cinetronic cineranger

[Jens Piotrowski SOC]

nobody should do business with them until all outstanding orders are fulfilled, simple solution

[chris bangma]

Jens and Afton, I really dont see the reason why you must throw in your comments every time our name comes up. Granted you were not happy with your monitors, but is this really needed?? We are doing what we can to support the people who bought our monitors and are happy with them. You seem to be doing everything you can to drive us out of this business. I dont think this is really fair to the 250+ owners of our monitors. When the doors do close, we can refer them all to you guys for the reason that we closed. As for Afton, your behavior has never been befitting of a moderator, and you should really set an example as a moderator, and not as a platform for just expressing your personal opinions. (you see what happened to the last guy who did that)

 

As to the others on the forum, little do you realize how poisonous you have made things here. Many top operators I have worked with have commented the forum is only useful for selling equipment. They have tired of the endless bickering here, and the know it all's who really dont.

 

The steadicam community is great at pushing people away. One of the reasons George Paddock left was that he was tired of dealing with many of the operators. Bob DeRose quit machining for steadicam operators as well, because of the attitude. Do you not think one of the reasons Pro moved to Oregon was to reduce their interactions with some of the more annoying operators, and wannabes?

 

In the end you will drive all small companies away, and you will only be left with corporations who really dont care what you want, and just sell you crap from China.

 

Less than 5% of Cinetronic monitor owners have been truely unhappy with the monitor. Overwhelmingly people have been very happy with it, and we have received many comments from operators saying it is the most sunlight viewable steadicam monitor built. It has been a long road to build the monitor, and has personally bankrupted me in the process. The constant negativity of a few of the operators on here make me wonder why I ever had the stupid idea to try to build a better monitor in the first place. I hope people read these things before they get involved with the steadicam community, and they realize that it is better not to build anything for steadicam, since there are a few unappreciative people here who will do all they can to make things miserable for everyone.

[Jens Piotrowski SOC]

"Jens and Afton, I really don't see the reason why you must throw in your comments every time our name comes up"

 

Reason: unhappiness with the product and/or services provided.

 

Chris,

I understand your frustration and nobody is saying you are doing it on purpose, but this is a forum, so if you advertise products current and previous owners will respond.

 

Please take care of your customers and this will go away by itself, it's in your own hands. Let's start today by contacting everybody you still owe money or the product and inform them of a solution.

 

Also, please don't speculate about the reasons why George Paddock who revolutionized the industry or the current PRO owners make their choices. They have for decades shown how it's done, develop a good product and make it even better over time, listen to your customer base and bend over backwards in terms of customer service.

[Afton Grant]

If being a moderator precludes me from stating my personal opinion about things, then I hereby resign my position as moderator. It's not something I campaigned for in the first place, and it's much more important for me to naturally join in with the discussions on the forums than to have the power to hide spam posts from time to time.

 

My former displeasure with your monitor has little to do with my present comments. There is a track record with your company of taking people's money and not delivering a product - either not delivering it entirely, taking an extremely long time to deliver, or delivering it in a state that is less than what was originally advertised. I can't, in good conscience, stand by and silently watch you advertise new developments and products while knowing there are current customers that have given you their hard earned money for a product that has not been delivered. One hundred happy customers doesn't matter to me if there is one customer whose order you have taken without delivering a product.

 

I consider my all my fellow Steadicam operators, new and old, to be friends. Even ones I haven't even met. They're like brothers and sisters to me. They have opened up their homes to me, mentored me, made me laugh, and made me a better operator and person. This is why I feel the need to speak up.

 

I've said all along, I understand delays. Two week preorder, fine. One month, ok. But some of these cases are going on for months and months and months. And when a customer finally has had enough and wants a simple refund for something that hasn't even been delivered yet, they are denied. I'm sure you have the intention to deliver. You'd like to, but you run into delays. But how long is someone supposed to wait while you have their money?

 

If I was the only one to have this complaint, I assure you I would remain silent. Jens too, I'm sure. But we're not the only ones. There are too many to ignore, and too many for me to just sit silent without attempting to at least warn a new customer about the potential problems with buying from your company.

 

Assure us that every preorder you have currently taken will 100% be fulfilled in a reasonable timeframe. If you can't 100% guarantee a delivery date, you can at least guarantee a simple refund process should things push beyond that timeframe. These are the most basic, simple tenants of running a small business and establishing customer loyalty. Assure us all of these things, and I assure you you won't hear another peep from me. Is it too much to ask?

