We don't know that. Smyth may have been shipping institutional early orders before backers ... after all, they approached professionals in the industry before they even launched the Kickstarter. Moreover, we don't know how many people jumped the queue. Either way, this is a marathon not a sprint and they may have been giving an average rate of delivery over the longer term. What we do know is that - from a position where the device was delayed seemingly indefinitely - we have reached a position where people who purchased through Kickstarter actually have received units and are able to report here. There are even instructional videos on YouTube!
That is a huge positive.
The next thing I want to know is that there are headstands being delivered, and after that I'd like to receive my own unit. But I don't think it's fair or helpful to grade Smyth weekly as you are seeking to do.
First of all, I do not intend to grade the Smyths weekly, nor have I indicated any interest in doing that. I was very simply assessing their performance against what James Smyth himself promised on August 12th, namely, the following :
"Since the testing procedure is quite involved we’re only expecting to ship around 10 to 20 units per week. We’ll be posting weekly updates on the numbers that have been shipped, which is intended to give backers some indication of our progress."
Yes, we do not know about any early institutional orders that were waiting to be fulfilled,
"but" we have every reason to believe that James Smyth did when he made the above promise, so such orders, if there are indeed any, do not excuse his behavior.
The most important point is that, today is already August 29th, and yet I have not seen any reliable evidence of the total number of units shipped, or any sign of the promised "weekly updates," that were touted on August 12. Yet one would have expected James to live up to the promise, at least this once, in the first month or two, if only as a gesture of good will... or as an attempt to prove that he means to stick to this plan, and that he has turned the corner from the dismal record of communication he has established for the past three years,
I bet you're familiar with the saying about leopards and the issue with changing their spots... right?
I do not deny that the announcement of shipping, the released manual, and the basics youtube videos constitute relatively "positive" developments, in comparison to the quality of service we have received for the past couple of years... However, I am not yet seeing signs of any change in behavior, that is enough in its scope to inspire me to get too excited too soon about things, and that is where the rub is. I am especially not excited at all, about the special brand of trickle down shipping methodology they have adopted, which is the first I have experienced in any crowdfunded project i have participated in, and in any transaction that has ever involved me, period!
There may be people who are used to waiting for months or maybe years for something they have ordered to ship, and I mean "months or years" even after the product's release and shipping have been announced. I am just not one of those.
Now talking about the trickle down drag, can you or anyone tell for certain whether the Smyths have adopted this method because they're genuinely short on cashflow, as most of us have generously assumed, or whether they're are deliberately dragging things out, at least as a partial strategy, to see just how many backers and pre-order customers might be induced to lose their patience waiting and decide to pay full retail for instant delivery of their A-16 units out of sheer frustration? Without being able to tell for sure, which rationale is truer, one has to agree, at least, that the ambiguity is interesting, very interesting, and the answer may not be one-sided at all.
We at least know that the most reliable way currently available to most backers and pre-order customers for fast-tracking the delivery of their units is to opt to pay full retail. That is also an interesting twist that should give one pause under the present circumstances, in my view, especially since no-one I know could imagine this coming, even as late as July this year.
As someone who pre-ordered, one who is neither willing nor able to pay full retail, I have absolutely no idea when my unit will arrive, and since all indications so far seem to show that we cannot believe in the reliability of the "10-20 units shipped per week" promise made by James Smyth, I do not think even the majority of KS backers can reliably deduce from the present state of things, when their turn in the queue will come, unless something changes drastically in the fortunes and attitudes of the Smyths to accelerate or at least stabilize the flow of shipped units,... i.e. unless something happens to make the rate and speed of delivery a lot more predictable than it is now..
Look, I want the Smyths to succeed, because I am also waiting for my unit. Hell, i got tired of waiting more than a year ago. Besides, I am no masochist, nor a frustration junkie. Yet talking about that waiting, I have no clue how long to expect mine or anyone else's to last, and nothing in the shipping pattern that is playing out so far, is assuring me that things might become more predictable...
At this rate, let me just say that I would feel quite lucky if my unit arrives by August 2020. However, the source of that uncertainty is not me : I am afraid it resides squarely in the Smyths' camp, and arises from the reputation they seem to have worked very hard to establish on these very forums and elsewhere in the past three years.
I do sincerely hope that they prove me wrong and ship my unit in 6 months or less, That would make me very happy, but of course, I am not holding my breath, nor do I have any desire of popping out any champagne glasses any time soon over my A-16
This is a fair assessment of the present state of things, from my own perspective. Your mileage may vary, of course.
