I agree with santaclarajim that those of use still waiting should be compensated but I'm not holding my breath. If Outlaw doesn't care enough about us to spend 5 minutes to type us a brief update on the shipping delays why would they care about compensating us?

Here is a copy of an email I sent to Scott recently. He has put up with a lot from me. We had exchanged a couple before this one, but I think this conveys my feelings. I included his response in the body of my response to him which do not show up well due to the lack of fonts change.


Thanks Scott,

You cannot possibly understand my frustration!

I imagine you have had quite a few calls and emails the past month or so of disgruntled "reservaitonists". This is no way to run a business like you have. The other internet companies I have dealt with do not give you the run around. SVS and Diva are a joy to deal with. Even the mighty Stewart Filmscreen was easier to deal with. And they are not an internet only company. Denon even does a better job than you guys. Please, take a lesson from them.

I knew exactly when the shipment arrived in the US, when and what to expect. The Outlaw way is to see how far we can go before we have to tell the customer anything. I am sure this has been a very difficult development process and Murphy's law has come into play every step of the way, but you should do a better job with your potential customers. Customer support after the sale seems outstanding. But you're falling short in your handling of those waiting on product.

Personally, I am glad there is an alternative to the Japanese and Canadian companies, but you guys need to get your act together.

You once emailed me back about a comment I made about how Outlaw really had no intent of delivering production product by Christmas. And you said that was:

"Quite frankly we had every intention of honoring the Christmas
deadline that we had announced. It was not met due to unforeseen software
related problems."

Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice shame on me. Fool me a dozen times with fraudulent delivery dates...

For your edification and to help you when others ask you the same questions:

In no way am I attempting to be evasive.
(You are, have been and have to be evasive because you are not allowed to give a ship date)
I have provided you with the most accurate estimate I am capable of making at this time. (Because you are told not to give anyone a guaranteed ship date)
If I receive further information that permits me to be more specific I would be happy to
email you as I understand your frustration. (I bet you a nickel you never get any further information to allow you to be more specific, and I raise the BS flag on this statement. You are just trying to conjole a disgruntled customer)

Unfortunately, I just can not make any guarantees at this time. (Because you have been instructed not to guarantee anything)

I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this causes you. (I believe this one.)

Enough of my foolish lecturing. Just the engineer in me trying to fix things that are broken. But please read what I have written, pass it on up the line if you can and do a better job with waiting customers.


Any one else who has not gotten a 950 feel the same way?

I feel the same way as you jacket_fan. I like Outlaw as a company and respect their products. I understand the setbacks they are going through to try to deliver a superior product at an affordable price. I also understand and appreciate the fact that they are working their tails off to do it. As I’ve said before, I don’t think anyone is complaining about Outlaw itself or their drive to create great products.

My frustration with Outlaw is their apparent attitude of indifference about keeping us informed (specifically my frustration is with whomever is in charge of deciding when to release updates). I think Scott is doing a great job with the forums but apparently someone above him thinks that we, a core group of Outlaw 950 supporters, are not worthy of information updates as things change in the shipping schedule. I am having trouble understanding this aloof attitude Outlaw has taken.

I think most of us don’t care about the BS, we just want to know what’s going on. We understand with a new release that there will be technical issues, bugs and fixes. Whatever the case, we are still here. Why not just let us know what’s going on? We aren’t looking for a long-winded, 3 page report everytime there is a problem, just a short paragraph saying that they hit a snag with such and such, they are working on it and that they would update us every week or whatever until it’s fixed. Is that to much to ask?? I know they are busy but you can’t tell me someone doesn’t have time to take care of this once a week. Who’s runnin’ this rodeo dammit?

