How would you have done it differently?
Well - I think they were smart - actually to stagger the launch - especially if in 12-18 months they are going to be getting multiple modules in for maintenance. there is no other way they could have done it IMHO
What do you think the manufacturing cost is on the Trident? I wonder if it would have been possible for Neptune to approach large online retailers and request they offer preorders for X months prior to launch (Terrence already said the current launch date was known in advance) and then use whatever they actually produced for the current launch for brick & mortar as well as restocking.
It might cost 600$ but Neptune's cost/manufacturing could have surely met demand if they wanted to, no?
I didn't even think about that. Super smart to try and get an even flow back in for maintenance rather than a giant surge every year.
I don't want to type out a dissertation about importing and lead times. But it is something I deal with daily, along with the domestic sales of what we bring in. I also want to reiterate that I'm not bashing the product or anything else involved with any of the multiple others aspects of it, beyond the launch.
There are several factors that I obviously don't have knowledge of on their end. Like if they already have sufficient numbers of the sku on hand and are doling them out on a limited basis to deal with the, future, internal, issue of servicing the units. If that is the case then that's their, again internal, issue. There is over a year to figure out how to plan for that to be sure the, internal, infrastructure is in place.
If it's a shortage of product at launch problem then it's a lack of proper planning on their end. There could have been presales starting shortly after moving from Alpha to Beta testing. This would have given them much needed demand information to allow purchasing to get closer to meet the demand.
A happy customer is a good customer. There will always be a percentage that will never be happy no matter what a company does. But when you do things as a company that unintentionally alienate your target audience it's going to cost you one way or another. There are many people throughout this entire launch that have gone in another direction and there very well be many more that do so now. That's not a good thing for any company.
Am I a little miffed? Yeah I am. I wanted to support my LFS and pick one up from them but they only got one unit and it was pre-sold long ago.
BRS sold their stock before the official launch time, so I'm SOL. On that note, who launches a product release at 3am to half of the countries population?
