Has your March/April order just been pushed back to May? Read this!

The guys over at [link removed] have started a thread for this – good to hear it was a mistake!

i dont think the foundation appreciates that specific site to be linked as they were trying to make money without the foundation’s consent – https://twitter.com/#!/Raspberry_Pi/status/176681407609970689

I’m not affiliated or linked with this site. Are you scared people are looking for an alternative RPi homebase – a better forum and open place to be? People who are having enough with unanswerd questions, delete topics, banned users and – most important – database errors?

No, but we are sick of people coming along and trying to make money off the work we’ve been doing for free, for charity, for the last six years. They tried to sell t-shirts with our logo and trademark to raise money, and as soon as they were asked not to started trying to work out how they could get round it by faking up a logo.

Incidentally – those database errors you keep trying to weaponise on Twitter? They’re the result of this site being extraordinarily popular. Yours would buckle under this sort of strain too. As it happens, now we have some revenue coming in (did I mention the charity bit?) we can afford to upgrade our servers, which is happening this week.

“No, but we are sick of people coming along and trying to make money off the work we’ve been doing for free, for charity, for the last six years”

It’s gonna happen. Asda are selling Apple and Raspberry Pie on their website for £1.

http://tinyurl.com/6o2tjzw

Are going after them or will you leave that to the boys from Cupertino? ;-)

Liz, what is the generic name for a RaspberryPi-compatible computer? If you’re serious about protecting your trademark, then you should be using RaspberryPi as an adjective in every case. You didn’t design a “RaspberryPi”, you designed a “RaspberryPi brand credit-card computer”.

@RMW5 – are you ordinarily a pedant or is it just that you have anonymity on the Web?

@Max3 – this is RPi’s site… their rules.

@The RPi Team – top banana folks, ignore the haters, they have obviously never had to appreciate the time it takes to develop something outstanding. Shame really, the instantaneousness of internet commercialism seems to have bred a generation of impatient morons.

Hmmm. Since the only place you will get official answers to questions is here, other forums might not be the best place for questions requiring that sort of answer. I would like to add that only people who have been rude, offensive, or threads that are inappropriate have been banned and deleted respectively. We don’t delete threads without good reason.

Database errors should be fixed by the end of the week btw, with a new server and forum software.

That’s WONDERFUL news! (hardware updates)

I’m suprised it’s getting done so quickly, I still cant buy SAS disks anywhere.

I hope you find this link helpful: a poll: ” Were you (RaspberryPi Developer) able to buy a unit?” (an effort to help track specific problems, especially since this site will be off for some time)
http://raspisoft.org/showthread.php?tid=1
— If you wish, I can take the site down after this poll is run for a few days.–

For what it’s worth. I’m in the US and registered my interest on 1 March with Newark. Got to order yesterday and have an expected ship date of 13 June. $35.00 base price plus US$7.15 shipping and our sales tax of US$3.48 for a total of US$45.63. Looks like I’ll have a bit of time to download my software and get things in order :)

So, if i’ve had three delivery dates, March, April and then May, is it the first I go with ?

I’m afraid I don’t know anything about earlier rescheduling – you may want to get in touch with them to clarify.

Same thing with me.. And I placed my pre order at 7.12AM so it shouldn’t be so late..

What I THINK is happening, is that they have batches coming in in march, april, may and june. When the March batch ran out, they changed their database to say “expected delivery in april”. However some backend software detects this and sends out EMails saying the expected delivery has been pushed back, while in fact, you’re still linked to getting your RPi from the march batch.

Their database is set up to handle “backorders”. But they’ve apparently never had a “pipeline” of orders that exhaust stocks that haven’t even arrived yet.

I am almost happy that I have heard nothing from Element 14 since I got an email confirmation at 6:14 GMT on launch day. Everyday is a possible delivery day here. How can you be upset when you are promised nothing? Thank you Aussie Element 14 for keeping us in the dark. Sometimes it is better not to know.

Nice to know I’m not the only one who hasn’t got any emails since order confirmation. I ordered from AU element 14 aswell.

