Yes I did it again : take a chance on a technology startup at Indiegogo - will it be late again ?
I've been burned by catchy descriptions and lofty promises on Indiegogo before... but I'm trying once again. Flic-a-button sounds like fun, with plenty of fun applications... so I did place my order and will keep my fingers crossed...
Just a great concept and almost the perfect gadget. A button which you can fix anywhere, and which when you press it make your smartphone do whatever you set it up to do... Make a sound so you cna find your phone, play a song, send a message, call your boss or loved one, ... anything. The button connects wireless to your iPhone or other smartphone. Sounds fun ? Yes !
Only $99 for six buttons, when your preorder on Indiegogo... A steal for a fun piece of technology. So.. click and order. Read the full description here - it gets better and better as you read through the page and learn all the nifty things you can make these little cheap buttons do.
But here is the catch... this is yet another technology startup company raising funds through the Indiegogo crowd funding platform. So you are an investor as well as a customer - trusting these engineers to deliver on the promise of a great product. And as history shows... it was one thing to dream up a great product, another thing to make a working prototype and raise money from interested customers - and a completely different ballgame to actually mass produce technology and ship to happy customers... At this time, the Flic-button team plans to ship product in March 2015...
In the past I ordered various technology products through Indiegogo... a summary of my experiences...
- Bright Lightswitches... Ordered in February 2014, promised to deliver in October 2014... currently scheduled for 1Q2015
- Tiles...... Ordered in August 2013, promised for December 2013, and finally delivered in August 2014. But more importantly... really doesn't meet the promise...
- Xanadu Scout... Ordered in May 2013... promised for March 2014... and still waiting... in November 2014... finally shipped in May 2015
- Jürgen's blog
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New update: at least another
New update: at least another month before the FLIC buttons reach the US customers. It shows the challenges Indiegogo projects have, after getting 800% overfunded, and then having to deliver the product...
Read the new story here - and the question will be... for all of us who have been supporting the project by fronting the money, will there be any consideration ? Or should we just be glad we finally will get our buttons, just short of a year after handing over the money and at least 6 months after the promised ship date at the time of raising the money ?
Flic Delayed Again for
Flic Delayed Again for Quality Reasons...
In June Flic announced a new (delayed) roll-out schedule, confirming that all ordered products would be shipped in July 2015...
Well, on August 10th 2015 (still having not received the paid-for and promised Flic buttons) I received the following email...
Hey everyone,
Here is a quick update on Flic’s progress.
Short version (long version below for those interested): We will resume shipping to our warehouse by end of next week.
Black and white Flic orders will be shipped before color orders.
The full version of the update can be read in the Indiegogo Campaign Updates.
The most remarkable thing about this email ? There is no shipment date forecast. In June there was a detailed schedule (which they failed to achieve) - this time there is none. Nada. So... should I expect them this week ? This month ? This quarter ? This year ? Their latest update message came in nine days ago... since then... silence and nothing in my mailbox.
The second most remarkable thing... again it is a manufacturing/materials quality issue... Should I be afraid of the quality of the product I will (hopefully) receive (soon) ?
For a fundraising campaign which was 800% funded... this is a very poor track record... again and again...
But I keep on expecting to be dazzled by the product when it finally arrives...
JURGEN
July 2015 ? In their latest
July 2015 ?
In their latest update (read here) the Flic button team is now forecasting that they will ship only the black & white buttons by the end of June and all other colors (and pre-orders) by the end of July... And that compares to the promise of March 2015 when I handed over my money...
Patiently waiting...
Yes, also Flic is slipping
Yes, also Flic is slipping and shipping late - another Indiegogo delay. But... by far not as bad (yet) then the other projects... today, I received an email campaign update announcing they plan to ship before the end of April. Let's hope you...
Hi Everyone,
We've been working around the clock since before the campaign ended to get the Flic production up and running. About 3 weeks ago we had the entire production line set up. During the assembly we noticed some process issues with some of our jigs including our programming jig which we built to put our magic code on each Flic. It didn’t quite do the job and caused us some delays but we managed to fix it and it’s now working great.
We then simulated the production and completely assembled a little less than 100 Flics.
We have had a lot of feedback about both hardware and software from that initial production run. These included a battery glitch issue which was due to some plastics that had melted during soldering. After doing a modification to the plastic tool we managed to get rid off the battery glitch.
It has proven difficult to get the perfect click feeling for Flic which we are extremely careful about. We have iterated our silicone a lot of times and we are very close to the final solution.
We are still working out some details on the shipping side as well. We are shipping to over 100 countries which puts a lot of requirements on creating a sustainable and cost efficient supply chain so please bare with us while we are still negotiating with some carriers.
We are still confident that we can start shipping Flics this month. As soon as we have solved the click feeling and also the strength of the clip, we can push the button, so to speak.
Happy Easter Everyone!