We are in the process of launching an open source drone platform and submitted a couple of online requests to various 900MHz radio vendors, including Doodle Labs. After reading the spec sheet and talking with Jay Parikh, we decided to integrate the Doodle Labs 900MHz Smart Radio line into our drone platform.
So I tasked our CAD / CAM person with modifying our design to accomodate the Doodle Labs Smart Radio OEM module, and then ordered four (4) of the baseline model radios to test.
Apparently Doodle Labs only accepts PayPal, which we've recently had issues with for international payments. Maryane Guion in Singapore then sends me wire transfer instructions; I send the wire.
A week later, no response from Doodle Labs and no radios shipped. I contact Maryane Guion and Jay Parikh about it, they then say they never received the wire. I go to our bank to inquire about it, then resent the wire via international Swift.
A week goes by, no response from Doodle Labs, no modem shipment, the funds have been removed from our corporate account. Our CAD / CAM guy has been done integrating the Smart Radio mechanical specs into our drone platform for over a week now, but we can't test anything and the project stalls. I contact Maryane Guion and Jay Parikh again, she says they haven't received any wire so can I please send the wire confirmation.
I sent the Swift wire confirmation, another few days go by, no response from Doodle Labs, no radios ship, contact Maryane Guion again. She says the email I sent her is not enough, she needs me to send a scanned copy of the physical wire remittance from the bank. An hour waiting in the bank, then I receive an email from Jay Parikh that they are not interested in doing business with us and will not sell us any radios due to "concerns about support."
No idea, maybe it's a Singapore culture thing? I just wasted thousands of dollars on R&D to implement their product in our platform - after wiring Doodle Labs funds to purchase these radios - just to have them then refuse to even sell their products to us any longer.
At Doodle Labs, we respect our customers and therefore believe in providing them with the best possible service.
We extended that same service to Gregory Perry at trailblazer.ai after his initial inquiry with us and in follow up conversations and emails.
He was interested in purchasing samples, which we were happy to do at first. However, after performing our standard due diligence on his company, which has no online presence at all, we decided that the lack of clarity on how our radios would be used was not aligned with our business. We informed Gregory that we would unfortunately not be able to support him at that time.
That is the first time Gregory threatened us, but he also gave us additional information about his project, which he hadn't provided earlier. We decided to reverse our decision and move forward with selling him samples.
When the invoice was sent to him, he wanted to pay by credit card, which we process through PayPal. He started asking about delivery details, but we had never received payment and told him as much. He insisted that payment had been made by PayPal. The reason we use PayPal is to remove all doubt on whether a transaction has been completed, the platform cannot be cheated, and as no payments were registered from him, we again told him as much.
He then said he made payment via wire transfer and provided an unofficial document as confirmation that payment had been made. We did not receive any wire transfer, and once again told him as much. He started to become aggressive with our team, so our Finance team sent an extensive explanation on what official proof of transfer from the bank would be, and how he could address the issue with his bank if in fact he had attempted to make the transfer since we never received payment.
After the next aggressive email from Gregory, we decided that this did not meet our standards for building a longer term partnership, and therefore told him that we would be retracting our offer to provide him with samples. We still hadn't received payment, but told him that if those funds were to ever show up (they never did) that we would refund them to him.
His response was the final communication, which I've copied below. I've censored it.
Hey Jay,
Go f*** yourself. I promise I will cost you $1m in sales.
Warm regards
Gregory Perry
Again, we were really saddened to see this post, which is dated several weeks after our last communication. We did our best to work with Gregory even though we had seen red flags along the way.
And despite our hesitations about working with Gregory himself, we did our best to support his project.
No money was ever paid for our products, which is the only reason we did not send him our products: no purchase was ever made.
Doodle Labs Reviews
We are in the process of launching an open source drone platform and submitted a couple of online requests to various 900MHz radio vendors, including Doodle Labs. After reading the spec sheet and talking with Jay Parikh, we decided to integrate the Doodle Labs 900MHz Smart Radio line into our drone platform.
So I tasked our CAD / CAM person with modifying our design to accomodate the Doodle Labs Smart Radio OEM module, and then ordered four (4) of the baseline model radios to test.
Apparently Doodle Labs only accepts PayPal, which we've recently had issues with for international payments. Maryane Guion in Singapore then sends me wire transfer instructions; I send the wire.
A week later, no response from Doodle Labs and no radios shipped. I contact Maryane Guion and Jay Parikh about it, they then say they never received the wire. I go to our bank to inquire about it, then resent the wire via international Swift.
A week goes by, no response from Doodle Labs, no modem shipment, the funds have been removed from our corporate account. Our CAD / CAM guy has been done integrating the Smart Radio mechanical specs into our drone platform for over a week now, but we can't test anything and the project stalls. I contact Maryane Guion and Jay Parikh again, she says they haven't received any wire so can I please send the wire confirmation.
I sent the Swift wire confirmation, another few days go by, no response from Doodle Labs, no radios ship, contact Maryane Guion again. She says the email I sent her is not enough, she needs me to send a scanned copy of the physical wire remittance from the bank. An hour waiting in the bank, then I receive an email from Jay Parikh that they are not interested in doing business with us and will not sell us any radios due to "concerns about support."
No idea, maybe it's a Singapore culture thing? I just wasted thousands of dollars on R&D to implement their product in our platform - after wiring Doodle Labs funds to purchase these radios - just to have them then refuse to even sell their products to us any longer.
Caveat emptor.
Response to Gregory Perry
At Doodle Labs, we respect our customers and therefore believe in providing them with the best possible service.
We extended that same service to Gregory Perry at trailblazer.ai after his initial inquiry with us and in follow up conversations and emails.
He was interested in purchasing samples, which we were happy to do at first. However, after performing our standard due diligence on his company, which has no online presence at all, we decided that the lack of clarity on how our radios would be used was not aligned with our business. We informed Gregory that we would unfortunately not be able to support him at that time.
That is the first time Gregory threatened us, but he also gave us additional information about his project, which he hadn't provided earlier. We decided to reverse our decision and move forward with selling him samples.
When the invoice was sent to him, he wanted to pay by credit card, which we process through PayPal. He started asking about delivery details, but we had never received payment and told him as much. He insisted that payment had been made by PayPal. The reason we use PayPal is to remove all doubt on whether a transaction has been completed, the platform cannot be cheated, and as no payments were registered from him, we again told him as much.
He then said he made payment via wire transfer and provided an unofficial document as confirmation that payment had been made. We did not receive any wire transfer, and once again told him as much. He started to become aggressive with our team, so our Finance team sent an extensive explanation on what official proof of transfer from the bank would be, and how he could address the issue with his bank if in fact he had attempted to make the transfer since we never received payment.
After the next aggressive email from Gregory, we decided that this did not meet our standards for building a longer term partnership, and therefore told him that we would be retracting our offer to provide him with samples. We still hadn't received payment, but told him that if those funds were to ever show up (they never did) that we would refund them to him.
His response was the final communication, which I've copied below. I've censored it.
Hey Jay,
Go f*** yourself. I promise I will cost you $1m in sales.
Warm regards
Gregory Perry
Again, we were really saddened to see this post, which is dated several weeks after our last communication. We did our best to work with Gregory even though we had seen red flags along the way.
And despite our hesitations about working with Gregory himself, we did our best to support his project.
No money was ever paid for our products, which is the only reason we did not send him our products: no purchase was ever made.