Yeah i too “Expressed Interest” from AU Element 14, also from RS and also proxied my way into the UK and placed the same “Expression of Interest”, at about 6:30am UK time and i still havent received any email from any of them. That makes me a sad panda :(

Good to know this get short out

And when we gonna see a announcement about the costs and the sell to private costumers. And all the detailed information. Like was said in the end of the last week

We’re still waiting on it – I know both companies have nearly finished putting their charts together, but it’s actually a *really* big job (I’m not sure if they’re doing taxes state-by-state in the US; it certainly seems to be the US that’s slowing things down. When I spoke to Farnell yesterday everywhere else in the world had the data in but they were still waiting on the Americas, and given the timing I’m assuming RS have had a similar problem.)

Patience is a virtue. People are busy.

I WANT PATIENCE AND I WANT IT NOW!

I was able to load the website, but I can’t find the link to order patience. Should I just fill out the form to express interest in patience and then wait? But I can’t wait!

Thanks for the update, and for your continuing efforts.
Lots of people are complaining, but let me just say that some (most) of us:
1) really appreciate what you’re doing
2) think you’re doing it the right way (i.e. not accepting preorders,…)
Must be discouraging to have people complaining anyway, but keep up the good work!

they did accept pre orders at farnell…

I meant: pre-ordering before any actual RPis were produced.
The foundation could have taken our money then, but they didn’t until they had a viable product, actually on its way from the factory.

Hmm both RS and Farell still have that you can only send a request for a RaspPi – looked everywhere for that special “Order” button. =(

So maybe my March12th estimated delivery might be right after all? *fingers crossed*

Thanks for the update, Liz. It’s much appreciated.

Really disappointed here. We were told there were 10K units coming. At present day, it seems (because no-one takes care to confirm) that RS never sold a single unit so there are 5K units missing.
We were told that licensing production would have led to better production rates. Today we know that we’ll have 1 (one) unit in three months. Ah, and the price will be fuzzy … Do you remember the 35$ computer?

Here you go – some facts you seem to have handily ignored in your post. 10k have been made, and 5k at each distributor soon for immediate dispatch. They were all sold in a few minutes. Production is ramping up, it’s takes time to do that. It’s been less than one week since the launch. You need to curb your impatience and realise that these sorts of things don’t happen overnight. As to the one unit in three months – what on earth are you talking about?

Price is still $35 (before shipping and tax). That has always been the case. The price is NOT fuzzy.

Care to update your facts from the above?

Now I’m confused. I thought RS hadn’t sold any and were going to run through their EOI lists at some point in the future.

Can you confirm that you mean what you say and that RS have sold (as opposed to having just received more than 5000 EOIs?) all 5000 units?

You are being rather obtuse here. Farnell are getting 5,000 of the first batch. RS are getting 5,000 of the first batch. Whether the Pis are in China, on the high seas or in a shed at Tilbury docks and whether they have been sold / are being sold or put on a waiting list is by the by.

The extra step to registering interest does not indicate how much they’ve sold. It just queues up the ordering process.

For both distributors the math is as follows:

Qty shipped = 0. Qty received < 5000 < Orders < Registrations of Interest

Raspberry Pi: @PiMinister @INQ Some people will get theirs next week, some a few weeks after, and lots more in April. Both distribs building up volume.

Interview with Eben Upton here:
http://t.co/dB1zXUeI

Sorry but I can only confirm what I said.
No one, even you, has confirmed that RS sold 1 single item. I was one of the people reloading the pages during launch, read every single page, tweet and post, and RS only told “We are expecting to receive our first deliveries very shortly” as you can read on their site (http://uk.rs-online.com/web/generalDisplay.html?id=raspberrypi).
One between you or RS is telling lies. This is a fact.
I ordered through Farnell. I received the info that my 4 (four) ordered items will be reduced to 1 (and this is ok, not a problem). The estimated date is at the end of June (confirmed by mail 5 minutes ago). This leads to 1 (one) unit in three months. This is a fact.
Price for the unit was about 30 euros when i placed the order, plus shipping and taxes. Now the price will be communicated later, besides having stored my credid card number now. This is a fact.
I feel very strange about having the first batch completed in some weeks, and the big production ones in several months. Can you post a fact about this?
So please, if you care, update the facts for what they really are.

