Ocean One Refunds?

Posted by: @hopingforthebest

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I’m definitely on a bit of a downer regarding Fisker. If I could get my £5k deposit back now, I think I’d do it.

Everything Fisker does seems so flakey, and when they have a chance to build confidence, they instead erode it further:

• The infrequent, inaccurate and self-contradicting emails.
• The chaos of releasing the configurator late, only to pull it a few days later.
• The mobile app still not working well (e.g. I have to login and logout every time I want to look at my order - others can’t see their order at all).
• 6+ month delays on the experience centres with the excuse of challenges getting building materials (when all they really need is the car, in a room). Surely the sustainable option would be to do like Polestar and rent a large garage (or light industrial unit) for this - rather than waiting because of scarce materials being unavailable?!?
• The absence of standard features, such as adaptive cruise control, when the car launches (my egolf has had this for 6 years - it’s not new tech). 
• The assertions that everything is on time. On-time, by the arbitrary measure that cars started being physically assembled on/before the planned date. The fact it has no working software, no-one will receive their car for 3-4 months after that launch date and they can’t be certified as roadworthy yet seems to have no bearing.
• The job ads for developers, requiring only two years experience and stating they’ll prioritise people who are available now (contradicting Henrik’s claim that they prefer a small team of just ‘the right people’).
• The repeated claim that this 2 tonne SUV is the world’s most sustainable car because 50kg of that weight is recycled. That’s still around 2 tonnes of non-recycled material, right? And the new Volvo also has 50kg of recycled material anyway.
• The poor quality of plastics and materials on show at the public events with the production intent cars (according to reports on this forum and YouTube).
• The celebration of the ‘taco tray’ and under seat glove compartment as a great innovations.
• The crazy costs of paint/wheels etc, especially on the Extreme model, showing they are out of touch with customer requirements.

Fisker produced a great design, and Magna have excelled in their production of the design. The design still looks great, even though it’s not as exciting as we start to see other manufacturers with similar, or even more exciting new designs.

But it also feels like Fisker has bitten off way more than it can chew on the technology front. They are trying to reinvent the wheel so they can own everything, in stark contrast to their asset light approach to the physical manufacturing process. This is a concern, because they seem to have very little control over quality.

They seem now to be scrambling and rushing everything. Rushed software shows. I’m really concerned that (as others have said elsewhere) we’re going to have a car that looks great, but it a nightmare to live with. Are you going to trust Fisker Pilot to safely drive at 70mph when the app can’t remember an order for more that 24 hours? Will I have to login and logout every time I want to unlock the car?

There appears to be a lack of quality control and a lack of accountability. Fisker need to improve the quality and depth of the information that they are delivering to customers, especially those that have gambled large sums of money on them, and demonstrate that they will match Magna’s ability to deliver the physical platform with reliable software.

if only Henrik could read this, I think this is how most of us feel right now.

@pastiche it’s not most of us.

Posted by: @maliblu

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@pastiche it’s not most of us.

do you bet anything is most of us .vs less of us?

@pastiche it’s a handful of you posting on here like always, certainly not 5k people complaining. Most peoples reactions have been happy and looking forward to receiving their vehicle. I certainly wish some of you could get your money back, maybe that would stop the incessant complaining. You’ve already been told other companies have done worse, yet here you are. Where else are you going to go?

Posted by: @maliblu

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@pastiche it’s a handful of you posting on here like always, certainly not 5k people complaining. Most peoples reactions have been happy and looking forward to receiving their vehicle. I certainly wish some of you could get your money back, maybe that would stop the incessant complaining. You’ve already been told other companies have done worse, yet here you are. Where else are you going to go?

The fact some other companies have done worst should be a relief? Not for me; I have purchased an Ocean One (again, I'm not investing in a company but purchasing an item from it) and that's the only thing I'm worried about... I don't mind Rivians, Cybertrucks, etc. I'm just worried about what I have bought (with an almost 3 years old reservation) and where we are and what we know for now... I don't care about what others are doing but what Fisker is doing, since it's affecting myself and my pocket.

And no, I haven't even asked for a refund or emailed Fisker about it, I want my car but I still want things to be done the way they should be done when you are running a multimillion dollar business, that's all.

If you have any problem with reading my opinions you can just silent my comments and you will leave in peace for the rest of your time in this forum because from what I know, I haven't broken any rules.

@pastiche Have you emailed customer service to ask for a refund? What did they say?

