New Buyers,
There is a few things you should know about the developers. This cnc unit was developed through a kickstarter campaign. there are still around 20% of the backers that though have paid for the units have been informed that they will not be receiving them. Rather they will be sold to new users. So many of the units you want to buy have actually already been ordered and paid for by someone else that is now being dumped by Goliath. All attempts by backers to get a responce from Goliath are now being ignored.
in my exoperience this crowd is unethical and not to be trusted.
Buyer Beware!
Hi, I’m a bayer" from the fist wave.
I have always been correct informed about production of the Goliath, delivery, support, …
Even have had a web-meeting with some team members about my experience in pre-order process, install-first use, their view to the future, upgrades, … .
So I hope you understand that I’m quite surprised about this post and strongly would like to suggest to direct contact with the Goliath team to get a clear answer on the issue you mentioned.
As far as I concern I don’t find they deserve this kind of posts and in case of any kind of dispute I’m quite convinced that their are more “positives ways” to solve these.
Hi,
You have been one of the lucky ones. I’m sure from the early part of the campaign the experience has been great. You should head over to the Kickstarter Campaign site and you will see that its not just me. Campaign Site No response from them on the campaign site to many annoyed backers. I was relatively early backer as where others that have been left of the delivery list to have machines resold. So I hope you understand many of us are very annoyed to put it very mildly. As far as I’m concerned those that have been left hanging are well within our rights to highlight our annoyance. Our experience it a far cry from yours and I whole heartedly believe they do deserve this.
And as a buyer I’m not happy with this situation… I can understand that Springa wants a good balance between new buyers and Kickstarters but they should be more transparent on this matter and they should keep their promises…
I have seen this on another project that went eventually bankrupt without delivering, but as far as we can see things are not going that bad for Goliath (yet).
But as a kickstarter backer, which makes me a customer, who received a unit, it makes me frown.
It is certainly not in “good faith” to use such practices.
Sure the raised funds can and should be used to make a better product, but the first commitment is to deliver on the promise to send out the rewards. Kickstarter is not collecting money “for free” after all.
To my feeling we have
a decent hardware product
a very sloppy software product
very good hardware engineers, a “one man software team” that is not sufficient for the challenge and at best an average management
What makes me say this ?
no public complaints of the hardware, decent design, and kickstarters who received a unit also got a replacement part for a part that was malfunctioning to some extend.
plenty of complaints of the quality of generated execution code, bug fixes are dead slow, no clear development plan, no delivery on promises (linux and mac for example)
plenty of excuses (some are more understandable then other) on late deliveries or no deliveries. Zero transparency on the issues with their software development, to the point I fear those managing this project have no experience on how to run a software team (even if it’s a one man team).
Soon I will have an unopened box with a Goliath inside for almost a year, because … software.
I made a joke once that warranty will be expired before I could use it. This joke becomes closer to reality every day.
A few of us asked already: safe Goliath by make the software open source. In a few years time you won’t believe what a dedicated community you have built.
A team of enthusiasts can achieve wonders, while 1 (wo)man alone can only do so much, however smart.
The hardware is where the gold is for the company, not the software.
I agree with your thoughts. Although I haven’t received the machine, it would appear from the campaign updates and reports the hardware is sound. Having used a number of open source, community supported products I agree with your idea on doing this here. It can be a very powerful approach.
I have been happy so far with the hardware, but I agree with pelgrim’s comments.
My experience with the hardware indicates a remarkable design concept. However, all of my software experiences and questions concerning the software have been confirmed from following the forum.goliathcnc.com along with the Kickstarter forum. The software management of their product has been problematic.
This is a shame for such an optimistic Kickstarter project. The lack of transparency has been a real problem for those of us who own and use Goliath and even more so for those who are still waiting for their Kickstarter-backed purchase.
Will Springa ever come to the forefront to inform its user base what is happening?
If it makes you feel any better? You are not missing out!!
I bought after the campaign, received it. It kept overheating, I had to restart my pc every time that happened. Then the silly little pins broke off! Emailed support no response. Managed to fix it with some bell wire. It worked for about an hour then just started going mental. Cant upgrade firmware on one tower. Randomly cuts things at different sizes, using the same file. Slingshot needs alot of work. If i was you Id wait until they’ve managed to sort all this out. At the moment its a useless lump of plastic taking up space.