[sahmen]

This thread is meant for the discussion of ideas and suggestions aiming to improve communications and general customer service relations between Smyth Research and the backers/pre-orderers of the Smyth Realiser A-16. Please check all boxes which express (es) your position (s) in the above poll, and post any additional comments you may have below, on the thread.

Note: If you would like to be included in the customer e-mail petition to Smyth Research, please PM me your name, e-mail address, and head-fi handle, as well as what you would like to be included in the message if it is not already indicated in the poll, or on the thread.



Update (August 8, 2018):

*Upon further reflection, it seems to me that a 2-pronged approach of sending to Smyth Research individual e-mails as well as grouped petitions would work best, as that will allow each participant to approach the issue in a way that suits their predilections best. The objective is to get the Smyths to respond, and respond favorably to our requests, and in the end, that is what is most important. Approaching this objective individually or collectively should matter less than the results we achieve with the help of the impressions we succeed in making upon the Smyth Research company, through our efforts... To those who want to send individual e-mails, I would suggest the following 4 steps for making the most effective impact:

1. Address your letter, not only to James Smyth, but to all the Smyth Customer service addresses that you can find, as that would make your e-mail less likely to be ignored and/or overlooked. In short, send your mail to all the following addresses simultaneously:


realiser-a16@smyth-research.com

James Smyth james@smyth-research.com

sales@smyth-research.com

info@smyth-research.com

lorr@smyth-research.com

The last address is that of Lorr Kramer, Smyth Research's American Rep. Ideally, I would also add the personal addresses of Stephen and Mike Smyth, if I could find them. If anyone knows what they are, please consider sharing them with the rest of us.

2. Place the expression "Realiser A-16 customer Relations" in the "Subject" bar of your e-mail. Here I am counting on the fact that if everyone writes to Smyth Research, indicating the subject with the same expression and wording, our correspondence will soon become easily identifiable, and difficult to ignore. Also the more they see that same expression in the subject line of e-mails they receive, the larger the size of this campaign's footprint will become.

3. Stating all your requests and/or petitions politely and courteously, briefly list all the concerns about communication lapses and related matters that you would like them to address.
Include the request for Smyth to take seriously their own promise to provide fortnightly updates to A-16 customers, and to use a consolidated customer mailing list that includes all backers and pre-orderers, which will ensure that their updates are distributed to all their A-16 customers. Pay the company any compliments that you consider them to have genuinely earned, without any exaggerations.

4. Resend the e-mail if you do not receive .a response from Smyth Research within 3 days.

For my part, I am going to send out a personal e-mail to Smyth Research, one in which I shall list some or all of the above concerns that we commonly identified.
I have also begun to receive requests from some members to be included in the group letters, and I shall send out one letter for each group of 10 requests I receive.

I imagine that this process will continue until the Smyths respond favorably to the request, notably, the one demanding that they act and remain truer to their own promise of sending all the
A-16 customers, one update every two weeks.

 

[462429]

We should ask that Stephen Smith (not James!) explain to us the reasons for such a delay and such a poor comunication. In the form of the video interview!

 

[mrtim6]

Good work Sahmen!

 

[mrtim6]

I still believe a group effort is more powerful than individual emails or even better do both.

Let’s face it kick starter is all about the collaboration of a group of like minded individuals.

 

[sander99]

Just a thought:
I feel a little bit uncomfortable about supplying my real name and the e-mail address that I use to communicate with Smyth, because I would not want that information to somehow show up in public.
And if we go for the plan to do a "synchronised individual e-mail action" it is not necessary.
For communication amongs ourselves - for example to coördinate our e-mail action - in addition to just use this thread we can use PM's, and we just need to make a list of Head-Fi user name's for that.

 

[teacher1000]

If I were just learning about the A16 now, and doing my 'due diligence' as it were, I'd be totally put off by the apparent disdain shown by the Smyths for their potential and actual customers.
Its damaging their business to be so uncommunicative, and all it would take is an investment of 15 minutes every two weeks to put it right. Its inexplicable why they don't do this.
While I have heard the A16 and A8 and remain optimistic, I can quite see why others are less confident.

 

[sander99]

I want to propose that we also put something positive in the mail to Smyth:
Even though we did not (all) ask for the A16 upgrades and extra invested development time, and even though they could not charge us extra for that now that we already payed an agreed upon price, still I would like to show some acknowledgement and say thank you for the extra value we will get for the, in retrospect, relatively low price (even for the preorderers, of which I am one).

 

[trailerking]

I wouldn't be surprised if what's happened is something like the following: Around the end of last year (after paying for all the metalwork and pcbs) they ran out of money and development stopped while they searched for a partner to invest. In May they hooked up with Heavenly Sound and they got back to work, now months behind. The fact that a mockup of the Realiser Exchange site was up briefly a couple months ago (with recording studios linked to Heavenly Sound) suggests that they are attempting to get the product off the ground. The increased price of the A16 is perhaps an attempt to not lose money on it. They probably feel if they were honest about their setbacks and financial issues it would tarnish the company and decrease sales. But that's going to happen regardless if they continue to so uncommunicative.

 

[462429]

If we only could make them feel guilty and not angry.

