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Best guess

Bill_Martin_17506

OK. What is the best guess based on what you already know about the bureaucratic process you have already been through and then the manufacturing.

Are we talking July/August, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, somewhere beyond that?

You folks have been USING several Joules in the kitchen for MONTHS. So the holdup seems to be the FCC because of the WiFi and Bluetooth power issue? Or is there something else?

I/We just would like to be in on what you guys are trying to overcome. We can sympathize with you, but many of us have been waiting for going on 7 months now. I donʻt want my money back. At least not yet, so long as you are having to spend it to get the device finished. But I feel like a stockholder who is not being informed as to what progress has been made, what progress is yet to be made, and what papers have been filed and with what U.S. gummint body. I just want to be kept in the loop a bit more than has been made available. Has the work on the radios already been done? Papers sent or devices tested and measured? Are we all just waiting for some clerk to rubber stamp new paperwork.

I/we are sympathetic to problems issuing from a new product but just keep us in the loop.

Even a notification that you still havenʻt heard back from a testing lab or from the FCC would at least be SOMETHING.

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Comments

fisher23

Hi Bill we are all hoping for some news soon, and more so to get our Joule. I am certain that no one wants that any more than ChefSteps themselves. You can always address your concerns to ellenk@chefsteps.com directly or tag her here @Ellen.

pgcath

This is a post we get pretty often in the forums, so I am going to synthesize a couple of things here:

Remember that ChefSteps has a mix of customers to serve, and that the majority of customers are pretty happy with the cadence of the communication so far. The balance of this communication is an ongoing discussion at ChefSteps and is managed pretty closely.

Most of the folks that *really* want their Joule end up here, and end up asking questions.

The issue is that the people that want frequent updates, even if there is nothing to report are diametrically opposed to the people that don't want to hear about it until it is done. And the people that don't want to know until CS has concrete news are in a clear majority. At this point, the mail they sent out a month back is the official news...

From discussions with employees, we've gathered that work continues apace, that the issues are being addressed, and they're making progress.

pgcath

Realized I missed a couple of points.... (I am also just a forum regular, not CS staff.)

From what I understand, the work on the radios has been done and submitted for the initial testing. In that testing, apparently the radios measured output differed from specification, and exceeded the limits for a specific test. (I am not an engineer, I just hang out with them, so that explanation may be completely wrong.) In addition, a manufacturing issue was identified that necessitated building a robot to ensure consistency and scalability. Both of those issues are being addressed. There may or may not be additional issues.

So I believe that "actively working to resolve" would be a good summary.

Last time I visited, about a week ago, the sense of purpose was very easy to see. Let me know if that helps!

fisher23

@Ellen_212162

tshewman

Hi Bill, we're all waiting and none more impatiently than CS themselves. They were met with radios that were too strong according to the FCC (this is an ongoing issue elsewhere-I used to live in that world-dealing with radios and the FCC). So, radios have to be different, then made to fit, then tested, then paperwork goes to FCC, FCC agrees to test again and then test takes place, wait for approval and then it's done. So allot of steps just there and none are "simple" and can go sideways quickly (that's the nature of telemetry). That's just the radio issues. Remember all this then hsa to be communicated with the manufacturing line (which then/now has to change things). So the short version is one bump in the maze causes a bit of a traffic jam...and why. Because the radios were too good. On the upside (yes there is one), they can continue to refine, improve on every other detail as this happens. The biggest downside is we need to wait and many of things hings have an unpredictable ending when it comes to timing (I've been on their end of the stick and it's no fun). Wish I could be more thorough but I (like you) am outside watching and waiting. I only benefit from previous pain I've had to endure from my manufacturing past (and present-though no wireless technology this time).

Ben_205514

"the majority of customers are pretty happy with the cadence of the communication so far" is dismissive of the OP and speculative, too, unless you are doing market research for chefsteps. I haven't spoken with, or read any posts, of people who are saying "I love this amount of communication" or "this is too much communication!", save for people who are being emailed recipes that they can't cook because they haven't ordered.