jacket-fan,
you asked.....
First, I'm somewhat surprised to read a post like that from you. I've read with great interest many of your posts, and usually find them informative, well thought out, and helpful.
Unfortunately, I can't say the same about your most recent (above) e-mail to Scott.
Personally, I wouldn't put up with that from anybody...customer, potential customer, or past customer. Scott should probably be considered for Sainthood after all the garbage he's put up with from alot of people. I don't know the guy...never met him, talked to him, or e-mailed him. Remember the adage about "don't shoot the messenger" ??
In direct answer to your question, No...I don't feel that way.
Get a grip...it's a pre-amp, not a cure for cancer as you lie on your deathbed.
Scott, and the rest of the Outlaws, have been putting up with alot of crap for sometime over this issue. Certainly some of it is deserved, as they have been slow with information and updates, but again, it's just a pre-amp.
Whether you buy one or not must be of little consequence to them, but the fact that they have made you feel like your purchase does matter to them speaks volumes about how much they care about their customers.
I've been without my home theater for a couple of months. Why? I sold my old gear (which wasn't bad) in anticipation of the 950. I didn't expect it to be this long, and I would have liked to get it sooner, but it's just a pre-amp.
Don't wanna wait ?? Buy something else from someone else. Plenty of other people have, but Outlaw will survive. I don't particularly like McDonalds. I don't eat there and wouldn't. Guess what....they still sell billions of hamburgers without me.
I could go on, but I’ll spare all those other uninterested persons my ramblings.

I guess I don't feel that way.

I'm disappointed that I don't have a new 950 in my HT rack, I really am. I'm not an Outlaw loyalist, I ran across them in January and it seemed to me they were working on a very feature-rich preamp/processor for an outstanding price. They appeared to have a loyal customer base.

I *know* firsthand how hard engineering is. And I *know* firsthand, how much it sucks to ship your first units only to find new problems that you didn't find/couldn't anticipate. And I *know* firsthand how hard it is to make the tradeoff between quality and revenue stream.

Tell me, how ticked off would you be to have gotten one of the first "buggy" 950s?

What I don't have much tolerance for is the lack of communication coming out of Outlaw. Like I said in my previous post, they CHOSE to pre-announce and create a reservation list. They CHOSE to make promises and give dates out. Those were Choices they made. Because of those choices, they now face a long list of ticked off reservationists... Oh well...

As a result of that choice, they *should* communicate with those people. No new dates, no new promises except that when we get our 950 it will be the highest quality they are capable of delivering at this price point. Period.

robertd

And this has to be a classic -ROTFLMAO, outstanding!! I couldn't agree with you more!!

OUTLAW- I have $899 US dollars plus for shipping, please sell me your product....

These guys deserve some credit. I have been very impressed with the customer service. My first unit worked very well, EXCEPT I couldnt get the Toslink inputs to work. On either my DSS reciever, or my DVD player. After explaining situation, they (Mike in particular) were concerned, and shipped me a new unit immediately. That was more than I asked for. The second unit had the same Toslink problem, but now the Coax digital input did not work well, continual dropouts. I thought, OK, this one has the dropout problem of the original beta units, (I was not a beta tester, just what I have read here), and figured ok. I e-mailed Mike on a Sunday. He called me back within 5 minutes literally. A third unit came out. The coax worked flawlessly.The Toslink did not work at all, more drop out than in. I returned to basics, disconnected everything except the amps. Then my DSS reciever via optical. Bingo, it worked. It finally turned out that my coax SPDIF output from my computer sound card was screwing it up. Strange, since the sound card output worked very well, no dropouts, etc. Even more strange since this setup has worked for a year on a Parasound processor. So somewhere there is an incompatibility, but damn, they were so helpful, shipping a total of 3 units to me (sorry guys on the wait list, except for the person who would have gotten the second unit), with no hassle whatsoever.
I agree, they need to spend 10 minutes and send an e-mail to those waiting, or just a general "hey guys, we havent forgotten you, we are making our product better, and you will appreciate it" would work wonders.
Just MHO.

Are you kidding Jacket_Fan? See my tirade in the Outlaw frustration thread. This is getting rediculous. Unfortunately Rotel dealers here in OKC are acting like pre amp nazis. They treat you like crap claiming they can't get any 1066s. But for this I would have already bought one. It just feels like we are all being held hostage. I do not want any freebies I just want a processor that works and better customer service. Please Outlaw tell us something.

Well, I for one have had enough of the delays and the silence from Outlaw. I found a silver RSP-1066 and am picking it up on Saturday. Good luck to the rest of you.

Yes, but Scott unfortunately represents Outlaw and it is his job to put up with customers like me. It is Outlaw who has not lived up to their part of the promises about ship dates.

I apologise for sounding so bitter and should not have posted the email between Scott and myself.

Mark