Prototype The world most flexible SFF case? LOUQE Ghost S1

[Kwirek]

I'm Scandinavian too and I understand Swedish. I know the last couple of years "Black Friday" has been a thing, but it's nothing compared to the real one here in the states. Some of the so called "deals" are actually worse than regular price in Sweden. It really isn't comparable and sales are not even close to the same, so doubt Postnord or any other company is having trouble keeping up.

Well, apparently it was the most packages they've ever had - in history. On any day, ever.
http://www.gp.se/ekonomi/postnord-slog-rekord-efter-black-friday-1.11257964
https://www.expressen.se/brandstudi...t-over-2-2-miljoner-paket-efter-black-friday/
But it mostly went according to plan, although I've got late packages which I attribute to this.

 

[readeh]

Well, apparently it was the most packages they've ever had - in history. On any day, ever.
http://www.gp.se/ekonomi/postnord-slog-rekord-efter-black-friday-1.11257964
https://www.expressen.se/brandstudi...t-over-2-2-miljoner-paket-efter-black-friday/
But it mostly went according to plan, although I've got late packages which I attribute to this.

Well.. If you were using postnord it's always late, but I can't see how this will have any effect on the Louqe case by this point.

 

[Choidebu]

What are the requirements for getting a `Louqe` section under `Vendor Forums`

I'd really appeciate if we had a place to post compiled resources.
@3lfk1ng

The creator's not even here anymore. Just create a thread and hope they'll come back and beg the mods.

 

[Saici]

Your case looks awesome!.. but god damn Louqe has messed up if they are sending out cases to people that weren't even part of the kickstarter. I was backer 111 in the original kickstarter that got cancelled, almost a year before your order and still no case to be seen.

I'm current kickstarter backer 111, pleased to meet ya


Also I received my case on the 28th in Germany, had to pick up from a location near me. No apparent damages, just a gap on top left side where the top doesn't sit flush against the side panel.

Might be fixable by reassembling it.

 

[Rinzler]

The case in the background is a Dark gray Cerberus with a windowed panel.
The AIO is the Enermax Liqfusion 240mm

Thank you.

 

[Jojo]

...

 

[Kwirek]

Well.. If you were using postnord it's always late, but I can't see how this will have any effect on the Louqe case by this point.

The European packages are sent with Postnord, they are sent out by some large Swedish distribution center for online orders - at the time of the largest influx of domestic shipping in Swedish history. You just complained that EU orders were late even though the Black Friday week is so small in Sweden that it isn't even a factor worth considering.
I pointed out that I'm still waiting for packages ordered during that time, non-Friday or Monday related, indicating that they're still trying to deliver regular packages days after they should have been delivered any other time of the year bar Christmas.

My own speculation is that Loque went as cheap as they could get away with for distribution* and thus got shoved into the cellar when it comes to prioritizing what gets packaged and shipped from the distribution center. Prioritizing a small one-off B-post company isn't rational when it comes at the expense of your large regular customers at their most profitable time of year. Any other week of the year the bet might have payed off, but now it didn't.

*Prudent since they're probably hemorrhaging money at this point.

***

I can forgive them for not considering that something as basic as the post doesn't work roughly the same in other countries, or at least in the EU.
When I started living in the US I was quite horrified by how they just left packages around your house instead of some close at hand pick-up location open 8-22 where you identify yourself with ID to collect it. Then I realized that the US pickup location was really far away with lousy opening hours. Different strokes for different folks.

 

[greyhound]

In my opinion all of us who payed money to louqe for this project are backers, early adopters and even until buyers from the 2nd batch.
Non of us can be save to get the case finally, there is no guarantee. 2nd batch buyers -->"become one of our devoted core backers"
I think like this because I`m prety shure that louqe had to make these additional sellings to get money to continue with the production and distribution. Without this money, they where stock completely somewhere close to the end of the process and non of us would have its case.
Because of this I think it`s not appropriate that early backers have to be preferred.

But the situation without propper informations, that`s the real problem what drives me nuts and gives to mutch fuel to the flames of speculations.

That doesn t make any sense.
Early backers should have recieved their case before anyone.
If you want to sell more, then those new customers should go at the back of the queue.