I find it more likely that the majority of customers that have yet to cancel their preorder are starting to want a little more transparency.

tshewman

I would respectfully submit it is not being submissive. So far there are a few that are looking for more communication that essentially says, we have nothing to report yet. On the flip side, unless there are only 10 people waiting the majority have yet to publicly submit for more.....non-information (because they don't really have an update yet). The very upside is that the dialogue that is being created helps to confirm (or refute) so far, what the majority are (or are not), asking for. As for recipes, we all here would be glad to share what we know while CS lines their ducks in a row.

pgcath

I'm sorry you feel like it's dismissive. I was trying to address the question with the information I had at hand.

I've spoken with quite a few people that are just fine with the communication. At this point, I've probably recommended Joule to about 30-40 other people that have preordered. That's a decent sample size.

I think you can speak for your feelings, and that's fine. I'd be wary of extending your feelings to the majority. Forum users are a small percentage of the customer base.

pgcath

I'll mention additionally that satisfied customers rarely actually register on forums to say, "This is fine. I have no strong feelings one way or the other."

I'm not sure why I'm getting attacked for stating things that are pretty self evident and fairly reasonable, and are merely restatements of things said by Ellen and other CS staff, but I'm okay with uncertainty.

Ben_205514

Nobody here speaks for the majority and invoking claims of a majority is dismissive because it tries to shut down this guys concerns rather than addressing them. The dialogue here does nothing to confirm or refute what a majority of customers are asking for.

I have no beef in the sharing recipes department, I was just stating that the only forum posts here that are requesting less information are those.

Ben_205514

Your ability to speak for the majority is no more than my own, which is why I said your comment was speculative in addition to being dismissive. "Forty people I know" isn't a representative or appropriate sample.

I'd be wary of extending your feelings to the majority.

Ben_205514

Because some of these statements aren't self evident or reasonable or restatements of things said by CS staff, and these statements in particular are being used to tell someone that their concerns shouldn't be addressed.

I'm in a similar boat to OP and a few other people that have posted: I'd like to have a sous vide machine and I'd like it to be the joule. I don't mind waiting a few extra weeks or months for it either! But if it's going to be 2017 before we get these things I'd rather get a refund so I can afford a different circulator for the meantime.

The lack of communication makes my decision more difficult. It harms my faith in the company, and if it is going to be a long time before the release it keeps me from cooking sous vide (at least, at the quantity I'd like to.)

I've got a pretty clear time limit in my head for how long I'm willing to wait; that time limit would be considerably looser if I was kept in the loop a little better. If CS informs me that it's unlikely they are shipping by this date, I'm still probably grabbing the CS Premium account that I'm giving up on and odds are good I'll purchase a joule when they are available. This isn't the case if I continue to feel poorly informed (and poorly fed.)

Saying that the majority of customers doesn't want more information doesn't address my concerns or the concerns of the OP at all and it doesn't have a factual or logical basis. Why would getting more communication upset anyone?

pgcath

...And now the threading is all gone, so I seem to be responding to myself.

Wonderful.

DiggingDogFarm_65362

C'mon, folks! If anyone should 'get it', "foodies' should 'get it'! It's ready when it's ready!

fisher23

@Bill_Martin_17506 I hope some of your questions were answered. This is all the information that we have and that Chefsteps has released to date. If you have any further concerns pleases contact Ellen as I stated it my first post. It looks like your post went sideways and got off track a bit.

robert_kaithern_257394

I am in total agreement with Bill Martin's post. Can you answer those questions?

pgcath

The threading on this discussion got screwed up a bit, but between John, Todd and I we managed to answer most of the questions that @Bill_Martin_17506 asked. Let me know if it's too jumbled up, and one of us can summarize.

The 'official' answer is that they will have news as soon as there is a concrete date, and that manufacturing problems can be complicated and open-ended. (@Ellen_212162 is the source for canonical information on the Joule in the forums, and this is a summary of her posts in the Joule section.)

Some folks that managed to be lucky enough to attend events or have discussions have additional information, but some of that information could be considered speculation, and really won't affect the official announcements.

In that vein, we know that they are working on the radios issue, and that a robot has been purchased and tested to address consistency issues in the build process. (My understanding is that the human-glue up did not have the repeatability they wanted for that joint, and did not scale.)

Please take my comments with a grain of salt. I'm not CS staff, and I'm not the greatest communicator (see thread.) I'll apologize in advance if this response doesn't meet your needs, or what I am saying isn't coming across well.

Steve_144944

That's awesome, thanks for the laugh.