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deFiniLoGy
97
Nov 8, 2016
Dear Massdrop,
On 11/8/2016, I deliberately skipped work to support the HD6XX drop.
On 0600 PT sharp, I promptly starting to attempt to place a single order through Massdrop, I even saw witness the 1st pair sold. Yet after two entire hour of "Uh ohs", "Oops" and spinning circles. I ended up with nothing.
As you may have noticed, or more precisely ignored, in the comment section, this drop has been your most successful yet most disappointing drop ever.
Please elaborate what compensation is Massdrop going to give back, not just to me, but the entire community whom you have failed, for this experience, and why should we continue to support you.
Regards, A loyal yet disgusted supporter.
deFiniLoGyI blame the selfish people spamming the servers with multiple requests, some guy said he had 40+ tabs of credit card orders spinning...
Axiomatik
78
Nov 8, 2016
deFiniLoGyDon't worry, there will be more soon. There's a limit to one person and personally I got 3... (I spammed the shit out of join drop across multiple browsers and tabs).
Detex
537
Nov 8, 2016
deFiniLoGyCompensation? Sure, it was ridiculous but compensation? What do you want? A Puppy? Seriously, they are headphones, get a grip.
KraftPunk
3
Nov 8, 2016
QBoQBo
22
Nov 8, 2016
deFiniLoGySame here. So angry when I was up at 6 a.m, but could not join the HD6xx drop after trying hundred times using 3 different computers. This is not a fair game. First, it was the inflated shipping cost which made me shop less. Now, this epic fail to create a large enough bandwidth for ppl to join a drop. I also had to skipped a class for this :( :( :(
Badmutha
80
Nov 8, 2016
deFiniLoGymy paypal authorization went through so fast after the drop started but didnt show up on the transactions page so i thought id just stop and trust my paypal. Now i dont even think ill get one. It's all these impatient people that have never even used the site before that just bruteforced to get their headphones. So much for being a loyal customer. Very disappointed Massdrop.
Tman450
116
Nov 8, 2016
deFiniLoGyYeah this drop was a shitshow man. Hopefully they will have more HD 6xx drops after this one.
deFiniLoGy
97
Nov 8, 2016
AxiomatikI don't care about the headphone anymore.
I'm annoyed that they wasted 2 hours of my time on this.
They could have limit the number of visiters, they could have simply take interest registry and take payment later. A lot of things can be done to deaal with this.
What we got at last? CS reps playing HR - Ignoring comments that matters and reply to ones that won't commit to anything that matters.
I own a pair of HD650. I tried to join this drop because I support what they do.
Massdrop was nothing before their community, they nearly closed down before, only to be supported by their backers.
Now? I don't see how much they care as long as they've got $$.
ehmora
8
Nov 8, 2016
deFiniLoGyI didn't skip work but had the same results.
I was going to purchase this as a replacement for the TH-X00 Purplehearts I recently sent back because of the infamous bubble wrap issue. All this despite being short changed on the $ they refunded me and am still waiting for a response...
Also loyal and disgusted.
occamsrzr
14
Nov 8, 2016
deFiniLoGy"I'm annoyed that I wasted 2 hours of my time on this."
FTFY. Welcome to the world of limited drops. There are plenty of factors that are outside Massdrop's (and your) control. Just take the L gracefully.
deFiniLoGy
97
Nov 8, 2016
occamsrzrYes. It is a limited drop, and demand over supply is expected.
But one thing is different about Massdrop, it is this very community that makes Massdrop possible, and this is why the experience of the community should also be of consideration by Massdrop, if not they're just a very expensive and very inefficient version of Amazon.
And like I said, PLENTY of things can be done by them. Just a very simple solution would be to take interest registry and organize payments later - problem solved.
This is 21st century, if done correctly NO ONE should be here wasting their time looking at spinning circles for 2 hours. If you think you can then be my guest, but I'm here asking Massdrop to give us more.
occamsrzr
14
Nov 8, 2016
deFiniLoGyLet me clue you into something at a much, much bigger scale from a company that has vastly more capital than Massdrop:
"For example, during the latest Yeezy Boost 350 "Pirate Black" release, on Feb. 19th, I had been waiting for almost two hours for Adidas to flip the switch on the launch. After it did, it took another hour to pick my size, enter personal info and, last, check out. (By the way, by no means was that a smooth experience, as the site kept crashing, leading to what seemed like a never-ending loop of page refreshes.)" https://www.engadget.com/2016/04/07/adidas-yeezy-online-sales-block-ip-addresses/
This mirrors your experience here today, correct? If companies like Adidas or Nike can't find a solution. Maybe the solution is harder than you're giving it credit and it's not as trivial as you're making it out to be.
deFiniLoGy
97
Nov 8, 2016
occamsrzrThank you for the reference.
But what is the point you're trying to make?
In your example, the crashing of the server did not stop the ordering process outright. In fact the reason why the author could not place the order was because an entirely different problem, one that is completely irrelevant to the server backbone / management.
And also, the size difference of MD and Nike actually indicates that MD could make a preparatory moderation on their normal ordering process a lot more easily.
Finally to this point: These giant did SOMETHING in preparation for the limited drop, yet MD did NOTHING (they claimed they did but I see no reference to what had they done so far).
