"Electrocomponents Creamed by Raspberry Pi" -- Motley Fool

It's a shame we don't know why RS is not receiving stock. I ordered from three locations (Tandy, Farnell and RS) and am only waiting on the RS one. I ordered the RS one on 23rd August, and the estimated ship date given to me at the time was within 14 weeks, so I don't expect it till January.

I probably will cancel and order elsewhere, although I don't want to (kinda feel sorry for RS - they do sell lots of stuff at competitive prices, so I suppose they have good relations with their suppliers, sometimes items not available from Farnell, and they have a presence near me). Anything else I've ordered from RS has always arrived just as fast and reliably as Farnell, i.e. next-day, so possibly the Rasp-pi is an exceptional circumstance for RS, but I don't know what.

It's a shame we don't know why RS is not receiving stock. I ordered from three locations (Tandy, Farnell and RS) and am only waiting on the RS one. I ordered the RS one on 23rd August, and the estimated ship date given to me at the time was within 14 weeks, so I don't expect it till January.

I probably will cancel and order elsewhere, although I don't want to (kinda feel sorry for RS - they do sell lots of stuff at competitive prices, so I suppose they have good relations with their suppliers, sometimes items not available from Farnell, and they have a presence near me). Anything else I've ordered from RS has always arrived just as fast and reliably as Farnell, i.e. next-day, so possibly the Rasp-pi is an exceptional circumstance for RS, but I don't know what.

> It's a shame we don't know why RS is not receiving stock.

Indeed.  They knew from day 1 that interest was very high, but apparently

were very conservative in the number of SoC orders they placed.

Maybe Farnell listened to Morgaine, but RS didn't.

As of April 18, the press was reporting that RS had a waiting list of 250,000.

http://www.zdnet.com/raspberry-pi-waiting-list-hits-250000-4010025909/

On August 29, JamesH wrote:
"It takes a couple of months minimum to get increased demand through the fab, Broadcom would only be blinded as far as supplying to the distributor - Brcm can only make what is asked by them. If the disties under/over estimate demand, then that's their problem, Broadcom will supply what is asked for."

So Broadcom apparently didn't ramp up production of the SoC based simply on

press reports of huge interest, they waited for actual orders from the distributors.

It's hard to tell exactly how many RPi's RS has shipped so far.

They claim to have shipped orders with order numbers up to about 100,000.

But a number of people with order numbers between 80,000 and 100,000 claim

not to have received them, or are just now receiving them.  We also don't know how

many people with order numbers under 100,000 have cancelled, or how many

orders such as from Allied may use a different numbering system.  But I think

100,000 is in the general ballpark of how many they have shipped so far,

compared with the 250,000 on the waiting list in mid April.

regarding how many units RS has shipped so far,

On June 19, Mike at RS wrote

"We have 75,000 Raspberry Pi’s coming into stock in batches from the beginning of June to early July"

...

"Our next 100,000 Raspberry Pi’s will arrive into RS in batches between mid-August and the end of September."

http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=8786

My interpretation is that the 100K due to arrive starting mid-August is what

has just now started to arrive, and the implied planned hiatus in shipping

between mid July and mid-August is what happend from Aug 27 to Sept 27.

So it looks like RS has shipped 75K plus their half of the first 10K.

According to their August 28 chart here:

http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=15879

it looks like there is another implied planned hiatus in shipping

between October 14 and November 12.

coder27 wrote:

But I think 100,000 is in the general ballpark of how many they have shipped so far,

compared with the 250,000 on the waiting list in mid April.

I had the impression that the 250k number was "total orders at farnell + RS". Not RS alone.

The article explicitly says 250K for RS alone.

Let me say it like this then....

Back in april numbers like 200k to 250k orders taken were doing the rounds. Different sources sometimes mentioned that this was combined for RS and Farnell, while others were confusing the issue by not clearly mentioning if it was for one or both. It could very well be that this escalated by someone writing an article using one of the "doesn't say" sources and thinking it was just for RS.

