Completed MJOLNIR: The minimalistic – but not boring – 9.7L Case

[Bumfezzler]

...

This. 100% this.

 

[PoneG]

New update, we’re at the last stage now finally

hey Alex. any news? "Next week we’ll be sending out and email and asking everybody to verify their delivery address." 2 weeks later now

 

[runsamok]

Thor Zone missing a self-set deadline & not communicating? What a huge surprise.

Looking like the delivery window is gonna be pushed into November now.

 

[For_Science]

It's funny that whenever the delivery window is close, it overlaps with me moving to another country....Now I'm not sure if I want it to the delivery delayed further so that I am sure about my next address, or whether it comes while I'm still at my current location

 

[PoneG]

looks like it takes even longer. now its cause of bugs...yea. take a look at twitter

 

[btree123]

Any news on the risers @AlexTzone ? I don't mind the timing but it would just be nice to know because you are talking about sending out cases and I'm not sure if that is part of it or not, etc. etc., so it would be great to have some centralised info on it?

 

[Acen]

Soon, a year for a single PCIE riser ! Congrats, keep it up !

 

[runsamok]

Soon, a year for a single PCIE riser ! Congrats, keep it up !

A PCIE riser that, for some of us, was supposed to be in the case we backed almost 3 years ago!

I'd ask for more updates but it's not like Alex has any credibility at this point. I just want my stuff, that I paid for.

Hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of outstanding obligations along with the reputation of his company circling the drain & Alex can't be bothered to communicate with the people he owes his livelihood to on a regular basis, making his customers track down any & all information about their ongoing & pervasive production issues, business failings & fulfillment problems. Thought maybe there'd been a page turned when he solicited advice on how to do things better, but stays in his same self-serving, business-destroying patterns.

 

[PoneG]

Hi guys,
Just to get you up to date:
"(the mails) Should ship no later than Thursday, but we hope it will be out tomorrow." 10h ago on Twitter. Maybe something is moving.
Nevertheless, I continue to find fault with the incredibly poor communication of Alex, who is active here in the forum several times a day (see his profile) and contributes nothing constructive. or rather nothing at all.

one more thing about the promised pictures from the factory: there is no excuse for a weeks wait to get some pictures. we have smartphones and internet everywhere and it takes seconds to a few minutes to take pictures and send them to any place in the world. maybe the factory burned down. but there would be pictures of a fire too

 

[Artimunor]

Thor Zone missing a self-set deadline & not communicating? What a huge surprise.

Looking like the delivery window is gonna be pushed into November now.

Well, i fail to believe it's intentional, if he communicates and tries to set targets people blame him, if he does not set targets people blame him, if he says "sorry i do not know it is out of my hands" then people blame him... stuck between a rock and a hard place.

i have a feeling it's largely out of his control, even though he's paying for it, he's dependent on many companies that can fail to deliver.
circumstance, force majeur, act-of-god, intentionally ... who knows

one thing is sure, it is not good for his reputation, but ofc. he knows that by now.
overal i believe they try to genuinely make a good product, and had bad luck combined with inconsistent communication.

i think consistently and honestly communicating up-front about their (lack of) power to control the supply lines is important, then updates can be given regular without a flurry of negative comments about broken promises.

I would like to invite Alex to look at how keyboard.io did their production and delivery of the Model 100, it was a very pleasant delivery while they certainly also had their fair share of challenges with bad wood supply and keycaps etc. Perhaps reach out to Jesse and Kaia to learn a thing or 2 about how to get things manufactured in China being a small company during these challenging times of de-globalisation.

Best of luck with making ends meet Alex

 

[runsamok]

Well, i fail to believe it's intentional, if he communicates and tries to set targets people blame him, if he does not set targets people blame him, if he says "sorry i do not know it is out of my hands" then people blame him... stuck between a rock and a hard place.

