Send PM
The only thing we can do is let all other potential customers know what a crappy company this is.
So, we all know there are a LOT of Kickstater backers who have not yet received their console. You can just look on these forums and the Kickstarter comment section for proof on that. We also know that the Ouya is going on sale in retail stores everywhere tomorrow (June 25). Now, if you look at the reward tiers on the Ouya Kickstarter page, under the $99 tier, it reads:
"Guarantee we will have one available for you, before it gets to stores"
So, unless they manage to get thousands of consoles into the hands of those backers in one day, they have indeed not fulfilled this guarantee. Doesn't that mean they have failed to deliver the reward? I'm not entirely sure what Kickstarter's stance on this issue is, I'm emailing them now. Of course a lot of backers have gotten their consoles, but there are also a lot who haven't. So now what? There WILL be Kickstarter backers who haven't gotten their consoles when Ouya promised, and thus they did not deliver the reward tier.
We all know Ouya's customer service is apocalyptically bad. I pre-ordered my Ouya in January and still haven't gotten a tracking email, let alone the console itself. I've sent two emails out in the course of 3 weeks and haven't heard back at all. There are plenty of people here with stories even worse than that.
So the question is, now what? What happens when a company fails to deliver their rewards? What's Kickstarter's stance on this issue? Is there some way Ouya can wrangle out of this? Who's going to answer for this?
The only thing we can do is let all other potential customers know what a crappy company this is.
I think that is far from the only thing that can be done. If you wanted, you could request a refund. You could send in suggestions on improvements to the company. You could wait to see how the company develops (after all, it's still a pretty new company).Originally Posted by vinnyusc
And before someone claims that they don't listen to suggestions, it's much too early to know that. Just because they aren't implementing features in the order you believe it should be done, doesn't mean it won't get implemented. If you don't want to take the gamble with this new company I would recommend getting a refund and then wait and see how things develop.
Josh.. that totally sucks. Do you have a twitter account? I'd tweet them directly and find out what's going on with the order in case there is an email problem. https://twitter.com/OUYASupport
Honestly, this is one area of OUYA that I've defended that I feel they've really let people down on (including myself, and I actually have a console).
Some of this is out of OUYA's hands (in fulfillment and delivery), but from the customer's point of view, they don't know where those points of responsibility begin/end.
There should be NO people right now who backed without a console, or they should at the very least do something to accommodate the reward they can't fulfill. Even if that means a free controller, or some sort of purchase credit applied to the user's account.
Mine actually arrived with a free controller, but I have a feeling it was a mistake.
I admit I only pre-ordered mine in January, but even I haven't heard anything. Pre-orders were promised in April, then May, then nothing. I was thinking about requesting a refund but again, there are several people including myself who have emailed Ouya weeks ago and still haven't heard back at all.
The point is they've gone completely silent after that "all early backers have been shipped" nonsense a while back. Did they even say what qualifies as an "early backer" come to think of it? I get the impression they're just trying to pretend like they've shipped to all Kickstarter backers period, and silently ship to later backers and pre-orderers. The fact that they're going ahead with the retail launch when backers and pre-orderers are left out in the cold like this is unacceptable.
Yeah, I think OUYA have somewhat shot themselves in the foot on this one. That last kickstarter update on May 24th, saying "all OUYA's have shipped" caused a flood of support requests basically all saying "where's my OUYA?" and they've been struggling ever since.
It's made worse by the fact that they had the exact same problem in April when everyone expecting an OUYA to land on their doorstep on March 28th asked "where's my OUYA?" With that, they responded by clearing things up and communicating regularly with backers. You'd think they'd have learned.
The other issue is they tend to want to weasel their way out of things. Yes, they might have shipped all the kickstarter backer OUYA's by the end of May, but most people understand shipped in the general sense of "it has arrived at my house" rather than the parlance of a factory manager, who when he says "this month we shipped x units" means that is how many exited the factory gates, regardless of where they end up
It's a problem, because communication is not about being right, it's about effectively getting a message across. OUYA have the problem that they need to get three different messages to three entirely different sets of people: Developers, Gamers and Press. Yet the channels they use (twitter, kickstarter, even email) are likely to be picked up by all three (some journalists backed the OUYA at the developer tier to get their hands on the console early, so end up on the OUYA dev mailing list for example).
If you're banging on about how android makes it really easy for developers to port their games, gamers will pick up on that and say "but who wants to play angry birds on the TV?", while press might write an article about how android games generally are sub-par.
Plus all the time, they've had a great big target painted on their backs by detractors / haters of kickstarter (with OUYA being historically, one of the big success stories of the platform)
The kickstarter thing is interesting because most companies develop a product, then start selling it, starting with a few units and slowly ramping up. OUYA have had to develop the product in an artificially short time span and then produce and deliver tens of thousands of units in great big one-time batches. When you look at it from their point of view, it isn't surprising they didn't ramp up production quick enough
And when you look at the product itself, it's pretty good considering the time it has been in development. Compared to 6 months ago, the changes are huge and nothing I've seen leads me to think it's not going to continue to improve and evolve.
OUYA just need to lose the fear that something they say is going to get blown out of all proportion by the media. People who read the tech and gaming press have already made up their minds about the OUYA, and only positive experiences directly with OUYA are going to change that. We live in a world where actually, social media and viral marketing and building genuine grass roots up support for something is a lot more powerful over the long term than a top down marketing campaign. OUYA should be perfectly suited to the former, but their PR / marketing people seem to lack the confidence to go with it, which is a shame, as it could have worked really well, and still could be turned around
This is just plain wrong. Read below - it is not 100% of OUYA have been manufactured or even shipped to the warehouse, they said 100% have shipped from their warehouses in HK en route to us which is an outright lie for which they still have not explained or apologized for.
Yep, 100 percent of all early backer orders have successfully shipped this week from our warehouse in Hong Kong and are en route to all of you still waiting patiently for your OUYA.
And yes … that means ALL early backer orders -- regardless of your geographical location, standard edition or limited edition, extra controllers, etc. -- if you are an early backer, your OUYA is on the way!
What vinny said. Mine was SHIPPED on 19th of June, so no --------, they were plain lying.
Last edited by bagheadinc; 06-24-2013 at 02:16 PM. Reason: Removing vulgarities
Again, one of the questions is what exactly is an "early backer"? What's the cut off there, because I get the impression they're trying to imply all Kickstarter units have been shipped to save face, are quietly still sending some out by keeping everyone in the dark. Another question is have they broken Kickstarter rules?
I've emailed both Ouya and Kickstarter about this and I will be posting their responses in this thread as soon as I get them.
Posting Permissions
Bookmarks