The Bandaid – Um… This product is not good.

[DaveParticipant]

Hi guys,

It seems like a great idea on the site, but upon receiving the product, it’s really really poorly put together.

First of all it’s a bandaid. An actual elastoplast! Well, that’s not so bad, after all, we’re paying for innovation here right?

Secondly, the plastic sheath housing the actual extender antenna is printed on a MakerBot or something. Really low quality. Not bad for a prototype, but I paid for a finished product. Still almost, ALMOST forgivable.

Lastly, the connections on either end of the only part of this device they actually had to assemble are shorted out. So it doesn’t work, without me breaking out my soldering gun, and doing their job properly for them. This is completely inexcusable!

That’s only the first of a long list of badness the “flomies” have put me through.
• I paid for priority shipping, and it arrived 3 weeks late.
• I asked that the two orders I placed a day apart be combined into one order to save on shipping. They didn’t do it.
• And now both of the products I received are so low quality and so over priced I could literally make them myself in about 20 minutes using $5 in parts. In fact, I’ve had to do just that, in order to get my project done in time!

I’ve run my own online business before. I understand that some of these things can happen, especially if you’re a startup. But OMG people! I’m the last person to complain publicly on open forums, but this cacophony of mistakes and poor quality has to stop!

I would be extremely grateful if you would return my money! Again, I don’t do this, ever, but you have left me feeling like I’ve been swindled out of ~$150.

Also, I would rather contact you guys directly instead of an open forum, but you don’t have any emails listed on your website.

[JakeParticipant]

Hey there Dave,

We appreciate your post more than you’d imagine and we thank you for posting this rather than simply emailing it. We’re always available via info at flomio dot com but we prefer to deal out in the open.

I’d like to address each issue line by line.

First of all it’s a bandaid. An actual elastoplast! Well, that’s not so bad, after all, we’re paying for innovation here right?

Very true. Innovation is what we’re all about. We use an actual band aid simply because it’s the best way to ensure a good stick. Rather than spend money re-engineering a sticker, we’ve opted to use an off-the-shelf item and works well.

Secondly, the plastic sheath housing the actual extender antenna is printed on a MakerBot or something. Really low quality. Not bad for a prototype, but I paid for a finished product. Still almost, ALMOST forgivable.

The molds we had designed for the FloJack cost us well over $10,000 USD. It simply isn’t feasible for us to have molds made for the antenna at this time — we’re very much a lean startup. While the current housings aren’t injection molded, they still are presentable although our 3D printer does, admittedly, hiccup every now and then.

Lastly, the connections on either end of the only part of this device they actually had to assemble are shorted out. So it doesn’t work, without me breaking out my soldering gun, and doing their job properly for them. This is completely inexcusable!

Each unit is tested but we’re often operating on little sleep so sometimes mistakes do happen. When they do, we’re more than willing to ship a replacement unit.

• I paid for priority shipping, and it arrived 3 weeks late.

We were sourcing parts during that time. Once those issues were sorted, we worked through the entire weekend to catch up on band aid orders.

• I asked that the two orders I placed a day apart be combined into one order to save on shipping. They didn’t do it.

Our current shipping system makes it difficult to combine and separate shipping orders. We’re strapped for cash and must rely on what open-source software has to offer (wordpress, etc.).

• And now both of the products I received are so low quality and so over priced I could literally make them myself in about 20 minutes using $5 in parts. In fact, I’ve had to do just that, in order to get my project done in time!

The products we make simply don’t exist elsewhere. We’re innovating every day and doing so on a shoe string budget. We’re pushing the envelope of NFC, identifying key problems, in this case the antenna location and reach of Nexus tablets, and working hard to develop solutions. We get a lot of marketing folks buying our products and these people are sometimes disappointed by our lack of polish… but working at the bleeding edge is expensive. For every one win there are many many failures. It’s been a bumpy road as we’re transitioning to a more product-focused business. Finding the working revenue streams has been our biggest challenge.

I speak for all of us when I say that we appreciate your post and we take any and all input to heart. Suggestions you make, criticisms you offer -anything- is of value to us as we’re trying to build the best company we can.

Sincerely,

Jake and the Flomies

[Author]

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