The line forms to the left.
That is to say; the line of people waiting to f*ck with us. Sorry to sound negative but this has, quite literally, been the most frustrating of months. Yes, even more so than the last time I posted an update. Maddening doesnt even begin to describe it.
As you know, the snafu between our shopping cart and CC processor resulted in us getting dropped. We are in the process of applying to another one. If you have noticed a change in the content of the website it is because they do not look kindly on anything that is remotely connected to cannabis. In the event we cannot line up another processor prior to the first units being ready (more on this in a moment), we will have PayPal in place. I know, I know: everyone hates PayPal. Me included if Im honest. Also being explored is Yahoo, Google, and Amazon. Again: not as convenient as Visa/AMEX. BUT, its better than sending checks via snail mail.
And even though PayPal (as well as Yahoo, Google, and Amazon) is more expensive for us to use, we will not be raising the price of the units. It is our problem, not that of our customers.
We are considering re-opening discussions with a few, select distributors. We have inquiries from ~80 of them to sift through. So thats going to take some time. Needless to say, we are not going to partner with any less than scrupulous companies. It is likely that we will pick just one for each of the following regions: US, Canada, European Union, and APAC. It will be too onerous to manage more than that. So you can be sure that whichever ones we pick will (hopefully) be the best of the bunch.
We were scheduled to begin manufacturing units on December 15th. Then we had to switch CMs at the 11th hour. Our original CM decided that the labor required to assemble a Cloud was less than what they quoted us. They played chicken, thinking wed acquiesce to a last minute bump in price. They lost. We stood by their original quote. After some unpleasantness that doesnt warrant elaboration, they refunded our money (we had to put down a sizeable deposit to establish our production line).
The good news is that we have a new CM. Even better, this company employs assembly-line engineers (and not just trained sets of hands) to actively seek out ways in which the manufacturing process (as well as the design itself) might be improved. PowerNerd was on site at the new CM on the 15th to train them on how a Cloud is built. I sent a signed PO on the 16th authorizing the commencement of work. Nevertheless, it set us back by another week or so.
The final hair-ripping moment came from one of our subassembly manufacturers. Despite crystal clear instructions from Jeff, they managed to not only f*ck up the heater rope/temperature sensor assembly, they actually ruined an entire batch. Our Q/A of their work caught this in time none were put into WIP inventory. But regardless, another set back of about a week. This is making me gray.
Thats all for now. Weve got the last pieces of WIP arriving the 19th and 20th. The CM should be trained up by the 23rd, and hopefully well have some manner of ecommerce sorted out to coincide therewith.
Guys (and gals), I was dearly hoping to be able to ship the first units in time for a Christmas arrival. There has been no shortage of screaming, gnashing of teeth, and thrown office chairs to try to get that done. But to no avail.
At least the line to the left I mentioned at the beginning of this note seems to have fewer people standing in it.
Robot
dunno about going a day without though.
