Just a small update to let you know that the design files i mentioned in the last update and comments are now live:
https://github.com/PSUThings/
Chris
…
Hey Everyone,
First of all, i just want to publicly thank and apologise to everyone who messaged me there support after the last update, I apologise for any worry it caused and it was never my intention, but i very much appreciate the messages of support and help offered, I swear I’m not going to go on a rant, and i will try and limit oversharing of current state of mind. But i will say that i am seeking professional help with the mental side on things in the hope that it… well.. helps.
Lets get the easy bit out of the way first.
I still haven’t had any contact from the manufacturer. Honestly, I’m not surprised, the last contact i did have was them basically saying they will “check with the team”, which obviously either hasn’t happened or they are bullshitting me because that was back before Chinese New Year.
Now for the hard bit,
I cannot explain how many times i have tried to write this update and to try and work out how i say this.
After the last update, understandbly, a lot of people wanted refunds, and like i said in the last update, i havent refused a refund and if they wanted one then they could have one, to give you an idea of how many refunds were being issued, PayPal blocked me from sending refunds for a few days and the bank contacted me asking to express concern and confirm transactions.
After all the refunds i have issued, there is no money left, and honestly, i dont know what to do.
I cant get the money back from the manufacturer.
I cant get the promised products back from the manafacturer.
I cant issue any more refunds.
I have no product to send the people i cant refund.
I contacted indiegogo about a week ago now explaining the situation and how do i handle it, but i have not had heard back from them yet.
I have been offered help from a lot of people who are in China and i did agree to share some information with a person on the basis they try and contact the company from within china and by a native speaker, however the responce back was they couldnt contact them. at least not at the phone number they provided me.
I know a few of you wanted me to publically “shame” and release information about the company. I was 100% in agreement, i would love to share that info because as far as im concerned, that company should never have a customer again. However, I have spoke to a lawyer in regards to releasing that information and they advise me not to so, at least not just yet.
So what happens now?
To be completely honest, i dont know.
The only thing i can do is continue trying to retrive either the money or the product.
If i get the money, that will obviously be redistributed among all customers.
If i get the product then it will be a case of sending those out as and when i can afford to pay the shipping costs which obviously might take a while.
If i get nothing at all? I dont know…
The only thing i can think of releasing the original schematics, BOM and relevant files for both the DreamPSU and the SaturnPSU, I dont know what else i could possibly do to make up for all of this.
I have tried to do what i promised, I failed. Was it directly my fault? No, but I’m the guy you trusted, so i feel like im 100% responsible for this momumental mess.
I dont know what else to say apart from, Im sorry.
Chris
Response to your comments and PM’s
No fluff update to some questions and accusations I’ve seen pointed in my directions. This will be blunt answers, so i apologies for the language.
“Are you on holiday?
No I’m not on holiday, I wish i was.
“DON’T BE A THIEF!”
I’am not a theif by any stretch of the imagination and i resent the accustation. I have put my fucking heart and soul into this goddamn product and its going tits up. Its been a fucking disaster as im sure you would all agree. I did not set out on this campaign with the intention of ripping anyone off or not delivering the products.
“Can you change manufacturer?”
No, not really. They manafacturer i chose to use was nothing but curtious and a pleasure to work with during the DreamPSU campaign, as a result i chose to work with them again and they have been paid for there work upfront. Maybe that was a dumbass move by me, but what can i do, its business on there terms. Apprently i made a huge fucking mistake because they have done nothing but fuck me AND you over, send me a string of endless excuses like not getting any of my emails for like 6 months straight. They told me in like April last year that they had the PSU’s all packed and ready to ship. That was a flat out lie that i forwarded to you without knowing it was a lie. Along with all the other bullshit they have told me.
“Why havent you responded to my emails/messages/comments?”
Cause ive been ill, i dont mean that ive been feeling poorly kind of ill, I mean, trying to commit suicide 3 times in the last 8 months type of ill. Do you care? Probably not. Did i want to tell you that? hell no. Im a very private person and i hate sharing my issues with people when it doesnt concern them. The last thing i wanted to do was tell you lot about this shit because thats a fucking cop out, it feels like im playing some kind of card just to get out of this shit. I’ve had depression and anxiety for the last 10 years at least, ive always tried to get though it and not let it beat me. But this campaign and everything surrounding it has beaten me.