People that backed the kickstarter are the only reason why this project was possible so they need to be prioritized.

 

[greyhound]

The European packages are sent with Postnord, they are sent out by some large Swedish distribution center for online orders - at the time of the largest influx of domestic shipping in Swedish history. You just complained that EU orders were late even though the Black Friday week is so small in Sweden that it isn't even a factor worth considering.
I pointed out that I'm still waiting for packages ordered during that time, non-Friday or Monday related, indicating that they're still trying to deliver regular packages days after they should have been delivered any other time of the year bar Christmas.

My own speculation is that Loque went as cheap as they could get away with for distribution* and thus got shoved into the cellar when it comes to prioritizing what gets packaged and shipped from the distribution center. Prioritizing a small one-off B-post company isn't rational when it comes at the expense of your large regular customers at their most profitable time of year. Any other week of the year the bet might have payed off, but now it didn't.

*Prudent since they're probably hemorrhaging money at this point.

***

I can forgive them for not considering that something as basic as the post doesn't work roughly the same in other countries, or at least in the EU.
When I started living in the US I was quite horrified by how they just left packages around your house instead of some close at hand pick-up location open 8-22 where you identify yourself with ID to collect it. Then I realized that the US pickup location was really far away with lousy opening hours. Different strokes for different folks.

The cases cleared eu customs on the 31st of OCTOBER.

Black friday was the 23 of november, 4 weeks after the cases left the custom center.

Saying that delays were due to blackfriday doesn t work...

Btw in 3weeks it is christmass...

 

[Jojo]

...

 

[greyhound]

Maybe its not possible for me to explain correctly because I don`t speak properly english. Sorry because of that, but I will try.

You are right until the point of louqe is selling more cases to finance the first ones. And it really seems to be like that. Or is there a other point which makes sense for them to sell more cases of the first batch and sell even more of a secound batch before the first one was produced.
I`m pretty shure direct shipping is not completed because these cases are not produced or payed yet, as well caused of the paypal desaster.

Shure, early adopters should be first, but why does this not happen? I don`t belief louqe has forgotten about them.
Imho, we became to sit all in the exactly same boat.

The reason why this isn't happening is because shippings are very poorly handled just like the rest of this project

 

[enthusiast uk]

So after taking a 15min uber to my "local pickup point" I ran into a new issue that I'm curious if anyone else has had. I live in the UK and my local delivery is coming from DPD so when I print out the pick up form I notice the name on the package is someone else's name (i think someone from louqe team).

This opened up a new can of worms as the pharmacy that the package was delivered to didn't want to release the package to me as it had someone else's name on the pickup sheet. It should be noted that my name was on the physical box with the pharmacy's address. This looks to be a miscommunication between postnord and DPD and wanted to know if anyone else had this issue.

It took me 30 mins or arguing with them before they would let me take the package. Overall terrible experience. The only saving grace is that when I opened the box my case was luckily undamaged.

One a QC note has anyone had issue with their top magnet panel not sitting flush after the pc has been fully assembled. I'd rather not use the screws to hold it flat but the front left corner is slightly raised.

 

[Jojo]

...

 

[BeyondLightning]

My case has finally shipped. Says it will be arriving Thursday (12/6) by the end of the day. Greater Philadephia area is where I'm located

 

[Noober]

Will be curious to see your glass side panel solution for the Ghost. I already have mine. Your Dan panels look pretty awesome.

I'm a Kickstarter backer N° 1392 (29/12/2017) and order #2430 (15/9/2018) and have payed via Paypal, so I'm in the direct queue.

Haven't received anything yet, no tracking, no shipment alert, but also no concrete information whatsoever. All I can deduce from my own personal situation is that my case hasn't even been made yet. I don't mind the delays and the waiting, but the "sorry, there is no information" is a bit harder to swallow - especially when that's just clearly impossible, there has to be more concrete information than "factory said they'll start shipping this week" for the past 4 weeks.

