Topic: UGOBE not talking anymore! (Read 10015 times)

denodan · « **on:** January 23, 2009, 04:34:44 PM »

I notice the Ugobe website for Pleo has been down for ages and discovered this forum.

I take it Pleo is dead as there is no new firmware updates at all, so think Ugobe has dropped Pleo in favour of other things.

Why I say this is 1) There website has not been updated, but left in a mess
2) It's been such a long time since we have seen any firmware updates for Pleo

I personailly think PLEO is not supported anymore, else why has their website been a mess for a month or more and they even dropped their forum.

gucci_boi7782 · « **Reply #1 on:** January 23, 2009, 05:12:18 PM »

Yep, I agree! I wonder what happened...

Lornex · « **Reply #2 on:** January 23, 2009, 05:29:47 PM »

Actually, I don't agree.

First of all, YOU NEED TO BE PATIENT!

For all we know, Ugobe could be making a completely new website! Also, Ugobe's website hasn't been down that long and is just doing some updates. Just because they are taking a while, DOES NOT mean they are dead! Poor Ugobe's probably under so much stress from people e-mailing them no wonder they're taking so long! Pleoworld's still 'partially' (forums down and can't post plog) down probably because they are really busy with something else and don't enough people and time to finish it up. So please, do not complain and be patient! Don't give up hope! Ugobe's still alive!

Sorry if I got a little too carried away.

grumpy · « **Reply #3 on:** January 23, 2009, 11:11:52 PM »

I just wish we could get someone from Ugobe to tell us something. Anything. They have been dead silent for months. Even when pleoworld was up. The Hosts didn't know anything (or couldn't tell) and no one from Ugobe would come forward and tell us anything.

Now that the site is messed up, we have many more questions. More fundamental questions, like does Ugobe still exist? Will there EVER be an update or PDK? Has pleo been orphaned?

You would think if they are (supposedly) releasing a new life form in October, they would be doing SOMETHING, ANYTHING in the industry or press to promote it.

I just wish we could get someone from Ugobe to tell us something.

Siren · « **Reply #4 on:** January 24, 2009, 12:44:18 AM »

At the VERY least they could give us an update to the next version. Their priority shouldn't be a website. It should be keeping their customers happy. They PROMISED to give us updates for the Pleos. And nothing in months. When was the last update? Early this year? I am really disappointed. I still love my Pleos, but they are NOT at their full potential. I bought them because I thought they would be a lot more than just any other toy.

Lornex · « **Reply #5 on:** January 24, 2009, 10:17:46 AM »

I believe Ugobe is most likely working on fixing Pleoworld and the Ugobe website. I could be wrong, though, for all we know, they could be working on it right now!
In some ways I'm actually impressed by Ugobe's support. When they replied to my e-mail (which took quite a while), they gave me FOUR documents all about pleo such as how to update his software to 1.1 and so on. They even mentioned how to stop your pleo from freezing! (I forgot to mention that I already updated my pleo, so they assumed that I didn't) I think the only reason why Ugobe takes so long to respond to our e-mails is because they get so many of them each day. (Their company isn't that big compared to lots of others, so they can't answer thousands of e-mails daily like that.)

degers · « **Reply #6 on:** January 24, 2009, 11:17:22 AM »

I posed this question to Ugobe in a live chat and they did not respond, despite me waiting for TEN minutes! Guess something serious is going on...

* Please enter your question below and press the send button. We will be with you shortly.
customer: Hi There. Ugobe's website and Pleoworld's website has been down and under construction in the last few weeks, and the forums have been down for over a month. I would like to know if you can tell me why the sites have been down and there has been no communication from ugobe to the peopl on the Pleo mailing list as to why the sites have gone down and the forum has gone.

fancyfont · « **Reply #7 on:** January 24, 2009, 05:10:33 PM »

I have had the same problem, Degers. No one answers.

denodan · « **Reply #8 on:** January 24, 2009, 10:32:11 PM »

Don 't think so. I think they have abandoned Pleo and the website and maybe working on their other projects, leaving us in the dark.

denodan · « **Reply #9 on:** January 24, 2009, 10:59:31 PM »

That's because they have abandoned Pleo, maybe working on new life forms, so stopped supporting Pleo, or any updates for us. This would explain the lack of interest and support, Ugobe has for us Pleo owners.

gucci_boi7782 · « **Reply #10 on:** January 25, 2009, 08:03:01 PM »

Any which way you want to look at it, SOMETHING is wrong! The fact that we have not heard ANYTHING is a reason to jump to conclusions. However, we all might be in fact just over-examining things. In all reality they could just be completely redoing their websites, or just creating some new pet. But, everyday each and every one of us hears about another big company closing down due to a horrid economic time. So, any way you choose to look at it, something still ain't quite right. However, I think Degers is onto something. Perhaps, if we all stay persistent and keep on e-mailing maybe one of us will hear something back from them. And all we have to do is tell each other what is going on.

Well, at least that's what I'm gonna do, write to them everyday until I hear something back...

denodan · « **Reply #11 on:** January 26, 2009, 02:43:43 AM »

Stop kidding yourselves. Pleo is dead and think they maybe either working on another life form, in which case support for Pleo is dead in the water, or they are in trouble.

