FM3 Now Shipping

Sean D. said:
Here is another hypothesis: the FM3s may have been initially designed to not have a headphone jack and perhaps during some market research or alpha testing, Fractal discovered a headphone jack is more desirable than they originally anticipated. At some point between ordering these "first-run" or "prototype" units and the press release the design was changed to include the headphone jack.
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The original photos from the announcement in April show headphone jacks.
https://www.guitarworld.com/gear/be...ew-fm3-compact-amp-modelermulti-effects-pedal
 
Who remembers when the FM-3 waitlist was created? I got on it 5/24/19, but I don’t know what that means in terms of possible wait time.
 
Welp, I guess I won’t be buying one until at least April, as the headphone jack is very important to me. I love FAS, I love my Axe III and the pace of firmware updates, and I’m sure I’ll love the FM3. But holy crap the release of this product has been mismanaged on so many fronts. Now after all this waiting the first batch doesn’t even have a headphone jack despite the feature being listed since day one? Wow.
 
jm9239 said:
Welp, I guess I won’t be buying one until at least April, as the headphone jack is very important to me. I love FAS, I love my Axe III and the pace of firmware updates, and I’m sure I’ll love the FM3. But holy crap the release of this product has been mismanaged on so many fronts. Now after all this waiting the first batch doesn’t even have a headphone jack despite the feature being listed since day one? Wow.
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Day 1 for Us is not day 1 for them
 
lyricbread said:
Yeah, I’ve honestly never seen this from another company or manufacture. It’s really bizarre to tell you the truth. I’ve worked with countless audio and video companies over the years professionally, and this is just wow! Delays were blamed on chips/code, computers, engineers, and illnesses. Was it a hardware issue all along? Now it seems as if they don’t want to eat these units. I don’t blame them, but they should be offered as an alternative while the complete builds ship. It’s very disappointing. But alas, I love FAS products and it’s just the nature of the company.

But man, just own up and tell the truth. I mean, the invitations instruct buyers to not discuss this? Posts were deleted? Bait and switch is definitely not a good way to do business.

I’m sure my post will be censored (deleted) because we’re not allowed to voice our opinions on their methods of doing business or their products in a negative manner or competitors’ products in a positive manner, but that’s just my $0.02. I’ve got a few grand waiting here to throw your way when it’s ready. Until then...
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Remember that they don't ask money for the position in the waitlist. You could skip this without losing money.
It's the same if they said this 10 month ago or yesterday, it's just an email and your decision
 
lyricbread said:
Yeah, I’ve honestly never seen this from another company or manufacture. It’s really bizarre to tell you the truth. I’ve worked with countless audio and video companies over the years professionally, and this is just wow! Delays were blamed on chips/code, computers, engineers, and illnesses. Was it a hardware issue all along? Now it seems as if they don’t want to eat these units. I don’t blame them, but they should be offered as an alternative while the complete builds ship. It’s very disappointing. But alas, I love FAS products and it’s just the nature of the company.

But man, just own up and tell the truth. I mean, the invitations instruct buyers to not discuss this? Posts were deleted? Bait and switch is definitely not a good way to do business.

I’m sure my post will be censored (deleted) because we’re not allowed to voice our opinions on their methods of doing business or their products in a negative manner or competitors’ products in a positive manner, but that’s just my $0.02. I’ve got a few grand waiting here to throw your way when it’s ready. Until then...
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Have to agree. I know the entitlement brigade will come down on this, but the whole experience has been really bizarre. I’m still anxious to get the product so I suppose none of this has ultimately had any real negative impact. I just feel customer expectations could have been managed better.
 
Yeah those AX8s are selling for peanuts now right?

Seriously though, it's important to some people, it's NOT important to some people, so just act accordingly to whichever group you fall into.

