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Made in au
Fresh-Faced New User





I gladly backed the Aliens vs Predator when the kickstarter came along. I did some research and found some warnings but it always seemed like mistakes were made on their part but Prodos did their best. I loved the ip so that tipped it well and truely into the "let's do this" category. This project was funded in November 2013, I backed it at the double chopper pledge. To this date I have yet to receive a single miniature.

I defended them long after most people lost patience with them. After a while I couldn't defend them anymore but I still never levelled a single criticism at Prodos. I didn't say anything at all about them publically and I only lamented with a fellow backer privately.

Come early 2017, I was in the Facebook group set up to help people get their pledges. I made a few, answering some questions some people had, nothing I posted was remotely controversial. I think I only made 2, one of which was telling a person who was asking the best way to contact them that normally I would suggest their email contact form but that that didn't seem to be getting people results. Another week or so went by when I made a joke in the Facebook group. I suggested that they might take advantage of continental drift to get me my pledge faster, after charting a 3 legged arthritic donkey and carrying it to China where they could wait for Australia to smash into upon which they could hand me my miniatures. I thought it was a harmless joke, I made it obvious it was a joke and after 4 years without one complaint, I felt frustrated but I thought everyone, myself expecially could do with a laugh. I certainly didn't and don't see it as out of line.

Unfortunately the moderator of the group disagreed. The post was deleted, I was banned from the group with no communication.

I made one outraged post on my own Facebook page before I wrote a calm, polite email to Prodos objecting. I waited 3 weeks and got no response. I resent the email and almost half a year later, I have still yet to receive any communication.

As my last resort I am hoping this thread will motivate some action, that Prodos will give me pledge in it's entirety. I am a forgiving sort, I could see them retaining my interest and business if they did relatively soon. Failing that I think people deserve to know how this company operates. Unfortunately I can't really prove any of this. I never took a screenshot of the joke, I didn't imagine it would be controversial though if people want I could post the joke in it's entirety, albeit a text version.

As you can imagine this has all been rather dispiriting to say the least. Hopefully you all will all understand my need for this venting and forgive me for bringing drama into what should for all of us be a hobby of enjoyment.

This message was edited 3 times. Last update was at 2017/07/04 01:31:25


 
   
Made in ca
Fixture of Dakka





West Michigan, deep in Whitebread, USA

Welcome to why the name "Prodos" is so infamous. For everyone who badmouths GW, it's probably best they look over at Prodos, first.

I feel for everyone who is still screwed, but holy cow am I glad I took a second thought- and I am a huge Aliens fan.



"By this point I'm convinced 100% that every single race in the 40k universe have somehow tapped into the ork ability to just have their tech work because they think it should."  
   
Made in ca
Hauptmann





 AegisGrimm wrote:
Welcome to why the name "Prodos" is so infamous. For everyone who badmouths GW, it's probably best they look over at Prodos, first.

I feel for everyone who is still screwed, but holy cow am I glad I took a second thought- and I am a huge Aliens fan.


The real gobsmacking bit is that after the Warzone KS things weren't that bad. Were they behind? Yup! Were there things that weren't 100% great? Yup. But I'd still place that one in the upper tiers of my miniature KS experience. I had few complaints about what I received (and I went in deep on it, so for there to be so few issues was pretty astounding) and they only seemed to be improving as they went.

Then they pulled a Spartan and announced AvP. I felt uneasy with that from the beginning. I knew Fox was a nightmare to work with and I didn't see it going good places. Worst of all, having just gotten my favourite setting of all time back, I hated to see the company immediately move on to something else.

And then it all fell apart. It's bad enough that I haven't bothered buying any Warzone stuff from them since they flubbed AvP and I really feel for all the folks that went in on that one. And while I still like what they make for Warzone, every other thing they've decided to do since is just a massive miss in my eyes.

I just wish they kept their heads down, worked on Warzone and built up some good will before marching off in to crazy town.

Part of me is hoping that they lose the Warzone license one of these days and Modiphius (who have done a bang up job on the RPG side of things) nabs that and takes over production.

Either way, probably one the quickest I've ever seen a company go from overflowing with good will (re-releasing Warzone) to being basically one of the most hated companies in the industry and they have no one but themselves to blame for overreaching way too early.
   