Im both mentally drained and exhausted, Im sorry, Im a human with issues. And i can now see i should never have bothered with this second campain.
“Are you even trying anymore?”
100%, I am still emailing the manufacturer every week in the vein hope i get a reply. My house is full of boxes, cables, connectors and everything else i need to get these shipped, EXCEPT the damn PSU’s. There is literally nothing i can do until i get a reply from the manufacturer.
I have told the manufacturer, just send me the products i ordered in whatever damn state it is in, even if they arnt working, or arnt packaged correctly, or not made up, i dont care, just send them to me, i will sit and make them all by hand if i have to. It kills me that you guys arnt getting what you paid for, it makes my fucking stomach ache when i think about that shit.
“Where is the pictures of the updated design?”
Here you go, Its only one picture, there isnt really much else to show to be honest. Im not happy with the matte black finsh, i thought i would like it so i was happy when you picked it as the finish, but it seems like it doesnt clean up well after going through the reflow oven.
“Can i get a refund?”
Yes, I have never once in the history of either campaign refused a refund to anyone. Whilst there is money for a refund, it will be granted.
If you want one, email me your order number to and i will try to get back to you within 48 hours.
“If i can get a refund, why don’t you reply?”
See: “Why haven’t you responded to my emails/messages/comments?”
Extra Comment:
I would just like to say, I have received a few messages from people who have been extremely kind and understanding and very much read between the lines in the previous few updates and i wanted to publically say thank you, I cannot express how much those messages meant to me given the current circumstances.
Update Time -_-
Hey Everyone,
Lets just get this out there.
I have no idea what to do, The manufacturers are not responding to any of my emails.
The last email i received was the one i had from them back in January, i have sent them an email several times a week since and not a word.
I don’t even want them to do anything any more other than just send me the boards that they have been holding for over a year, But even that is seemingly impossible, but im still trying.
I know how frustrating this is for all of you, and i know im the face of this mess and not the people sat in manafacturers building in China, so i will take every bit of anger you guys have and not bitch about it.
But i would like to say from a personal point of view, this has been nothing but a shitfest, and im sure you would all agree. I have no idea why this time around everything has gone so wrong, I havent done anything differant from the DreamPSU campaign that was a pretty good sucess, and yet everything that could go wrong seems to have gone wrong.
So i would like to say, from the absolute bottom of my heart, I’m Sorry.
You guys didnt deserve this, you just wanted to make your beloved consoles just a little bit more reliable, and i, all i wanted to do was try to do something i can be proud of.
So what now?
I will keep emailing them, I will try and contact them in as many ways as i can. And i will get this fixed, even if it means me getting on a plane to china and knocking the front door.
Chris.
Caught between a rock and a hard place.
Hey everyone.
First of all, let me profusely apologise for the lack of communication for the last month or so. I have been unable to respond to emails and indiegogo messages as a result of “mental health issues” that left me without access to my computer. It will take me a few days to sift though the masses of spam that seems to have filled my inbox, but i will be responding to all emails as soon as possible.
I’m not going to go into details on here about the mental health issues as i don’t want this to be viewed as some sob story, however if you want more information, feel free to message me privately.
So what has been happening?
Nothing but unanswered emails. The last email i received from the manufacturer was on the 23rd January, since then i have emailed them on the 24th January, the 15th February, the 22nd February and then i emailed them this Sunday night, I can tell you now, i have not received one response to any of those emails. Initially i figured this was due to Chinese new year, but they have had plenty of opportunities to reply since and i haven’t heard a thing.
I have no idea what to do. From this day forward i will be sending an email every night to the manufacturer until i get a reply because as it stands right now, there is nothing i can do short of jumping on a plane to China and knocking there front door.
I will be closing pre-orders on this site until this lack of contact from the manufacturer has been sorted out.
Chris
Happy Chinese New Year – 恭贺新禧
Hey Everyone,
As I’m sure you can guess from the title, this isn’t going to be a very fulfilling update.
