I'm about to start work and found this, idk if it will lift you up or make you roll your eyes. It's off the Reddit GH post forum.
Hey Everyone,
I wanted to stop in at
r/grasshoppervapetoday and thank you for all the support you have given us. It has been invaluable to read the feedback, encouragement and even the disappointment of customers. We, as a company, have tried to leave this forum as a place where the community can give their honest and open opinions free from the influence of Hopper Labs. We read what is written here and make adjustments to our plans based on your feedback. So thank you for that.
I think it’s important for me to address some of the concern around the accuracy of ship dates and the large amount of speculation revolving around them.
We are doing our best to get you your units as fast as possible. We’ve had a number of unforeseen issues that slowed production. We are already picking up speed again, with new design improvements in place. I know it has been hard having your estimated date moved back numerous times and we are working to avoid that in the future. Each device is handmade, taking over an hour to assemble and although we have a very refined system, there are still slow downs.
Many companies mass produce their products overseas with cheap labor and plastic designs. This has led to consumers expecting this from every company and while we have had many opportunities to take that road, we’ve chosen to do things the right way. This certainly is slower, but in the end we produce quality products that are designed to last forever. This remains our core philosophy as a company. There seems to be the perception that we are a large corporation, with unlimited resources, taking advantage of it’s customers. In fact we are incredibly small and efficient, which is why we can offer an industry leading product at a price that beats those powerhouse companies.
Although, our track record shows we can be late on delivery, it also shows we do deliver and the product is worth the wait. We've been overly optimistic about delivery in the past and are working to find the right balance of increasing manufacturing speed and delivery estimation. When you are a small company working with over 50 different manufactures, all of which must deliver to on schedule in order to build the product, there are a lot of variables. We've had a rough time getting everything to go smoothly, and hence, have missed many delivery dates.
In the past we've have put forward delivery estimates that reflected smooth operation as the hiccups are impossible to predict. Most of those hiccups are smoothed over, but we are now working to add additional time into the estimations to allow for future unpredicted delays. We understand how truly frustrating having the date change can be. This week we will add more time to everyone's estimation in an effort to build in time for these unforeseen slowdowns. I can assure you that the things that make Hopper Labs great will continue and we will diligently work to eliminate all of the faults.
Thanks for taking the time to participate in the growing community and give a young company valuable feedback.
TL;DR - We are a small company working extremely hard to get you the Grasshopper quickly. The dates have been wrong in the past and we are working to fix that. Thanks for all the feedback!