 

90% of my gear is made by a small business so to say I don't support such businesses is amusing. All these manufacturers have my loyal support and I'd happily sing their praises to anyone willing to listen. Treat your customers as they do theirs, and I'll sing your praises as well.

[brooksrobinson]

Chris,

 

You are way off base. While your monitor may have the best daylight viewability of the current LCD’s, I sold both of my Cinetronic 2’s at a huge $3000 loss each after only 6 months of ownership because they never performed as promised/assumed. The menu was non-intuitive and impossible to navigate, there were no directions, the touch screen buttons either failed to react to the touch or navigated far too quickly when touched, and it didn’t work with a PSF signal – mine also had other catastrophic issues that were eventually addressed, but the experience left me with such a bad taste that I couldn’t stomach having them in my kit due to a serious lack of confidence in the equipment and the company behind them. If these were the only issues with Cinetronic/Film-Stuff, then perhaps that would still be okay for some, but the abhorrent customer service, lack of communication, personal attacks on a public forum, undelivered orders (I didn’t personally experience this – though my monitors were delivered on time at the expense of someone else getting theirs on time), and the ability to come across as looking down on owners (and past owners) of your product really sum up the Cinetronic experience for me. For me, purchasing (and 6 months later selling) two Cintronic 2 monitors was the single worst equipment purchasing decision I’ve made in my 22 year steadicam career.

 

It isn’t that people are unappreciative of you for working to develop a product Chris – they just expect that it will work as advertised, will be delivered on time as promised, will be fixed without fuss in the case of an issue, and that it works when turned on (and keeps working throughout the course of a work-day). This wasn’t my experience, and by the pages and pages written by others about Cinetronic on this very forum, I’d say it hasn’t been other peoples experience either. I also couldn’t understand why you started trying to develop and push 5 new products instead of trying to fix the current roster of products; specifically your flagship monitor and its known issues.

 

You wrote at length about other companies being “pushed away” by the “poisonous” steadicam community. Really? Did Bob and George really leave the business because of the attitude of operators? Did GPI Pro really leave Valencia, CA for Oregon so they didn’t have to interact with wannabes? I don’t honestly believe any of these are valid examples or in the least bit true. I would also disagree with your assessment of us (steadicam operators) and say that with only one or two exceptions that I can think of (none of which you mentioned in your post) the steadicam community, and in particular, the steadicam forum is filled with people who are kind, courteous, willing to help others, and passionate about what they do and the equipment they work with. If you experienced backlash of some sort (and I’m more than aware that you have), I might suggest it possibly had more to do with your product, service record, and your attitude towards us rather than the person pointing the finger at you.

 

When you make a quality product and stand behind that product year after year (Pro, XCS, Preston, Bartech) you don’t get the wave of disappointed customers that you at Cinetronic/Film-Stuff seem to have. When is the last time anyone wrote anything disparaging on this forum about Pro, XCS, Preston, or Jim Bartell? I can’t think of any. People will go out of their way to praise a product when it works, and conversely, when people can’t get you on the phone to discuss an issue, or don’t get a response to an email regarding a problem, don’t receive their paid for product on time as agreed, or are told that they will have to live with an ongoing issue, they come on the forum and post their concerns. They do this for two reasons: they hope that you will see it and personally respond to fix their issue or complaint (especially if they can’t reach you by other means), and they also want to warn others about what is going on.

 

Steadicam operators have done this same thing since the beginnings of the device (way before the internet). Back then it was at gatherings and on the phone, but now (for better or worse – depending on your product and customer service track-record) it is online. This makes it easier for us as potential buyers (especially those in other countries) to hear about a product and how it performs in the field, and sometimes more importantly, how the company supports the customer after the sale.

 

We make our living with our equipment – not just on rentals, but it is what we use along with our bodies to frame the images seen by millions in theaters around the world. If it doesn’t perform, or we can’t get anyone to help us fix it when things go wrong in the field, then it is of no value to us. In some cases (as in if it goes down and you don’t have a back-up) equipment can get you fired or not asked back. These are huge issues for us, as we are only as good as the equipment we buy and bring with us to the job. If it doesn’t work, then we don’t work – it’s as simple as that.

