Coin, that incredible payment card that can replace all your physical cards including credit cards, debit cards, gifts and loyalty cards, announced last week that it was not ready to send the final product to supporters as promised previously . In the process, the company disguised the announcement as an extended national beta program that would be available to supporters who chose to help, and to pay an additional fee in addition to their existing commitments, shifting the focus. from the current bad news. Since then, Coin has returned clean to supporters about the delay in launching the product, Droid-Life relationships.
In an e-mail to supporters, Coin said he was sorry for customers misleading the delay, revealing that the 2014 summer launch date was "overly optimistic". The Coin program has been extended, the company now accepts 15,000 supporters (5,000 more than initially announced) for free, removing the additional cost of $ 30 required last week.
The company also explained that it worked "day / night and weekend from May 2012", but the first generation of coins only works in 85% of cases. Coin also claimed to be able to create a 0.84 mm form factor board with an e-ink screen, Bluetooth LE and a tactile touch button that provides feedback to the user.
Coin added that he is ready to repay supporters who are not willing to wait until next year for the full launch. "We feel responsible for the commitment that each of us has given to us by supporting Coin and therefore we have not spent a single dollar in the crowd funding campaign." All our efforts and production were supported by equity dollars ", affirmed the company.
The complete letter to supporters is available below, as expected from Droid-Life.
Kind supporters of the coins,
First of all, we want to apologize to all of you. We are creating coins for you and we are extremely disappointed by ourselves that we have made some of you dissatisfied with us. We want to earn your trust again.
We apologize for our lack of transparency and clarity in our communications. You, like our valued supporters, should be the first to know about all product updates. We honestly thought we could make our chronology. We have been overly optimistic. The beta currency in the San Francisco Bay area has made it clear that we should conduct a larger national beta currency. We need your help to test nationwide, but you realize that this is not a cost to bear for you. Therefore, we will run a national beta currency with no cost to the Beta tokens ($ 0) and we will increase the number of Coin Beta devices by 50% up to 15,000. We will do our best to grow this number over time. To clarify, your place in the Coin Beta program is determined by your pre-order date, regardless of whether you have opted for the iOS or Android app. We feel responsible for the commitment that each of us gave to us by supporting Coin and therefore we have not spent a single dollar in the crowd funding campaign. All our efforts and our production have been supported by equity dollars.
Coin Beta was a difficult decision but an important step because we want to deliver the device that we all expect and nothing less. Involving Coin with thousands of different card readers of different brands, models and regions is not easy and that's why we need the help of an extended beta team.
We are really sorry that the first generation coin is not ready when we said it would. Our team has worked hard day / night and weekend since May 2012 in an effort to deliver Coin to you on time and while we are close, we are not at the finish line. We got a form factor of ~ 0.84 mm with e-ink screen and low-energy bluetooth. We even found a button that has a tactile touch so you can get feedback every time you press the Coin button. The currency successfully flows in 85% of the places we visit. Our hardware team is focused on the remaining 15%.
With Coin Beta, we will validate compatibility at the national level and improve usability. In the meantime, we will continue to focus on increasing our production capacities and we are confident that we will provide high quality first generation coins to all of you.
We are committed to doing better with our transparency and updates to supporters. We are committed to continuing to work hard to offer you a great product. We appreciate your honest, good or bad feedback; and we always listen.
Sincerely,
Kanishk and the entire team of Coin
PS – We appreciate your patience and support, but if you wish to cancel, we will refund you immediately. Send an email to [email protected] with your order number. We hope to earn your trust again in the future.