Neo1973 Phase 1 sales / order process / misconception

[alan at rotorgraphics.com]

Kyle Bassett <kylebassett at gmail.com> Wrote:

"Having my own business, I can begin to understand the position of FIC and 
their small team trying to process a seemingly endless list of emails on top 
of processing the standard orders.  They don't have "fringe" departments, or 
employees for that matter.  No one to sit down and just politely respond to 
order inquires all day, every day.  They are overworked, strained, crazy 
(just like all of us here :)  ) people that love what they do-and will do 
whatever they can to help us take back the mobile phone industry.  Frankly, 
they deserve one helluva bonus at the end of this year, although they would 
probably be happier if a working Neo was in consumers' hands...

Think about it for a second: all of us who are part of an organization that 
use email as an official means of communication essentially check/answer our 
emails almost every day, and it takes ridiculously long.  How many emails 
have _you_ received today from someone asking about an update?

On the other hand, I can understand the gotta-have-it-right-now feeling of 
everyone who does not have a Neo.  Many are itching and screaming for their 
uber-geek handheld, so an update every other day or so isn't out of the 
question.  Andy makes a good point about how some are feeling:

And, as Harald said, we are all developers (FIC employees included) trying 
to work together, so let's try to act as such..."

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I don't think anyone disagrees with any of this.   Now that Jouston Huang 
has clarified that this was an English vocabulary problem and FIC is not 
actually "Sold Out", sending out individual emails to everyone is not really 
needed.

But here is what is needed:

All of the "Waiting List Have Nots" just need to see and be able to gauge 
progress so they will have an idea of when they can expect to have a phone 
to work with. Also, many of us placed our orders with Debit MasterCards or 
the like.   Not knowing when you are likely to be charged makes keeping your 
account balance sufficiently buffered a constant worry.   If Jouston would 
just take 5 minutes and post what the last order# shipped was to his blog 
every Friday, then after a few weeks of this, we would be able to estimate a 
likely ship date for *ourselves* and PLAN our lives and actions accordingly.

Alan McSwain