Endor (Fanatec) won't be saved from this Death Star

Seems Thomas confirmed what I stated was the cause of their stock sell off in Sept. and Oct. of last year. In his new blog Thomas admits they have no XBOX One wheel in development after months of skating the question.

My no new wheel rim comment was incorrect but I didn't account for these low tech wheels getting announced. i.e. I should have said, no new advanced wheel rims will be released because that is what I had envisioned when I made that statement. The "new" F1 wheel is just a carbon sticker on the old rim with different colored buttons. Neither were what many expected after two years of waiting. Again this is a result of no development funds.

Where does this leave Fanatec? A T500 was already a better bargain but with the new F1 rim price (will replace the old one) soon to be $250, $700 (not including shipping) with no pedals is the entry fee. Rims should be cheaper and the CSW should be improved to better compete with the T500. Instead they are raising prices, making no improvements, and labeling vocal customers with past issues as opinion leaders. If the situation seemed challenging before I think it is even more so now.

A free dog bone:

Thomas should buy up the stock and take it private. Having a publicly traded company airs all dirty laundry to not only potential customers but potential partners.
I would imagine the performance of Fanatec was reviewed by Microsoft and played heavily in their decision. Sony will be no different. Thomas said "other companies which make much bigger business with Microsoft than us got this wheel business first" which is nonsense. If that was true Fanatec would never have been picked for Forza 4.

 

Maybe Fanatec should review their marketing to gain a bigger share.
Don't get me wrong, I like my CSP v.1.
What I don't like and will never do, is pay an additional $50 for a wheel clamp after spending copious amounts (relative to the close competition) for a wheel base with no pedals.
It's just principal.
My first tech support issue took way too long communication-wise.
The second was much better and resolved quickly and to my satisfaction.
I hope they survive, because competition does wonders for moving quality along.
It's the price vs quality-control part they need to concentrate on.
I've read way too many stories in these forums about returns (for repair) for products this costly.

 

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/23/idUSFWN0WP02N20150323?type=companyNews

Had to dig this thread back for this news. I see this and then as laughable as it is I see news about Fanatec raising prices due to currency exchange.

Customers get to pay for Endor's poor business practices. The worst bit is I use a set of their pedals and I like their product. I received an invite for the v2, went to use it and it was already expired. WTH? It was only valid for the next six days. That was in Jan. of this year, now the v2 wheel base was delayed till May and now again to mid June. Where is all the pre order money going I wonder?

600.000 Euro is over 1/3 of the entire worth of Endor. To put this into perspective, it would be like Apple getting hit with a settlement of 250 Billion ($250,000,000,000).
They need to pay this over three years, and considering they had trouble breaking even before, this will make it all but impossible.

My favorite bit is this part in my email:
"The current delivery date can be postponed at any time to an even later date due to the increasing strong demand for this product."

How does a single batch of product keep getting delayed due to strong demand? That makes no sense unless he's delaying shipment of finished wheels. But quantity costs so you can't save that much shipping twice the volume. I ignored it when I first received the email but now it seems it was placed there knowing this would happen. Once again we can watch Endor news for clues of what is really going on.

Folks, Thomas is a few months away from becoming the Bernie Madoff of the sim world. Looking at Endor's revenue history with net profit, there is no chance of covering 200.000 euro. I can see either this batch of wheels being postponed indefinitely or perhaps the second batch. If Endor doesn't pay that debt the courts will take over and liquidate their assets. The obvious choice will be to delay shipping to customers while Thomas deals with the increasing strong demand for their products. Sigh. My advice, don't buy it if it isn't in stock and ready to ship. You've been warned.

 

Thanks for the warning Panigale.
I really like fanatecs stuff and would have spent a lot more money on their products than I already have had it been sensibly priced.
Yeah, I know some of their gear is excellent quality and their customer service to me when I' ve had minor problems has been excellent. That said, whoever is pricing their products is a seems to be a bit dim and completely lacking in any idea of reality of what disposable income most people have.
At £100 for a good quality wheel rim, I would have very probably bought 4 or 5 different wheels by now. With their pricing as it is, I've bought no extras at all and have no plans to do so at £300 or whatever silly inflated price they are asking for their products that are manufactured cheaply in China.
Someone at Endor, Fanatec or whoever needs to get real and get real quick sharpish about the pricing strategy of their products, otherwise they will get what's coming to them as most greedy people do eventually.

 

Yeah, you'd be crazy to give him cash for something you don't expect to receive for months.

 

I got my Clubsport V2 and Porsche rim and love them. They go well with my V1 Clubsport pedals. Fortunately I don't really race a lot so my wheel should last a long time whether Endor goes bankrupt or not.

Giving people cash for something you won't see for months reminds me of Kickstarter. This isn't really any different.

 

Bad Informations, but many thanks, for sharing this. Just saying, if their Webshop shows an "on stock", this isn`t any guarantee, that you w`ll get the product...

 

Does anybody know what the settlement was about btw?

 

Distribution of the Porsche Wheel <--- short story

//Edit: Afaik Ardistel paid 690K Euro for the Distribution Rights (maybe for Spain?), but they don`t sold the Wheel. Endor cancled the Contract and must now pay 600K Euro back to Ardistel.

 

Ah o.k, thanks. Sounds like Thomas should get a better lawyer who advises him not to violate contracts.

 

Sounds like his lawyer didn't do the right thing in the 1st place by his client should have had better contract's in place to begin with. GET A NEW LAWYER....

 

In the long run, how exactly does this hurt Endor financially? All they're doing is giving back money that was paid to them in a contract. It's not like they took the money and went on a drinking binge, so can't produce the money and they have nothing to show for it. Or is it exactly like that because Endor was in financial tatters already?

 

I`m not an "Insider", just seen what is public, e.g. the annual financial statement of Endor. From this it is hardly to believe, how this should work...

 

Damn. I was debating on getting the Forza CSR wheel/pedal pack too. It says in stock, but I'm still feeling a bit apprehensive.

 

If you buy and don't get the product, you are protected under consumer rights.

 

Oh yea! Thanks. Looks like I'll be getting that wheel after all.