Message from the Founder & Refund Update!
almost 7 years ago
– Mon, Feb 19, 2018 at 11:20:27 PM
Hello backers of CAMEO360,
Wishing you all a good 2018!
First, as the sole founder of CAMEO360, I have failed to deliver to the backers the CAMEO360 as promised. Second, I would like to address a big issue and misunderstanding a few backers has taken an unfair action towards another project creator. Third, I would like to address how I have been dealing with the situation to get backers back their pledges.
First, I would like to apologize to all the backers I have failed to deliver on my promise to deliver the CAMEO360 to all backers. A big question on many backers was how I am able to deliver a highly technical product with such a small amount of funding. Our original team concentration is mainly focused on software. We collaborated with another start-up team in China to create the exclusive features needed to match with the Flicksee App. The company we collaborated with since May of 2016 is called Primesom they are the maker of Nico360.
Here is their website and campaign on Indiegogo:
http://www.primesom.com/
http://www.nico360.com/
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-world-s-smallest-360-camera-nico360-vr#/
My last contact with them was December 2017 and they have continually ignored my messages. They have promised me exclusivity with the US market to offer the specific features ONLY Available for CAMEO360 we needed to streamline video creation and sharing through our Flicksee App. I have given the proper deposit 2 months after our CAMEO360 funding and felt comfortable because I have been seeing a lot of progress from the Primesom team. I have pushed the Nico360(Primesom) team aggressively to finish our project and offered help in every way to achieve our goal, but it was ignored. Even the backers of Nico360 have been approaching me for help, but unfortunately I am in the same situation being ignored by team of Nico360(Primesom).
Since January 2018 I have resorted to seek legal counsel for advice on the matter to retrieve the deposit. Unfortunately, according to the legal advice because we were dealing with an overseas company it will cost 10x more than our funding for CAMEO360 and there will not be any good result or chance any legal action can be enforced. The legal counsel best effort was to write me an aggressive letter demanding the refund of the deposit. Since December 2017 I have spoken to my team mates and released them of any obligation with CAMEO360. Even though they felt we can still pull it off with another camera manufacturing without the deposit we will be unable to fulfill any of our duties. I would like to extend the message to everyone that none of my team mates is responsible for the failure of CAMEO360, but solely my decision as the main founder. Any work or ventures my previous colleagues are currently engaged on are their own direction and decision. I take full responsibility for the CAMEO360 project, and I wish my previous colleague all the best in their chosen field.
Second, I have been approached by another campaign the last couple of months and ask for my help to create the video and advice on setting up a campaign for Kickstarter. I was independently hired because of the introduction of my previous colleague and have done the best I could to help with the logistics for their video and campaign page. Please kindly refrain and respect the other creator and their campaign. I have no association with their chosen careers or have any permanent work relation with my previous colleague since we parted ways. As a favor and respect to the creators of the current live campaign I recently helped, I do ask please write a simple comment excusing the accusation to my previous colleague and the campaign. I would not like to be responsible for anyone’s failure because of my previous campaign and my action; they are honest creators making their mark in the Kickstarter community.
Third, I have sent out my second letter to the Nico360/Primesom team last few weeks and they have made no effort to respond to my action. I felt hurt and betrayed for I have trusted them dearly and worked closely with them on development since their Nico360 campaign in Indiegogo. I have seeked legal advice again and I am going to give their team 90 days to respond to my request to return the deposit for our camera. If these action is not met, I will start creating a schedule and take full responsibility to create a plan to reimburse each backer with a proper refund. I do apologize if I cannot disburse immediately the refund because even though it’s a small amount compared to other creator that gained hundreds of thousands to millions and unable to deliver. I will be the only person fully responsible and I have to figure out a proper direction to reimburse everyone from my own pocket if the deposit is not returned.
I do ask please be patient and I care about the backers and sympathize and understand your anger and frustration. For the backers that taken action to release their frustration on another creator’s campaign due to anger and frustration please drop them a comment to excuse your misunderstanding and actions because these creators are honest and deserve a chance.
Yours Truly,
Roland Nguyen
NEW PROGRESS UPDATE!
about 7 years ago
– Tue, Oct 17, 2017 at 11:46:55 PM
Greetings to all backers!
We apologize for the delay of our updates and we want to ensure our backers our team is hard at work and doing our very best even with the unforeseen hurdles we have to face from bad weather to technical issues during our whole built.
We would like to extend the good news on our progress as we continue our testing process with the CAMEO360. Our team has been very pleased the internal components have been stable and has presented very minimal issues to avoid more major delays. Durability testing is our most important stage to ensure longevity of product life for continuous use of our CAMEO360 users. In the next few weeks we will finally undergo testing of the CAMEO360 in public and share with all our backers the recording of our 4K video and quality of our 24 MP photos.