 

It isn’t enough to have own/run a company that simply builds products – that company also has to support its customers if it hopes to be profitable and pass the test of time. I wish you and your company nothing but success going forward, but I think you need to take an honest look in the mirror and start looking at what you make, what you say to others (especially on an online forum), and how you deal with the inevitable issues that will arise as a business owner. That will, and so far, has, defined you and your company, though perhaps not as you may have hoped. There are good companies in our industry and bad ones and there is a discernable difference between them. All of us can easily recognize when we’ve had a good purchasing experience, and can just as easily tell if we haven’t. You need to realize that you are building equipment geared towards a very small community, and we all know each other and discuss our equipment buying decisions – both the good ones, and the poor ones. This can either be a good thing for you and your company or not – you are the only one that can decide that outcome.

 

Brooks Robinson

[chris bangma]

Jens, it is not speculation about George and Bob Derose, this came from Chris Haarhoff, who I had many long conversations with, and who was very much involved with Pro.

 

Afton, You talk about delivery in a timely manner. What do you consider a timely manner? It is not unusual to wait 4-6 months for a Preston focus system. If you order a mosys remote head, the wait is often 6-9 months. When dealing with custom products there are typically wait times, that is the nature of this business. It is very hard to give firm delivery times when your suppliers can never give you firm times. When the bonding company says the work will be done in 2 weeks, and they take 2 months, there is not much that can be done. And since we are talking about being timely, how are we to run a business, when customers like you are not timely with paying? You took over 9 months to pay for your monitor, and you complain about me being timely? It is also difficult to refund people when there is no money to refund them with. We dont intend not to refund people money, just need the money to do so. Last I checked inventory, offices and utilities weren't free, and employees dont work for free either. Yet everyone just expects there is a big mountain of cash for everything. When a few people only say negative things on the forum, and there are no sales, then there is no money either. Rather simple economics.

 

Brooks, I am sorry you are in the less than 5% who were not happy. The are plenty of operators who use the monitor every day, and comment how happy they are about it. You expect that things "just work", yet how many updates have there been for the Red cameras and the Alexas?? This is the nature of the digital age, there will be bugs, and there will be updates to fix them. If you want something that doesnt rely on firmware, buy a Pro green screen monitor. From your comments on the SmallHD, it looks like you have problems with that one as well. You comment about releasing 5 new products, without fixing the monitor. Where do you expect money to come from to pay engineers???? People do not work for free, just as you do not do Steadicam for free. I develop new products to increase sales, bring in more money, and keep the doors open. Do you really expect a company to keep dumping money into a product with no sales? The new products I develop are all done in house, so there is less reliance on outside companies and engineers. This allows us to free up more money to take care of the other products. Would you suggest that we just shut the doors and leave everyone else hanging? You say there is a "wave of disappointed" film-stuff.com customers, yet how many have you actually spoken to?? We have sold products to over 600 customers, if 10-20 of them complain, is that a "wave"? In reality is less than 4%. Do you get the shot 100% of the time?

 

 

Everyone thinks that developing things like monitors is easy, yet how many other companies have attempted to build a new monitor from the ground up? Please dont comment on how easy you think things should be unless you have done it. I would welcome anyone here to give it a try and build a steadicam monitor. Greg Bubb said 1 1/2 years ago that the TB7 would ship in 8 weeks, yet it still isnt here. The latest estimate is mid 2015. In reality it is a very difficult thing to build a monitor, especially a 7" monitor. There are no 7" industrial screens, so the only screen you will find comes from a tablet, and you will be lucky to have a 12-18 month life. This makes development very difficult, since by the time you find a screen, create a design for it, and build a product, there screen will be discontinued, and you will be back to finding another one.

 

As for PsF, you can blame Sony for this. Sony and a few of the other big companies proposed a HD-Sdi standards list. These standards were adopted by all the HD-Sdi chip manufacturers. The new standards for HD-Sdi do not include 720 24psf. Older chips support 720i, which is essentially the same, but the new chips no longer support this. The only way around this is to have a custom chip, which costs significantly more money. This is why many older monitors will support PsF, but new ones will not. When we originally proposed the Gen2, the engineers were told it must support PsF, but they were never able to get it to work. We spent over $30K on the PsF problem alone, with no results, continually being told it could be resolved in software. At this point the only solution is a custom chip, which would run $50K, and without any significant sales is not possible. These are all things that you learn along the way.

