I am not implying anything about posting positively or negatively more just about staying focused. What the the positives and negatives of a vape are in one thread. What are the positives and negatives of a company in another. Much like the moderators asking to move glass discussion out off this thread to a more topic specific one. Much like the shipping complaints were moved to a specific thread.
These threads always get to the point where they are too long with too little useful information, too much speculation and not worth the time it takes to read them.
I think they still have soap operas on TV for those that feel the need for drama in their lives lol.
As far as my reports on Zion, Milaana or future devices they will be a thing of the past. For a long time my docs did not think I was a candidate for a heart and kidney transplant but have recently started to talk about the possibility. So my days of enjoying the Jah herb are passing as I wean off for good and get ready to go on the transplant list. I was not aware but they will not even allow a person to use medicinally before a transplant.
I am confident that the Milaanas and Zions that all of you early and loyal adopters are waiting for are just around the corner and you should all be excited for this awesome tech. I am excited to see all of the happy users and success that will certainly follow for RBT.
Peace out
Aww that's a big positive mixed in with some negative, great news about the transplants, tough it comes with a price, but hopefully everything will work out and you will be that much stronger for it! Good luck MrP, hopefully you find your way back to us again...
Meanwhile, I agree it is a shame because so many joined in for RBTs presence here, one of the ways I was roped in from the start, but it is good information to have in here that that is just no longer the case. What he gained here was invaluable, but bottom line it was costing him too much time and energy, so he had to make the call to just bow out entirely to be fair (though his account still exists just in case). I can assure you he is not reading any of these threads anymore though, so if you are hoping to reach him with your ideas for improvements, it is very unlikely to happen even if he was the type to listen to everything (I've had quite a few of my own suggestions turned down many times directly even, like I said he knows what he needs and is trying to do already)
Anyway I wanted to pop in to say I was able to speak with him yesterday and get some updates for you all. First let me say there is a lot more going on in his life than any of us realize, its not just full time Zion/Milaana work, there is crazy stuff and financial obligations (pre order cash is minimal at best) so he is actually still looking for other work as well since leaving the last job. This project is still in hobby territory, and that is not even remotely sustainable, this is why he is fast tracking the Milaana the way he is, so there can be non-hobby mass produced Milaana available with steady cash flow to help finish up Zion (there may also be another price increase, on both, similarly to justify their production as time and expenses are offsetting the current demand level). I know it can be frustrating, but the pre order is for the vape, it will come eventually and that is that, the only real options remain wait patiently or get a refund. Of course at the prices paid with the time already invested that would be foolish imo, but if money is needed or spite is strong then go for it, otherwise there is really nothing else to do at this point.
So what does that mean? Well, as far as Zion goes, this thread might as well remain inactive bc it will be several weeks before they get rolling again. The reason for this is that he will indeed be building every one of the pre ordered Zions by hand, once all the parts are in, we've mentioned before that this is extremely time consuming for him, so focus has been on getting Milaana rolling first to essentially buy some time and build resources to manufacture them without his presence (I was told the two new guys are now fully trained and doing a great job on assembly, so they will be able to expand as well) so then he is free to complete the Zion tweaks and build the damn things one by one.
To address the ideas that an update takes minimal effort, for him that simply is not the case. Essentially any time taken to respond to messages or craft an update takes away from Milaana time (ie drilling bodies to get to assembly to start being made), not everyone can just hammer something out quickly, being who he is it takes him more time to carefully word things and his feeling is that time is better spent on the product development, and hearing about everything else going on in his life I am inclined to agree. Once things move out of hobby territory he won't be the point of contact at all for customer service or otherwise, he will be the engineer behind the scenes developing these and other projects further (he may also do repairs for warranty claims, probably depends on the claim, speculation on my part), while other teams handle manufacturing, assembly, retail, public relations, etc.
To
@mephisto @Madcap79 @little maggie he is apologetic about taking so long with your units, but even more so he is sorry you were sent a product that does not mean the high standard of quality he set for himself. You are right a product of this price and nature should be more carefully designed and put together, this is why there is further Zion delay really, to ensure that high standard is met. This is being done with the knob redesign and more careful construction, which again means waiting for parts along with a lot of time and energy, so he wants to make sure he has all those things before he returns to Zion manufacturing. It sucks that you all have had to wait so long, get a taste, and then wait longer, but the silver lining is that the product should be overall bigger quality thanks to you, and I am certain you will each receive some sort of compensation when, or before, your Zions can be returned in the next several weeks. I think you will receive a message to this effect some time soon as Milaanas get rolling...
Meanwhile, all I can really say is Milaana is very close to getting off the ground and we should still see many more in the wild this month. It is on track going smoothly, and the real reason we spoke was to go over its performance and design since I've been testing mine quite a bit, it has been my primary vape for the past month or so. I've said it before that Zion is the fully featured RBT flagship, like a mobile desktop (and the final product will include more accessories as well), while Milaana is the bare bones RBT entry level. It is just as effective, yet much cheaper and far more simple, it is similarly versatile but in different ways, but the bottom line with the same heater tech it is still an ideal form of on demand pure convection based soley on vapor quality and overall performance imo
I hope this wall of text is helpful for some, a sort of quasi update though really nothing has changed as we are still waiting in progress limbo for Zion, while Milaana keeps getting closer and closer as speculated. The biggest takeaway is that there is more going on then we realize, and all of this takes a lot more time and energy than even he realized, but it is still getting there slow and steady. As I always say the products themselves are worth waiting for (I too had one for a while then didn't for a while, it was brutal, got me to buy an Evo while I waited) because without all this behind the scenes crap that is all we'd be talking about here as MrP was saying, eventually others will be able to see exactly what we mean as these products truly earned our support.
In the mean time, try to find something else to focus on and hang in there, while Zion remains in purgatory just a bit longer... Soon that focus will at least be able to go towards Milaana
, I had questions not answered in the FAQ, sent him an email, waited a week....he was active as well, but not on his email apparently.
rather than just answer my question, he just said that. I appreciated getting an actual answer to my question later in the thread by SS. Didn't sit right that my email was ignored though, despite following proper protocol of asking a question not in the FAQ. And it especially didn't sit right, that when you bring it to his attention, rather then just logging onto Outlook and responding, he said the above.
Now it's the fact that he quit his full time job as to why he's too swamped.....
