Quote:
Originally Posted by Steven Lake
Regardless of what happened internally (which, due to legal reasons we'll never know), the best thing Astak can do is to chalk this up as a learning experience, and then start applying some serious customer service. Honestly, if Astak wants to beat out all the other ebook companies, they're going to need to apply some major customer service on all fronts. They're also going to need to start listening to their customers a whole lot more. Happy customers bring more customers and happy customers are repeat customers. It's a simple rule of economics. Make your customers happy in whatever way you can, and you are guaranteed success in everything you do. Make those same customers angry and you will fail in the most miserable way possible.
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There's a slight detail missing from your otherwise logical argument: that Astak remains in, and intends to remain in, the eReader business. I believe they have already exited: all their hardware eReaders are "out of stock". I DO believe they are trying to find a soft-landing for existing customers, and a practical way to handle warranty on the existing base.
Cancelling forward contracts with manufacturing partners meant no further inventory and the real reason RobertB was let go -- the division was being shut down. But unlike business closure (bankruptcy) of several other eReader vendors, Astak markets many other products and is healthy: it's just not going to do eReaders any longer. So -- it needs to keep existing customers happy within the terms of their agreement -- 1 yr warranty? battery replacement? -- and allow the calendar to take care of the rest.