Status Update on Overbridge [posted February 2018]

News
#629

Can we agree to disagree. They miscalculate something somewhere. I know OB is not canceled, but delayed, but for a period of time it was supposed to be out in Feb as advertised on their website. I bought mine during that period, so I was misled thinking I would be able to use 8 outs trough USB before the end of Feb. Your getting me?

Can we also agree that their FIRST goal is to be profitable, not be your friend or elevate music creativity?

I personnaly love elektron products, but I think they messed up big time here.

5 Likes
#630

P-Tron, I couldn’t agree more.
It’s really simple, and exactly as you name it from my view.

1 Like
#631

I think should be noted overbridge was not promised in February initially, it was promised last year. well ultimately they never actually promised they gave an expected date. Theye gave a dAte And Missed. Now everyone is stuck on February. Giving another date would not solve things.
Additionally what I’ve been getting at is the legal terms which define false or misleading advertising can not be applied as liberally as they have been in this thread. So we agree to disagree if that makes things better for you but I don’t even think you were attempting to understand what I was getting at. Sorry

#632

At this point I think they are afraid to make an actual commitment to any date or even to give a general timeframe. Even if they were to give a timeframe, I don’t think anyone would get their hopes up. Unfortunately now it’s a “wait and see” scenario. The proof is in the pudding, and the only way we’ll know for sure is when it’s actually released. :slight_smile:

#633

Yes I understand your point completely. Legally, in my country, this is a case of misleading advertising.

#634

to be honest i can wait but i can’t help feel a bit sorry for the people here who have been waiting like 12 months?,wow thats crazy misleading advertising on such a good product which elektron surely have with the current range of devices

4 Likes
#635

At this point i wouldn’t even care if they said “hey we’re working towards X date, we might not hit it, but check back then”

Even that would be better then this silence which is clearly doing nothing for the user base. Do the marketing guy’s not want to step in here?

1 Like
#636

I really can’t blame them for not providing yet another date, which even the most optimistic among us or the Elektron team would have to admit could come and go with no sign of OB. I actually give them credit for not being tempted to say “March for sure, we promise!” when they can’t be sure when they’ll get over whatever developmental hurdles/roadblocks they’re facing, and all the while people are writing OB in red hearts on March 31 and then crying themselves to sleep that night

Furthermore, I’m glad they’re not tempted to release just anything and we find out the ugly way that the latency makes it practically unusable. Whatever troubles they’re dealing with, I wholeheartedly believe it involves something an order of a magnitude greater than “fix a few bugs and write some standard code”, probably something like “shit, guys, we really need to reinvent the wheel to get the latency and memory usage in excellent shape, who here is a ninja savant at assembly code?”

#637

Yeah, man up and do some kind of update. But I’m sure they are trying to protect the sales, which is normal for a company. Most of us here would act the same way if we were in their position, no question about it. But also Elektron people would act like some of us in this thread, with disappointment. Try missing out on a paycheck or two with a status update from a boss: “we are working very hard to deliver those checks” See how that feels.

Anyway
Great company that got caught in business side too quick too soon and completely unprepared. They will feel consequences, at least my Digitone order is on hold until Overbridge 2.0

#638

Whether or not it’s technically false advertising doesn’t matter here as this isn’t a courtroom. However, Elektron does have problems because they have misled customers by promising features to make sales and not delivering due to incompetence.

Is it the end of 2017 yet? Is it February 2018 yet? As evidenced by this thread and others, many people bought these machines on the basis of trust in Elektron at their word on promised features, and this is the fallout. They’ve alienated many in their base and damaged their reputation.

Oh, and for many there’s a host of other bugs and missing features besides Overbridge.

4 Likes
#639

I bet you one Toblerone that a delayed release date of a product no one has paid for yet does not meet any legally enforceable definition of misleading/false advertising in your country.