I don't think he's malicious either, I just think he's way, way out of his depth. Thor Zone/Alex has had YEARS to get better at all of this & they've gotten WORSE at communication & their whole workflow is just as crappy as ever.

i have a feeling it's largely out of his control, even though he's paying for it, he's dependent on many companies that can fail to deliver.
circumstance, force majeur, act-of-god, intentionally ... who knows

Nobody put a gun to Alex's head & made him pick the suppliers he has. Nobody but Alex decided to price the riser cables based on a MOQ that he wasn't gonna reach. His supplier problems should be his problems, not ours.

one thing is sure, it is not good for his reputation, but ofc. he knows that by now.
overal i believe they try to genuinely make a good product, and had bad luck combined with inconsistent communication

Like I've said, not ascribing any malice here, just incompetence with a thick coating of arrogance & sprinkling of narcissism.

i think consistently and honestly communicating up-front about their (lack of) power to control the supply lines is important, then updates can be given regular without a flurry of negative comments about broken promises.

Thor Zone has never, ever, ever been honest & open communicators, yet they have people defending their business practices. While you're certainly entitled to your opinion that these are justified, acceptable & reasonable delays that does not change the fact that I purchased items almost a year ago now & have yet to see delivery. Hell, I haven't even seen the risers & finished BORGs in a picture yet which, given Alex's nature to post up pictures of ultimately inconsequential crap (OH BOY! POWER BUTTON PCBS! LOOK!) seems very, very suspicious to me.

Also: a week to fix a mailing list issue? What is this? 1997?

I'm not interested in excuses, or pictures, or talk about restructuring. All I care about is getting the stuff I paid for, so finally I can have at least the full functionality of my case that I backed Holiday 2019.

It won't ever have the tempered glass panels & perfect color matching, but at least I won't have to pull the thing apart (which grinds against the shell every time, because my core isn't straight & true) every time I do a BIOS upgrade, plus flipping it upright might fix the dreadful thermal performance.

 

[AlexTzone]

Well, i fail to believe it's intentional, if he communicates and tries to set targets people blame him, if he does not set targets people blame him, if he says "sorry i do not know it is out of my hands" then people blame him... stuck between a rock and a hard place.

i have a feeling it's largely out of his control, even though he's paying for it, he's dependent on many companies that can fail to deliver.
circumstance, force majeur, act-of-god, intentionally ... who knows

one thing is sure, it is not good for his reputation, but ofc. he knows that by now.
overal i believe they try to genuinely make a good product, and had bad luck combined with inconsistent communication.

i think consistently and honestly communicating up-front about their (lack of) power to control the supply lines is important, then updates can be given regular without a flurry of negative comments about broken promises.

I would like to invite Alex to look at how keyboard.io did their production and delivery of the Model 100, it was a very pleasant delivery while they certainly also had their fair share of challenges with bad wood supply and keycaps etc. Perhaps reach out to Jesse and Kaia to learn a thing or 2 about how to get things manufactured in China being a small company during these challenging times of de-globalisation.

Best of luck with making ends meet Alex

I’d say about 70% of the delays were due to things that were under our control to some degree, but that we handled poorly. So there’s definitely a huge improvement that can be made and I know which steps have to be taken to get there (also, many members here including yourself have given us great tips that I absolutely will take to heart fully).

However, I’ve been busier keeping the pre-order train running rather than implementing the supply-side / support-side fixes…an amateur mistake that looks incredibly stupid in retrospect.

So now that pre-orders have been closed a long while, the last batch and all replacement parts are sent in the coming weeks, we’ll take a good couple of weeks and restructure how we do things. This includes how to better plan production and shipping, deadlines, how to not overpromise, support, refunds, etc.

We have an incredible product that I’d eagerly want to unveil BUT this time I'm not going to do it (yet). To this point I’ve mostly been doing this myself, but in the recent year Denize has really got a good grasp of what we do, how we do it, what’s good / bad and what must improve. She has also started to take a huge load of my shoulders, which in itself makes me think better. I know me & her will make a MUCH better job with the next product, but I don’t want to rush into something this time. So a couple of week to organize ourselves, go over everything and then…we simply do better, because I know we can.