Made in us
Decrepit Dakkanaut





The Battle Barge Buffet Line

Angelic_Scars wrote:
As my last resort I am hoping this thread will motivate some action, that Prodos will give me pledge in it's entirety. I am a forgiving sort, I could see them retaining my interest and business if they did relatively soon. Failing that I think people deserve to know how this company operates. Unfortunately I can't really prove any of this. I never took a screenshot of the joke, I didn't imagine it would be controversial though if people want I could post the joke in it's entirety, albeit a text version.

As you can imagine this has all been rather dispiriting to say the least. Hopefully you all will all understand my need for this venting and forgive me for bringing drama into what should for all of us be a hobby of enjoyment.


So you thought that in your case they wouldn't do exactly what they have done to hundreds of others over the past couple of years? And you think publicizing it in this thread will make a difference to them when them being lambasted for years here due to their (in)actions in the official news threads hasn't made a difference? You have every right to post this thread and vent and I'm certainly not going to stop you but your prior support (both verbally and financially) doesn't matter to morally deficient companies and the people who run them now that they classify you as a malcontent (whether deserved or not).

We Munch for Macragge! FOR THE EMPRUH! Cheesesticks and Humus!
 
   
Made in us
[MOD]
Solahma






RVA

IME the Facebook format lends itself to a very different culture from, say, an independent forum like Dakka Dakka. Even ostensibly independent FB groups seem to enforce expectations of "positivity" - maybe because they are more like fan pages than the forum, which is about frank discussion.

As for your experience with Prodos, well yeah this is what others were going through while you and others were defending them. Bottom line on Prodos is, they make some nice things but doing any business with them directly is absolutely foolish. Seems like you pledge rewards were not going to arrive, regardless of whether you ever made it on their blacklist.

   
Made in us
Longtime Dakkanaut





Florida

Sounds terrible, I haven't really followed anything by them to closely but was sort of interested in some war zone stuff I saw on sale. After reading your post and reading up on them I will not be giving them any business, and am glad I stayed away from their kickstarter. Good luck, hope something works out for you.

   
Made in au
Fresh-Faced New User





 warboss wrote:
Angelic_Scars wrote:
As my last resort I am hoping this thread will motivate some action, that Prodos will give me pledge in it's entirety. I am a forgiving sort, I could see them retaining my interest and business if they did relatively soon. Failing that I think people deserve to know how this company operates. Unfortunately I can't really prove any of this. I never took a screenshot of the joke, I didn't imagine it would be controversial though if people want I could post the joke in it's entirety, albeit a text version.

As you can imagine this has all been rather dispiriting to say the least. Hopefully you all will all understand my need for this venting and forgive me for bringing drama into what should for all of us be a hobby of enjoyment.


So you thought that in your case they wouldn't do exactly what they have done to hundreds of others over the past couple of years? And you think publicizing it in this thread will make a difference to them when them being lambasted for years here due to their (in)actions in the official news threads hasn't made a difference? You have every right to post this thread and vent and I'm certainly not going to stop you but your prior support (both verbally and financially) doesn't matter to morally deficient companies and the people who run them now that they classify you as a malcontent (whether deserved or not).


They already did class me as a malcontent for one harmless joke. This is more about venting. The hope that it might motivate them is nothing but trying to be positive.

Here's the thing though, I am rightfully skeptical of bad press. I have seen it again, and again, and again. A company runs into understandable delays, they may do something innocently wrong or fail in one aspect, they might not even do ANYTHING wrong but it seems almost a fashion these days for people to get very self righteous the second any money is on the table. Nothing wrong with the concept but the degree is routinely out of all proportion to the crime. I have seen it in literally every game I have participated in the development of, people crying "oh such and such are nothing but money grabbing etc". The petulance, the impracticality of the demands, the insane distrust, the armchair assumption of expertise and the incessent assumption of malevolence when incompetence mostly if not entirely explains the deficiency.

I freely admit, I gave them a chance when there was sufficient opinion (and not necessarily evidence) that it was a mistake. Maybe I was wrong this time but I have seen the above far too often for it to have been an unreasonable or shortsighted decision. At worst it was misplaced positivity and naiviety.

As it turns out I checked my spam mail today and I happened to have a 5 day old message that said my AvP pledge was getting ready to ship. Funny timing. I waited months before trying one last attempt at contacting them, with that seeming to fail I made this thread. Maybe it did get through and they didn't otherwise reply, or maybe they just finally got around to my pledge.

Thank you for the replies everyone. Sympathy does help in a frustrating situation. If indeed my pledge gets to me within the next month, I will delete this thread.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2017/07/10 03:41:00


 
   
 
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