Later today I will send an email to the first forty clients

Rob,
Can you please keep us informed how the 'invite to order' process is going, so we can have some idea on our chances to score one of the 40 players ? Things like: when you sent out the first invites, how long you're prepared to wait for confirmation, how many invites have been declined/go into the next batch of invites, etc.

Henno
ex 00120
all ready to score one of the 40

It's easy - if you haven't been invited to order by tomorrow evening, you're going to have to wait for the next batch.

Rob

{clicking check-email every 5 seconds}
:-/


...proud to have owned one of the first Mark I units

The first bunch of invites are going out right now, so if you don't get one in the next five minutes, don't bother clicking again for a while!

In all, we had about 160 upgrade confirmations from Mark 1 owners, so quite a lot of people are going to be disappointed this time I'm afraid.

Rob

Hmm... (slipping rob a 20)
:-/
-m

...proud to have owned one of the first Mark I units

...so how long do these people have to confirm or pass?
-mark

...proud to have owned one of the first Mark I units

slipping rob a 20

Pounds or dollars?

___________
Tony Fabris

They have 24 hours - sorry folks, we need to get these empegs shipped :-)

Of course, when we start shipping in quantity there will be a lot more time to get an order in.

Rob

Quote from an e-mail:

If you would like to order a player from this batch, we will need to receive your online order by Wednesday 28-June-2000 7pm EST (midnight GMT).

Yes, I did receive the invitation :-))). Will have to check my bank account tomorrow though before I decide.

Daniel

I only needed 5 minutes
I just hope:
a) I filled in the form correctly ("This here's the empeg, the most powerful car stereo in the world...did I fill in 6 fields or just 5? In all the excitement I plum forgot!" )
b) I got the order in quickly enough to get the player I asked for!

Now I just have to start waiting... all over again!!!!!

Geoff
---- -------
Saving hard for a Mark 2...

Not me, I have been waiting quite a while for this and couldn't be happier! Ordered the 36 gig version but will take what I can get.

pax
clt

Got the e-mail as well...
12 gig ordered, job done... =)

Anyone want to buy a slightly used mk1? =)

Jazz
(List 112, S/N 00030, 4 gig blue)

WOohoo!

From: "Rob Voisey, empeg Limited"
To: hitman@fiendish.net
Subject: empeg car Mk.2 Purchase Opportunity

I just got the mail... Took me all of about 30 seconds to fill out the form. Hopefully they have some 12 giggers available for me. 8)

Just in case you are wondering, my Reg # was 0596.

*so glad he put his name on the list so early waaaay back in the day*

(O|||||O)

Hey Rob,

Is SSL on in the store? I've been playing around on it, and it doesn't appear to be?
-mark

...proud to have owned one of the first Mark I units

Mark,

Yes, every page in the store (once you pass the EC or RoW entrances) is SSL encrypted. Unfortunately the browser doesn't reflect this, as the page lives within a frameset - but if you dig for the certifcate you can see it for yourself (that and the fact that all the links are https).

I'm going to get some verisign banners on there soon.

Rob

I see it now (by telling IE to break out of frames...) - but as a consumer, I dont' usually buy anything unless I see the lock symbol, despite what the site might say.. Might not be a bad idea to make sure the consumer knows it's secure.. (maybe by securing the top frame or by breaking out of the frames?)
-mark

...proud to have owned one of the first Mark I units

I am one of the disappointed ones, but not with empeg. Unfortunatly, my bank account dosen't have enough, and due to an issue with work, my last paycheck was 1/2 what it should have been and the next one won't come. Lucially I have most bills accounted for, and should recieve a big back pay check soon so I'll be ordering in mid July.

As a consumer I could care less about secure web sites. I know that it would take an awful lot for someone to sniff out a credit card number and expiration date with all that packets that are sent back and forth from my browser to the server. My best protection comes from when I reconcile my credit card bill every month. Even a hacked site could reside on a server with ssl.

pax
clt

As a consumer I could care less about secure web sites...

You're not kidding there. Both me and and a close friend of mine have had bad experiences in that area. Sure, you fill out the online form with SSL, but you have no control over what happens to your credit card number once the vendor's got it.

