VEXPro 2014 Product Initial Impressions

[jsasaki]

Originally Posted by T^2

On the VEXPro website, the option to purchase a pneumatic shifting cylinder is separated from the option to purchase the base kit. I'm sure there could be legitimate reasons for this, but what I see is a blatant attempt to obfuscate realistic pricing data from the buyer. What a poor way to treat your customers. Please prove my accusations groundless.

I wasn't going to comment on this post, until I saw this. Our team really took a hit on this. We ordered 4 of the 3 stage Ball Shifters and when we got our order, we found out that they had separated the Pancake cylinders out of the "base kit". I guess we ordered the Shifters thinking they would include one of the most important parts of making the shifter work, without the cylinder, the shifters are kind of useless. I thought it was a sneaky and unfair move on their part to raise prices. Maybe next time they could just raise the price of the entire thing without taking out critical parts of the kit.

[Jon Stratis]

Regarding the pancake cylinder... A lot of older teams have a lot of pneumatic parts sitting around their shops. It really wouldn't be surprising to want to save money by not getting the pancake shifter and instead making one of your existing cylinders work. I know when we ordered a ball shifter from VEX this year, I found it fairly clear on the website and ordered a pancake cylinder from the start.

[mrnoble]

Originally Posted by Jon Stratis

I know when we ordered a ball shifter from VEX this year, I found it fairly clear on the website and ordered a pancake cylinder from the start.

I had the same experience. This seemed pretty obvious to me, and hardly a "blatant attempt to obfuscate" or "sneaky". Intimating that the people at IMI are trying to pull a fast one on us is worse than speculative, and hardly helpful.

Regarding product quality, there are certainly good and bad things to say about VexPro products, just like AndyMark and any other COTS stuff we use. Constructive feedback will probably help make better products in the long run; just look how far we've come in the last five years. But if companies like Apple can have problems with supply chain, quality, and customer satisfaction, with their decades of experience, armies of employees, and mountains of money, how can we expect perfection from a small company testing the waters with new products for the nichest of niche markets?

VexPro products have significantly raised the bar in the last two years, and their current issues are largely due to our overwhelming (and probably unpredictable) demand for their products. Keep that in mind please.