 

[sahmen]

I want to propose that we also put something positive in the mail to Smyth:
Even though we did not (all) ask for the A16 upgrades and extra invested development time, and even though they could not charge us extra for that now that we already payed an agreed upon price, still I would like to show some acknowledgement and say thank you for the extra value we will get for the, in retrospect, relatively low price (even for the preorderers, of which I am one).

This sounds like a great idea to me.

 

[mrtim6]

I have emailed James Smyth today here’s a copy of my email.

Good morning James,

It appears each time your company announces a shipping date for the A16 something unforeseen comes up. I think it would be to the benefit of your company and to the benefit of your customers to maintain regular communication. It will reduce the frustration and increasing feeling of mistrust between new and potential future customers clearly seen on forums such as headfi


https://www.head-fi.org/threads/smyth-research-realiser-a16.807459/page-212

You really need to be part of this forum and stick to your promises of fortnightly updates. Even a nothing’s changed we are working on ....... update would be helpful.

Regards,

 

[sahmen]

I have emailed James Smyth today here’s a copy of my email.

Good morning James,

It appears each time your company announces a shipping date for the A16 something unforeseen comes up. I think it would be to the benefit of your company and to the benefit of your customers to maintain regular communication. It will reduce the frustration and increasing feeling of mistrust between new and potential future customers clearly seen on forums such as headfi


https://www.head-fi.org/threads/smyth-research-realiser-a16.807459/page-212

You really need to be part of this forum and stick to your promises of fortnightly updates. Even a nothing’s changed we are working on ....... update would be helpful.

Regards,

great job and thanks for kicking off the campaign...

*Upon further reflection, it seems to me that a 2-pronged approach of sending to Smyth Research individual e-mails as well as grouped petitions would work best, as that will allow each participant to approach the issue in a way that suits their predilections best. The objective is to get the Smyths to respond, and respond favorably to our requests, and in the end, that is what is most important. Approaching this objective individually or collectively should matter less than the results we achieve with the help of the impressions we succeed in making upon the Smyth Research company, through our efforts... To those who want to send individual e-mails, I would suggest the following 4 steps for making the most effective impact:

1. Address your letter, not only to James Smyth, but to all the Smyth Customer service addresses that you can find, as that would make your e-mail less likely to be ignored and/or overlooked. In short, send your mail to all the following addresses simultaneously:


realiser-a16@smyth-research.com

James Smyth james@smyth-research.com

sales@smyth-research.com

info@smyth-research.com

lorr@smyth-research.com

The last address is that of Lorr Kramer, Smyth Research's American Rep. Ideally, I would also add the personal addresses of Stephen and Mike Smyth, if I could find them. If anyone knows what they are, please consider sharing them with the rest of us.

2. Place the expression "Realiser A-16 customer Relations" in the "Subject" bar of your e-mail. Here I am counting on the fact that if everyone writes to Smyth Research, indicating the subject with the same expression and wording, our correspondence will soon become easily identifiable, and difficult to ignore. Also the more they see that same expression in the subject line of e-mails they receive, the larger the size of this campaign's footprint will become.

3. Stating all your requests and/or petitions politely and courteously, briefly list all the concerns about communication lapses and related matters that you would like them to address.
Include the request for Smyth to take seriously their own promise to provide fortnightly updates to A-16 customers, and to use a consolidated customer mailing list that includes all backers and pre-orderers, which will ensure that their updates are distributed to all their A-16 customers. Pay the company any compliments that you consider them to have genuinely earned, without any exaggerations.

4. Resend the e-mail if you do not receive .a response from Smyth Research within 3 days.

For my part, I am going to send out a personal e-mail to Smyth Research, one in which I shall list some or all of the above concerns that we commonly identified.
I have also begun to receive requests from some members to be included in the group letters, and I shall send out one letter for each group of 10 requests I receive.

I imagine that this process will continue until the Smyths respond favorably to the request, notably, the one demanding that they act and remain truer to their own promise of sending all the
A-16 customers, one update every two weeks.

 

[Richter Di]

I just wrote them at the info@... an email and also contacted them via the Kickstarter platform:

Hello,
Thank you for all the effort and new features you are putting in the A16.
As a Kickstarter backer (No 98) I feel too much time has passed since the promised delivery date May 2017. In addition updates about the project have not been as regular as promised.
I think it would be to the benefit of your company and to the benefit of your customers to maintain regular communication. It will reduce the frustration and increasing feeling of mistrust between new and potential future customers clearly seen on forums such as headfi.
You really should be part of this forum and stick to your promises of fortnightly updates.

In addition the Brexit is coming closer and if you want to keep your promise - without taking additional money in your hands - that “all EU supporters will receive delivery of their Realiser A16 without further charge” you will need to deliver before the Brexit will make things much more difficult.

So please let us know what is happening and when we will at last get our A16. Thank you!
Kind regards, Reiner Grootenhuis (headfi: Richter Di)Germany

 

[raband]

Also worth adding the new "financial partner" in to the emails? Heavenly something?

 

[raband]

I'm pre-order, not kickstarter so can't post on the kickstarter site, but a copy of the email and a link here would be great if a backer could put it up there.