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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Group Buy: Budget CRI 95 LED Strip Lights

Hey Everyone,

Just bumping this post, for anyone who might have missed it. Selling off a fairly large lot of new and unused LED strips, controllers, and accessories. I am offering a discount for buying everything. Feel free to PM me to discuss.

Thanks.

Nathaniel Haban said:
Hello Everyone,

I'm pleased that Brandon and I have been able to work out an agreement, where we're going to see if anyone form the community here would like to take over my original order(s). Here is the list:

(8) Daylight LED Strips
(2) Variable LED Strips
(6) Solaris Ctrl+ LED Controllers*
(1) Desktop Power Supply
(1) Power Kit
(1) Fixed Connector Kit
(1) Variable Connector Kit

* I currently have 4 of the controllers. The 2 remaining controllers will be coming with the rest of the strips and accessories.

All the items are new, in-box, and have never been used. They should be ready to be shipped out from the warehouse, but I will give Brandon final word on that.

Additionally, if you would be willing to take the whole lot, I will offer a decent discount.

Thanks.
Click to expand...
 
I’m thinking a Buyer’s Union would be a good solution to so many of us waiting (or mostly having given up) on this exceptional Group Buy. Over the years we have seen members of the buy become frustrated and one by one try to get some sort of resolution from Brandon. Generally we have had a tough time, and most seem to have given up. At this point there are competitive and real products available, which we have spent more money on to keep ourselves working while waiting for these deliverables.

Brandon seems to have been working hard but his resources are clearly stretched too thin.

As a group of individuals all experiencing the same thing, each of us with hundreds to thousands of dollars invested, we need an organized solution. We have been counting on Brandon to provide this solution himself, but he has been too overwhelmed to make that happen satisfactorily.

I propose that we name a representative from among us who will communicate directly with Brandon and relay these communications with us. Speaking as a collective should give us the power to leverage real information, and bring accountability for many years of ongoing promises with few deliveries. Perhaps together we can wrap up this chapter in our gear investment lives and finally move on.

This should be even more helpful to Brandon himself, by lightening his communication load and creating a single point of contact for him to share real information with all of his buyers. A win-win.

Please message here, on RedUser, if you are interested in joining or helping to run a Buyer’s Union for the Brandon Fowler Group Buys.
 
I agree 100% on forming some sort of buyer's union to address these problems.

Proper, timely communication and openness about the status of these products, when people can expect fulfillment, and even the company itself is sorely, desperately needed. At this point, I'm still waiting on a refund that I requested nearly 9 months ago. So far, I keep getting a run-around, with Brandon saying "post them for sale in this group", and promises that he will help promote them. But this doesn't happen.

The Originator of this group buy hasn't made any posts, or responded to anyone publicly in almost 3 months. That's a pretty unacceptable situation, especially for the many people - 5 years later - that are seeking any sort of update on their orders.

At this point, individual updates, PM's, or quick replies aren't really going to cut it. All participants of this need and deserve a full state-of-company update so that we know what is going on. And I refuse to believe that Brandon does not have the 2 hours free on some afternoon to provide it. Among the serious questions are:

1) Is Brandon even still operating this company with the intent of trying to build it and make it successful? The reason I ask, is that all social media about KORA LED has essentially gone silent, and realistically has been for more than a year now. The website hasn't been updated in months, still running promotions from Christmas. This has all the hallmarks of a company that has been abandoned; if this is the case, Brandon should come out and tell us and be honest with us.

2) Is the company solvent? Very simply, does the company have the ability monetarily, to continue operation?

3) Will there be any accountability imposed on the company? I have asked several times for contact information for the company - address, phone number, etc - beyond just an email, but these requests have been ignored. Every other company on earth provides contact information. Why is KORA refusing to provide it?

-----

Brandon and KORA LED face a massive problem, and it spells a difficult road ahead if he's actually trying to build the company. Namely, that no one, NO ONE, is willing to evangelize this product. Every startup company needs customers that are willing to put their personal reputation on the line to promote a product to other industry professionals. RED has that. Duclos has that. Bright Tangerine has that. The flip side of great products (and by all accounts, KORA has a very good product), is great customer service. But right now, there is no one willing to promote these products on Brandon and KORA's behalf, who is willing to scream on social media "these are amazing, you should buy them".

On multiple occasions, I've had people ask for recommendations on good-quality LED strips. In good conscience, I could not recommend KORA, for the exact reason of the poor communication. Likewise, I see a number of fairly simple things that KORA could do to increase traffic and business, and ultimately grow a more successful company. But why should I share them?

I think having a buyer's union could help this. Proper communication will go a long way to restoring customer trust in the company, and make those customers much more likely to got to bat for the company and it's products.

I said a few months back, and was totally sincere about it, that I hope KORA does become a huge success, despite me asking for a refund and parting ways with it. But all of that potential success starts with good communication.
 
I've received all my items and the strips have worked very well and the quality been excellent!
Are you in the Group Buyer facebook group?
 
Guys, don't worry: Brandon is still at it and giving it his best.
I recently received the rest of my initial order. The lights and controllers are amazing IMHO! And man, these things are bright..!

To receive updates you should follow the website as Les stated, or the Facebook group which is a good place for other helpful info as well.
I'll include his last two facebook posts in my next post.

