Has anyone that pre-ordered seen their ION Director yet?

Saith · Mar 30, 2024

Today marks 1005 days since I preorder the Ion Director.

RickSanford · Mar 30, 2024

@Saith 1005 days...... Goodness. Makes my 720 days seem like nothing.....

I've sent @Vinny@GHLUSA another email today to inquire about status per his instructions at the beginning of February. Will advise.

Saith · Mar 30, 2024

Thanks for your response @RickSanford. I'll be interested to hear if they have an update. I considered emailing them, but last time they pretty much said they will get in-touch when it's ready to ship.

Dave-T · Mar 30, 2024

744 days here!

Cali9dub · Mar 30, 2024

I gave up and got my refund.

Chrisv. · Mar 30, 2024

Cali9dub said:
I gave up and got my refund.

I guess I'm a bit out of the loop but I can't understand why anyone would be waiting years from something like this. Hell, I bet most people don't even stay in the hobby that long.

Granted most people ordering this equipment probably stay in the hobby longer term.

albano · Mar 30, 2024

Saith said:
Today marks 1005 days since I preorder the Ion Director.

I heard that the warranty starts on the day that you place your order!

BeanAnimal · Mar 30, 2024

albano said:
I heard that the warranty starts on the day that you place your order!

I highly doubt that. Obviously, the warranty would start upon delivery. Things are bad enough without starting silly rumors like this. Too many gullible people out there will pass it along.

areefer01 · Mar 30, 2024

BeanAnimal said:
I highly doubt that. Obviously, the warranty would start upon delivery. Things are bad enough without starting silly rumors like this. Too many gullible people out there will pass it along.

I'm sure it was tongue and cheek. Or at least hope so. Sort of like the post one or two above when they mentioned hobby turnover and probably not being in it.

Edit: I should say I'm hoping they are kidding...

RickSanford · Mar 31, 2024

Saith said:
Thanks for your response @RickSanford. I'll be interested to hear if they have an update. I considered emailing them, but last time they pretty much said they will get in-touch when it's ready to ship.

I got the same feeling - but I'm going to stay on top of them. If the answer is check back in another month or two - I'm going to be in touch with the President of GHL in Germany. Not really expecting anything to change from that approach - but sometimes the boss doesn't feel the pain like the front line guys.

Lucas815 · Mar 31, 2024

RickSanford said:
I got the same feeling - but I'm going to stay on top of them. If the answer is check back in another month or two - I'm going to be in touch with the President of GHL in Germany. Not really expecting anything to change from that approach - but sometimes the boss doesn't feel the pain like the front line guys.

He already posted here multiple times. GHL is not some out of touch corporate giant

https://www.reef2reef.com/members/matthias-gross.71703/

Saith · Mar 31, 2024

Cali9dub said:
I gave up and got my refund.

I'm strongly leaning towards getting a refund.

Especially now that I did my cost prediction. I get $2.81 per test (with the IonD lasting 5 years and the probes lasting 90 days). That is cheaper than testing each element individually, which I get $3.25 for the 3 tests I care about to regularly test; Calicium, Magnesium and Nitrate. But I wouldn't test them every day, maybe once a week, so that would cost me $169 per year. I think the Ion D needs to run once a day so the yearly cost is $1027. Not sure I want to spend the extra $858 per year.

Saith · May 5, 2024

Well, it's now been 1041 days since I preordered an IonD and over six months since GHL's last direct communication, an email stating, "Due to the very high number of open orders for IOND devices and sensors, unfortunately it will still take a few weeks until all customers can be supplied. The entire GHL team is processing all IOND orders with highest priority."

This morning I sent in an email asking for a refund.

BeanAnimal · May 5, 2024

I certainly don't blame you.

I think at this point GHL needs to likely consider their calculus - as this does not look good.

Full transparency may not get a probe into anybodies hands a moment sooner, but very regular updates (daily or weekly) on the exact situation (the truth) would go a long way to giving people the tools needed to make a decision and go a long way to repairing trust.

I am not an ION-D owner, but the lack of communication here is extremely concerning as a GHL customer. It dovetails with the missing product releases (feeder, touch screen, etc.) and software updates (API, dashboard, enhancements, improvements, etc.).

I think GHL would be well served by being FAR more transparent about the issues here and far more aggressive in communicating both a hardware and software roadmap with REGULAR updates and milestones.

IKD · May 5, 2024

BeanAnimal said:
I certainly don't blame you.

I think at this point GHL needs to likely consider their calculus - as this does not look good.

Full transparency may not get a probe into anybodies hands a moment sooner, but very regular updates (daily or weekly) on the exact situation (the truth) would go a long way to giving people the tools needed to make a decision and go a long way to repairing trust.

I am not an ION-D owner, but the lack of communication here is extremely concerning as a GHL customer. It dovetails with the missing product releases (feeder, touch screen, etc.) and software updates (API, dashboard, enhancements, improvements, etc.).

I think GHL would be well served by being FAR more transparent about the issues here and far more aggressive in communicating both a hardware and software roadmap with REGULAR updates and milestones.

Not to mention the competition that just entered the market with Neptune (Trident NP) and CoralVue (Maven) putting out new testers. Feels like the last 3yrs to lock in a customer base were missed.

Cali9dub · May 5, 2024

Saith said:
Well, it's now been 1041 days since I preordered an IonD and over six months since GHL's last direct communication, an email stating, "Due to the very high number of open orders for IOND devices and sensors, unfortunately it will still take a few weeks until all customers can be supplied. The entire GHL team is processing all IOND orders with highest priority."

This morning I sent in an email asking for a refund.

Smart move. I did the same last year. I figured by the time it actually came out I could always buy it if better options weren’t out by then. As far as I’m concerned they are all fair at best. None are accurate, just gotta land on one that is consistent!!

robbyg · May 23, 2024

Mathias is one stubborn guy, he has literally sunk the whole company in pursuit of this one dream.
He should have just refunded the deposits early on and declared that it did not work.

It was about four years ago that the Head Engineer of Mindsteam while speaking about the Ion-D told me that they tried ion probes for there system but they did not work for any length of time so they abandoned the idea early on.

Cali9dub · May 23, 2024

robbyg said:
Mathias is one stubborn guy, he has literally sunk the whole company in pursuit of this one dream.
He should have just refunded the deposits early on and declared that it did not work.

It was about four years ago that the Head Engineer of Mindsteam while speaking about the Ion-D told me that they tried ion probes for there system but they did not work for any length of time so they abandoned the idea early on.

Hopefully they don’t go the way of Vertex

areefer01 · May 23, 2024

robbyg said:
Mathias is one stubborn guy, he has literally sunk the whole company in pursuit of this one dream.
He should have just refunded the deposits early on and declared that it did not work.

It was about four years ago that the Head Engineer of Mindsteam while speaking about the Ion-D told me that they tried ion probes for there system but they did not work for any length of time so they abandoned the idea early on.

The disc solution didn't fair to well either. I'm curious if the two technologies are just not affordable for the hobbyist or just failed tech. Not knocking either btw just wondering as most supply chain issues have been worked around post covid and some tech was brought in-house.