I nearly deleted this comment – please don’t accuse people of lying. Manufacture takes time. Freighting stuff around the world takes time. We’re sorry you didn’t get one from the very first batch, but nor did many other people compared to the number of people who are interested. The number of people ordering is such that units are having to be built to order – it happens that you were late enough in the queue that you’ve been unlucky and yours is coming in June, it seems. Other people have delivery dates as early as next week.

“No one, even you, has confirmed that RS SHIPPED 1 single item.”

There. Fixed. Shipping begins next week with the first lot shipped from the 10K.

Sorry Liz, but **I** was accused of saying things that are not true, so I reported FACTS: RS says it is waiting for the delivery. If you know they are telling false informations and SOLD their 5K units, please tell it here clearly and make they amend their site.
Also I was on the preorder queue of Farnell the minute they put it online, so I can assure you that I was not late.
In any case I think you (Rasp foundation) were ages ahead of the two big ones, since production times were an order of magnitude better.
Anyway, I’m looking for JamesH explanations, he HAS the facts…

I know it is hard to read through a red mist, but please look at the explanations which have been offered to you already in this thread. I also have the facts – amazingly, so do several others who aren’t even part of the foundation, but who are able to use a search engine.

joao, slow down and explain what you mean by sold?

Order complete? Shipment date provided? Credit card charged? Product in the warehosue? Shipped?

Only Farnell can tell you what they means by sold. Liz and James have told you shipment begins next week. Eben told INQ that the foundation has tested the first lot (part of the 10K) and the distributors will be able to send some out next week.

@Vanden
I mean “completed the process for which one sits down ad waits for the item to arrive in their office”.
We were told (just read this forum) that RS sold-out its 5K units, now we have the confirmation that they never started selling units. I think that even Liz can see the difference.
BTW it seems clear that real production will start in the next months, so 3 months of wait is less that the wait every time Raspi was announced “at the end of month”.
Just a final note on price: here in Italy we are used to objects that cost K euros and 2*K euro shipping&handling, so that the margin on each unit grows up. For me it is not a problem, I just would have liked if YOU introited the extra margin instead of a repackage-that-box distributor.

“completed the process for which one sits down ad waits for the item to arrive in their office”.

joao, search google or twitter. you’ll see many people talking about receiving ship date notices and corrections to same. They all completed the process after which one waits. Which is your definition of sold.

Not sure what Farnell is doing in Italy. This is what they say there are doing.

Q. I registered my interest – now what?
A. If you’ve already registered your interest, we will be sending an email update shortly with the order process. Our goal is to make the process as fair as possible. So we are opening the ordering window in batches based on when you registered your interest. At this time we will continue to limit orders to 1 per person, to ensure the products get into the right hands. Once you place your order, product will be shipped in the order that purchases are received.

Date confirmed from Farnell to the end of June, no errors here. And, as you can read, I was talking about RS. You should read what you’re commenting.

Can I attempt to clear this up! RS asked you to Register an interest and they have now sent an email out saying you will be invited to order once they have the units in the order they received the interest forms
So there 5k or however many they will have will go to whoever filled the form in first consequently I am sure they are all sold 1000x over.

Joao, Confused your Farnell order with your RS question.

Both distributors are expecting some of their 5K to be available for shipment next week. Those units are with the Foundation. Both distributors will sell in order of registration. Anyone registering interest today is not going to get anything from either 5K.

Farnell FAQ says they are inviting folks to complete purchase. RS FAQ says they are waiting for the first units before inviting to complete purchase. Pros and cons to both approaches.

Joao,

There are differences even with the companies. In Canada we can pre-order from both the Farnell and RS subsidiaries, so RS is “selling” in some countries. But EOI still determines ship order.

So it depends on location as per the wiki compilation:

http://elinux.org/RPi_Buying_Guide#Premier_Farnell_Worldwide

RS still advertise a base price of £21.60.
http://uk.rs-online.com/web/generalDisplay.html?id=raspberrypi

Farnell order code 2081185 (now on a redirect) is or was £24.55. That is what appears on my bill. Obviously 20% VAT on top of that makes the price difference even greater.

$35 USD at today’s rate is £22.265. So were Farnell profiteering from the outset or what? Are Farnell going to revise their price?

May I be forgiven for still being confused?