 

[runsamok]

Where are the BORGs and risers Alex?

Why do you never respond to these simple queries?

What you do in the future is inconsequential when you're not meeting your past obligations.

Stop thinking about tomorrow & deal with the mess you've already made. Trying to talk up the next big thing is a smokescreen.

 

[AlexTzone]

Where are the BORGs and risers Alex?

Why do you never respond to these simple queries?

What you do in the future is inconsequential when you're not meeting your past obligations.

Stop thinking about tomorrow & deal with the mess you've already made. Trying to talk up the next big thing is a smokescreen.

They are in assembly and packaging and will be sent out when that is finished. Everyone will get their stuff.

Thinking about how to do things in the future is exactly how a mess is not going to form then as well.

 

[runsamok]

They are in assembly and packaging and will be sent out when that is finished.

Thinking about how to do things in the future is exactly how a mess is not going to form then as well.

The risers aren't "in assembly".

Do you have the PCIE 4.0 risers you need to meet your outstanding obligations to your paid customers in-hand right now, yes or no?

 

[beerbuddha]

They are in assembly and packaging and will be sent out when that is finished. Everyone will get their stuff.

Thinking about how to do things in the future is exactly how a mess is not going to form then as well.

Question.

If we only ordered the PCIE 4.0 riser, why can It not be sent out in a padded envelop with tracking? For anyone that has bough non-case/non-borg items, how come the "extras" must wait?

if your answer is "it cost less if we make one manifest and thus the delay", please say so and it is fine for most of us knowing this as this is a business decision (not the best but since you are the owner it was a decision to keep cost low)

 

[runsamok]

if your answer is "it cost less if we make one manifest and thus the delay", please say so and it is fine for most of us knowing this as this is a business decision (not the best but since you are the owner it was a decision to keep cost low)

Alex does have a definite history of cutting corners to maintain or increase profitability.

• The downgrade of the risers in the Kickstarter
• The removal of the toolkit from the Kickstarter
• The removal of an RGB controller from the Mjolnir R
• The switch from tempered glass to chemically hardened glass
• Zero stock on hand for replacement parts/warranty needs.

All done with little to no communication, just an executive decision by Alex.

 

[AlexTzone]

Alex does have a definite history of cutting corners to maintain or increase profitability.

• The downgrade of the risers in the Kickstarter
• The removal of the toolkit from the Kickstarter
• The removal of an RGB controller from the Mjolnir R
• The switch from tempered glass to chemically hardened glass
• Zero stock on hand for replacement parts/warranty needs.

All done with little to no communication, just an executive decision by Alex.

Zero stock and risers were bad indeed, the glass was something we got cheated on but it didn’t cost us any less. The rest (toolkit, controller) were a lot cheaper than the route ended up going — custom LED strips and more high quality CNC parts — I’m certain most backers appreciate those upgrades vs generic LED strips, controller (as opposed to being able to use software on your motherboard and sync it with the rest of your peripherals) and a screwdriver.

 

[btree123]

Zero stock and risers were bad indeed, the glass was something we got cheated on but it didn’t cost us any less. The rest (toolkit, controller) were a lot cheaper than the route ended up going — custom LED strips and more high quality CNC parts — I’m certain most backers appreciate those upgrades vs generic LED strips, controller (as opposed to being able to use software on your motherboard and sync it with the rest of your peripherals) and a screwdriver.

Any news on the risers @AlexTzone ? I don't mind the timing but it would just be nice to know because you are talking about sending out cases and I'm not sure if that is part of it or not, etc. etc., so it would be great to have some centralised info on it?

For what it's worth I literally don't care about any of that stuff, what's happened has happened, I'm just interested in when you think I'll get the riser?

 

[PoneG]

anyone got mail from thor-zone?