manilamac / AirMail = SHIPPING ! :)

[Chad H]

Well, the only thing is the constant delays. What's the most annoying is that my credit card has already been billed.

 

[GoCubsGo]

This is a great time for some young enterprising individual to get off their ass and take this product and run with it. There are others out there but not quite what this company offered. Clearly the people who started this had a great idea and frankly they f'ed up. If they did receive so many orders that they had to outsource the manufacturing then why wasn't this something they started three weeks ago? You don't sell a product then decide you're going to outsource it before you even ship the first one. Someone's business plan (or lack thereof) failed!

 

[Munich]

Manilamac

I did not see this thread before and I have purchased one last Thursday. Bummer, hope they ship it. That envelope is so discrete.

 

[uber gorilla]

Starting to get slightly peeved

Sorry everyone, I just have to vent for a second.

It's been far too long, they really should have shipped the AirMail sleeves by now... I actually NEED mine very soon (university kicks off again on 3rd March) and the folks at Manilamac.com said shipping would happen in the week of the 18th...which came and went. F'n 'ell. And the bums have got my money, so they really should get their act together.

 

[MRU]

Well has everyone noticed that it now says

So not even a date anymore just....... soon.......



Also doing a google search for manilamac actually brings this thread as the number 1 result.

 

[Jona]

Hey, hey, hey everybody! It sure is something to find a thread here all about our company, Manila Mac. We've made it to the big time!

I'm here to address some of your concerns and bust some myths about our AirMail sleeve.

First of all, we're not scammers (wow, really?), nor are we planning on backing out of this insane venture (mbaman77, where'd you hear that?). We've put in far too much time, stress, and cold hard cash to back out now. Also, that's totally not our style.

We aren't exactly hippies, but we are from Oregon! We have been told that we smell "awesome," and we don't listen to Phish (no judging).

MacRumourUser is right, the super frustrating delays in the shipping of the AirMail sleeve are due to the fact that we are now working with a manufacturer. Seriously, we were expecting to sell 100 of these sleeves, tops, if any, so when our number of orders started climbing into the thousands, we needed to change tacks in a serious way -- our original plan of hand-making each sleeve from our house in Marfa, Texas had to be majorly rewritten. You can learn more about us being here in Texas here: (http://www.teamyacht.com/archives/000296.html)

In retrospect, we should have lined up a manufacturer right from the beginning, but we had zero anticipation of the media blitz which would (happily) befall us. In any case, we tried our darndest to hire out seamstress friends to help us, but it was nearly impossible to make it work logistically. Turns out buying hundreds of yards of vinyl is complicated. Luckily, we got a call from Incipio technologies (http://www.myincipio.com/) offering to help us manufacture the AirMails. We'd never heard of them, but they've been making cell phone and computer accessories for a long time, and they've been incredibly helpful.

Of course, the process getting everything together for manufacturing took way longer than we wanted -- choosing fabrics, making prototypes, sourcing materials -- but we got it going as quickly as we could. We're 100% ready to go on our end: we've made packaging, stickers, ordered tons of Priority Mail envelopes from USPS, lined up domestic and international resellers, and even bought UPC codes! The first batch of AirMails have been manufactured now and FedExed to us, so we're literally just waiting on that. Hopefully, we'll get them in the next few days and we can go into a wild shipping blitz.

It's been a totally wild ride, especially for two people who've never sold anything except music and some random stuff on eBay. We try to answer every email personally and keep everyone posted, and I'm sorry if we've accidentally neglected to communicate with any of you. It's been a full-time job just keeping on top of the emails!

In any case, thanks for caring, and being nice. Some people we've dealt with have been less than considerate of our situation, so we really appreciate you guys and your openness.

We'll be lurking around here for a while, so if you have any questions, feel free to post away. And you can always email us at info@manilamac.com

Thanks!

Love,
Jona & Claire

 

[Flyer0815]

The manufacturer's response seems very honest and reasonable.... Who could have anticipated the response they have gotten.

It was very cool of them to address the issue openly. I might place an order for one now

 

[Jona]

Oh, also, sorry about PayPal charing your credit card before you have your sleeve!

WE HATE PAYPAL. I mean, they are definitely the fastest, easiest, and one of the most competitive credit card processors, but their customer service is horrible.

There isn't any infrastructure for pre-orders with PayPal, you can only accept payments right then and there, that's it. We'll make sure we let them know that this isn't cool.

 

[queshy]

So if someone orders one now when can they expect to receive one?

 

[Zorn]

So if someone orders one now when can they expect to receive one?

