Actions
Forum Thread Details
  • Replies 23 replies
  • Subscribers 2761 subscribers
  • Views 2452 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Related

Road test hardware delays

dwinhold

Has there been anyone else who hasn't received all their order for road tests? I am still waiting for very important items for the "In the Air Challenge". I am being held up by not receiving everything, I will probably have to go and buy it myself in order to make the deadline.

  • I want to thank everyone, especially Christian Defeo. I received a replacement for my order and am working real hard to get caught up. My appreciation to you is unexplainable, thank you very much!

  • in reply to hawkeyethehacker

    That is very true, the road test espechily helps alot of us do things we never thought we could. a BIG thank you to and the Element14 team image

     

    Kas

  • Indeed, is doing a great job. While I am personally waiting on some budget items that had to be sourced from SparkFun and Adafruit, I really do feel like I should be finding the money to buy the things myself, which is near enough impossible in my situation.

     

    Thanks element14 crew, without you a lot of us would not be able to learn what we can.

  • in reply to tekmeister

    even though the paperwork should have been filled out at the Element14 (Newark) side to cover the charges

    Found that out too ....

    It seems the NZ brokers use different phrases than UPS in America.

     

    It also seems that UPS has no centralised system for the broker to check the paperwork, which should show that information... image

     

    I'm just glad we live in an age where Technology is helping us ....image

     

     

     

    Mark

  • in reply to tekmeister

    Yup, most times I also just pay the duties my self and work something out afterwards with Christian if needed, often I will just absorb the cost of duty and brokerage as the gear is really useful to me and the small (relative to the cost of the gear) fee is worth it to have the gear but this does not happen too often and is often a factor of where the gear is coming from (I'm not talking in or out of Canada, but which E14 or Vendor office) often will be the decider as they seem to fill out the paperwork differently

  • in reply to nlarson

    Nicole,

    I do think letting participants know when shipments have been dispatched and if there are delays could improve things. It's not uncommon to see multiple members asking questions along the lines of "any updates?", or "have these shipped yet?"

     

    From my own involvement with road-tests, I can report I received the "UPS Ship Notification" emails quite a few days after the packages have actually been picked up by UPS.

    Also, I have had the unfortunate experience of twice having Element14 packages stuck at UPS for over a month while local import duties were unpaid, even though the paperwork should have been filled out at the Element14 (Newark) side to cover the charges. In the last instance, I ended up just paying the ~$500 fees myself, as I couldn't get any traction.

  • in reply to doctorcdf

    Hats off to you!! The job you are doing for all of us is greatly appreciated. Thank you so much for everything!!

  • in reply to nlarson

    Nicole

    For some of the RoadTests the products are special and not available elsewhere.

    You are pretty much stuck with the Newark distribution along with the UPS issues.

     

    I've personally had mixed results from UPS on their delivery notices, so perhaps there is a discussion required with UPS.

    Lately there has been a lot of challenges, and hence a large amount of logisitics, so maybe if one person at Newark was the contact, then it would take the pressure off Christian.

     

     

    If the parts are available at the local element14 distributor, then supplying from them overcomes customs, delays and all sorts of other supply issues.

    For the Forget Me Not challenge, the Australian office was extremely helpful and very accommodating, even sourcing from another distribtion centre.

     

    Mark

  • in reply to mcb1

    Hi Mark (and everyone who commented here),

     

    Thanks for your understanding - and patience for those of you still waiting on products to be shipped.  As most of you mentioned that some of these delays are unfortunately out of our immediate control, but would love to hear how we can improve communications to you about delays and status of shipments. 

     

    How about a product tracker here on the Community that you could follow for the latest status of shipped products from RoadTests (and Design Challenges)?  Would this help ease frustration at all?  Do you have other ideas of what we could do to help ease the frustration (besides, being able to ship and get you the products?)

     

    Again, thanks so much for your feedback and understanding.

  • My hats off to @doctorcdff. He has done such a great job for us all. Many of the items that were backlogged before the holidays are starting to show up. We all must understand the scope of the problem which affects large distributors like Newmark who are affected by UPS problems.post office, shipping delays i Los Angeles of months, etc.

     

    Optimistically yours,

    Clem