Dough (Eve) Spectrum - Successful/Failed Stories

[TieThatBinds]

My main question is, "Anyone who's attempted to purchase an Eve/Dough monitor(s) have any good or bad stories? Would love to hear about them either way!"

 

My Story:

 

So, I pre-ordered a few of the ES07D02 monitors(27" 1440p 280Hz) plopping down $100 bux for each. I did this as a birthday present for myself, in June of 2020, using that sweet COVID unemployment money. Now, I did this knowing it was for a Kickstart campaign, but what I didn't know is about the Eve V tablet PC that quite a few people got burned on previously. Since I had already pre-ordered, I shrugged it off, and kept an optimistic view on it, since it was only $200. 

 

Fast forward two YEARS later, Jan of 2022, I get an email saying that they're ready to start processing my full payment, and requested the full amount, which was $800(still a pretty reasonable price for the specs the monitor is supposed to have). I hadn't really been keeping up with their R&D with the monitor(s), so I went ahead and paid it, thinking that that was going to initiate the shipment of the monitors. I did think about it, and that it was odd to be happening so close to the Chinese New Year(people who try to order Chinese things just before or during the new year know that it will be a while since they completely shut down for it). I decided to keep my positive outlook on the situation, although a my patience is a bit thinner since I hadn't heard anything directly from them at all up until they asked for the full payment. I got production update emails here and there, but that was it, just status update  newsletters for all their products. 

 

I wait 6 months. The 6 months turn into 8 months. The 8 months turn into a year. I start getting anxious and start wondering if I should get a refund. Start looking online, and read about people who didn't want to wait for 2+ years for a monitor and try to get a refund, and a year and a half later, they still don't have their refund. This makes me think, "Well, I don't want to sit here waiting another 2 years for a refund, so I'll hold steadfast, and try to keep an optimistic view about it. With any luck, they'll randomly ship, and I'll get notifications about it."

 

Well, I wait another 7 months, this is August 2023, with no response at all from anyone. I've reached out to the dough.tech support team, and keep getting the generic canned responses assuring us that they're working on it, but that being tech support, they don't have access to logistics and shipping to give me an update. I then learned that their support was migrated over to a reddit, r/doughcommunity, and you can inquire about stuff there. So I headed over and started looking to see if anyone else was having issues not getting their monitors, and boy was there. Had people like me who were optimistic(kind of) and willing to wait, to people who didn't wait two weeks before asking for a refund, and still hadn't got it. That latter mindset ended up spawning a reddit community-sized spurned fanbase of people who didn't get their products and have been waiting too long for a refund. 

 

After noticing this, I read a bit further, and realized anything that is said in the least bit of a negative connotation towards Dough/Eve is immediately deleted. How fascist of them... Ignoring that, I decided to post a very neutral post, asking for a status update of the ES07D02 monitors, as those were the ones I ordered. Provided my order number, date of order from kickstarter and date of when I actually paid for them, and explained that I hadn't gotten an update from anyone, and just wanted a status update, if at all possible. Instantly deleted post... Tried again, trying to keep it even more neutral, and again, instantly deleted post *deleted by moderator*. 

 

After that, I started looking for something similar, related to my monitor, and tried to see if anyone was asking the same questions I was, which there were. I decided to piggy back my question on theirs, as they got a response from a mod. After a few days, I FINALLY got a response from a mod, asking me for more info about my order. They looked it up, realized I had added HDMI cables to my order, removed them, stating that those would be keeping my monitors from shipping as they were on backorder, and they had no timeline of when they'd be replenished. I was ok with this, as I could get something elsewhere. I was then given a new order number, and was told that they'd be shipping out at the latest of September. Knowing the previous amount of time I waited, I had become cynical and jaded, and didn't believe that September ship date, and low and behold, September came and went, no response. I reached out again, no response. I kept reaching out 2 or 3 times a month until Jan of this year, another mod finally responded and said if I wanted an update I should reach out to the mods.

 

Following the previous mods' guidance, I messaged the mod team...4 times...and got no responses, until last week, specifically, April 27th, and that same day, I got a message in reddit from the mod team, asking for my shipping address, to verify it hadn't changed, which I gave. They responded and affirmed that it was what they had on file, and thanked me, and said that they can pass it over to their Distribution team. Nothing else, no mention of the lack of communication, no apology for how long its taken. 

 

Two days later, I get two shipping notifications that two packages, each weighing about 26.5 lbs have shipped from Las Vegas, and are on their way. I had to do a triple verification, make sure I was actually reading that right. After checking, sure enough, they finally have shipped me something. Now, I may be optimistic about the situation, but I'm by no means cynical in thinking that they actually sent what I ordered. Keep your expectations low, but optimistic about the outcome, and it'll take you far in life. They're scheduled to arrive Thursday afternoon, so I'll follow up with this post, hopefully with pictures, of the things. Granted you guys actually want them...if not, I'll abstain from the pictures. 

 

EDIT: After 4 years, including 2 years complaining about not getting updates, they finally arrived! (added pic with stands and monitors)

 

Just goes to show, act like a Karen long enough, and sometimes it works! Lol...

 

I'll follow up with my thoughts on them.

 

 

[Doobeedoo]

Yeah early on I was interested and did pre-order but many months later cancelled. I've read bad rep about the company, but also really that it took too long and better products were going to release very soon at the time. Which I can get at retail anyway. 

It seems many had stories like this. Also later on they made it that you can buy it from some online stores like Amazon but kinda too late. There were rumors about retail sale but not sure about that.

Sad, because the idea is awesome, good specs and design. Way back I wanted them to make 4K OLED which now they did, but others as well and their is still not available anyway. Also what about retail too. At this point I'm just waiting to see Asus 4K 480Hz DFR monitor.

[Stahlmann]

I've never considered an EVE monitor, but that's mostly because they only look good at first glance, but then take so long to deliver their products that bigger, more reputable brands like LG and Asus release their models with the same or better specs first. And at that point, why bother with EVE when you can just order or pick up a similar monitor from the retailer of your choice?

[TieThatBinds]

8 hours ago, Stahlmann said:

I've never considered an EVE monitor, but that's mostly because they only look good at first glance, but then take so long to deliver their products that bigger, more reputable brands like LG and Asus release their models with the same or better specs first. And at that point, why bother with EVE when you can just order or pick up a similar monitor from the retailer of your choice?

The specific monitor that I'm getting, its based off an LG 27GP850-B panel, but they made a few tweaks to it, faster refresh rate, and a custom OSD/firmware. Other than that, I think that is all they changed, but not sure as I haven't kept up with it. They're making an OLED monitor though, so if they can sort out their extreme lag in processing and shipping, it might be an ok company, but as it stands now...4 years for me to get my monitors...thats not good by any definition of customer service...

[TieThatBinds]

Packaging is pretty nice. Only one extra box in the packaging, and it held the power brick(which is a low profile laptop sized powerbrick). 

 

Under the monitor was the sheet with all the names, which I believe is all the people who were kickstarter backers.

 

The picture with all the different things laid out was all inside the "Start" envelope. 

 

If you guys have any questions regarding the monitors, feel free to ask!

 

I got the 2 of the ES07D02(1440p, 280Hz, HDR10) Matte finish panels.