DRO-550 Warranty?

Several events have occurred of late that may alter the "non-warranty" status of the DRO-550.

The "Power-Buy" was organized as a collection of individuals banding together to make a volume purchase of the DRO-550 board, and thereby obtain the pricing advantage of large purchases. Each purchase by a single entity (person) is a part of the collective whole. Scott Schmate generously volunteered to be the Coordinator for this "Power-Buy".

As the Coordinator, Scott assumed no responsibility for the condition or functionality of the DRO-550. After all, he was merely serving as the messenger between the group of individuals making purchases and the board manufacturer.

Perhaps a loose analogy might be in order here.

I live in a small town (population 1500 or so) in a county so remote that there is not a single traffic light in the entire county. Our nearest town of any size is 75 miles away. That's where we have to go to find a Walmart, Best Buy, Home Depot, etc.

Given the distance traveled to reach these "real" stores, and being a neighborly community, a person traveling to the "big city" may let it be known that he/she is making the trip and volunteer to "do some shopping" for friends and neighbors.

Continuing the analogy, let's assume that the shopper was asked to pick up a particular microwave oven at Walmart. By picking up and transporting the microwave, does the traveler assume a position as the warrantor of the microwave? I think the answer is obviously no.

This is the position that Scott initially assumed. His only responsibility was one of fiduciary of the funds entrusted to him for the purchase and the dispersal of the product as it became available.

Over the past week I have heard that Scott has been arbitrarily canceling the orders of certain people without cause. In fact he is not even attempting to raise a valid (or invalid) reason behind his actions. However, there is one common denominator with every arbitrary cancellation. They are people whom Scott has decided are "outsiders", people who have been blocked from the Yahoo ShumaTech Group without cause (they did not violate any of the rules of the group, nor were they informed of any cause for their cancellation). If anything can be said of this group it is that they expressed ideas different from Scott's.

By taking this arbitrary action of canceling orders without cause, Scott stepped outside his role of coordinator of the "Power Buy". He stepped into a role of arbitor, deciding who would and would not be allowed to purchase the DRO-550. He stepped into the role of dealer or distributor. He also made an unilateral modification to the agreement under which EVERY person had entered the "Power Buy". These unilateral modifications were not only without cause, they were WITH BIAS. The only criteria for a person's order being canceled was that individual's personal standing IN SCOTT'S MIND.

By stepping outside the role of moderator and into the role of dealer or distributor, Scott most likely also assumed liabilities under a number of laws concerning commercial transactions, in this case, Interstate commercial transactions, laws which could pierce the disclaimer of warranty in which Scott has attempted to cloak himself. The very nature of the concept of the "Power Buy" being a neutral activity, offering equal benefits to any and all who wished to participate, has been violated. Scott cannot be both a neutral coordinator AND an arbitor making decisions based upon personal whims.

Hopefully these cancellations were in error and the orders will be reinstated by Scott ASAP, thereby restoring Scott to his role of coordinator and reinstating the validity of his disclaimer of warranty. If there is a personal motivation behind Scott's actions, the payoff certainly cannot be worth the possible personal exposure to warranty issues on tens of thousands of dollars in merchandise.

As with most actions, there are unintended consequences to Scott's. We at Wildhorse Innovations are offering cases and other items needed to turn the DRO-550 into a fully functional DRO. We have been waiting for the delivery of a production version of the DRO-550 in order to be sure that the drawings in the Hardware Manual match the final product. (This is not intended as a criticism of the manual. There are often changes made during production that cause to final product to differ from the preliminary specifications.)

If Scott's actions were in fact intended to cause harm to us, is he disregarding the members of the Power Buy who have chosen to obtain machined cases from us? Is his drive to "get even" so intense that he is willing to disregard these individuals right to purchase a quality product from where ever they wish? It seems that is his attitude in this situation.

To our Wildhorse Innovations customers we say, fear not. We have already obtained an alternate source for DRO-550s. We will deliver cases, properly machined to fit the production version of the DRO-550, in a timely manner. And as always, we stand behind our products one hundred percent.

As always your comments are welcome. We especially welcome Scott's explanation of his actions.