Click to view our Accessibility Statement or contact us with accessibility-related questions

Massdrop's Decline

more_vert
I would like to preface this with the statement that I love the premise of Massdrop and what they have done, especially for the audio community. However, things are on a downward spiral in terms of customer satisfaction. A combination of sudden price increases (in the middle of drops), terrible UI compared to the previous style, and awful customer service when drops are delayed has made me lose faith in this company. Even worse is the fact that many community members have expressed displeasure about these issues and there has been no response from any representatives of Massdrop . There is growing disconnect between this company and their customers. A price increase on your most popular products when your premise is"consumer driven commerce" seems contradictory. Opening pre-orders for a product where only 500 units are available when 15,000 people have requested it, then only sending out an email about this hours after the drop has ended is dysfunctional. The list continues. I loved this company due to the fact that I felt as though it actually listened to the feedback of the community and tried to improve. I do not get this feeling anymore and I think there are others who can relate to this feeling. While sales may not be negatively impacted immediately there is the very serious risk of increasing customer dissatisfaction and decreasing customer loyalty. This will ultimately lead to decreased sales long (or the reduction in potential for growth of sales) and hurt the brand name. You can not have consumer driven commerce when the voices of the consumers fall on deaf ears. I hope this changes soon.
26
38
remove_red_eye
1.3K

