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> "...with the quick turn of events, we are emotionally overwhelmed" I didn't preorder and have no skin in this. But, it really irritates me when companies sh

> "...with the quick turn of events, we are emotionally overwhelmed" I didn't preorder and have no skin in this. But, it really irritates me when companies share their feels after screwing people over. I dont care that you're super sad! We're not compadres, and I'm not going to sympathize on a personal level when your professional failure cost me. Same with touchy-feely status updates when hosted services go down and paying customers are losing money. Github used to do that back in the day. Extended outages and their status log was smiley and cutesy as if we're buddies through all this. We are not.

tsomctl 9y ago
It shows a lack of empathy.
meddlepal 9y ago
Agree on the point of cutesy bullshit marketing/PR fluff when your team or service fails to deliver. I'm really tired of the infantilization of communication. I think this is a West Coast thing. It seems to have originated there but it doesn't translate outside of SF.
- dguaraglia 9y ago
  And yet, here we are, talking about a service that has become known around the world... maybe it does work outside of San Francisco, it's just some people it doesn't agree with?
  - khazhou 9y ago
    I doubt their downtime communications were a factor in their huge success.
    - dguaraglia 9y ago
      It clearly wasn't their demise either. My point being that people - including myself - form very strong opinions about what "works" and "doesn't work", while failing to acknowledge the bigger picture. Companies with this kind of global presence have a better way to measure marketing impact than reading through random Hacker News comments. For what's worth, I think the concept for Snapchat is stupid and I can't see a single use for it, and yet... they managed to get to an IPO.
      - khazhou 9y ago
        You're right. I'll refrain from commenting on how large tech companies conduct their business from now on.
        dguaraglia 9y ago
        Please don't. Just be aware that making comments such as "that doesn't work outside of the Bay Area" like the original poster did are kind of silly.
- danieldk 9y ago
  Not just when they fail deliver. I like 1Password, but I can't stand their '1Password talking in first person about itself'-communication: https://twitter.com/1password https://twitter.com/1password And then the self-congratulating blog posts, with employees redoing it in the comments: https://blog.agilebits.com/2017/07/13/why-we-love-1password-memberships/ https://blog.agilebits.com/2017/07/13/why-we-love-1password-...
leggomylibro 9y ago
Ha, yeah. As a customer, I expect you to place a realistic upper bound on your ability to deliver. Like, Nintendo's SNES Classics sold out in about 100ms. But they didn't promise an infinite quantity and THEN start asking digikey and mouser what their stocks of SuperFX chips looked like. So you want to use a part in a design. Maybe...I dunno...check how much stock you can purchase in a short period of time with little notice? If say, your core processor is on a 14-week lead time at every factory that makes them, maybe you'd want to do a limited run to start with? It doesn't sound like this company made it that far, though. Did they even have a final product? I can't quite tell from the article, but it sounds like 'no.'
nunez 9y ago
I would love a communications email from a company that went like this. "Hi! We're making this change. Please email or call us <here> or <here> if you have any questions, concerns or feedback." In this case: "Hello. We thank our Kickstarer backers for being with us since day one. Unfortunately, we have run out of capital and will be shutting down by <date>. Those of you that pre-ordered can expect to get refunded within <period>. Please email or call us <here> or <here> with any questions, comments or concerns." Simple English. Short, simple and easy to communicate with the company further for those that need to. That said, there must be a reason why PR specialists craft these lengthy, emotional messages to their customers.

tsomctl 9y ago

It shows a lack of empathy.

meddlepal 9y ago

Agree on the point of cutesy bullshit marketing/PR fluff when your team or service fails to deliver. I'm really tired of the infantilization of communication. I think this is a West Coast thing. It seems to have originated there but it doesn't translate outside of SF.

dguaraglia 9y ago
And yet, here we are, talking about a service that has become known around the world... maybe it does work outside of San Francisco, it's just some people it doesn't agree with?
- khazhou 9y ago
  I doubt their downtime communications were a factor in their huge success.
  - dguaraglia 9y ago
    It clearly wasn't their demise either. My point being that people - including myself - form very strong opinions about what "works" and "doesn't work", while failing to acknowledge the bigger picture. Companies with this kind of global presence have a better way to measure marketing impact than reading through random Hacker News comments. For what's worth, I think the concept for Snapchat is stupid and I can't see a single use for it, and yet... they managed to get to an IPO.
    - khazhou 9y ago
      You're right. I'll refrain from commenting on how large tech companies conduct their business from now on.
      - dguaraglia 9y ago
        Please don't. Just be aware that making comments such as "that doesn't work outside of the Bay Area" like the original poster did are kind of silly.
danieldk 9y ago
Not just when they fail deliver. I like 1Password, but I can't stand their '1Password talking in first person about itself'-communication: https://twitter.com/1password https://twitter.com/1password And then the self-congratulating blog posts, with employees redoing it in the comments: https://blog.agilebits.com/2017/07/13/why-we-love-1password-memberships/ https://blog.agilebits.com/2017/07/13/why-we-love-1password-...

leggomylibro 9y ago

Ha, yeah. As a customer, I expect you to place a realistic upper bound on your ability to deliver. Like, Nintendo's SNES Classics sold out in about 100ms. But they didn't promise an infinite quantity and THEN start asking digikey and mouser what their stocks of SuperFX chips looked like. So you want to use a part in a design. Maybe...I dunno...check how much stock you can purchase in a short period of time with little notice? If say, your core processor is on a 14-week lead time at every factory that makes them, maybe you'd want to do a limited run to start with? It doesn't sound like this company made it that far, though. Did they even have a final product? I can't quite tell from the article, but it sounds like 'no.'

nunez 9y ago

I would love a communications email from a company that went like this. "Hi! We're making this change. Please email or call us <here> or <here> if you have any questions, concerns or feedback." In this case: "Hello. We thank our Kickstarer backers for being with us since day one. Unfortunately, we have run out of capital and will be shutting down by <date>. Those of you that pre-ordered can expect to get refunded within <period>. Please email or call us <here> or <here> with any questions, comments or concerns." Simple English. Short, simple and easy to communicate with the company further for those that need to. That said, there must be a reason why PR specialists craft these lengthy, emotional messages to their customers.