Even I emailed support to ask what's happening and nothing. I mean it's been about 1 month I think since their website has been stuffed up and no sign of fixing it. Comeon if they really wanted your support and loyaty they would have fixed everything by now.

If they are such a small company and are working on new life forms it's very likely they don't have the man power to keep Pleo going also, so it's about time you all came to reality and realized support from Ugobe for Pleo has gone.

I have yet to be proved that's not the case and the proof that they have abandoned us is by the way of no support, news and a stuffed website still. I mean you don't take weeks to get your website back up again. If they are serious about Pleo then you don't treat your customers the way they treat us.

No use hanging around waiting for them they are gone and doing other projects and dumped Pleo. We have no one from Ugobe come here to prove they still support Pleo, no word or replys to emails shows they are no longer supporting Pleo, so cannot see any further updates to Pleo's firmware.

Still at least i still have Pleo and the best robot yet in it's price range.

Lornex · « **Reply #12 on:** January 26, 2009, 09:15:12 AM »

Quote from: denodan on January 26, 2009, 02:43:43 AM

Stop kidding yourselves. Pleo is dead and think they maybe either working on another life form, in which case support for Pleo is dead in the water, or they are in trouble.

Even I emailed support to ask what's happening and nothing. I mean it's been about 1 month I think since their website has been stuffed up and no sign of fixing it. Comeon if they really wanted your support and loyaty they would have fixed everything by now.

If they are such a small company and are working on new life forms it's very likely they don't have the man power to keep Pleo going also, so it's about time you all came to reality and realized support from Ugobe for Pleo has gone.

I have yet to be proved that's not the case and the proof that they have abandoned us is by the way of no support, news and a stuffed website still. I mean you don't take weeks to get your website back up again. If they are serious about Pleo then you don't treat your customers the way they treat us.

No use hanging around waiting for them they are gone and doing other projects and dumped Pleo. We have no one from Ugobe come here to prove they still support Pleo, no word or replys to emails shows they are no longer supporting Pleo, so cannot see any further updates to Pleo's firmware.

Still at least i still have Pleo and the best robot yet in it's price range.

Denodan,

It may seem like Pleoworld's dead, but I doubt it. First of all, let me make this clear: Nobody Knows What REALLY Is Happening! I think everyone is just starting to panic and like what gucci_boi7782 said: jumping to conclusions. So please everyone: DON'T PANIC and all we can do is wait for now. If Ugobe does goes out of business, they would tell us!

mweed · « **Reply #13 on:** January 26, 2009, 10:33:49 AM »

Actually, most companies going out of business DON'T tell you, until all the paperwork has been filed, and it comes out in the news. It's makes it hard for a company to go out of business if everyone already know it. It's bad for employee moral and retention, and drives off any business you might still have. I have helped close down businesses before. I've seen it first hand. But it seems really odd that Ugobe would open up a whole new market (Malaysia) the week before they dropped their site.

I tend to go somewhere between denodan and Lornex. I would say the behavior is more typical of a company that is going through a major restructuring. Now, a major restructuring may well mean they drop some products, or that a business closure may be in the future if the restructuring doesn't work. And advertising to the general public the details of the restructuring could be bad for future business and for acquiring future venture capital. Which is why silence is typical for this type of thing. But in the end, depending on the restructuring, they may also keep pleo. After all, at this point, it is their only revenue stream.

The lack of support via email/phone/chat may be due to reduced staffing from the restructuring, and the same for the delays in the web site being fully functional. They did get the main body and download sections back up. I really believe at this point, a major factor in the forums not being restored yet is the fact that they were languishing. Because there wasn't anything coming out from Ugobe, there really wasn't anything of substance to talk about, so the discussions degraded to answering questions for newbies and dealing with complaining customers. And the fluff took over, driving off many of the technical contributors. They restored the community/plog pages only because they needed the register function to support the downloads, and only as much as was needed to allow the registering.

But as Lornex said, we don't know, and are only guessing. But it could become a self-fulfilling prophecy. If Ugobe doesn't start responding and providing better supprt, they will kill off sales for pleo, and in the end result in having to kill off the product.

Shifting gears/direction somewhat . . .

I'm afraid that if we don't get some of the more knowledgeable members here and get some good meaningful discussions going here, we're quickly going to fall into the same stagnation that pleoworld did. Because there really isn't anything new for us to talk about here in the way of new development, which puts the onus on us. If we want to keep our pleos and the pleo communities alive and active, it may well be up to us to do what we can with what tools we do have, and develop new personalities, find ways to debug/fix our pleo's software, and come up with solutions to fix broken parts.

If we are saying "Ugobe is dead," we should also be crying out "Long live the pleo community!"

Junkroxy · « **Reply #14 on:** January 26, 2009, 11:55:25 AM »

I agree with mweed, i dont think they're dead, they're just taking their time and doing the things well. And dont forget that Pleo is a successfull robotic toy with 65000 pleos adopted in the World. It's not bad for a little company

mweed · « **Reply #15 on:** January 26, 2009, 12:18:45 PM »

According to the last number I saw, they were up to 120,000 units sold worldwide.