search
close
ravkesef
198
Jul 28, 2022
It’s gotten much worse. Now they sell keyboards, key caps and headphones. Gone is the day of the variety that Massdrop used to offer. Really—how many keyboards do you need?
P1MPBOT5000
244
Apr 6, 2021
This site was cool before a lot of the morons got on here and obvious that total doofuses run this business. This is the most hot topic shit show of a site that I stopped coming here all together. Its a fn joke and its nothing but consumers parading their cheap plastic crap all over the site.
ravkesef
198
Jan 2, 2020
Back in the day I would sign on two or three times a week, bought regularly, and added my insights to discussions when appropriate to do so. Now there isn’t much to shop for, except the same old stuff, and signing on every couple of weeks or so yields the same results: nothing new. Looks like you overbought on the pocket knives, and now have too much overstock to get rid of. And the UI? Nothing much to add there right, save that trying to get to your shopping preferences, formerly a mere click, is now next to impossible. Who is the clown who designed the UI anyway? And who made the decision to curtail the shopping experience. Maybe it’s just time to fold up and go home. After all, how many pocket knives can we buy?
(Edited)
Keth
760
Apr 24, 2019
Well, Massdrop just updated the UI again, and it's even worse. They've made it more difficult to find discussions, and made it more inconvenient and busy in general. Learn from Reddit Massdrop, let us opt out of these changes!
Raithmir
663
Apr 26, 2019
KethYeah this latest change is utterly terrible, and I think means I'm now done with Massdrop.
P1MPBOT5000
244
Apr 6, 2021
KethLet's all agree that if you are a reddit user no one on the planet should listen to a god damn thing you have to say about anything.
RayF
22206
Apr 24, 2019
I don't like to point fingers (@Duncan), and I would never think of blaming (@Duncan) one individual for everything that goes (@Duncan) amiss in a large company with many, many employees--that would be (@Duncan) unfair, so I think the right thing for all of us to do is be patient, while MD works out the (@Duncan) kinks in their systems, and allow them time to overcome their growing (@Duncan) pains. After all, where would we all be without (@Duncan) MD? Think about that!
RayF
22206
Apr 27, 2019
I was making light of the theme here (the decline and fall of MD) and dropped a subtle hint that regardless of whatever goes wrong on or with MD, it's most likely @Duncan 's fault. Evidently @Animalex is Duncan's toy-poodle guard dog, and took offense to my theory.
Animalex
55
Apr 28, 2019
Sorry, having useless opinions on the internet is more of a pastime than a profession for me. I'll let you get back to work.
NdofTime
6
Apr 23, 2019
Hi I’m new here and I did join from the self interest viewpoint of being a consumer and skint at the same time😊 but this is very sad to hear. Surely the price was agreed between MD and whichever company before it was offered here. We’re not dealing with open ended govt contracts. As I said I’m new. Is it the same managerial structure as when it began? Why not draft a formal letter to MassDrop outlining these grievances? Your concerns are far from petty and could have a very negative outcome if left unaddressed, Hey anyone like Band of Skulls? I’m listening now. Wish it were later so I could dial up the volume😁
(Edited)
Jaytal
174
Apr 23, 2019
It's appalling how many products are still being featured on the front pages that are actively mocked and criticized for redundancy. I feel a steady decline there too; supposedly hundred-dollar basketballs painted like granite marbles to give you a "competitive advantage", "tactical" self-defense pens, titanium straws with a college thesis written in the store page about how "aerodynamic" they are and how the "enhanced suction" will cure all ailments or God-knows-what... It's hard to believe the "community driven" part when it seems half of the items pushed onto us get the same cold response (or a laugh) from the vocal minority of shoppers here. Even when items we DO want are made available, the experience of simply purchasing them is more often than not a hassle with shipping dates that are delayed past their already abysmal initial date, stock that's never enough, strictures, the list goes on. It's been a long time since I've actually purchased anything here. A while ago, I could actually convince myself I was saving money by shopping here rather than Amazon or other online retailers. I'm waiting for Massdrop to give me that back.
C_the_Machine
11
Apr 23, 2019
I remember when I first joined, it didn't take long to get to a point that I realized it was a waste of time to "shop around" on an item that was offered here. Lately, I have to stop myself from just joining and have found that I now instantly go to the discussion link on the drop due to the fact that there has been quite a few times someone has already found out you can get it cheaper on amazon (and get it in 2 days). I feel Massdrop used to be the kind of company that if they had their costs go up on an item, especially if it were one of the most popular, re-occurring items that they actually kept in house now, they would've let the community know that future drops of the item would be more expensive due to the fact of costs, or a change in the item. Now, I see the prices went up on something that was said to be "in stock", none the less. I would think prices would go down on an item after selling 15,000, not go up. I understand manufacturing costs change, but when prices go up with no warning on an item said to be "in stock" (especially when Massdrop is usually a couple months to ship if they don't have them already bought, paid for, and sitting on a shelf), it makes me feel a little uneasy. Also, I will go ahead and say that if they did come out and say the price was going to change, I definitely missed it and my bad on the last half of the comment.
(Edited)
Consumer driven means that your feedback is incorporated into the products they offer and the collaborations they try to make happen. It does not mean they are here as a charity to sells things at a "break even" price.
P1MPBOT5000
244
Apr 6, 2021
The issue is the increase in shit users wanting shit things at shit prices.
And the award for necroing a long dead thread with non-sensical sh*t-posting goes to....
monkey4054
11
Apr 21, 2019
Yep, I agree completely about the 789 drop. They shouldn't have opened the drop until they had sufficient stock. Because now I'm going to buy a different amp elsewhere and Massdrop misses out on my (and probably a lot of other peoples') money.
Heefty
1387
Apr 23, 2019
If they can't get the parts they need to build more amps, that's not exactly on Massdrop. It's more on THX for using EOL components in their amp then refusing to redesign while partnering with others to sell an amp that can't be reliably manufactured. Massdrop is not the only place this has happened with a THX amp. The initial Monoprice version was delayed to the market by many months for similar nonsense. I can definitely agree that Massdrop needs to do a better job on communicating the situation with their community though. I'm basing all of my prior statements on hear-say and conjecture. Not good ground to stand on, and that's as much on Massdrop as anyone.
Keth
760
Apr 23, 2019
Supply doesn't have to meet demand, if anything your argument is that they should have raised the price to the point that only 500 people would be willing to pay for it. They simply could have re branded it as a special edition and added some pointless appearance change like they often do with cars. You can't lose customers if you have nothing to sell, and if you NEED an amp, I have no idea why you would wait when there are plenty of great options available. No one is arguing that they shouldn't have stated the number available up front.
Related Posts
Trending Posts in Audiophile