So …… I have these and haven’t opened them yet (plan on doing a YouTube review on them- work has been insane so I’m very delayed here)
Hyper does make good stuff, some have had issues but I’ve been lucky thus far. I have an old Hyper USB-C dock with 3 USB-A, a MicroSD/ SD reader, power passthrough (albeit very slow but it was first gen USB-C, so forgivable), gigabit Ethernet, HDMI out & a Qi charger. And it’s been flawless (unlike 2 of my Apple branded USB-C to HDMI which both died within 3 months of owning them)
So remember the above when I say the next part.
Their PR is TRASH. From end to end, trash. There’s at least 200 complaints on the Indiegogo for this exact campaign. Including me. That being said, I knew the following:
- Component shortages are what they are
- Funding anything through a crowdsource is a risk.
And all this was understood. At first I was defending them in their comment section that component shortages and Indiegogo being risky is something you take on. Even then, they made it near impossible to keep defending them. Here were the main issues:
- Their lack of communication. All of us echoed the sentiment that they should have just updated us with all the difficulties they faced, when they were facing it. Instead they put out a ton of promises that were unfulfilled. And when asked about the status, they just wouldn’t answer- and if they did, they’d take a few weeks and even then, the answers were super vague.
- And then the biggest offender. Their campaign updates. For those who don’t know, when you fund stuff on Indiegogo, there’s a section called “updates” which is where they update the backers on the status of things and if they’re on track or if they ran into roadblocks. When they update this, if you opt to (I think it’s on by default) we are all sent an email with the subject being: “Update #x: 245w Gan Charger & USB-C battery bank” with the body of the post. So while we were already annoyed by the lack of communication, they would use that TO PROMOTE NEW CAMPAIGNS AND PRODUCT LAUNCHES. And then we would all collectively say: “we’ve been asking for a real status update and instead you’re using the update of the campaign to push new stuff and not answer us, while your last promise was unfulfilled”
So, again, most of us are understanding of the shortages and also of crowdfunded campaigns being a risk. But the issue is, the initial delivery was Nov/early December for early backers like myself who ordered it back in mid-October. When the delays started, they would take a good month to even update us after the delivery time slipped, BY A MONTH. And sometimes, after a month or an unfulfilled promise, the next “update” they would post would be something like: “Update #x: 245w Gan Charger & USB-C battery bank: New Campaign! Triple Display USB-C dock”. Again, with no answer or real update. Imagine seeing that in your email while waiting to hear anything, having waited over a month since the last update / unfulfilled promise.
I got mine about 2 weeks ago. And the thing is, if the company was way more transparent about their issues and did their due diligence to at least update us more often with real statuses including their issues, I wouldn’t even be mad that it was 10 months after I backed it.
What makes me disappointed, is that I recommended Hyper to so many because I believed in their brand up until this. Now I’m very skeptical to do so. I hope for their sake that they can remedy this lack of real PR because I’m sure that a LOT of people lost their brand loyalty over this. And I’m not one to openly hurt anybody’s livelihood but someone should be reprimanded or even fired for this. It was a disaster.
There’s also a weird email exchange I had with them about a partnership for review items, but I’m saving that for my video. It just reinforces how bad the PR is.
That being said, I hope these are good. May try them today or tomorrow. I’m skeptical as well because I’ve already seen some reports of issues, the glaring one being that a MacBook Pro was bricked immediately on plugging the charger in. So I won’t be testing that, I need my MacBook for work.
I hope anybody ordering these has a way better experience than I, and so many others did.
