The Grasshopper Shipping Poll

Latest update has arrived:

Hey Everyone,

It’s October 15th and we’re back with another update. We’re four days away from receiving the largest batch of Grasshopper components yet. The next shipment includes enough parts to deliver all outstanding Grasshopper units. This is a huge step for us, and we’ll all breathe a small sigh of relief when DHL pulls up to the shop on Monday.

These parts include three production changes that are designed to speed up the assembly process. After assembling over 1500 units, we have a much clearer picture of what’s required to mass-produce the Grasshopper. These small part adjustments will eliminate entire assembly steps. We’re predicting nearly a 50% reduction in total assembly time just due to these changes, not including the tooling and equipment we’ve gotten online in the last several weeks.

We’re in the process of completely revamping our website backend. This will streamline the shipping procedure, make processing repairs faster, and allow us to track problems as they appear to further increase the reliability of the assembly process and the devices themselves.

Many of you have been asking about shipping estimates. Due to our pending website upgrades, some shipping estimates have slipped. Things will be adjusted when the upgrades go live, but we’re not expecting many dates to change. Look for this within the next couple of days.

Next Monday starts the beginning of a huge assembly push, and lots of address confirmations will be going out. We’ll have part pictures and concrete shipping numbers for you on the 1st.


The Grasshopper Team





Hope you all get your address confirmations soon! The feeling of near orgasmic joy is real

I recently speculated they might have a production boost soon. This update points to just that happening.
But when I said they'd be rolling off the line like Ford Pintos, someone pointed out that Pinto had exploding rear end problems! I trust the Hopper backend glitches are getting addressed and that I didn't jinx anything. (How's that for a rational approach?)
So, I hereby propose a change to the analogy;
Rolling off the line like Teslas!

Just realized this should be in shipping thread. I think I may have just gotten an alert to that effect. Apologies!

This is an awesome update! Definitely way better than I was thinking it would be. Hopefully they are right and we do see more hoppers being shipped and fewer issues as well.

hopefully this adjustment won't cause further delays.

If I actually get my hopper by Christmas I might shit my pants.

Wow, big promises in this update, look forward to hearing a lot of address confirms on Monday (or does "Next Monday" mean two Mondays from now? I guess I'm gun shy). So many of us still w/ October estimates I want to know what they mean by "some shipping estimates have slipped", I don't trust their definition of "some". And when they say they've assembled 1500 hoppers, I believe them, but from what little we know I feel like "assembled" is the key word, and I'd rather see the "delivered" number, which I'd guess is closer to 1100. If nothing else, I'm impressed they've managed to rekindle my expectations yet again.

I take that to mean a week from monday at the earliest

Yay! Just the update I was waiting for! Upgrades to the website.

Also reassuring that my September estimated shipping date is not expected to change!

You should definitely receive a shipping confirmation email by September 2016.

Doubling production would mean, what- maybe 300 a week? Still really dubious about my October shipping estimate...

zymos said:

maybe 300 a week?

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I think they have been shipping less than 300 a month...

This update seems like par-for-the-course. I hope there is no further delays, if things proceed this way then I would imagine all pre-orders will be done by Feb/March 2016, I will hopefully get one before next summer.

Still no word on heaters, I wonder if that will be the new bottleneck?

zymos said:

Doubling production would mean, what- maybe 300 a week? Still really dubious about my October shipping estimate...

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Come on! Your glass is half full, I promise! News that they are expecting parts to fill ALL outstanding orders is BIG news. And plans to ramp up production numbers... Deep breaths, it's almost here!

Am I optimistic enough?

If I don't get my fucking hopper within the next week, I'm am definitely gonna be giving some serious thought to just waiting longer...

Sigh. It's hard doing nothing ;-)

hi_there said:

I think they have been shipping less than 300 a month...

This update seems like par-for-the-course. I hope there is no further delays, if things proceed this way then I would imagine all pre-orders will be done by Feb/March 2016, I will hopefully get one before next summer.

Still no word on heaters, I wonder if that will be the new bottleneck?

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If they get all the parts to fulfill all existing orders like they say, then I assume that included heaters. It's a big if, but if true, then the only bottlenecks are assembly, testing and shipping. (Plus fixing broken units...)

The "bottleneck due to heaters" thing is just speculation though, I think it's the assembly that has been so slow.

zymos said:

The "bottleneck due to heaters" thing is just speculation though, I think it's the assembly that has been so slow.

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Speculating upon your speculation, a fiddly assembly could have been causing the issue in some units. I would imagine that heater and design bein really sensitive to dirt or something during building. Streamlined assembly would be a very good solution.