Also, note that "order numbers" at RS for those who are getting their 'pi now are on the order of 80k to 100k, and that those people claim they ordered after april (june or even july).

> It could very well be that this escalated by someone writing an article using one of the "doesn't say" sources and thinking it was just for RS.

Yes, that could be.  It wouldn't be the first time a reporter got a story wrong[1].

But there's no ambiguity in the story.  They cite the original BBC story at:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-17742730

which is all about RS, and makes no mention of Farnell.

It says RS is shipping their first 700 units, and has a waiting list

of 250K, both in the print story and on the video.

> Also, note that "order numbers" at RS for those who are getting their 'pi now are on the order of 80k to 100k, and that those people claim they ordered after april (june or even july).

The people getting their 'pi now that claim they ordered in June, claim that they

registered their interest in March, and June was when they finalized their order

and when their credit card was charged.   So the RS "waiting list" in April would

be "registrations of interest" rather than finalized orders.

[1] one published story says:

"Meanwhile, in another part of the forest, there are some astonishing developments happening – such as the fact that more than a million people have already placed orders for Raspberry Pi, the cheap, credit-card-sized computer developed by Cambridge geeks, which began shipping last week."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/mar/31/why-kids-should-be-taught-code

Wikipedia goes even further, citing elinux.org's figure of over twice that number.

"Although as yet unconfirmed, reports suggest that there are over two million expressions of interest or pre-orders.[48] The official Raspberry Pi Twitter account reported that Premier Farnell sold out within a few minutes of the initial launch, while RS Components took over 100,000 pre orders on day one.[12]"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raspberry_pi

http://elinux.org/RPi_Buying_Guide#Q:_Couldn.27t_this_have_been_handled_better.2C_I_couldn.27t_get_on_the_site_to_order_and_they_sold_too_quickly.3F

Ignoring for a moment the indeterminate but spiralling numbers of unhappy RS customers I feel that there's possibility that someone has got their causes and affects backside-about-face. Instead of the Pi causing financial malaise, is it not possible that the failure of RS to (quite literally) deliver just a symptom of them fundamentally not being able to organise a booze-up in a brewery?

Share confidence has waned because it appears that they don't know what they're doing. I think the only connection with the Pi is that it has given them (and their wobbles) a little more visibility.

Jonathan, I fully agree. Companies that are on the verge of going bust start to operate much worse. They don't have money for essential things, and they cut corners where no corners can be cut.

In this case, they forgot the buy enough BCM2835 chips to produce the raspberry pi's that they could've sold.

It's hard to tell exactly how many RPi's RS has shipped so far.

They claim to have shipped orders with order numbers up to about 100,000.

But a number of people with order numbers between 80,000 and 100,000 claim

not to have received them, or are just now receiving them.  We also don't know how

many people with order numbers under 100,000 have cancelled, or how many

orders such as from Allied may use a different numbering system.  But I think

100,000 is in the general ballpark of how many they have shipped so far,

compared with the 250,000 on the waiting list in mid April.

We also don't know if the order numbers are specific to RPi or are mixed in with their normal business.  If we assume there's a mix then the numbers of RPi could be significantly less.

Either way, it's clear there's something amiss at RS. I tend to agree that RPi is unlikely to be the cause. Since they're taking money up front in what looks like it'll be 5-6 months before shipment (in my case) then you have to wonder if RS have much if any of their own cash tied up in RPi anyway.

At the time I ordered from RS I did think it was a bit cheeky to take the cash up front, but in hindsight taking the cash early for somthing they're plainly incapable of delivering within any sensible timescale is a classic sign of deeper problems.

I'm not terribly worried about loosing 30 quid to them, it's barely the cost of a night out after all, and the high profile of the Pi would seem to make that unlikely.  The profile of the Pi likely means the spotlight does get turned on any problems they're having though, and ultimately that might not be helpful.

In this case, they forgot the buy enough BCM2835 chips to produce the raspberry pi's that they could've sold.

but they were quite happy to take the money off their customers up front.  Makes you wonder what they've been doing with the money these last six months.