 

For those who think they could handle things better, and keep the customers happier, you desk is waiting for you. I will happily set up your desk, and forward all the calls to you. You can be paid the same as me, a free lunch each day, and gas for your car...

[Afton Grant]

I'll address just the accusation against me since the rest, well....

 

I took 9 months to pay for my monitor, that's your accusation? I seemed to remember things slightly differently so I looked through my records just to make sure.

 

Fall of 2011 - Paid in full for your Gen 1 monitor. It was received shortly thereafter.

January 29, 2013 - Preordered the Gen 2 monitor and digital level. Paid 50% of the upgrade price.

Cinegear 2013 (June) - Received Gen 2 monitor. No level.

June 25, 2013 - Paid balance of upgrade to the monitor.

November, 2013 - Received digital level.

November 5, 2013 - Paid balance of digital level

January 26, 2014 - Paid "keep" fee to be able to hang on to my Gen 1 monitor.

 

So that's the timeline of payments. Everything was paid in full on or very near the time of final delivery - much of it being partially paid for long before delivery. I did hang on to my Gen 1 monitor rather than immediately turning it in, but you and I agreed to that while the firmware of the Gen 2 was getting its bugs worked out and brought up to spec. Not sure where the 9 months came from.

[Peter Abraham]

Always glad to hear things directly from the person being discussed by respected members of our community. Thank you, Mr. Bangma, for writing your post.

 

I now know where I will not be spending my money for a new monitor for my Steadicam.

 

Best to all,

 

Peter Abraham, S.O.C.

[chris bangma]

Dont worry Peter, we wont be selling any more Gen2 monitors. Nice of you to always chime in though despite not having any experience with us.

[mike skipp]

Afton, that's not how it went down and you know it, I guess life looks good through rose colored glasses!

[Afton Grant]

Mike, I'm more than happy to include my paypal statements and email correspondences if you want.

[Peter Abraham]

Dont worry Peter, we wont be selling any more Gen2 monitors. Nice of you to always chime in though despite not having any experience with us.

 

Do you really want to do this? Okay.

 

First of all, I'm not worried.

 

I've been a working Steadicam Operator for 28 years. I've provided a series of small and relatively inexpensive accessories through the years. What do my colleagues know? That the Zalex RetroVest Upgrade came with a lifetime warranty. ( Check with Brant Fagan to see how long my workmanship lasts... ) The plastics cracked without being drilled or cut? You got a new part for free, shipping at my expense. Worldwide. You buy a Zalex Tally from me and there's a problem? I send you another. Shipping at my cost. And so on. You buy a Zalex Longplate from me? You keep getting the most recent accessories I come up with. For free. I consider improvements in a mechanical design like the Longplate to be a part of what people pay for when they do business with me. In fact, everyone who has bought a Longplate so far is about to get the newest accessories from me in the coming week or so. Shipping at my expense. So I spend an extra coupla dollars on shipping per customer to keep their use of the Longplate at a high level of satisfaction and creativity. Kind of the only way to support my fellows.

 

I rely on colleagues who are also vendors to provide the same level of support. It's just that simple.

 

I've been suckered a few times and am aware enough now to listen to the feedback provided by those who have suffered inappropriate business practices. You betcha I'm always glad to chime in.

 

And no, I won't be putting one thin dime into your pocket. You can rail on us and get defensive all you want but when highly respected Operators such as Afton are willing to put their financial records online in this Forum by way of proving their point, I think that it is incumbent upon all of us to pay very very careful attention.

 

As we all know, you can't drop-ship Respect.

 

You have to earn it.

[chris bangma]

Peter, do you honestly want to compare a tally light or a plate to a monitor??? I think we have a bit more invested in R&D than a tally light or plate. All of our software updates are free, as are all of our hardware updates. We have always covered return shipping on our monitors, and have often times covered shipping both ways. We have repaired many peoples monitors, that were out of warranty, without charge. We have also done repairs and updates on customers monitors free of charge, who had bought their monitors second hand. So dont go off claiming that support is not good when you dont have any experience with us. Some repairs have taken longer than expected because parts were not in stock, which is beyond our control. There is a very big difference between supporting something made of metal and plastic vs supporting something that has 300+ different components from 50 vendors, and runs on 1 million+ lines of code.

 

If I made a $10 tally light, it would be easy to keep those on the shelf and ready to go as well.

