eora3d and their lack of communication

I start to think that this company will be a hopeless case. The quality of the hardware seems good. The software sucks, but this can always be fixed along the way. What I'm really worried about, though, is the lack of clear communication. I bet no backer at kickstarter or indiegogo would have any problems if the team would write an email explaining why things are late. For all I know, this happens to basically every project. But now this company already has such a bad reputation, it will be close to impossible to correct this, even when the scanner turns out to be a high quality product.

What are the opinions from other people? Do you still put any hope in this product or this company?

eora7d wrote:What are the opinions from other people? Do you still put any hope in this product or this company?

I'm not quite sure. It took a long time until the Android app was available but finally it was. So I think there is still some sort of hope. We can only wait and see ...

Here is my general speculation based off what I have seen and read from and about Eora 3d since it first started on Kickstarter:

I think they started out with a great idea and found they had the right people to make it happen. So they made a prototype and liked the results and decided they had enough of a good idea with the right combination of skills to go for a Kickstarter. At this time they had no idea how difficult it would be to source and produce the hardware. Eventually they got over that hurtle. You all know that long and painful story. The end result is we had some really nice hardware that will function as promised. However, this next part is what I suspect also happened....

In the beginning they had a programmer/electronics engineer that knew what he was doing. I suspect it was the man behind the Moedls scanner project or at least heavily assisted by him. If you look at the early test examples and promised specs of the software, it looked WAY more developed than what we are seeing today. Anyway, "they" worked together for a while and then something happened that made it impossible to continue working together; or there was legal action threatened for stolen intellectual property. Whatever happened, they could no longer continue with the old software and so had to write new software from scratch. They found a programmer that just did not understand programming for the board as well as the first guy and it was already late in the game as the Kickstarter and perhaps even the Indegogo campaign had already finished with much of the money spent.  Now they were in a position of inferior programming that was way behind the development curve of what they had and not wanting to air their "dirty laundry". Also, they had nobody who was skilled at public relations that was willing or able to carry that ball. Thus, no real communication, and a suddenly hardly-functioning device due to software underdevelopment lag and an already severely tardy shipping deadline.

They had little choice but to ship a hardly functioning device and hope that constant updates to the software as they developed it could keep all the angry backers, investors and other potential clients at bay. Now, their (likely understaffed) crew is meeting with so much pressure and backlash that they are likely near, at, or beyond mental breaking points. Anytime THAT happens you have the possibility of rash behavior; like quitting the project close to the finish line, employees demanding payment or threatening legal action, deciding to possibly take whatever money they can get their hands on and running away, or you can insert your stress motivated conspiracy theory here.

Now I am not saying any of this actually happened. It is simply easy to paint such a picture with the information that is available up to this point. If any or all of that has happened . Then I truly hope someone re-picks up this ball again and runs with it. It is simply to good a potential product to wish for anything other than success.

If none of that happened, then they really are just incompetent at communication and seriously do not understand just how important to a business customer support is.

I really do wish them the best and hope this is all just my overactive imagination talking.

Many of the guys at kickstarter beginning with a good idea are students or home makers - and have no idea of how a business work and what it needs to keep it running. And when their project gets the suggested money they were overwhelmed of the never expected work that is needed to do and things that could happen. I'm sure nobody of the team has ever negotiated with a Chinese company before.
So let's be gentle.
What really would this give a shot might be an open SDK - I'm sure there is enough knowledge in the wild to fastly improve the software situation.

I agree, and Kickstarter developers often have issues - which everyone expects and can accept IF they are communicated. Months or years late is fine as long as you know something is going on - but silence/lies is NOT acceptable and is detrimental, so I do not understand why someone involved does not just pop a message in to KS saying 'sorry, things are harder than we thought but we are still trying' and the vast majority of backers will be happy with that. Avoiding the issues and saying nothing just leads to loads of "scam" posts which are detrimental to any future of the product/producers - once these negative comments get out they are there forever, and no response makes them grow and grow so it makes no sense someone does not say something, anything, just so we know we did not back scammers but rather a group of inexperienced people trying their best.

Speed, even final 'first' product, are less important than keeping people informed.

The reason being I received broken hardware, can't connect via BT, doubt that it will be able to scan even if I did get it connected.
My laser was also mounted the wrong way around, the hardware is only is only good when composed of one full functioning unit.

Now I have to go through a, what God only knows, is a replacement process with these lads at Eora3D.

Not sure if I should just give up and get a Sony Xperia XZ1, that phone has working 3D functionality.

I hear you Vickusb. What is the resolution capability of that phone? The main reason I am sticking with any sliver of hope for the Eora 3D through thick and thin is because of the possible scan resolution at this price point. My photogrammetry skills and resources are good for anything that does not require extreme detail.

vickusb wrote:The reason being I received broken hardware, can't connect via BT, doubt that it will be able to scan even if I did get it connected.
My laser was also mounted the wrong way around, the hardware is only is only good when composed of one full functioning unit.

Now I have to go through a, what God only knows, is a replacement process with these lads at Eora3D.

Not sure if I should just give up and get a Sony Xperia XZ1, that phone has working 3D functionality.

I am afraid the Sony phone resolution won't be much better than 123D Catch, or any other photogrammetry software.

For accuracy, you need structured light and/or laser scanning.

I'm just embarrassed about it being Australian. Our country is turning into a basket case well enough as is without it being actually pushed along.

As an American, I feel your pain.

RenderMac wrote:Many of the guys at kickstarter beginning with a good idea are students or home makers - and have no idea of how a business work and what it needs to keep it running. And when their project gets the suggested money they were overwhelmed of the never expected work that is needed to do and things that could happen. I'm sure nobody of the team has ever negotiated with a Chinese company before.
So let's be gentle.

Gentle? Do you work for this company?

They put out false videos promoting this as a high-precision scanner.

Then they offer ZERO customer support.

Gentle? They are still taking orders for a product that does not work under the protective umbrella of crowd sourcing.

They could NOT sell this in a store. It is a flawed product!