Skippa Pre-Order

[IanL-S]

It's unfortunate that you think "Nothing much has changed" The email Friday stated that you would have them over the weekend and be posted from Monday this week. Now they may not be here until maybe next Monday and then be posted from Tuesday I assume. Then the 2nd lot about a week behind that or in other words October.

Earlier in the week people in Sydney would have some of them by tomorrow.

Personally I call that a change!

Yes, so do I. From Dave's comments I am 90% confident that they have arrived in Sydney. How long it will take to get to the IceTV warehouse is I suspect largely beyond the control of IceTV.
--
No general update notification (email) has been sent since last Friday. Only by trawling though the Forum do you find that not only that they did not arrive last weekend, but they still have not got to the IceTV warehouse.

I have not received the Friday what's on this weekend email, so there may be something it that email.

Ian

PS I am not impressed by this situation

[Update: 17:32 18-09-15] Big question forum members: Why would I be expecting the regular Friday email on Thursday? The stress is obviously getting too much for me.

[Update: 10:58 18-09-15] Just got the what's on this weekend email - no mention anywhere of Skippa. Not sure what significance, if any, in the absence of a mention.

[gas667]

I am having trouble understanding why the communication has not improved. They have been consistently kicked over the past few weeks but if anything it has got worse.

We're told they're here tomorrow. They're here and shipping shortly, They're not here. All without any email communication but bits and pieces of information through the forum. It's like they are trying to mitigate the damage to only those who read the forums. It's also hard to see this as anything but deliberately misleading.

[csutak40]

Heinz was not spruiking anything other than Skippa.

The USA host of the podcast asked was Skippa available in other markets and when told the Skippa was for Australia only the host asked would there be any future developments (in relation to exporting Skippa) to which the answer was that IceTV were looking at developing a box for export markets (call it Skippa 2 or whatever).

Sorry Dave, I just listened to the podcast again.  He talks about the overseas market at 21:42.  He talks about "Fortuna/Skippa 2" at 31:53.  The question put to him then had nothing to do with export markets.

BTW, he also told the podcast that the pre-sale started in July @ 27:54

[Coopsp]

I see no one from Ice TV have posted on this forum......anybody know why that would be?????

That would be because nothing much has changed. The first big shipment of Skippas left the factory on Monday and is expected to arrive at the Sydney warehouse today, tomorrow, or Monday and be posted ASAP. All of the remainder of the Skippas are only 1 week behind this batch.

So even those who ordered last will have their Skippa soon (if they live in Timbuktu their Skippa will be in Australia Post's hands before the end of this month).

See Dave that's where the problem is we were all told that they were going out this week and now they have not even gotten to Sydney. And instead of Ice TV letting us know there has been another dealy You choose to basically have a smart arse back hand shot at me, with your reply.

I think Ice TV have forgotten who the customer is in this whole situation and without customers there is no Ice TV? Really need to stop treating us like mushrooms and keeping us abreast of what's going on. I am sure you would not be coping half the comments on here if you just gave regular updates

[IanL-S]

Skippa is not an isolated instance. Topfield announced the release of the TF-T6211 for delivery in June 2014 it did not ship until some months later (I think it was October). And they too were taking pre-orders for some, if not all, of that period.

So even established manufacturers have problems with meeting release schedules. I think the delay of the TF-T6211 was caused by firmware issues rather than manufacturing issues.

Ian

[IanL-S]

During those months did Topfield ignore their customers and on the odd occasion when giving updates were they condescending and deceitful?

If not then Skippa IS an isolated case.

Long time ago now. Release was originally scheduled for late may or early June. I think they did one delay announcement and then move to 'coming soon'. As I did not do a pre-release purchase, I cannot say what information if any was provided to those who did.

Normally I would not do a pre-order, particularly of a PVR as the street price tends to fall rapidly within 3 months of release. As the Sikppa (at least initially) is only available from IceTV there was little chance of that happening.

Ian

[Tyrus]

Companies typically promote pre-order "specials" to generate much needed cashflow.   