@pastiche my point is not to silence your comments, my point is to offer a differing opinion from what you mostly see on here. I don’t bother to post because I’m mostly here for information, people that are satisfied DONT post, it’s always the complaints. That’s the case for pretty much every message board these days.

i just want my car, that is all. My last four cars have all been purchased sight unseen, no test drives or anything. It’s been like that for me since 2008. They have all turned out great and better than what I expected. I know there are growing pains with new companies as well as new models, I’m willing to take that risk to have something different. I understand that’s not what everyone wants or needs, but that is the risk you take when you plunk down $5k to have the vehicle as soon as you can. 

There WILL be hiccups, and if that’s not what you want or have any tolerance for you’ve purchased the wrong car. 

@bayoubob I never contacted the asking for a refund because I don't want my money back (unless the car is not what we were promised); I have been waiting almost three years and I don't think after signing the order for ONE and the therms, we are elegible for a refund.

Main problem I see is we never got specifications of the car tied to the PO so we won't be able to fight that in case the car is not fulfilling our expectations

@pastiche sorry I misunderstood. I thought you did want your money back.

I know that my last post sounded very negative. We all still hold high hopes of the Ocean being a great car, and some of this is just people getting cold feet as the big day nears 🙂

If the car matches the expectations that the company has set early on, it will be spectacular. We all bought into the vision for the company and/or the car, and some significant steps have been made towards acheving that.

But we haven't really seen anything meaningful produced by Fisker itself (beyond design). This newly assembed company has the uneviable task of creating a complex safety critical platform (responsible for protecting us and our families), in a very short period of time. They are also building/integrating systems for entertainment, security, information, comfort, OTA delivery, diagnositcs and maintenance, cloud connectivity/telemetary etc, etc. And a financial services platform as well, just for good measure. Hopefully, they are also developing the support systems needed to ensure we can enjoy using the cars for years to come.

The underlying fear is that the company appears (to me) to be deaf to external opinion (unless it's glowing praise). Three family members leading a multi-billion dollar business, all of whom are swearing blind that everything is awesome (and there are no delays etc etc). Either there is an echo chamber that will threaten to undermine the business; or it's a coordinated united front from a team that understands the problems and is dilligently and competently handling those problems behind closed doors.

Fingers crossed it's the latter! Fewer silly mistakes like this weeks email would help to reassure us of that.

Posted by: @hopingforthebest

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The underlying fear is that the company appears (to me) to be deaf to external opinion (unless it's glowing praise). Three family members leading a multi-billion dollar business, all of whom are swearing blind that everything is awesome (and there are no delays etc etc).

This is what really worries me... I know they have advisors, board members and so on but don't know whether they are listened or not and specially, what level of "voice" they have .vs the family... the company is not a family business anymore, since they have investors.

Posted by: @pastiche

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Posted by: @hopingforthebest

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The underlying fear is that the company appears (to me) to be deaf to external opinion (unless it's glowing praise). Three family members leading a multi-billion dollar business, all of whom are swearing blind that everything is awesome (and there are no delays etc etc).

This is what really worries me... I know they have advisors, board members and so on but don't know whether they are listened or not and specially, what level of "voice" they have .vs the family... the company is not a family business anymore, since they have investors.

Sorry, I do not understand that comment.  Was every other car you bought crowd sourced for the design/options?  Henrik has stated he did not design the interior.  While Henrik has final say (which is the case for any CEO for any company), he is also not involved in the UI.

Posted by: @ttrinchi

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Posted by: @pastiche

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Posted by: @hopingforthebest

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The underlying fear is that the company appears (to me) to be deaf to external opinion (unless it's glowing praise). Three family members leading a multi-billion dollar business, all of whom are swearing blind that everything is awesome (and there are no delays etc etc).

This is what really worries me... I know they have advisors, board members and so on but don't know whether they are listened or not and specially, what level of "voice" they have .vs the family... the company is not a family business anymore, since they have investors.

Sorry, I do not understand that comment.  Was every other car you bought crowd sourced for the design/options?  Henrik has stated he did not design the interior.  While Henrik has final say (which is the case for any CEO for any company), he is also not involved in the UI.

 

If as you say, he has final word, and for example the Infotainment system is using a crappy outdated CPU... I guess this would end up being his responsibility, regardless he is not involved in the UI and interior design, wouldn't it?

@pastiche 

Do we know for sure that the infotainment is indeed using a badly outdated CPU?  

Sean -- what was your experience of the infotainment system?

I was very glad to see Fisker acknowledge their mistake earlier in the week.  That is a a very big deal!

@tonyroth7 the fact that you don't know doesn't mean the information is not out there...