I think that if they can hang in there for a while longer, the bad PR from their problems in developing the Model T will fade away. After all, they have now apparently succeeded in designing and manufacturing a TTO butterfly adjustable that works well. I don't believe anyone else has done that. Even Gillette had plenty of problems in doing it originally, but could easily afford false starts, both financially and any loss of reputation. In the case of the Toggle, they had to pull a model altogether after a brief time on the market because they couldn't get it to work reliably. Now an artisan maker is trying to reintroduce the Toggle for $500 or $600, and it remains to be seen if he can make it happen. So I wouldn't be too hard on Rockwell.I'll be amazed if this fiasco does not destroy Rockwell. They sorely over-reached on this one, failing to be able to deliver in a reasonable fashion and time period.
More so their chronic dishonesty in their updates has been revealing of their business.
Seems Rockwell's biggest business failure is missing the boat on the importance of reputation in dealing with customers. Unfortunately, they've trashed the goodwill they'd managed to accumulate in providing good products. And the Model T might be one of those. There are simply too many viable, quality competitors in an increasingly crowded market place to believe they will weather this storm.
Still, Rockwell's misfire might be a worthy business school case study on how mismarketing might manage to extermnate a once-thriving business endeavor into oblivion.
For their sake, may my meanderings miss their mark.
I think that if they can hang in there for a while longer, the bad PR from their problems in developing the Model T will fade away. After all, they have now apparently succeeded in designing and manufacturing a TTO butterfly adjustable that works well. I don't believe anyone else has done that. Even Gillette had plenty of problems in doing it originally, but could easily afford false starts, both financially and any loss of reputation. In the case of the Toggle, they had to pull a model altogether after a brief time on the market because they couldn't get it to work reliably. Now an artisan maker is trying to reintroduce the Toggle for $500 or $600, and it remains to be seen if he can make it happen. So I wouldn't be too hard on Rockwell.
completely agree, and I've had this conversation with employees. it's better to own up to a mistake than to cover it up. The updates were over a year of "we'll have it in your hands really soon." It was 3 months shy of 3 full years of waiting from my initial pledge. The razor is definitely worth the amount of my pledge (and more), but the disingenuous updates were tiresome.Here's hoping you're more right than not. As noted, the final product may not be the problem. It's the production and propaganda that might be that which bites them. They seem to have failed to learn the lesson that every politician now knows ... it's not the "misstep" that does them in. It's the failure to come clean in a timely way.
People will forgive an honest mistake. People are less forgiving of chronic excuses and lying. And it's that latter issue that the Rockwell twins are guilty of. Credibility and reputation are hard to build, easy to destroy.
"Oh, just one more month ... "
I jumped on the pledge pretty early and followed the whole thing. I remember the discussion about possibly producing a stainless version, but the initial pledging was for brass. They did some test balloons for stainless, but decided that it would have been too cost prohibitive to do. To my knowledge, there never was a stainless model offered. There's zinc alloy, which was not in the original discussion at all, which is a bit disappointing, but I had plenty of advance notice and could have pulled my pledge. As it is, I'm glad I didn't because after nearly 20 shaves in, it's one of the better razors I have.
Exactly, the original razor was supposed to be plated brass. When they changed the doors to zamac I opted out. I'm glad I did. I have nothing against zamac, but it wasn't what I signed up for. I wouldn't call it a bait and switch, they gave plenty of notice and they offered refunds, and my refund was provided quickly and with no questions asked.
The discussion about a stainless steel razor was just that, a discussion only and something the company was considering. They never promised a stainless steel razor.
While I understand that people are unhappy about the delay, the Rex took a very long time to come to market and the Janus stainless toggle seems to be taking a fair amount of time as well. The engineering of these things appears to be way more complicated than people think and bringing one of these razors to market seems to take a surprising amount of time.
It happens I own a stainless Tradere, a cobalt steel Darwin, a stainless Evolution and a brass Karve. All are brilliant razors. I'm delighted with them knowing that there is no plating to be concerned about. That having been said, my Aristocrat Juniors and my Rocket HD 500's are nickel plated brass and they've proven to be favorites as well.
While I decided to not own a Rockwell, all my dealings with Rockwell were great. Their products seem to be well thought of so I hope the delay with the Model T doesn't diminish their reputation which is a good one.
And that failure has been chronic, consistently misleading, and apparently intentional.
Yes, well, PR is an art, especially in the e-commerce age when customers expect constant updates. I'm not saying Rockwell didn't make mistakes here, but lying? Probably more like wishful thinking and relying too much on over-optimistic forecasts from suppliers about what they were capable of doing, how much it would cost and how fast they were capable of doing it. That's the downside of being a small player who cannot afford to fund a major new project with his own capital, instead relying on investors who invariably get impatient when someone else has their money and isn't bring the new product to market anywhere near the preliminary launch date. I understand that impatience, but as I said, nobody else has introduced a TTO butterfly adjustable, and I think we now know why.completely agree, and I've had this conversation with employees. it's better to own up to a mistake than to cover it up. The updates were over a year of "we'll have it in your hands really soon." It was 3 months shy of 3 full years of waiting from my initial pledge. The razor is definitely worth the amount of my pledge (and more), but the disingenuous updates were tiresome.
I think that’s a big claim.
I’ve been involved in bringing products to market, and the saying that “the final 10% of the project takes 90% of the time” is not an exaggeration.
It perpetually seems that the last problems are about to be resolved and the product will be ready. It’s often “weeks from release” for years.
As you get experience with projects, this becomes less of an issue. That’s why experienced project managers are worth a fortune.
I think Rockwell just has an inexperienced team, rather than being wilfully deceptive. I’m sure they truly believed every aggressive delivery date they communicated.
When a business ... Rockwell is a serious business? ... takes real $$$ from more than a few customers, in advance of product delivery. Well, hey, it's only a $hundred bucks, right ... and a few $thousand collectively.
If you’re outraged by Rockwell’s over-promising, then I’d make sure you never ever go anywhere near Silicon Valley. Your head will explode.
Rockwell’s current issues are absolutely small-time compared to what I’m used to.
At least their product exists, they have actual staff, actual production contracts, and had the intent to use customer money to deliver the product, rather than string things along until they were acquired. That puts them well above most other startups.
Rockwell seems like a bunch of good guys who bit off more than they could chew, and struggled hard to deliver their product. Sure, that may be frustrating, but in terms of the startup world in general, it’s positively virtuous.
You speak the truth there, my friend. And not just as to Silicon Valley. More generally, it is a fundamental truth that investment is never without risk. Here, if Rockwell's investors got a good adjustable razor for $100 after three years, I'd say that isn't quite like winning the lottery, but nor is it a total catastrophe. We'll see if another company can produce a better adjustable tto razor in less time and/or at a lower price.If you’re outraged by Rockwell’s over-promising, then I’d make sure you never ever go anywhere near Silicon Valley. Your head will explode.
Rockwell’s current issues are absolutely small-time compared to what I’m used to.
At least their product exists, they have actual staff, actual production contracts, and had the intent to use customer money to deliver the product, rather than string things along until they were acquired. That puts them well above most other startups.
Rockwell seems like a bunch of good guys who bit off more than they could chew, and struggled hard to deliver their product. Sure, that may be frustrating, but in terms of the startup world in general, it’s positively virtuous.
wow, that's a long time!October 2019 and just received my ship confirmation! Yay! Just in time for Halloween!!!
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wow, that's a long time!
I got mine back in March. I've been using it again this week. Darn fine razor in my book. The wait was annoying, but I've got plenty of other razors.Yeah-we’ll see the outcome! Looking forward to the experience but will most likely not go thru the process again!
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