The cost to R&D, source manufacturing and then secure a production run is significant, especially for a small and/or a rapidly growing company, to the point where there is little room for error and it often becomes the "do or die" event for the company. 

I don't know IceTVs specifics and this is pure speculation, but all the signs are there ...  If the original production date was lost due to lack of cash on hand at the time, it makes sense that they extended the pre-order offer to try and generate the extra dosh needed to get that run secured.   Everything then snowballed from there ...

The reason for posting such speculation, is that if true, I sure hope they are able to sort it out and would be OK with waiting (as long as we were kept informed), as the alternative is that we will suffer far more than just a delay.   

The real irony is that companies are too scared to come clean about sharing financials, fearing that it will lead to people heading for the hills.  In reality though, the resulting PR crap they spew,  stringing some 2000+ customers along for over 2 months now,  does far more harm.

[Likkie]

Companies typically promote pre-order "specials" to generate much needed cashflow.   

...

I don't know IceTVs specifics and this is pure speculation, but all the signs are there ...  If the original production date was lost due to lack of cash on hand at the time, it makes sense that they extended the pre-order offer to try and generate the extra dosh needed to get that run secured.   Everything then snowballed from there ...

The reason for posting such speculation, is that if true, I sure hope they are able to sort it out and would be OK with waiting (as long as we were kept informed), as the alternative is that we will suffer far more than just a delay.   

I have pondered IceTV's wisdom in selling devices with "lifetime" subscriptions to their main product.  Once all of those products are sold, where is their income stream going to be coming from if we aren't going to pay any subs for years to come?


With the advent of Netflix and other streaming services, PVRs have limited and dwindling appeal especially since Freeview+ offers seamless access to catchup via the TV guide. 


I would have thought it would make more business sense to sell the Skippa as means of generating more subscriptions.  I think most of us would have been quote happy to continue to pay our regular annual sub for the guide.  Instead they seem to have lamely added a sub for the ad-skip feature at the last minute which seems like a half-baked and poorly planned money grab.


All in all I think the whole Skippa debacle has been handle very poorly.  IceTV has gone down in my estimation significantly as a result.

[FMB]

If Skippa required an annual subscription for IceTV, I definitely would not have bought (I mean ordered) one. I simply wouldn't have looked twice at it. I would have bought another PVR and been using it already for months.

[Likkie]

If Skippa required an annual subscription for IceTV, I definitely would not have bought (I mean ordered) one. I simply wouldn't have looked twice at it. I would have bought another PVR and been using it already for months.

I was actually quite surprised that they offer lifetime, I would have expected maybe 12 months included.  Especially at the $399 introductory price.

[JPP]

I have pondered IceTV's wisdom in selling devices with "lifetime" subscriptions to their main product.  Once all of those products are sold, where is their income stream going to be coming from if we aren't going to pay any subs for years to come?

With the advent of Netflix and other streaming services, PVRs have limited and dwindling appeal especially since Freeview+ offers seamless access to catchup via the TV guide. 

I would have thought it would make more business sense to sell the Skippa as means of generating more subscriptions.  I think most of us would have been quote happy to continue to pay our regular annual sub for the guide.  Instead they seem to have lamely added a sub for the ad-skip feature at the last minute which seems like a half-baked and poorly planned money grab.

I think their main game is to attract TiVo customers and I think they therefore had no option but to include the EPG/Recording subscription as that's what TiVo is still offering.

[Likkie]

I have pondered IceTV's wisdom in selling devices with "lifetime" subscriptions to their main product.  Once all of those products are sold, where is their income stream going to be coming from if we aren't going to pay any subs for years to come?

With the advent of Netflix and other streaming services, PVRs have limited and dwindling appeal especially since Freeview+ offers seamless access to catchup via the TV guide. 

I would have thought it would make more business sense to sell the Skippa as means of generating more subscriptions.  I think most of us would have been quote happy to continue to pay our regular annual sub for the guide.  Instead they seem to have lamely added a sub for the ad-skip feature at the last minute which seems like a half-baked and poorly planned money grab.

