Raspberry Pi Stock

I visited the Corby base of RS yesterday.  I live 9 miles from there and 35 from Cambridge.  I was told by the staff there, after they had  "checked upstairs" what to say:

1) RS never had any stock.

2) RS have therefore not shipped any to anyone.

3) If you have filled in the form on the RS website you should get an email in 5 working days informing you of the situation. 

4) They expect to be shipping some "this month".  As this was 1st March I was not impressed.

Personally I am not impressed that the Pi website is still showing essentially the same information that was there 06:00 Wedneesday, although they have obviouslybeen in and tweaked it to include Element 14 in the Farnell link at the bottom of the page.

I feel they should have a update on the site explaining what is going on.  And what the plan is!

Also not impressed by the RS corporate site news item titled:" RS Components responds to huge customer demand for Raspberry Pi"  ----  truth is the response includes site crashing, having no stock, not shipping anything,  not informing people. 

BTW, I had registered an interest months ago on the Raspberry Pi site, and didn't even get the courtesy of the email that was supposed to be sent!  Seems also those that registered months ago via the Pi site are just in the mix with all the late comers who piled in to the RS site.

Great british engineering, but then...............

Neither RS or Farnell have stock. I thought that was clear from all the press releases over the last couple of days. The Pis are still on their way from China. The only difference is that Farnell is taking concrete orders while RS are asking people for their details and will contact them shortly. A bit frustrating all round but there is no reason to suppose that either company will get a Pi to you any sooner. I registered with RS soon after 6:00am on 29th and got a generic confirmation from them yesterday.

I'm another one that was registered on the Raspberry Pi site and didn't get the expected email from them. The first I knew about anything happening was when I saw the news on Yahoo that the website had gone down. By that time it was probably turning in to a feeding frenzy for all the news media. It makes me wonder how many of the people that have expressed an interest in RPi, since then, will actually buy one in the end. In the meantime the people who were genuinely interested - before it became a worldwide news headline - have effectively been pushed to the back of the queue. I would certainly be willing to pay for one in advance, to ensure that I got one as soon as possible, and not be slowed down by all the people that have jumped on this latest bandwagon.

The factory in China let them down. I think in the end there was so much in progress that they could not move the launch date.

Sorry, but that would have cost them two phone calls. One to RS, another to Farnell, calling it off. And I don't think that neither Farnell or RS would have incured any cost from postponing the launch date. Both were apparently not prepared at all for the launch.

And then they could have retracted their statement on their website about that big upcomming event, and that would have been it. I mean, they are working on this for six years. A few more weeks until the ship sailed into the harbor would have been nothing.

I think Farnell have handled this a lot better than RS - at least there is some idea that you've placed a pre-order, or that they've stopped taking them, rather than being told by RS "thank you for your interest, we'll get back to you at some point".

I rather got the impression that with RS, they will notify you when they have stock, then it's first-come-first-served so I think (if I'm right) they will get another feeding-frenzy on their site, and not even a fair one, if those that registered first have to fight it out amongst everyone else to get their order in.

I have one of those emails from RS. I will wait to see whether they stand by their statement. /sobs.

I haven't, (despite filling in the form within minutes of 0600) *sobs harder*

I am a bit angry that I didn't get an email, and even though I registered it obviously didn't work but due to a lack of confirmation I had no way of knowing.  I phoned up earlier, they said if you try to register again it won't work if your first registration went through.  It obviously didn't so I will probably wait six months for mine now!  Glad I got up at 0600 for nothing, what a crock!

I phoned RS as well when I had not heard from them. They also said that if you have already registered it won't let you register again. Rubbish. It lets you register aninterest as many times as you like. I have had one confirmation from them but whether that relates to 6:00am on Wednesday or Thursday afternoon after I phoned, I just don't know.

On the other hand, if you think this is frustrating and confusing, just wait until your Pi arrives and you have to get it going. That will definitely sort the Roys and Maurices from the Jens.

Well, I will just have to wait and see then.  Maybe the first try did work, but I am still waiting on an email.

When I spoke to RS earlier, they said they had only been allocated 900 raspis from the first batch!

I too was eagerly waiting at 0600 but for two hours all I got was blankish screens. It was a shock to find that the work had been farmed out to Farnel and RS and my immediate thought was - that'l double the price for a start. If Rpi are still making a small profit how much are the distibutors getting - judging by their normal prices a one off item is marked up 50-100%.

Its frustrating but the product is good and worth all this hassle (to me anyway). I would pay this much for a computer periferal with just the video capability, never mind a built in processor etc - this was going out (originally) for the price of an arduino. Will any more of those (arduinos) get sold?

Think, one day you'l be able to bounce you kids on your knee and say - 'did I ever tell you about the Rpi debacle?'  arr them were the days.

I think these will find their way into commercial products just because of the display abilities for the price, and wont be surprised to see clones etc proliferating. After a few million have been sold and they are still in demand we'll see the ipad/ iphone lookalike scenario; everyone jumping on the bandwagon.

Ah well, so far I've only been able to register an interest - I did get an e-mail with a button to order but that just took me to the register screen.

By the way, where are Liz and the message board - perhaps they're keeping their heads down till Rpi's actually materialise.

What we need is a clear announcement of the ACTUAL situation so we can all get on with our lives and patiently await our turn - its all the speculation which has given this whole venture a tacky feel.

Ah thats better............

Dave

I too was eagerly waiting at 0600 but for two hours all I got was blankish screens. It was a shock to find that the work had been farmed out to Farnel and RS and my immediate thought was - that'l double the price for a start. If Rpi are still making a small profit how much are the distibutors getting - judging by their normal prices a one off item is marked up 50-100%.

Its frustrating but the product is good and worth all this hassle (to me anyway). I would pay this much for a computer periferal with just the video capability, never mind a built in processor etc - this was going out (originally) for the price of an arduino. Will any more of those (arduinos) get sold?

Think, one day you'l be able to bounce you kids on your knee and say - 'did I ever tell you about the Rpi debacle?'  arr them were the days.

I think these will find their way into commercial products just because of the display abilities for the price, and wont be surprised to see clones etc proliferating. After a few million have been sold and they are still in demand we'll see the ipad/ iphone lookalike scenario; everyone jumping on the bandwagon.

Ah well, so far I've only been able to register an interest - I did get an e-mail with a button to order but that just took me to the register screen.

By the way, where are Liz and the message board - perhaps they're keeping their heads down till Rpi's actually materialise.

What we need is a clear announcement of the ACTUAL situation so we can all get on with our lives and patiently await our turn - its all the speculation which has given this whole venture a tacky feel.

Ah thats better............

Dave

Elementary said: "After a few million have been sold and they are still in demand we'll see the ipad/ iphone lookalike scenario; everyone jumping on the bandwagon."

Dude, what you described already exist, they are called Android Tablets and Smartphones. LOL

The Raspberry Pi, in fact, is basically nearly simply the guts of an Android Tablet.