Of course, I'm making all that up though. Could just be that they're haunted and it's a poltergeist doing it.

Or gremlins.

Why is the wait time so long?
The wait time is due to a variety of factors. Grasshoppers are not built like most other products. Due to the custom nature of the parts in the Grasshopper, a wide range of specialized manufacturers is necessary. Parts arrive here at our facility and are assembled on-site. This ensures an excellent standard of quality, but takes a little longer. Because we are a very small company, we don’t have a large stock of the product at any given time.

Maybe why taking so long. Just speculation though

First, I'm gonna say I don't feel I've been intentionally deceived. Rather, I feel prey to rookie optimism on HL'S part. No big deal if I get product tomorrow or next year, I'm not pining for my spent money at this point.

I like the idea of a gift from smart past self!

I do believe that they're expecting the parts - improved parts - in that shipment next week.
If that's correct, it indicates that they have a high degree of confidence in those parts as worthy of making Grasshoppers from. Lots of them. And that's a good thing, as the saying goes.

Not a bad update as these go. It seems more and more like they've been intentionally holding back production until they could get their defect rate down...which is smart for them yet agonizing for us. Its a sign of confidence that at least the parts are locked down enough to place such a large order. It also suggests their cash position isn't as dire as some had predicted. Now hopefully we'll see that rate increase we've all been waiting for. I've got a Ti unit showing a Sept delivery date.... I'd be stoked to see it by mid-Nov.

They must have figured out where the problems with the faulty units are. I thought they were going to be releasing small batches to control any issues? Maybe the issues are resolved, let's hope so.

CarolKing said:

They must have figured out where the problems with the faulty units are. I thought they were going to be releasing small batches to control any issues? Maybe the issues are resolved, let's hope so.

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This is what I'm hoping.

YaFreekin Right said:

Many of you have been asking about shipping estimates. Due to our pending website upgrades, some shipping estimates have slipped. Things will be adjusted when the upgrades go live, but we’re not expecting many dates to change.

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Ha ha....Thanks for clearing that up. Clear as mud.

FINALLY HERE!!!!! November 25th, 2013 backer - dark gray titanium Hopper... just arrived! It is B-E-A-UTIFUL! Received the extra battery that I ordered when I backed, leather sleeve, condom for m.p., and charger (plus a sticker!). No word about the other batteries/condoms/titanium case yet, but the Grasshopper is in my hands at last! Did not come with a screen for the tip, but a standard screen fit pretty well. I will contact them about that, and the other items I ordered later. Right now I am far too busy gazing lovingly at my new little badass toy . The reports are true on how insane this thing is so far. The mouthpiece does get hot - not gonna lie, but the condom fixes that completely. Even with out the condom, if you do not put your mouth at the very tip, it isn't bad at all. Just be careful removing it from between your lips... that tip is going to be WARM. Of course, that is only for about 3.5-4 or 5. Anything below that, and it just gets warm. No back end issues so far (yay!), no scratches, no gunk on the contact points.... everything seems perfect right now. Heat up time is frankly mind blowing, and anyone worried about the LED's showing shouldn't be. You can just turn it around so the main light is in the back, then put your thumb right over it. You can still see light through the other holes, but it is VERY faint. The inhale, click off, keep inhaling trick works very well for cooling it off fairly quickly. Heat dissipates quite nicely, 20-30 seconds and the body is barely warm on the titanium model (no experience with stainless yet). GHL has definitely delivered an amazing product. I have given them a lot of shit in the past few months for the delays, misleading statements, and outright fabrications. At this point though... all I can say is - great work guys! This thing is truly exceptional in every way that I personally hoped it would be. Small, discrete, insanely fast heat up time, perfect draw resistance, able to give a good hard hit, and it is just really freakin' pretty from an esthetic point of view. So yeah.... they should have been more up front with everyone, a lot of their decisions weren't really that great.... but holy hells this think is awesome !!! Just seeing that box (BOXES! And yes, they are pretty too ) waiting for me when I went out to get the mail this morning.... priceless. Hope all of you get to experience the exact same thing soon, and that you all fall in love as completely as I have. Would say let me know if you have any questions, but this is going outside with me tomorrow (was going to be today, but stupid yard work got in the way ).... and I have no idea when we shall return. I just know kayaking, camping, and hopefully some paramotoring are in our future very soon !

Cheers!

Bass Vaper said:

Ha ha....Thanks for clearing that up. Clear as mud.

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Oh good, I still get mine in September.