If the customer service experience was anything like what it was pre-pivot, I'm not surprised they failed.<p>When they were going out of business/pivoting, I ordered a bunch of their inventory at a large discount. One week after the "expected arrival date" (and 14 days after my order), surprised that my order hadn't arrived, I emailed them asking for a tracking number. They told me that it was waiting for the carrier to pick up the order and that I would get a tracking number that day. Every two days, repeat the same thing. Promises, no tracking number. Finally, 5 weeks after the order was completed, I received a tracking number.<p>Terrible experience, for what amounted to a bunch of (fun) junk.
Worked at a major retailer. Quirky would bring their products through to show us and the universal reaction was:<p>1. WTF?<p>2. The MSRP is what?!?<p>I mean, an $80 egg minder tray that talks to my cell phone?
Quirky was also the startup that tried to sue somebody over a rehash of a 100-year old patent:<p><a href="https://blog.adafruit.com/2015/06/14/quirky-sues-oxo-for-patent-infringement-case-settled-quirky-vs-oxo-invalidating-patents-from-crowdsourcing-ideas-posting-videos/" rel="nofollow">https://blog.adafruit.com/2015/06/14/quirky-sues-oxo-for-pat...</a>
I looked at a couple of the referenced products, the air conditioner and the wireless speakers, and they reminded me of the same kind of stuff that the airplane shopping catalog sells.
This is kind of sad for me to read. I realized it was always a long shot but it is certainly appealing to encourage the creativity to flow. Given that their failure was that they green lighted too many products that never went anywhere, I'm wondering if there is a way to fix that aspect of the problem? Sort of an MVP version of a product before full production.
If somebody wants to make money, consider my problem: under my desk is a rat's nest of wires of every sort, hooking all the crap together.<p>I'd like my workstation to look like the advertisement photos, where there's no wire in sight.<p>I cleared a bit of it up by switching to a wireless keyboard and mouse. But there's a long way to go. How about a wireless connection for my monitor? (I know the bandwidth is an issue for the video, but there's an audio cable, too.) How about a wireless USB connection?