In a 2019 interview with The Verge, Eve CEO Konstantinos Karatsevidis said the company had made “all the mistakes there were to make”, and pointed to issues with a payment processor that froze incoming funds after a spike in sales to justify early supply issues. Later that year, Karatsevidis offered a slightly more detailed explanation on the Eve forum: An ill-fated partnership with Fortress Tech Distribution LTD, an outfit tasked with running the company’s web store, led to “issues with the supply chain, funds frozen by payment processors, and untimely deliveries, causing frustration among the community and direct damage to our brand.” In recognition of its failures, Eve later whipped up a form to gather information from affected buyers so it could attempt to make things right.
“To summarize, this time around pretty much everything will be different, from the partners all the way to our team,” Karatsevidis promised.
Now, over a year later, some people who ordered Eve Vs or requested refunds through that form still haven’t received them. A Reddit thread from this summer calling for updates from Eve V buyers contains two dozen accounts from jilted users, some of whom claim the company has stopped responding to their correspondence entirely. When asked for comment, an Eve spokesperson provided the following statement:
“The business model changes we’ve done can be summed up in two key points:
Our operations are backed by a well-known supply chain company PCH International that essentially boosts the scale and capacity of our small team to those of major tech players by providing fulfillment, sourcing, inventory management, and other services
We are not using third-party sellers and a licensing business model this time around. Now we take full take care of shipping product ourselves.
Most of the refund requests have already been processed. We’re resolving the remaining ones with high priority.”
At this point, it’s difficult to definitively say whether these issues stem from poor management by an inexperienced team, a lousy deal with a trusted partner, or something more questionable. That said, it doesn’t matter how pretty or well-spec’d a machine Eve can built this time — if it can’t find a way to make things right for its first round of believers, it’s hard to image many people buying into its vision this time.
If you’ve had a poor experience with Eve, we want to know about it. Email [email protected] with details about your purchase, and how Eve handled the process. Note: To ensure no complaints are double-counted, please do not use both methods to share your story.