[brooksrobinson]

Chris,

 

Thank you for the reply. I’m not sure what issue you are referring to with my two SmallHD’s. I did have a strange thing happen where the HD signal wasn’t always recognized, but a quick call to the SmallHD customer service by my loader took care of that and I’ve used the monitors every day since for the past three months without issue. We are mostly a stage-based show, so I can’t comment on how viewable they are in the sun, but I do know that the SmallHD monitors cost ½ of what I paid for my old Cinetronic 2’s and do work with the PSF signal put out by the Sony F55’s on my current show and the F65’s I’ll be flying on my next.

 

You questioned my statement about how the things we operators buy are expected to “just work”. In your post, you referred to Arri Alexa’s and Red cameras and how many updates have come out with each of them. I don’t understand the analogy and how it applies to this discussion. The difference there is that with cameras, the production company is renting them from Panavision or Otto’s. Few of us own camera bodies. When a camera body does goes down (as all things do), it gets sent back to the rental house and a replacement camera body is sent back to the set in its place. That doesn’t happen when you are the vendor for something and production is paying you for it. It is up to you to have either a back-up or to own something that doesn’t ever go down (no such electronic device exists in my experience). That is why I will again tell you how important it is to have gear that works, and a company that backs what they sell without issue. That is why I no longer own your monitors.

 

I have no knowledge of the ratio of happy to unhappy customers at Cinetronic/Film-Stuff, nor does it really matter. I was one of the unhappy ones, however, I am not quick to speak out (unlike some) and usually put thought into things before I take the time to address them. Please read any of my other posts on this forum for validation if you need it – I’m not in the business of trashing people or companies because it suits me, or because I happen to disagree with them or their policies. However, your method of addressing and dealing with people who write negative reviews of your products isn’t how I’d go about building support for my efforts or my business. It draws a line in the sand, and makes people speak out who normally wouldn’t. People wouldn’t take the time or energy to be vocal on a public forum if they weren’t passionate about the subject.

 

I would have kept my feelings to myself (at least publicly) except that you wrote a lengthy rant coming down on Afton (who I do not know except through his posts over the years on the forum). It was out of line, as he has done nothing wrong. I would hope that our moderators would be allowed to speak out if they have an opinion on something even if the opinion is negative. If he started bad-mouthing other operators for having opinions other than his, then perhaps some form of policing would be called for (as has occurred in the past with another moderator who no longer moderates), but sharing his views about a certain product should in no way be cause for discipline. I assume you’ll find others on this forum that agree with me on that.

 

You asked me about my comments regarding your upcoming new product releases and again, I wish you the best of luck with them. I don’t want you or your company to fail…I want your business to succeed as having options with gear is what helps to push the boundaries of equipment. I do wonder however (and I mentioned this in an email to you way back when) who you think will be buying these new products from you when the people who would be most interested in purchasing them are being alienated by your customer service? Again, this is a very small market, and we all know and talk to one another. If I had a problem with something you sold to me, and it wasn’t dealt with to my satisfaction, why on earth would I go about giving you more money for something else? If I continued to read on a forum about ongoing issues with things at your company and unhappy customers, why would I buy a new untested product from you? There are other options for the products you are releasing, most of them from companies with little to no drama…so why wouldn’t I go with any one of those options knowing what my experience was like with Cinetronic/Film-Stuff?

 

In regards to your comment about everyone thinking it is easy to build new monitors, I think you are making the wrong assumption or at the very least, asking the wrong question. I’m not the least bit technical. I don’t understand how monitors work or why they do or do not accept a PSF signal. None of that concerns me. All I really care about is being able to see my monitor in any condition so that I can do my job, and that when it goes down (as all equipment does at one point or another), the company that built it will get it fixed and shipped back to me on location quickly. That’s truly all I care about. I don’t really care about the cost (well, truthfully, I’d rather pay a little than a lot), but at the end of the day, it comes down to what works, and what doesn’t. I paid $15,000 a piece for two Pro 1 monitors back in the day when they first came out and felt pretty good about it…why…because they worked without fuss every day I used them. I still have one of them in one of the 30+ cases that I drag around to location (and have since 1996 when I bought it) because I know if everything else fails, it will work.

