While I supported the other guy selling his II on ebay (since the seller wasn't exploiting FA's name), this is just pure f*cking ridiculous. Using Fractal's name and "goodwill" to blatantly cashing in like this.
Whether or not anyone accepts it, we're all a part of this mess too. Its us who've made it the "I must have it or I can never strum another string again" situation. I have an equal share in that fever and maybe if I hadn't gotten the Ultra, I'd still be dying for one and paranoid. Actually, I still want a II pretty bad and will try to raise funds and eventually buy one next year or something. It is also the manufacturer's share in the creation of this situation. They are justified though. Who doesn't want their business to prosper & for their product to sell extremely well? If I were Cliff, I'd want the same. Unfortunately, the prodcution scale and speed on this thing fails to catch up with the demand which is ever growing. Maybe enough units should've been manufactured to handle the expected demand before marketing it so there would be less availability issues at the time of release. If the production & supply was well thought out, FA would have definite answers to people which would result in less complains and frustration. FA would have had a proper release schedule and numbers of units for different groups of customers (Waiting list, Online Store, Artists & Distributors). To make matters worse, all sorts of information was given out by the over zealous distributor regarding the number of units, their allocation and when they'll be available. To which reply was "There will be plenty of units available...chillax". Everyone was cool after that until the thing actually came out and those "plenty" of units are a myth now.
Starting a waiting list was supposedly a cool idea. It would have been fruitful if production & availability time frame was calculated properly and the people on the waiting list were given a definite date by which the waiting list would start getting served. I say a definite date because "the week of...." and "the month of...." leave people guessing endlessly. Its only a matter of time before same frustration starts to plague the people on waiting list. There will be another wave of "indignant whiners" clamoring for their turn. There are many question marks.
From the posts Ive read, people on the waiting list do not feel very confident about receiving a unit anytime soon. Like I said in one of my earlier posts, the ambiguity & unpleasent events surrounding have made people too skeptical. No matter how much FA tries to better the process, people will complain about one thing or the other. Which is both wrong and justified. Wrong because there are other factors at work here which we're not aware of and which limit FA from producing a bizillion units a day. Justified because the planning wasn't so well thought out ground up and people who are spending $2200 (or $2600 or more) on a product have entitlement to whine, no matter if anyone likes it or not.
Please do not consider this complaining, Ive bought an Ultra and I'm at peace now and I will eventually buy a II aswell. Fractal makes amazing products but waiting for them to be available is not exactly a joyride. This post is about just how the things went and my analysis from a consumer perspective.