Anyway, currently sporting a DAN A4-SFX v2 : https://pcpartpicker.com/list/6FQGfH
Pics here:

These are the components that'll go in the Ghost when it finally arrives: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/BBMTq4

I'll have to design a custom sidepanel or dremel a hole in the Ghost one to accomodate the Ryujin pump on the CPU. I'll first run it without the sidepanel and then think about how to design the plexiglass sidepanel. I'm thinking towards 3D printing (professionally) brackets that slide in the Ghost and hold a custom designd lasercut plexiglass in place.

Moar later! I hope my case arrives soon

 

[Necere]

It's a bit of a shame Patrik has chosen not to be totally forthright about the causes of all the problems that have plagued this project, though I kind of understand why he wouldn't want to be. From what I've gleaned, I would bet money that it comes down to: 1) Louqe is really just Patrik handling everything (no "team" to speak of at this point); and 2) money/cashflow problems (at least partly due to Paypal withholding money). Those two things alone would explain 90% of the poor communication, delays, and shipping issues. Edit: and I'd have lost that bet, apparently - Louqe is not just Patrik.

If this is basically accurate, then he's probably been afraid that if he let on that the project was hanging by a thread, people would start pulling out in droves - ensuring its failure. He surely knows that if he can just weather through the worst of it, he can still pull out a win. Fortunately, now with people finally getting their cases it seems like it should be smoother sailing going forward.

 

[zhnu]

It's a bit of a shame Patrik has chosen not to be totally forthright about the causes of all the problems that have plagued this project, though I kind of understand why he wouldn't want to be. From what I've gleaned, I would bet money that it comes down to: 1) Louqe is really just Patrik handling everything (no "team" to speak of at this point); and 2) money/cashflow problems (at least partly due to Paypal withholding money). Those two things alone would explain 90% of the poor communication, delays, and shipping issues.

If this is basically accurate, then he's probably been afraid that if he let on that the project was hanging by a thread, people would start pulling out in droves - ensuring its failure. He surely knows that if he can just weather through the worst of it, he can still pull out a win. Fortunately, now with people finally getting their cases it seems like it should be smoother sailing going forward.

I don't know if he can pull out a win on this, I don't see myself giving money to louqe again, not having a public communication channel seems wrong, even if delays happen most people understand when they're told the reason behind it but silence only transmits an image of mischievousness.
Personally this production run seems too big for a first run I think that was the major problem, the lack of knowledge in logistics, marketing customer support and production forecast shows the lack of experience.

 

[Necere]

Yeah, I can understand the sentiment, which is why I said it's kind of shame he took that approach. Still, at least we can be reasonably sure he's making a good faith effort to see it through. He didn't take the money and run, after all. I think it's safe to say that the problems are more to do with unforeseen complications, inexperience, and mismanagement, rather than malice.

 

[zhnu]

I think guys like you Dan and Josh who managed to push a product to public should get together and write a guide like this guy https://www.crowdsupply.com/sutajio-kosagi/the-essential-guide-to-electronics-in-shenzhen
I think it would be a great benefit for the community and new project owners, and avoid some pains who might seems obvious for experienced product designers/manufacturers.

 

[Necere]

I think guys like you Dan and Josh who managed to push a product to public should get together and write a guide like this guy https://www.crowdsupply.com/sutajio-kosagi/the-essential-guide-to-electronics-in-shenzhen
I think it would be a great benefit for the community and new project owners, and avoid some pains who might seems obvious for experienced product designers/manufacturers.

The thing is, I'm not sure I have much great insight to share, at least on the manufacturing side. By going with an established case manufacturer like Lian Li, we could skip all of the most challenging aspects of setting up production overseas. QC, parts suppliers, packaging - all of that was basically taken care of for us. We're actually very fortunate Lian Li existed at all, because there really aren't any other manufacturers that can produce at scale while still using low production volume manufacturing methods that don't require big upfront costs. Everyone else uses high volume methods (die stamping etc.) that requires tooling that can run a quarter million USD or more just for one case model. If we had to go that route, we'd never have gotten off the ground.

Really, the best insights I have to offer are on the project development side and the importance of doing community engagement well in advance of any crowdfunding campaign. I know we would never have been successful if we'd gone stealth mode during development, only to show up one day out of the blue with a Kickstarter like so many do. That awareness and support we got during the early days on hardforum was absolutely essential.