Venting thread

[magnru]

I come to this forum because I am a deposit holder and interested in up to date information about my future vehicle and related topics. What I have seen lately are name calling, degrading comments and arguments amongst our forum members and guests. I've started this thread so when disagreements take place that involve name calling and degrading comments , they can be taken to this thread for venting. Some may suggest to use the block function but just because one or a few posts by someone may be irritating, doesn't mean they all are and may contain valuable information. magnru #2783 'TYPE 2H'

[KarenRei]

That's why I never block anyone, even those I disagree with.

Well, that, and because I'm a mod, so it's my responsibility to read everything.

[1051]

I agree with Magnru, to bad we need to here updates 2nd and 3rd hand! It would be great if the company would just say the car will be released _ _ _ and if and when we get the government funding we might be able to release the e _ _ _ _ and the H _ _ _ and we should be able to release the final specs _ _ _ and updated pictures around _ _ _ end of discussion. At least we would know where we stand. I wonder if they are going to go back to our original numbers and release the H and E at the same time because of all of the delays?

[KarenRei]

The thing is, they can't know the exact date when everything will be ready. They know approximately how long each step will take, and if there's a big setback in something, then that throws the schedule off. They've got molds, so we'll start getting shells within a couple weeks, and then it's off to integration and testing. Obviously they want to get this done as soon as possible, and they have already done extensive testing on the systems in the earlier prototypes. But that doesn't mean everything will go flawlessly at all times.

[Apt3448]

(...) They've got molds (...)
You have a source for this?

[palmer_md]

The thing is, they can't know the exact date when everything will be ready .

I agree they probably don't know the exact date so the are holding off instead of giving out bad information. Where I have a problem is the total cutoff of contact. They could send out a monthly newsletter where they tell us about the newest employee or employee of the month or tell us about the "warroom" or about the cafeteria or the newest manufacturing building. They could give us information about anything they want but the point is send out something. There will still be some who will complain about the lack of detailed information but what we are seeing right now are frustrated people who got that way from total cutoff of information. I may be way off base but that's how I see it.

[virtualeric]

....Where I have a problem is the total cutoff of contact....I think everyone has already said this, but they're favoring the press over their own investors (reservation holders) when it comes to certain information.

Leaving the forum and reservation holders in the dark while courting the media with press releases...not a good signal to send to investors.

This approach is clearly a reflection of the personality of Marquis McCammon, or possibly someone else. Either way, we're getting to know a less than healthy side of a certain Aptera director here.

Do we have email addresses for the directors? Are they accepting direct feedback via email?

[KarenRei]

We are not investors. Come up with six or seven figures and you can become one, though.

As for feedback, they read the forums on occasion and are aware of the main issues.

[esmith]

We are not investors. Come up with six or seven figures and you can become one, though.

As for feedback, they read the forums on occasion and are aware of the main issues.

In any reasonable company, six and especially seven figures would give you a permanent pass that lets you walk around the factory unescorted.

We are not investors, but we are their most likely customers. It's generally a bad idea to aggravate prospective customers. Any decent marketing specialist should be familiar with concepts of brand loyalty and evangelism marketing.

This approach is clearly a reflection of the personality of Marquis McCammon, or possibly someone else.

Did you know that marquis McCammon came to the company with Wilbur? Not that the company was much more communicative before these two dudes came onboard.

[virtualeric]

We are not investors. Come up with six or seven figures and you can become one, though.

I stand corrected - but here's a no-brainer number for you.

$2,000,000
That figure does approximate a real money figure. And even though reservation holders are merely potential customers (with optional and locked-in money), that amount of in-escrow, up-front, interest-free money should be handled with a modicum of communicative respect great enough to at least put reservation holders into the same information loop as the media.

[jstdadd]

Some may suggest to use the block function but just because one or a few posts by someone may be irritating, doesn't mean they all are and may contain valuable information. magnru #2783 'TYPE 2H'

The 'block' function doesn't keep a member of the forum from posting, it only means that I don't have to read it. I am happy to have the function, it keeps me in the forum. I would have erased my account without it.

To each his own.

[mweston]

Do we have email addresses for the directors? Are they accepting direct feedback via email?
I don't have an e-mail for him, but I did know Bill Gross (head of Idealab) in college (Caltech). I exchanged a couple of messages with him through a non-e-mail channel re: Aptera a year+ ago, and I sent him one more today on the subject of communication with reservation holders.

[KarenRei]

Ignoring the escrow / can't touch issue, to put it into perspective, their last fundraising round alone was $24m, and the DOE loan they're applying for is $75m.

Unlike Tesla, Aptera isn't raising its operational cash through deposits.

[jhm614]

I'm so glad that Aptera has publicly show several prototypes -- otherwise, they would seem very "Venture Vehicles"-ish -- Cool renderings of final product, slipping intro dates and no direct public communication. The prototypes show that they are refining an actual product and aren't complete vaporware