I think their main game is to attract TiVo customers and I think they therefore had no option but to include the EPG/Recording subscription as that's what TiVo is still offering.

What are you attracting them to if not your primary product (the guide).  How much value is there in having a customer that isn't paying.  The Skippa should have been used as bait for the guide.

[IanL-S]

I have pondered IceTV's wisdom in selling devices with "lifetime" subscriptions to their main product.  Once all of those products are sold, where is their income stream going to be coming from if we aren't going to pay any subs for years to come?

With the advent of Netflix and other streaming services, PVRs have limited and dwindling appeal especially since Freeview+ offers seamless access to catchup via the TV guide. 

I would have thought it would make more business sense to sell the Skippa as means of generating more subscriptions.  I think most of us would have been quote happy to continue to pay our regular annual sub for the guide.  Instead they seem to have lamely added a sub for the ad-skip feature at the last minute which seems like a half-baked and poorly planned money grab.

I think their main game is to attract TiVo customers and I think they therefore had no option but to include the EPG/Recording subscription as that's what TiVo is still offering.

If we ignore the various pre-shipping discounts, the RRP of Skippa (with lifetime Skippa and IceTV subscription) has not changed. What has changed is the ability to get a Skippa without lifetime Skippa subscription or without both the lifetime Skippa and Lifetime IceTV subscription. If you are not interested in the Skippa function and already have an IceTV subscription then you may not need the lifetime subscription since the ordinary subscription included 10 devices (up from the previous 5).

What are you attracting them to if not your primary product (the guide).  How much value is there in having a customer that isn't paying.  The Skippa should have been used as bait for the guide.

Ah, but they are paying as the Skippa at just under $600 RRP is much more expensive than other 3Tuner PVRs. The Altech 9600t is selling on eBay (Bing Lee) for $249 with $5 for delivery. Except for wifi the hardware specifications are similar to the Skippa. The updated Beyonwiz T2 has 3 tuners (1 is USB) and records 8 programs over 3 networks and has RRP of $299 (without HDD). Off course, as noted in the post below, they do not have automated add skipping. The add skipping is not a major consideration for me - attitude is at best ambivelent.

Ian

[Likkie]

Ah, but they are paying as the Skippa at just under $600 RRP is much more expensive than other 3Tuner PVRs. The Altech 9600t is selling on eBay (Bing Lee) for $249 with $5 for delivery. Except for wifi the specifications are similar to the Skippa. The updated Beyonwiz T2 has 3 tuners (1 is USB) and records 8 programs over 3 networks and has RRP of $299 (without HDD).

Ian

5 years (lifetime) of IceTV sub at discounted auto-renew prices is $395 don't forget to add that to the price of those other units.
And do those units feature ad-skip?  A valuable feature.

I reckon they should be selling the Skippa with 12 Months of IceTV subscription included for a rock bottom price with enough margin to cover warranty and support costs. After the first year they start having subscription revenue.
Dump the stupid subscription for not disabling the ad-skip feature or roll it into the normal sub and call it a feature.

I doubt the volume of Skippas would ever be enough to make them huge profits,  they should be using it as a tool for getting subscribers rather than a profit making tool on its own.

That my 2c (seasonally adjusted) :)

[IanL-S]

5 years (lifetime) of IceTV sub at discounted auto-renew prices is $395 don't forget to add that to the price of those other units.
And do those units feature ad-skip?  A valuable feature.

You do not have to go for the device specific 5 year lifetime subscription. I got a 4 year multi-device subscription about a year ago for $149 special price. There was a similar offer not long ago. At the time it covered up to 5 devices and was recently retrospectively changed to 10 devices. I have just under 4 years to go. So the value of included IceTV subscription can be minimal for some users. The value of the included Skippa subscription depends on how you use the device. While I am sure many users will find it great, it is not essential for my viewing habits ... commercial TV, what is that?

Ian

PS Not wanting to get into an argument; just clarifying the situation. :) Wanting to avoid annoying anyone.  :)

PS2 While I was pushing at the 5 device limit not even I come anywhere near 10 IceTV enabled recording devices. No where is that information on the T4?  ;D ;)