Is WakeMate vaporware?
I woke up this morning and found an update email from WakeMate in which they were announcing a delay in the shipment of their much anticipated sleep companion.
Since I had already pre-ordered their product and the initial ship date (25th Jan.) was never too soon, the delay and it’s new proposition got me concerned. They now had a potentially months long delay on a product no one had ever seen and they were trying to compensate the early adopters with an unannounced premium service of unknown use.
The positive chap in me quickly jot down a tips&tricks email back to WakeMate in hope they’d listen and maybe change something before it was too late.
However, when the Gmail sent back a receipt that my email failed permanently, my already dim excitement paled.
UPDATE 1: The contact email appears to work again. Arun Gupta of WakeMate emailed me earlier, so they are listening.
UPDATE 2: Let me be the first to drop the ball and call WakeMate vaporware. Nevermind my $5 pre-order downpayment. I won’t bother to cancel it.
Daniel Tanner is more understanding and supportive than I was above calling WakeMate vaporware too soon. I’ll join him on that thought but that question mark in the title stays.
Past my disappointment trying to contact WakeMate earlier, they have pinged back and promised to shoot out a new email and straighten things up.
Bellow is my note to WakeMate in reply to their delay email this morning:
Dear WakeMate team,
thanks for the note below. It’s indeed welcome to know the status of your development.
However, I’d like to share some thoughts on your update and how you could avoid the seeds of backlash you are experiencing among the faithful customers who preordered your yet unseen product.
I don’t think many have expected you to fulfill the initial shipment promise. For a new and potentially breakthrough device a slight delay is acceptable. Unfortunately your new estimate suggests the delay may be in the months range.
Your compensation, free access to an unannounced and potentially uninteresting service, is hardly satisfactory.
Furthermore, no one has ever seen a working WakeMate prototype, as Google suggests after a quick search.
You now have a potentially months long delay in shipping a product no one has ever seen to which you add as compensation an unannounced service of unknown use.
I’ve learned in my many years of doing business that, instead of breaking promises, shipping whatever you got may be the smartest thing to do for your company. If not, it may be a good idea to post a WakeMate demo on your website to help keep early adopters and news outlets interested.
As it stands it’s just a matter of time until your product is called vaporware and whatever warm receiving you got with the initial announcement will be replaced by dismay and backlash (http://twitter.com/#search?q=wakemate).
I’m sure you’re working hard to deliver a cool product and to meet your promises.
Good luck,
Dan