I have asked the manufacturer to clarify to me exactly how many PSU’S have been fully manufactured and how many have not been manufactured. I have asked this question 4 different times over the last 6 months and had a different reply each time.
The first reply was “they have all been manufactured”, the second was that some had been manufactured until they spotted the issue and then stopped, then it was that only the samples they sent to me was manufactured, now I’m just waiting for the 4th answer. Which brings me onto the next point.
Happy Chinese New Year.
Due to the new year, I haven’t had any response to my emails, which is to be expected, however i thought the new year started on the 28th Jan, the last email i got was on the 23rd, urgh.
Once that email arrives, i will update you with the contents of it, boring or otherwise.
I Learnt some stuff from the DreamPSU indiegogo campaign, so hopefully shipping wont be as stressful this time round, i have a nice little workbench with some crappy notebook, a label printer and all the things needed to be shipped, now i just need some PSU’s to put with them and i can ship them out.
Chris
Small Update
Contact has finally been made.
Just now awaiting for an conformation on how long this is gonna take and when they will be processing the boards.
I’m tired, worn out and damn right pissed off to put it lightly, These people have done nothing but drag there heels, hide behind language barriers and be nothing short of a fucking mess to deal with. So i whole-heartily apologize to every single one of you and put a huge thank you to everyone that has stuck with it and been amazingly patient.
Thank You
Chris.
Delayed Update
I delayed this update for over a week in the hope that i would have actually received a reply by now along with some good news. But nope, I don’t know if its because of Christmas / New Year, But i still haven’t heard anything from them after several attempts at contact. I’m hoping it is the holidays and not them avoiding me.
“We are currently waiting for a reply from china about the best way to move forward with replacing the chips on the DreamPSU / SaturnPSU boards.
They are being amazingly slow and at this rate, I’m thinking we wont have an answer this side of Christmas.”
If none of that made sense, check out the Blog for the back story 🙂
Hope you all had a great New Year 🙂
Chris
Quick update time.
Hey Everyone,
Hope you all had a good Thanksgiving for those that celebrate it 🙂
Continuing on from the previous update, I have now replaced the chips on 10 test boards and have been testing them for 10+ hours a day all is looking good.
Next thing to do is contact the manufacturer, forward the correct information and hope for a quick solution to mass replace the chips on all the boards. 🙂
I know there isn’t much to this update, but wanted to let you know anyway.
Thank you all for your continued patience and understanding, and i apologize for sounding like a broken record when i say that.
Chris
Decision Made.
Howdy,
Hope you all enjoyed Halloween for those that celebrate it.
This is whats been going on. We have STILL not received any information from the supplier that the manufacturer used. So as a result we are just going to do what i didn’t want to do and that is re-buy all the chips again from a different supplier and hope that everything goes well with that.
I have no idea if we will ever recover the money from the original supplier, or even get a response from them, its amazingly frustrating how incompetent they are.
So at the moment, i have re-ordered a small amount of the affected chips from a local supplier and they should be here on Monday / Tuesday. From then, I’m going to rebuild the PSU and make sure it is 100% working. Then i will rebuild the BOM for the manufacturer and send it to them and see how they wish to continue from there. The problem is that we already have almost 1000 boards made with the non working chips, so that means having to manually de-solder these old chips, clean the board and re-solder the new ones. I have no idea how much this will cost and how long it will take, I have no idea if they will be doing it by hand or machine (does a machine even exist to do that?), so once again, I’m gonna be sat here saying, i have no idea how long this is going to take. BUT we are hopefully in the final stretch.
Just another thing i will mention now, and that is that suppliers can take a while to delivery large quantities, there is a big difference between ordering 20 chips for myself and over 3000 for production. So i don’t know how long it will take, average lead time from them is about 3-4 weeks dependent on availability, so i just wanted to let you know this in advance.
Someone just emailed me asking if i will being doing any other consoles or batches of either the DreamPSU or the SaturnPSU, and i can honestly tell you now, I don’t think that is gonna happen.
Its not the customers, its not the product, its purely everything from the last 6 months do to with manufacturing. Its not a no, its a probably not.
Chris