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Brandon Fowler - May 23 at 11:46 PM

We just sent the 841st Solaris Controller out today. It won't be long before only a handful are left. As stressful as this has been it's a great feeling. A lot of people never thought they would ever ship. It won't be much longer before we are all caught up on your pre-order mats and power units, too.
Now some good news! I've got some more standard daylight mats in the warehouse ready to ship. Regine will start reaching out to people tomorrow about them. If you need yours urgently write me ASAP. The next batch will be in approximately 3 weeks. There will be high-power mats in the next batch also. The next batch of power units will be the 3rd or 4th week of June.
The frames are behind schedule because one of the suppliers is moving incredibly slow. The hard part is done and all that is left is this one part which was supposed to be simple. I'm talking with other suppliers now but still hoping the original one comes through soon. Either way, we are 90% done.
Next week I'm meeting with the manufacturer of the lightboxes in person to finalize the design. It's all locked except for the bag, which was a last minute addition that greatly complicated things. I thought it would be cool to have a bag that can hold the entire kit, frame, lights and all, and that ended up increasing the shipping costs by too much, especially for international shipments. They have been working on some revisions for the bag that will bring the shipping costs down. We are also going to be discussing other options to help bring shipping costs down.
The RGBA strips are booked to start production on Monday and will be ready in 2 weeks.
I'm expanding the push to sell off the light strips and group buy power supplies you guys upgraded from. The faster I am able to do this the faster the pre-orders will be done. Don't be surprised if you see some posts on social media about this :)
That's the latest!
 
Brandon Fowler - April 4

My assistant Regine will start contacting people today to confirm shipping addresses. The first priority is finishing off the group buy products and then shipping the remaining mats that are in stock now.
More mats and power are being made now and I have a special one-off deal for frames and lightboxes that I will post about as soon as I have all the numbers I need. Things are coming together quickly, finally!
 
I'm glad to hear that Brandon is still at it.

I have to say we've been hearing that every 3-6 months for many years now. No doubt this is a big undertaking for one person. What I think we mostly want to hear is tracking info. For a group of people who all work on schedules with deadlines, real information should not be such a problem to share.

If you have any outstanding orders still open with Brandon / KORALed, please send me that information along with dates and payment, and I will add it to a chart. I can keep names anonymous if that is preferred. That will at least help shed light on the pacing of deliveries.

If you have received deliveries, please also send me that information for the chart. The more we can add to it, the better picture we will have of how these are getting fulfilled. Once we have a chart with some data in it I will make that available to members of the buy.

PM me or email to solowiejs -at- gmail
 
Sean Solowiej said:
I’m thinking a Buyer’s Union would be a good solution to so many of us waiting (or mostly having given up) on this exceptional Group Buy. Over the years we have seen members of the buy become frustrated and one by one try to get some sort of resolution from Brandon. Generally we have had a tough time, and most seem to have given up. At this point there are competitive and real products available, which we have spent more money on to keep ourselves working while waiting for these deliverables.

Brandon seems to have been working hard but his resources are clearly stretched too thin.

As a group of individuals all experiencing the same thing, each of us with hundreds to thousands of dollars invested, we need an organized solution. We have been counting on Brandon to provide this solution himself, but he has been too overwhelmed to make that happen satisfactorily.

I propose that we name a representative from among us who will communicate directly with Brandon and relay these communications with us. Speaking as a collective should give us the power to leverage real information, and bring accountability for many years of ongoing promises with few deliveries. Perhaps together we can wrap up this chapter in our gear investment lives and finally move on.

This should be even more helpful to Brandon himself, by lightening his communication load and creating a single point of contact for him to share real information with all of his buyers. A win-win.

Please message here, on RedUser, if you are interested in joining or helping to run a Buyer’s Union for the Brandon Fowler Group Buys.
Click to expand...

I'm with Sean on this. I bear no ill will toward Brandon but agree that things aren't moving very quickly. I first got into this more than 5 years ago. What I have received so far are LED strips and controllers (last year) but am still awaiting power units - so I can't even yet make use of what I have. I also have tubes and mats on order but haven't a clue as to when I'll be seeing those.

I talked a client into putting $3000+ into some strips, controllers and power supplies for a studio project, with the promise they'd be delivered within a couple of months. That was around 18 months ago and, to my knowledge, the power supplies still haven't been delivered. (I say "to my knowledge" because the client has stopped communicating with me.)

It's frustrating... :-(

UPDATE: For the last few days, Brandon has been reaching out to me to schedule a phone call to try and deal with my issue of power supplies. As I was composing the above post, we did fit in that call and, as of now, are arranging an alternate way of getting things handled. Not ideal, but a genuine effort on his part to accommodate me. As I have been saying, I think Brandon is sincere and honest. I just think he got in deeper than he realized. If all goes well, I'll have my mats and a solution for my power needs within a week or so. While that does still leave some products undelivered, it is a huge step in the right direction.
 
I appreciate that not everyone has been having the same experience with Brandon.

That said, the "Don't worry, I've been well taken care of" posts are ignoring the problems many of us are having with hearing little or nothing after we dropped funds into the bucket years ago.

Those of us who are hearing directly from Brandon, please continue to share your information with all on this forum. That is the unified approach that I think can still help save the spirit of this group buy.

Sean
 
LATEST POST FROM FACEBOOK:

Brandon Fowler
22 hrs
I expected to have more news by now but it looks like it will be at least morning before I do. I just got back in town this weekend. What I know now is RGBA strips are almost done, RGBW are next and more mats and power units are all being made as we speak. As soon as I have dates, which should be sometime tomorrow, I will update you again. Either way, I'll post another update tomorrow.
 
Does anyone know the power consumption of the hi power bi-color mats with 24v power supply? For example I measured the Skypanel S60 at 412 watts, or 3.43 amps on my amp meter.
 
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