Either wait or take one now, it's a pretty easy choice

The resale value will probably be the same 50$ or a little less than the other units being sold, but be stated as such in the sale

It's simply because it will not be important to some and important to others

Act accordingly
 
I checked my inbox and noticed that I had two FM3 Wait List emails, one from 4/28/19 and another from 5/6/19. Does this mean I have two separate wait list reservations or does it default to the first tied to my email/account? 🤔
 
CCOLE74 said:
If these headphone jack-less FM3’s are only being offered to AX8 waitlister’s wasn’t their expectation to not have a headphone jack in the first place since the AX8 didn’t include one? Kinda doesn’t seem like that big of a deal in that case. If all of us that got on the FM3 waitlist after the official product announcement were presented this option that would understandably be a bit more awkward because many of us signed up with the total expectation of having the headphone jack built in. That’s my 2 cents anyway.
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Ding ding ding. We have a winner! In the future though can you try and be less logical though. We don’t like logic we want visceral reactions! Tear someone’s head off!
 
Fractal somehow got a run of these without the jack. Whether an earlier prototype design accidentally got sent to the production line, or someone forgot to hit "add to cart" for the jack when ordering them, or there was a design constraint that led them to leaving it out for the first run, or something else entirely. They ended up with a (shed/warehouse/backroom) full of them.

They had to make a tough business choice, eat the cost after almost a year of no portable device income (no AX8, delayed FM3) and potentially delay it further, or sell the first run to people as-is with a slight discount and get the product out the door. We don't know what the lead time is to get these made. I've worked with guitar manufacturers in China and sometimes there is a 6-8 month lead time for a run of guitars, nevermind electronics.

Would it have been less controversial if Fractal made a public statement instead of people finding out via word of mouth? Maybe. Maybe not. I'm sure the dogpile would have jumped on either way.

Is it a little silly that the first run is missing a feature? Yes.

Would I prefer a FM3 with a headphone jack? Yes absolutely.

Would I be willing to buy the FM3 without one to get it earlier? Yes absolutely.
 
mcro2430 said:
Fractal somehow got a run of these without the jack. Whether an earlier prototype design accidentally got sent to the production line, or someone forgot to hit "add to cart" for the jack when ordering them, or there was a design constraint that led them to leaving it out for the first run, or something else entirely. They ended up with a (shed/warehouse/backroom) full of them.

They had to make a tough business choice, eat the cost after almost a year of no portable device income (no AX8, delayed FM3) and potentially delay it further, or sell the first run to people as-is with a slight discount and get the product out the door. We don't know what the lead time is to get these made. I've worked with guitar manufacturers in China and sometimes there is a 6-8 month lead time for a run of guitars, nevermind electronics.

Would it have been less controversial if Fractal made a public statement instead of people finding out via word of mouth? Maybe. Maybe not. I'm sure the dogpile would have jumped on either way.

Is it a little silly that the first run is missing a feature? Yes.

Would I prefer a FM3 with a headphone jack? Yes absolutely.

Would I be willing to buy the FM3 without one to get it earlier? Yes absolutely.
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I guess I agree with this. I love all FAS products (if I didn't, I would care about all of this :) ), but the communication was anything but ideal on this though. Had it been explained by Fractal just like you outline it above months ago when they knew of the issue, or even before the invite emails went out, that would have come across much better. Instead, nothing was said and the invite even told people not to say anything about it. Not good. Even now, it would help if Fractal just openly said what really happened, and whether these are just a small number of prototypes offered to AX8 waitlisters or a full warehouse of units that a mistake were made on so that people know the possibilities of getting an invite in this first run to plan on what they want to do.

That said, there was nothing to do about it anyway no matter how they communicated it. For now, I just hope that April actually means April, and the lines of communication about REALISTICALLY fulfilling on that date remain truthful and open. I want that headphone jack and WOULD wait until April, but if my name comes up before that, I would buy without the headphone jack and try to find another solution to listen through headphones directly from the FM3, because at this point I have zero faith in any date given.
 
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I don't understand what ignited all this noise.
Who said FAS had a warehouse full of FM3 without a headphone out ? It's more likely this is a small number of prototypes that turned out to be perfect with the exception of the missing headphone amp. Still good enough to be offered to the ones that were moved over from the AX8 list.
 
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