Ever since the earliest days of podServe I've been in contact with Patrick McGrath, formerly of Ripfactory. If you're casting a film and looking for 'lovable Irish rogue' I don't think you could find a better match. He was always helpful and amusing. Our conversations were mainly about copyright issues and Patrick was a great help.
At some point Patrick raised the question of their robotic ripping system and datagrooming software. Somehow ripping in quantity had never struck me as anything other than a task suited to a parallel rather than a serial approach so I said no to the robot, but yes to their software. The investment was modest, less than £500, but I did expect it to work in accordance with their own leaflets.
It soon became clear that the code was horrendously defective. Despite the best efforts of their technicians none of the programs I bought ever worked as described. Then in the autumn of 2007 I was contacted by a very irate Ripfactory robot owner. He felt he'd been treated very badly by Patrick, sold a robot, paid for it, no unit supplied. This was followed by other contacts from people with the same or similar stories - orders not fulfilled, poorly performing products. They were not happy bunnies. As I've said to many people now, not buying a robot was one of the best decisions I have made in CD ripping. In fact it was such a good decision I think I'm going to make it again today.
I was prompted to put a post here on the matter, and I called it "Ripfactory RIP?" That prompted a call from a less than happy Patrick McGrath. Early in 2008 Patrick contacted me again and said that the issues my post had highlighted had been resolved to the purchasers satisfaction, that the US company MF Digital had taken over supply of the hardware / software bundle, so would I remove my less than flattering entry. Which I did. Despite one or two more rumblings and grumblings things went very quiet on the Ripfactory front.
Yesterday I got a message from a contact in America suggesting I visit Ripfactory's site. Well, it seems poor Patrick's company has hit the buffers and has passed over to MF Digital. This strikes me as better news for Ripfactory's existing clients as I've been impressed by the people I've spoken to at MF Digital. If I had a mobile phone number for Patrick I'd ring him and ask what happened to the investors behind Ripfactory whose pockets were so deep they'd never let the company go but I'll let that one pass.
In these parlous times, and with other robot offerings now available, it strikes me that more suppliers will be fighting over a shrinking market. It will be tough to stay in the game, although thankfully for MF Digital they have other revenue streams so hopefully they'll be able to stay the course. But I still don't think CD ripping is a robot-solved problem, or maybe I'm just a parallel man to the core.
Anyway, even if Ripfactory is no more I hope Patrick resurfaces. Robots are a dime a dozen; lovable Irish rogues are in short supply.
