Comment by tpearson-raptor | Hacker News Reader

Comment by tpearson-raptor | Hacker News Reader

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tpearson-raptor

> This reads like blame shifting, not accountability.

I don't think I was clear enough here, sorry. Yes, Raptor Computing Systems is accountable for its poor support experience. Their management is trying, unsuccessfully, to manage the support load. I am actually on the engineering and technology side moreso than the support and business side, and I have no direct ability to change how support is handled beyond making (strong) recommendations.

Fundamentally, however, the blame does lie primarily with consumers that are unwilling to pay for owner controlled computing. Raptor took a risk with the Blackbird, attempting to broaden the reach of owner controlled compute beyond business and high end workstation users, and fundamentally underestimated > 20x additional support load that new market would end up causing. Raptor does not have the resources to handle that kind of support load, and the increases in product pricing required to do so would put Blackbird back out of reach of everyone except business users.

Raptor was working on fixing these issues regardless, but AMD Rome has made that nearly impossible due to the (predictable, but unfortunate) customer reaction that I detailed earlier. We have had to pivot to a different mechanism to try to resolve the problems, and I am not allowed to say more publicly as to what that will be at this time, other than it is coming for October.

Hello,

I am an enthusiastic customer, and in case you missed my comments to you elsewhere, if you do shift sales in another direction, please consider continuing to sell to the hardcore old customers willing to do their own work on this hardware whatever it takes. This project is too crucial to let randos with just a light PR attack choke off the supply of this kind of hardware to people to whom it is so utterly critical.

-mm

Thank you for clarifying more.

Not sure if you're following IRC, but just in case I'll mention it here as well: Raptor products are already outpricing most consumers. Even in casual conversations with hacker friends, most of them balk at the price. Point being: if you increased your prices most of your buyers wouldn't blink. At present your buyers are blinking at the poor support experience. I would have paid a 50% premium for a product with actual support.

A compromise would be to offer ala-carte support packages, perhaps billed yearly. I would also have paid for that.

I know these decisions aren't in your court, but I don't have anyone else to share my opinion with, so there you have it. I hope that I will publish a more positive review of Raptor with these problems addressed soon. Thanks for coming by the thread to share your thoughts.

A number of users on IRC also said they would be priced out by any 50% premium increase...

(1) I would have paid 50% more but I also imagine that 50% is hardly necessary to fund a proper support system. That represents an increase of nearly a thousand dollars per unit.

(2) Having known the person (singular)* who said they'd be priced out at +50% from other interactions, I wouldn't take their comments at face value.

* Apparently it's two people.

What you're saying is disingenuous at best and gaslighting at worst. Just because you apparently have a very generous budget to throw at a problem doesn't mean everyone else in the same space does. I really struggle to see what the point is in making such a comment about other people's financial situations, and I would hope you can either justify making such an inflammatory remark or walk it back.

The specific person I'm referring to has lost any goodwill from other interactions I've had with them. I don't trust their statements.

And like I said, I would have personally paid a 50% increase, or for an ala-carte support package, but I doubt a 50% bump is actually necessary. One which doesn't push the board out of people's price ranges is probably feasible. Remember that we're talking about $2-3K, for the cheapest option with the simplest loadout. Customers already have disposable income. These are not priced like consumer hardware.

I beg you to reconsider the repercussions of holding grudges, especially in the FOSS community. All too often I see this pattern where people take a few disagreements too personally and hold them against each other for eternity. I know who you're talking about specifically (I was on the IRC channel at the time) and I know that they are genuinely trying to make it up to you (full retractions, refraining from speaking ill of the sort in the future, attempting to adjust their behavior so that they are not so quick to jump to so-called "hot takes" or other aggressive behavior). I hope that you, in turn, could also, in your own time, learn to forgive and let go as well. Please, for the sake of good FOSS everywhere - I know the two of you could accomplish so much!

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