Axiomatik
78
Nov 8, 2016
deFiniLoGy"And also, the size difference of MD and Nike actually indicates that MD could make a preparatory moderation on their normal ordering process a lot more easily. "
This doesn't make sense to me. What exactly was MD supposed to for preparations? I bet they added memory to their servers, but it clearly wasn't enough. I suspect the proper solution to this is not hardware, but rather software process.Do you really expect them to change their server-payment architecture for one drop?
Typically the problem with massdrop is not the order process, but it's delivering the product on time. I've had issues with MD in the past because they dropped the ball due to lack of communication and perhaps even overall effort. I don't see that here.
deFiniLoGy
97
Nov 8, 2016
AxiomatikMy point wasn't the fact that they didn't eliminate the problem, but the fact that they did not attempt to solve the problem.
Yes - they MIGHT have added memories, but neither you or me could see that. Nor did any of the CS reps confirmed that. In fact the least ambiguous thing they said they did was "significant preparation", which fell apart from 0601 PT.
My point is, a small/medium business is perfectly flexible in changing the system to accommodate / ATTEMPT to alleviate the problem by letting customers to reserve the drop at the "Join Now" stage instead of at the "Payment" stage because that was the bottleneck obviously.
Yes, that might not be a perfect solution, but what I'm trying to point out is even though this is an inevitable problem, at least the heart of trying to fix it would prevent such a community backlash. Instead, MD decided to ignore these feedback and continue their journey to become Amazon.
That is what I'm complaining about.
occamsrzr
14
Nov 8, 2016
deFiniLoGyMy point is bigger companies like Adidas and Nike haven't figured out a solution for limited drops. We can't expect Massdrop to have a perfect solution either.
"the fact that they did not attempt to solve the problem"
This is something you legitimately cannot see. I'm sure their engineers are busting their ass to put out fires.
"by letting customers to reserve the drop at the "Join Now" stage instead of at the "Payment" stage because that was the bottleneck obviously."
Your solution only moves the unfairness from the checkout phase to the pre-order phase. Again, this bottleneck at the checkout phase wasn't revealed until now. Hindsight is 20/20 and it's unknown if this bottleneck was known before this drop. But if you're supremely confident you can offer a solution that would deliver 100% fairness to all parties, I'm sure they would love to hire you: https://www.massdrop.com/careers
Good luck with the next drop. It'll be in a month or two. I'm positive next time will go better. Maybe you'll even have a new job on the Massdrop team by then!
deFiniLoGy
97
Nov 8, 2016
occamsrzr"This is something you legitimately cannot see. I'm sure their engineers are busting their ass to put out fires. "
How can you be sure? What evidence has ever been put forward other than their words?
"Your solution only moves the unfairness from the checkout phase to the pre-order phase. "
Again - My point is not solving the unfairness of the drop, but to minimize the frustration of the community.
True - it is unknown that where would the bottleneck be before the drop, but isn't the payment processing step is most obvious step? e.g. for Paypal payment you need to be transferred off to Paypal itself - this already is an obvious rate-limiting step in a logical deduction. I'm by no means a web developer so please do correct me if anyone knows better.
At last, at what stage had I tried to be supremely confident? I deliberately pointed out my solution was not perfect, rather it was an attempt to contribute in fixing the problem instead of trying to compromise the community's experience to this.
Btw, reverting to personal attack does not give you the edge in a discussion, it only shows as something for everyone to laugh at.
Axiomatik
78
Nov 8, 2016
deFiniLoGy"alleviate the problem by letting customers to reserve the drop at the "Join Now" stage instead of at the "Payment" stage because that was the bottleneck obviously."
This is fundamentally an architecture change. Which needs to be designed, coded and tested, all of which can take significant time. You're downplaying how difficult it is to produce bug-free software.
Actually thinking about this now, perhaps a better solution would have just been to have added captcha code to join the drop. This would have slowed down the amount of process coming in significantly.
deFiniLoGy
97
Nov 8, 2016
AxiomatikCaptcha code: Good suggestion tbh.
Shame MD reps will still ignore this comment thread.
occamsrzr
14
Nov 8, 2016
deFiniLoGy"Btw, reverting to personal attack does not give you the edge in a discussion, it only shows as something for everyone to laugh at."
Not quite sure where I reverted to personal attacks.
"or Paypal payment you need to be transferred off to Paypal itself - this already is an obvious rate-limiting step in a logical deduction. I'm by no means a web developer so please do correct me if anyone knows better."
Again, it's still not obvious where in the stack the bottleneck was other than post-payment processing. Payment processing is kind of a pain in the ass sometimes. Having to restructure how the payment processing works isn't something that can be done quickly while maintaining PCI compliance. I am absolutely sure that Paypal itself can provide the needed bandwidth and processing power. It's the response back from PayPal to the MD servers that might have been an issue. Not sure but this aligns with the evidence that many people were charged $1 but a transaction wasn't added to their profile.
I don't mind the Captcha solution if it cuts down on the bots but we're not 100% sure how much of the traffic was coming from bots.
Just take the L gracefully.
deFiniLoGy
97
Nov 8, 2016
occamsrzrEverything you said is true. Payment processing is indeed a pain in the rearend, hence I said drops like this should be registered at the "Join Now" stage instead, and then take payment at a later date. In which case the bottleneck would be entirely within their own web engine and is can be more easily controlled.
The above method is also one of the methods being considered by MD to tackle this mess btw, if you were keep tab of what's really going on.
Hondurasloco65
7
Nov 8, 2016
deFiniLoGynever got a confirmation order number but had a temporary charge on my credit card now the temporary charge is gone does that mean my order is not happening.
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