I'd like to know this too

 

[CanadaRAM]

But of course, words are cheap, and we have heard it all before here on MR from mix it for me dot com and iphonesnow dot ca and lots of other operations that turned out in the end to be scams. A nicely written reassurance from the seller does not provide proof one way or another.

It is poor, poor business practice to accept money knowing you do not have the wherewithal to fulfill the orders. Period. That remains a fact whether the goods arrive eventually or not.

And the correct response is NOT to keep saying "Oh, it'll be next week, fer sure" "We'll be shipping on Tuesday" or whatever -- especially when the proprietors DO NOT KNOW with any certainty when the product will arrive.

The correct response is to refund all of the purchases, and resubmit them when product is ready to ship. The fact that this was not done speaks volumes.

 

[clayj]

The correct response is to refund all of the purchases, and resubmit them when product is ready to ship. The fact that this was not done speaks volumes.

I agree completely. I was one of the first to order one of these (and probably one of the first to request a refund, which I received almost instantly), and it was rather disappointing to not have a sleeve within a reasonable amount of time. I still don't think Jona and Claire are scammers, but once it became obvious that they were not going to be able to meet demand within a reasonable time, they should have stopped taking orders and started taking reservations.

The AirMail is a great idea; it just would have been nice if they'd floated the idea and then started producing units before taking any actual orders.

 

[GoCubsGo]

Hey, hey, hey everybody! It sure is something to find a thread here all about our company, Manila Mac. We've made it to the big time!

I'm not entirely sure that you should consider it a good thing that this thread is even here. I'm also not entirely on board with the idea that in order to make it big you had to essentially back your little operation with funds from customers who have yet to receive a product.

I am certain you're going to ship a product on some unspecified date. I wouldn't even jump to the conclusion that you're scammers. I would say with a certain level of confidence that you are bad business people.

While your ability to at least communicate with your customers on some level is admirable, I think to CanadaRAM's point it may be high time to refund some money and allow customers to resubmit an order once your company is truly ready.

 

[Koodauw]

Bad business people or just inexperienced?

I wouldn't be so quick to judge here. These owners simply miss judged the demand for these things, and now are scrambling to make up for that. This being their first venture into selling things themselves, its understandable IMO. They still respond to everyones email personally, and a refund is offered to any one who wants it! As a consumer this is the type I would want to buy from, even if it means waiting. Good things come to those who wait. Has everything been perfect and rosy? No, but give them a chance.

 

[MRU]

Hey, hey, hey everybody! It sure is something to find a thread here all about our company, Manila Mac. We've made it to the big time!

I'm here to address some of your concerns and bust some myths about our AirMail sleeve.

First of all, we're not scammers (wow, really?), nor are we planning on backing out of this insane venture (mbaman77, where'd you hear that?). We've put in far too much time, stress, and cold hard cash to back out now. Also, that's totally not our style.

We aren't exactly hippies, but we are from Oregon! We have been told that we smell "awesome," and we don't listen to Phish (no judging).

MacRumourUser is right, the super frustrating delays in the shipping of the AirMail sleeve are due to the fact that we are now working with a manufacturer.

Thank you Jona for your response. I really appreciate your honesty and its nice to know I was right But really in all honesty - it was the only obvious way that you would be able to cope with such an influx of orders would be to outsource the manufacture.

I look forward as many other do to receiving our manilamac covers and wish you all the best and success to yourself and Claire in the venture.


Kind Regards

Phil (MacRumorUser)

 

[Sandy Santra]

Post #56 does not inspire confidence. The lengthy quasi-friendly verbiage and endless litany of excuses is a great smoke screen for their inability to deliver product. This company has some of the shoddiest business practices I have ever seen. I figure my money is long gone and they have already purchased an island in the South Pacific.

 

[clayj]

Post #56 does not inspire confidence. The lengthy quasi-friendly verbiage and endless litany of excuses is a great smoke screen for their inability to deliver product. This company has some of the shoddiest business practices I have ever seen. I figure my money is long gone and they have already purchased an island in the South Pacific.

Ask 'em for a refund. I did, a couple of weeks ago, and I received my money back instantly.

I'm not defending their business practices. But so far they've not shown me any evidence of being evil... just in way, way over their heads.

 

[sooshi]

Today, I slipped in the snow and dented not only my ego, but my macbookair pretty badly. Again. I am so mad. I should be asking for compensation from manillamac for the dents because I ordered the casing 3 weeks ago.

 

[dahcheet]

Today, I slipped in the snow and dented not only my ego, but my macbookair pretty badly. Again. I am so mad. I should be asking for compensation from manillamac for the dents because I ordered the casing 3 weeks ago.