 

Yes, we all know PSF is a pisser. My Teradek Bolt 2000 version 1 had an issue with PSF that I discovered after owning it for 6 months. I thankfully found out about it before the job started by putting a post on this very forum (thanks to all of you wonderful non-“poisonous” fellow operators who responded and pointed out that it might be an issue with my current Sony F55 job). I ended up swapping it out (along with some money) for a new version of the 2000 that worked with PSF. Was I happy about paying the extra cost? No, but Teradek did offer a viable solution in a timely manner. They didn’t just tell me that it would cost them too much to fix it and I was stuck with a system that didn’t work with every camera on the market. Again, cost isn’t always the overriding factor. I had a problem and Teradek found a solution …yes it cost me some money, but I have a unit that works wonderfully, is generating weekly income (it has more than paid for itself in two shows time), and I will happily buy from Teradek again.

 

You asked me where the money will come from to have your engineer fix the PSF problem. As a fellow small business owner, I understand how difficult cash flow can be, especially in hard times and when the phone isn’t ringing (I always answer mine for this very reason). That is why I take great pains to be humble, nice, and professional to everyone I encounter on set, from the lowest intern to Oscar winning directors and DP’s…because I learned at a very young age that to alienate anyone can be deadly to a career. People move up and down the ladder so quickly in this industry that to give a lowly PA shit one day, means that I might not get hired on the next huge job because that “kid” is now the executive producer and remembers how I treated him on a long-forgotten job. I’m also generally a nice guy that doesn’t like giving those “below me” shit.

 

You also brought up Greg Bubb and his TB-7. To be fair, I have a vested interest in this, as I own two XCS sleds and consider Greg to be a friend. He has always done right be me equipment-wise, and when something has gone down on a job (as we all know is inevitable), he has either told me how to fix it on the phone, or Fed Ex’d a replacement to me. I would put Greg up near the top of the class as far as customer service and not just because I use his stuff and have a solid working relationship with him. There is also a big difference between XCS and Cinetronic/Film-Stuff as I see it, at least when it comes to monitors. Greg didn’t take money for pre-orders and there aren’t people waiting eagerly by their mailbox each day…people that are out a lot of money and crossing their fingers that their monitors will eventually arrive. Would I rather have purchased two of Greg’s monitors instead of what I consider to be a stop-gap (my SmallHD’s)? Yes. Were they ready when I needed to buy two because I couldn’t continue to use my Cinetronics because of a severe lack of confidence in the equipment and company? No. Did Greg ask anyone for money up front for a yet unreleased/untested TB-7 and then promise them they’d be ready in two weeks or a month? No. When they are available and I decide to buy two of them (or not depending on a variety of factors), will I lose $6000 selling my SmallHD’s as I did when I sold my Cinetronic 2 monitors? No, because both of my SmallHD monitors together cost less to purchase than I lost when I sold my two Cinetronics monitors. That fall in value can be chalked up (I believe) to all of the negative reviews on this forum and how you as the owner of the company has dealt with the adversity. There is a big difference, at least from my perspective.

 

Getting back to your point about happy customers…you’ll be interested to note that I’ve heard from 5 operators from this forum via email or PM since my post – all either in support of my post or in disbelief over what you’ve written. People aren’t always willing to put posts up of a forum, as it will be visible to all until the end of time (or until Tim gets tired of hosting the site). I have remained quiet about this and would have continued to do so except for your post about Afton, and how this site, and us operators specifically, were as a group awful enough to drive away some of the best people and vendors in the game (I’m still having a hard time coming to grips with that one Chris).

 

I hope someone takes you up on your offer to come sit in the office... at least then someone will take the time to pick up the phone when it rings. I would however put the promised daily lunch money into a fund to fix the known issues with your current products instead of merely complaining about your pesky customers/ex-customers and their demanding needs…that seems to be a better use for the money and kills two birds with one stone.

 

Good luck with your business going forward. I wish you personally nothing but success, but I fear that the way you treat the people who entrust you with their hard earned money will cause your eventual downfall long before your products do. I hope I am proven wrong.

 

Brooks Robinson

 

PS And talking shit about others who comment (such as Peter) doesn't endear you or your business to others who may be on the fence about purchasing products from you...is it me, or is this just common sense?

[Robert Starling SOC]

I don't think I've ever seen any vendor company or their owner(s) in our profession or even outside of it publicly attack and blame their clients for their own shortcomings, mistakes and failures. Maybe MK-V and Mr. Smith back in the day, but I'm not sure even he matched this kind of unprofessional vitriol.

 

The writing seems to be on the wall here...

 

Such a shame; one giant lost opportunity to do and be something amazing.

 

Robert