it is
our responsibility to provide the ground adapter cables,
therefore we have had to wait for our manufacturer to produce
them for us. Delivery is expected about a week from now.

As I write we HAVE in fact shipped a few players to paying
customers, and expect to start shipping greater quantities as
soon as the cables arrive. Hopefully we will have fully shipped
our first batch around the end of the month.

Therefore it is now time for you to decide for sure if you would
like to purchase an empeg car player.

...etc...

- Cut -

I think saying that we have lied is offensive and implies some deliberate intention to deceive. If that's the case, why do we have a policy to not charge a single credit card until the product actually ships?

Everyone at empeg are very upset about the delays, and we're sorry for the inconvenience, but we're working around the clock (literally) and putting everything we have into shipping this product.

The next newsletter is sat in my out tray at the moment. Out of courtesy to the first batch of clients I can't send it until they've received their mailshot, and I can't send that until the online ordering site is fixed. By Monday both mailings will have gone out.

Regards

Rob
(Definitely NOT with empeg customer services hat on, it's far too early in the morning for marketing speak)

I think this is a little bit harsh... for a start, it only says that they contacted the first few and should be shipping over the next few weeks, it doesn't say how many weeks...

Ok, they could perhaps keep their website a little bit more up to date, but from what I've seen with their responses etc on this bbs they are being more than open with what's going on and giving out more details than you would expect certainly from a bigger company... They are doing their best I'm sure, and if you don't like how they do it, go out and do something better yourself... just be prepared to appologise if you come across the same sorts of problems that they have encountered... it's not easy mass producing anything, never mind something as complicated as this...

I still haven't decided yet if I'm going to take up my option (only cos I've got a kid on the way and it's a lot of cash that could go to the kid) but... I think these guys are doing a great job and being more open and helpful than I think anyone could have reasonably expected, and it is certainly helping to persuade me to find the money somewhere to buy the empeg.

(my 2p's worth)



- Given two theories.... pick the one that sounds funniest -

I think the tension we see on this bbs is good. It's a combination of a lack of communication and people wanting the empeg really bad. I myself work in development and I have seen how unforeseen set backs can happen all the time. There is just no way to account for the hundreds of things that could go wrong, especailly when your developing something new and complicated. On the flip side, when you have customers drooling to get their hands on your product it only makes their waiting that much harder. I see this tension as thousands of customers waiting for a new state of the art product they can't wait to get their hands on. So two notes:
1. Empeg please post more updates.
2. Customers wait patiently it's coming.

I have to agree... I'm as desperate as the next person to get my hands on a finished Empeg, but also, I want it to work.. =)

I think the situation could have been made easier by more status reports, and less optimistic shipping dates.. It's the old 90% complete problem...

However it's easy for me to make such statements in retrospect.. =)

As there has been too much bitching at Empeg, I think we should congratulate them for sticking their necks out to produce this thing.

Thanks Guys..
Jazz

woooowww....1-2 seconds ago i've received NEWSLETTER #9 !..yeah...
i haven't read it yet...but perhaps there are some reeeaalyy good news..how about the possiblity to order the empeg ? :)

l8r

If you have a number below 2500 then just let me know as I'd like it. In fact I hope there are more like you as I can get mine a bit faster! :)

David

I admit, it was a bit harsh. It just comes from months and months and months of wanting this unit.

The thing with Microsoft and Win2000, or Linux 2.2 is that people are updated on the situation frequently. With the empeg, news comes slowly. I thought the advantage of the internet is that everything is electronic and can be updated easially and recieved quickly. The first few newsletters were nice for the frequency, and they talked about where everything was. This "Unofficial empeg BBS" is not the fourm that should be soley used to communicae to your customers about what is happening. I bet many people out there waiting for the empeg have never even visited this site, and they are probably closer to deleting the e-mail that says "Order Now" then I am when it arrives.

Hi there !

Hmmm ...

After exchanging several E-Mails with the empeg people and reading their comments on this Board, my opinion is:

Say whatever you want about the product & its Schedule, BUT
The people there seem friendly and trustworthy to me, they just don't like to update :)


Nils

P.S. Newsletter #9 ?!?! i haven't got it so far, WHY ? :)

well - i'm just going to say - as number 80 on the list i just got my invitation to purchase - so i am happy....

now just have to wait for confirmation.......

lucky:)
(around #6000 on the list and counting)

Everyone should have received News Letter 9 by now, it went out on Friday afternoon (GMT).

As usual we've had a lot of bounces, many of them being temporary due to full mailboxes, lousy ISPs and so forth. If you haven't got it, it'll be on the web site in the next day or two.

Rob

I think that the people at empeg deserve a lot more credit than they are getting. What they are doing is rather difficult. Frankly, I am very impressed with what they have been able to pull off, considering their resources. You have probably not worked on the production of something like this. Understand that the number of obstacles you run into is just uncanny.

I am number 49 in the queue. I don't know how long I've been waiting, but I would assume that it is probably longer than you have. You are not alone. I would however like to have a solid product when it comes.

The fact that this type of thing is problematic may be why they gave the first in the queue the option to defer until the next shipment. I have done this to try to make sure that I get a good product.

It would probably be nice to be kept a little more up to date. Realize that the time they spend updating the web site, sending out updates, and answering the plethora of email that they must get just puts off the release that much further.

The empeg crew is laboring to come out with a product that is unrivaled. Look around at how their compeditors are doing. It must be agonizing for them to be so close, but hold off to make things right. I am an internet software engineer, and have been in similar situations. I find it unfair that you would complain when your role in the project is probably the easiest one.

My hat is off to Hugo and the development team. You guys are kicking a lot of ass!

have they asked for money from you yet??

No

are they a small time pioneer in an incredibly big market.

Yes

If you don't want the product why are you still around whinging that you haven't received it yet?

I've been waiting for almost 4 years and I still haven't received newsletter 10. After about 42 months, I started to get a little ticked off, but I kept saying to myself that it will probably come the next day, but it still hasn't come. I'm starting to think that those guys over at empeg are just sitting on their asses and sipping drinks, not even worried about updating us with newsletter 10! If it doesn't come by 2006, I'm just gonna say the hell with it and get a cd player!

Here ya go, tough guy.

http://www.empeg.com/cgi-bin/display.cgi?section=bulletins&article_id=36

hmmm....that's weird.

You're tellin' me.. I've had mine for a year now, and never got ANY of those bullitens!

Me.