4 Likes
#640

I might investigate this with the ACCC in Australia, just out of curiosity. I doubt this will qualify as misleading or false advertising but will be interesting to find out!
https://www.accc.gov.au/consumers/misleading-claims-advertising/false-or-misleading-claims

EDIT:
From the website:
"Businesses are not allowed to make statements that are incorrect or likely to create a false impression.
This rule applies to their advertising, their product packaging, and any information provided to you by their staff or online shopping services. It also applies to any statements made by businesses in the media or online, such as testimonials on their websites or social media pages."

“It makes no difference whether the business intended to mislead you or not. If the overall impression left by a business’s advertisement, promotion, quotation, statement or other representation creates a misleading impression in your mind—such as to the price, value or the quality of any goods and services—then the behaviour is likely to breach the law.”

OB enabled on website and box
 do you think this breaches the above rules?

3 Likes
#641

I don’t know. It happened with the OT, AR, and now the DT. I’m pretty sure all promises eventually came through with the A4. But, an undelivered promise on one front or another has been par for the course for a while. Regardless, they make amaizing machines.

All their machines took a year or more after release to get filled out with features and to squash bugs. Buying the first year always had some hassles, but user input was typically heard. Some folks get a kick out of helping to shape the final features. There’s a reason to getting their instruments in the hands of many users while developing the instruments. Where they end up is much stronger than front loading their resources. All the machines changed for the better because of their development model.

I don’t have any data on their market growth. But, I’m guessing they’ve grown into a larger market with less tolerance for the growth period of their instruments. If their listening and follow through keeps up with past performance, there’s not much to worry about. Still, empty promises suck and those impacted may feel slighted.

1 Like
#642

@Buska: I’d be very interested to see how that pans out as I’ve hit a dead end with my retailer in Oz in regard to a return/refund.

#643

what are the penalties in your country for misleading advertising? i am sure putting them in jail or sue them for millions will help bringing us OB a little bit sooner. if thats not enough - maybe, waterboarding?

/unserious comment off
btw digitone jailhouse rocks!

#644

I was just going to investigate since @restlessboy handing out Toblerone (i love Toblerone).
But yeah will post results.

Why was your retailer not giving you a refund? Out of 30day grace period?

#645

Yep, outside of their return window. I argued false/misleading advertising but nah, they said to contact Elektron directly. I’ll know better than to ever trust features promoted but not actually implemented by a manufacturer again thats for sure.

5 Likes
#646

Time to stop with all of the moaning and whinging, it achieves nothing useful in my experience. There are enough comments here to justify further action and given the motivation of a Toblerone (it had better be a big bar restlesslboy) I have sent an email to HallÄ konsument raising the concern that Elektron has misled its customers. Will let you know when I get a response.

#647

Are you a lawyer in your country, and do you work in this particular area of law? If not, then you’re just guessing.

Here’s my guess. To successfully bring suit against Elektron for false advertising the plaintiff would have to prove one or both of the following:

  1. The devices in question are not “Overbridge enabled.” Elektron could probably counter this claim by demonstrating that there are hardware and/or software features already in the device that will allow it to integrate with a DAW in the ways they specified in the description of Overbridge.

  2. Elektron did not actually intend to, or didn’t make a reasonable effort to, release Overbridge within the timeframe they originally stated. Elektron could probably counter this claim by producing evidence of their internal development efforts. Something like a code repository showing significant and continuous development and proof that at least one full time software engineer was assigned to the project might be sufficient.

In other words, I doubt athis lawsuit would be successful unless Overbridge is vaporware and Elektron is knowingly lying to their customers. For the sake of all Overbridge enabled device owners, including me, I sure hope that’s not the case.

For the sake of everyone in this thread, I promise to refrain from any further internet lawyering. Good luck to us all!

1 Like
#648

There is one Toblerone* available to the first person who proves to my satisfaction that they could bring a legally enforceable false advertising case against Elektron regarding their claims about Overbridge.

*or probably the money to buy yourself a Toblerone