Not this crap again. I hope to God you're not serious about your last comment. Yes, it sucks they haven't shipped out the sleeves, but would it have helped? It's not a super-hard protective cover. It's fleece and vinyl. It probably wouldn't have helped enough to stop it from denting. It sucks you fell and dented your MBA but it's not ManillaMac's fault for you slipping.

 

[sooshi]

Not this crap again. I hope to God you're not serious about your last comment. Yes, it sucks they haven't shipped out the sleeves, but would it have helped? It's not a super-hard protective cover. It's fleece and vinyl. It probably wouldn't have helped enough to stop it from denting. It sucks you fell and dented your MBA but it's not ManillaMac's fault for you slipping.

AirMail laptop cases are lined with thick fleece, which will protect your laptop from any cosmetic damage and smudges, and keep it safe from bumps in daily use.

I understand that it's not a super-hard protective cover but YES, it would have helped. Severely. And I sew from time to time. Thick fleece would have helped. A lot. Unless of course, they're lying about the thick fleece part.

 

[zachinglis]

Not this crap again. I hope to God you're not serious about your last comment. Yes, it sucks they haven't shipped out the sleeves, but would it have helped? It's not a super-hard protective cover. It's fleece and vinyl. It probably wouldn't have helped enough to stop it from denting. It sucks you fell and dented your MBA but it's not ManillaMac's fault for you slipping.

Put simply, if you fell from a height, would you rather be wearing a 1 metre thick fleece or nothing?

 

[clayj]

I understand that it's not a super-hard protective cover but YES, it would have helped. Severely.

Sorry, no. I canceled my order with them precisely because I was tired of waiting for a case, and I wanted to take my MBA out of the house. Once I canceled my order, I went to the Apple Store and bought a case that provides some amount of protection from scratches and the like. But even so, I would never expect the maker of a case to be responsible for damages to my computer UNLESS the case itself caused the damage due to faulty design.

You cannot possibly be serious that you denting your case is their fault because they didn't ship it to you as quickly as you wanted. If you were concerned about the safety of your MBA, you should have left it on your desk, like I did, until you obtained a case. And even then, you'd still have virtually no argument for them being responsible; the case is intended to provide SOME protection, not ABSOLUTE protection.

PS: "Daily use" does not include dropping your MBA any considerable distance or falling on it.

 

[sooshi]

Sorry, no. I canceled my order with them precisely because I was tired of waiting for a case, and I wanted to take my MBA out of the house. Once I canceled my order, I went to the Apple Store and bought a case that provides some amount of protection from scratches and the like. But even so, I would never expect the maker of a case to be responsible for damages to my computer UNLESS the case itself caused the damage due to faulty design.

You cannot possibly be serious that you denting your case is their fault because they didn't ship it to you as quickly as you wanted. If you were concerned about the safety of your MBA, you should have left it on your desk, like I did, until you obtained a case. And even then, you'd still have virtually no argument for them being responsible; the case is intended to provide SOME protection, not ABSOLUTE protection.

PS: "Daily use" does not include dropping your MBA any considerable distance or falling on it.

I know, I was just venting but no, I was not serious. I am pissed, however. The reason I took my computer out is because I have to. I'm student and I chose the MBA for a reason. I guess I'm not as patient or lovable as you are. But I do what I have to.

I didn't fall on it, I fell, I just happened to have it to my bag. But thank you for your insight.

 

[clayj]

The reason I took my computer out is because I have to. I guess I'm not as patient or lovable as you are.

I'm not patient, either; hence my cancellation of my AirMail order and acquisition of a suitable case directly from Apple (the Incase MacBook case fits the MBA loosely and it's not in any way a "hard" case, but it's probably as good as the AirMail would be) so that I could take my MBA outside.

And no one is as lovable as I am.

 

[dahcheet]

AirMail laptop cases are lined with thick fleece, which will protect your laptop from any cosmetic damage and smudges, and keep it safe from bumps in daily use.

I understand that it's not a super-hard protective cover but YES, it would have helped. Severely. And I sew from time to time. Thick fleece would have helped. A lot. Unless of course, they're lying about the thick fleece part.

I think your idea of "bumps in daily use" is much more extreme than what the manufacturer is expecting. Dropping your laptop from ANY height cannot be considered daily use. So, even if you had the sleeve it probably wouldn't have protected it enough to NOT get damaged. It may have lessened the damage, but not completely prevented it.

Put simply, if you fell from a height, would you rather be wearing a 1 metre thick fleece or nothing?

Again, falling from ANY height is not a part of my daily routine and the idea of wearing a metre thick fleece is ridiculous. In no way is that comparable to any sleeve on any computer unless you wrap your computer in two pillows whenever you carry it around.