In our case, we both placed SSL orders at two different companies. In both cases, we discovered that the web sites were just "storefronts" at a hosting service which simply e-mailed the orders in clear text (card numbers and all) to the actual companies who filled the orders.

In my friend's case, the actual company's mail server was briefly down, so the mail message bounced. It happened to have HIS return address on it, so he got the bounce message. Imagine his irritation to have his own credit card number bounced back to him in a clear-text email.

Of course, we happen to know that this isn't the case with Empeg, I'm just illustrating the fact that SSL gives you a false sense of security. What's more important is how much you trust the company you're sending your credit card number to. This is no different than placing a credit card order over the phone- you have to trust that the company will keep it secure once they have it. Fortunately, we know that Empeg will do the right thing.

___________
Tony Fabris

Hopefully no problems with money! (40 untis, about 810 pds each makes 32400 pds - not less money - can afford the missing parts then ?)

Are there some sponsors for your empeg project or how can you afford the empeg crew and production street and payment of the parts, developing the new facial and all that stuff? I think this is not too cheap and a bit hard especially if you couldn't sell units till now to earn some money not just spending some in developement.

*hoping that the missing parts come soon to get a Mk2...*

TeeMcBee

I recall that empeg have private investors, and don't forget the oem work for [insert name of oem companies]...

I fully believe that the parts are difficult to get hold of, because there aren't any available, not that empeg couldn't afford them... (Look at 3dfx and ATI for other examples of component shortages)

Remember, the empeg car is the only _visible_ product, not the only product...

Jazz
(List 112, S/N 00030, 4 gig blue)

I know that the Mk2 is not the only thing they are working on. But it seems to be a lot of time they are spending with it. And this time isn't paid for till now. (I don't wanna say that they shouldn't do that!!!)

I truely believe that it's hard to get some parts like rob said. I was just kidding.

I also hope (like many others do) that they'll get the parts soon so that the guys@empeg earn some money with their great work by selling the Mk2 units.

TeeMcBee

To clarify, our ecommerce system encrypts the entire order before saving it to the web server - even if the server is hacked, the data can't be decrypted because the private key isn't stored there.

Orders are then transfered to our internal network at empeg, which is firewalled, before being decrypted and imported into the sales system.

Personal details are never exposed to the internet in an unencrypted format.

Rob

Considering we have already paid for the majority of the parts to make 1000 players, and quite a lot of the parts for a further 1000, our investment to date is a little greater than the figure you mentioned!

Obviously we're keen to translate this investment into sales revenue, however the main reason we need to ship this batch quickly is because it is serving to test our new back office systems before the greater quantities begin. The developers are also keen to get feedback from real clients as soon as possible, so any issues or suggestions can make it into the consumer release (which is only a couple of weeks away).

As the web site states, empeg is a privately funded company. Of course, the car player is not our only source of income - we have achieved some considerable success in developing products for other brand names.

Rob

As far as I'm aware, everything has now been sourced for the next 1000 units. The power control component that recently held us up is due to be delivered this week, and the manufacturers have provided tentative delivery dates for quantity starting in mid July.

Rob

So it's going to come sooooonn !

Looking forward to it!

When will the next invitations happen? Will they happen when the units are ready produced or will it be before?

TeeMcBee

Edited by teemcbee on 28/6/00 11:12 AM.

It'll happen when we have a definite delivery date from the manufacturer (or at least, to within a few days). We want to be able to ship to clients within two days of their order being placed - but preferably the SAME day if it arrives in time. Of course, because there will be a constant flow of players from the manufacturer, you'll be able to wait a while before ordering if you want to.

Rob

Don't wanna wait to order. I'd prefer to order right now or as soon as I'm invited .

My heart starts beating faster every day now... Hope it'll work till shipping only a couple of weeks of sleepless nights left...



TeeMcBee

Oh crap. This isn't good. I was afraid of this when you said "end of the summer."

If it still only takes 1 day to deliver (or even just take the orders) for 40 units, that equals about 25 days at least for 1000. So that means the end of July/beggining of August. I'm most likely in the second batch, but I'm leaving for school in mid August, leaving me a very small window and not much time to get it installed. Damn.

Well, we'll see how it goes. I hope to be ordering in early August.

DiGNAN