Junkroxy · « **Reply #16 on:** January 26, 2009, 04:43:35 PM »

Quote from: mweed on January 26, 2009, 12:18:45 PM

According to the last number I saw, they were up to 120,000 units sold worldwide.

huge!

fancyfont · « **Reply #17 on:** January 26, 2009, 05:44:31 PM »

I have a feeling that not many people made the move with Ugobe to Idaho. Perhaps new people are trying to get things sorted out. I sure hope this is the case.

Lornex · « **Reply #18 on:** January 26, 2009, 09:29:57 PM »

I agree mweed! Sometimes I need to think before I write! A very good and helpful post, thanks for clearing things up!

I also agree with Junkroxy: "Ugobe's not dead, they're just taking their time and doing the things well" I think people need to be more patient and wait. I know it has been a long time, but we just need to wait!
When this is all over, hopefully everything should be all back to normal.

GSDMum · « **Reply #19 on:** January 27, 2009, 02:02:32 AM »

Personally, I believe that the lack of forums on the pleoworld site is extremely telling, coupled with the lack of response from customer support when emails are sent to Ugobe asking what is going on.

If you're in trouble as a company, the last thing you want to do is appear so to the outside world, particularly if you have made promises of updates for your product that have been a big selling point (I mean, most of us bought the Pleo anticipating a continuing development of Life OS for a while at least, right ? I know I did) - but in this case, Ugobe probably can't help us getting a sniff of something fishy.
So what I would do if I were them under the circumstances is - maintain the website so I can continue to sell a product (and keep as much revenue as I could, in hopes that it will keep me going), but disable any official user forums so people can't talk about how little response they're getting from the company.
Obviously, Ugobe can't stop anyone else from setting up a new forum such as this - but on their website, if you were a new Pleo owner who had questions after buying Pleo, you'd think something was wrong if you emailed them and got little or no response - so you'd go to the Ugobe user forums to ask why there's no response. Then people researching Pleo on the official site would see that there's a bunch of people saying there's no response from customer support and maybe not buy a Pleo as a result. Which becomes a self fulfilling prophecy as mentioned further up the thread.
This is a very simplified scenario obviously but basically true none the less.

As has also been said - companies don't tell their customer base when they're about to go down the pan so I don't think we can expect any news from Ugobe in the vein of "we're circling the drain, bear with us !" Half the time even the staff don't know it's on the cards until it happens !

Something is plainly wrong - if things were all hunky dorey over at Ugobe, someone would have put a "Normal service will be resumed" notice on the forum url page. Instead we have a "this page doesn't exist" error. Even if they had lost the forum contents in the move (unlikely in my opinion, having maintained my own rather smaller website for eight or so years, but possible), they could just as easily set up a brand new one and apologise for the loss.

As for manpower issues being at fault -- A similar sort of thing happened with another product I bought last year - an e-reader from a company called Irex. They had one model - the iLiad (two flavours of, one with wifi one without), which they were selling and then without warning (well, to most - I knew about it but I was privvy to the info) they brought out a new one (the digital Reader series, bigger brighter better) and dropped support and updates for the iLiad, although they are still selling it. But what they did was very honourably release the source code for the OS the the public, so that the community of owners could develop it themselves. People shouted like mad that they company had left them in the lurch, but at least there is some hope of a user supported project to maintain and update the OS.
I think this might be the best we can hope for from Ugobe if they don't have the manpower to continue to support Pleo.

And if they've gone down the pan totally well, let's hope for the same.

Whatever is going on over there, it smells more fishy than Baldrick's apple crumble (to quote Blackadder !)

...My two pennies worth.

eric · « **Reply #20 on:** January 27, 2009, 03:17:17 AM »

technical problems, this is said to be due to Ugobe moving to Eagle Idaho from California.

I think Ugobe lost alot of staff in the move also they give their staff two weeks or more off when the move happens.

http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS109653+06-Oct-2008+PRN20081006

google ugobe eagle idaho

Junkroxy · « **Reply #21 on:** January 27, 2009, 03:49:03 AM »

Ugobe.com is online again! They have updated the "team" page and the contact informations, the new address is in Eagle, Idaho.

orionis23 · « **Reply #22 on:** January 27, 2009, 06:43:04 AM »

Wow, thats really amazing news... Hopefully they will come out of the end of the tunnel as a fully functioning company again. I will be back in the States next month and the prospect of having our poor Pleo replaced is certainly making us feel better!

Junkroxy · « **Reply #23 on:** January 27, 2009, 10:56:22 AM »

Quote from: orionis23 on January 27, 2009, 06:43:04 AM

Wow, thats really amazing news... Hopefully they will come out of the end of the tunnel as a fully functioning company again. I will be back in the States next month and the prospect of having our poor Pleo replaced is certainly making us feel better!

If you're based in Italy you should buy one here, 24 months of warranty is better than 90 days

zarumbatus · « **Reply #24 on:** January 27, 2009, 01:05:30 PM »

That's a very good news.... Feel happy tonite

Bob the Pleo Forums

Author Topic: UGOBE not talking anymore! (Read 10015 times)