With that being said, it doesn’t bring us joy to inform you of this unforeseen delay. Our partner manufacturing responsible for producing our processors for the CAMEO360 are still currently in the process of returning to full operation caused by the multiple typhoon that hit the region a few weeks back. They will be back in full operation within the next month. We will then have our processors produced and delivered for the first batch of CAMEO360 cameras.
We do understand the frustration of our backers with the continuous delays, but be assured we are doing everything necessary to complete the CAMEO360 and ensure all backers the CAMEO360 will be in excellent condition before shipment. We will release another update with our progress the next 3 weeks to ensure everyone is part of our journey.
Thank you for your patience and understanding.
Best Regards,
Flick Labs Team
NEW PROGRESS UPDATE!
over 7 years ago
– Wed, Aug 30, 2017 at 09:12:07 AM
Greeting to all the backers,
We do apologize for one delay after another our team has experienced. Our team has been working hard and pushing to finish the last stage of the testing and development as required by our manufacturing partner. For the last 2 weeks, Hato typhoon hit southern China where Hong Kong and Macau was hit heavy with strong rain and flooding that caused offices and manufacturing to close and pause operation for safety reasons.
As we wait for the new shell and new metal plate to be completed our team of engineers and manufacturing partner resume work this week we look forward to finish our testing and development. Testing was successful with all the features and functions outside the shell we do expect good result with the testing of the components inside the shell with the new metal plate. As soon as we receive the green light all features and functions are working efficiently inside our new shell our manufacturing partner will create the first few final CAMEO360. We will then present our final design to all backers.
Lastly, our concerns and prayers first of all are for the safety of our engineers and our manufacturing partner, and we are relieved and happy work will resume this week after the last couple of weeks. We deeply apologize for the unforeseen delay, and our team is continually appreciative for all your support and understanding.
Cheers,
Roland & The Flick Labs Team
AUGUST UPDATE!
over 7 years ago
– Sun, Aug 06, 2017 at 07:56:41 PM
Greetings to all our Backers!
Our team and I would like to apologize for the delay of our updates and progress on our development. We have encountered a couple of small road blocks during our development, but have resolved the big issues and currently undergoing testing to get to the home stretch towards mass manufacturing the CAMEO360. We apologize the shipping date we anticipated for August 2017 will be delayed. We are working hard to avoid longer delays, but we are doing our best to make sure we balance out the task to make sure we deliver a superior product into the market.
First, for the last 5 weeks we our team and engineers for our hardware division have done a tremendous job on making minor changes on our PCB Board. We are very happy to announce that we have not only resolved the power consumption issue, but result exceeded our expectation. We were able to achieve a 17% increase in power efficiency that will extend the usage time of the CAMEO360.
Second, we are as we speak underway on testing all the functions and debugging the software with a few added features. This process will be much faster because minor changes can be efficiently done within our team. Testing will just require a bit of time to undergo durability and reliability testing in more harsh condition to make sure the CAMEO360 component and software will continue to perform in optimal level.
Third, our division concentrating on our mobile social media platform are continuously hard at work and are very close to finishing the debugging stage of the Flicksee App. The Flicksee App will be a streamlined communication and video sharing platform where we make it much simpler for everyone to share their videos and creation, and communicate with all Flicksee users. We can not reveal at the moment what is the special features what makes the Flicksee App different compared to the popular social media platforms, but we assure to give everyone a different more interactive experience with the Flicksee App for FREE!
Lastly, we do expect to release the Flicksee App in the market ahead of time our backers and future members to enjoy and have fun with our platform before we ship out the CAMEO360 to our early backers. To compensate for the delay we will offer our early backers a special Surprise Gift as a thank you for your support and patience.
Thank you so much for your belief and trust for giving our team a chance with this journey and we promise we will continue to do our best. We will make sure from this point we will be updating all our backers every couple of weeks and make sure everyone is part of our process.
Best Regards,
The Flick Labs Team
JULY UPDATE!!!
over 7 years ago
– Mon, Jul 10, 2017 at 08:57:26 PM
Hi Backers,
The Flick Labs team has been hard at work to make our deadline for delivery this coming August. Making delivery on time is our top priority, but quality and reliability is a very important factor. The last 3 months has been a critical step for the testing of the Cameo360 to make sure it meets the quality and reliability we aim to bring to everyone.
For the last 3 weeks we apologize we have not updated and presented the update on the 4k video quality as promised due to a design flaw on the PCB board that we came across during testing the reliability of the Cameo360. Our team has tackled the issue with a minor design change on the PCB to make sure reliability meets the highest standard for years to come.
We will be testing the final design of the Cameo360 the next 2 weeks and will make sure to keep everyone updated after the 4K software is integrated and will share sample videos of the quality as soon as possible within this coming 2 weeks.
We would like to apologize for the delay, but weighing the factor of taking the extra time to deliver a superior and reliable product is very important to avoid any major issues down the line. Thank you so much for your patience and our team is on top of our time line to make sure we do our best to avoid any more delays.
Best Regards,
Flick Labs Team