They’re both putting together charts to break down prices for us (and, more importantly, for you). I’ve just come off the phone to Farnell on another matter, and mentioned the charts – they were hoping to get them to us yesterday, but collating the info for the Americas is taking some time. I believe America is what’s causing RS to be taking some time over theirs too! You’ll be able to see an absolutely transparent breakdown of what you’re paying for, anyway – it just may be a day or so before I can push that information out.

US and Canada have different tax rates at state/provincial level.

Thanks Liz, what a palaver! If only this thing had crept in quietly. As if…

I guess the two of them want to get broadly in line on prices or there will be a big swing from one to the other.

It will all settle down, I am sure. The level of frustration shown by everyone is a measure of how much people are behind your project and eager to explore.

There is something in the British psyche that hates success and creates a huge critical backlash. In the US they probably go “oh my that’s so awesome”.

My ship date just keeps getting better from Newark in the US, currently at March 30. Oh my, that’s so awesome!

Same here re: the shipping date from Newark in US just getting better. I started with May 10, was moved up to April 3 and now is currently at March 30. Sweet.

What a bunch of “Gimmie now” and FUD.

The people at the Rasberry Pi Foundation literally risked every thing to get it things to this point. And they are STILL working long hours to get it done.

So here’s the breaks.
1) They are selling WHAT they said they would.
2) They are selling it at the PRICE the said they would.
3) They are working as fast as they can.
4) They DO NOT have a magic “gimmie Pi now” wand.

Stop berating people at the foundation because you can have it now. Stop whining like 3 year olds, and wait your turn like every one else.

Noone is “selling anything! There is still no order now button like on any normal web shop. Just to express my interest doesn’t help me but at all. Radio silence between me and the “professional” distributors doesn’t help, either.

“Noone is “selling anything!”
Incorrect, they are simply “sold old”. There is a difference.

“There is still no order now button like on any normal web shop. Just to express my interest doesn’t help me but at all.”
You mean they aren’t telling you they have item in stock that they are sold out of? Wow horrible…
“expressing your interest.” will give you spot in the queue for when they have more. If you don’t want to “wait in line” you’re out of luck.

“Radio silence between me and the “professional” distributors doesn’t help, either.”
Have you tried element14’s forum?
http://www.element14.com/community/groups/raspberry-pi
You can talk with them there…

There are 10k pi’s there more then 100k people trying to get them. Most us have to wait. Screaming and ranting at the people WHO ARE TRYING TO HELP YOU. Will not speed things up.

I ordered on at.farnell.com on Feb 29 and haven’t had them show me a single ship date so far…

It seems like in some regions Farnell/Element14’s system is giving out lots of dates and driving people nuts with the changeability. As long as the more restrained branches haven’t forgotten their customers I am happy to wait until they have their facts straight. I want to be kept informed but meaningless data is worthless.

Me too ;)
http://www.pic-upload.de/view-13241009/raspi.jpg.html

I was annoyed when the quoted ship date when I ordered (April 3) was pushed back a month and a half without notice. I only found out when I checked my order status on Newark’s site, to see if the final price had been tabulated yet. Then I remembered that I’m getting a full computer for less than $50 and helping to support a great cause, and I stopped complaining.

+1

Except that I am still waiting for RS to contact me, letting me know how to order in the first place.

Both RS and Farnell will allocate in order of registration. But if you compare their FAQs you’ll see that Farnell invites you to order now to keep your spot and RS is keeping your spot without asking you to order until they get some pi. Different strokes.

LoL… seems not good karma with RPi , first all the mess with the first orders, then mess with RS and Farnell, then this kind of message from Farnell, ok.. I am trying to think what would be next… faulty RPi’s and we have to return them back ?

Everyone who expects all 10K to ship yesterday should keep that in mind. The reason the first 10K spread out from next week into April is that the first few thousand were shipped to be checked. See the Inq. interview with Eben.

I ordered with Farnell on the day (got up at 06:00 and everything), but after having my delivery date changed from March, to mid April to the end of April rang and cancelled.

Added to that they were charging £5.99 shipping things got a bit silly, a $35 machine turned into a $58 machine once tax etc was added.

Great product, many congratualtions. I really think this has the chance to change computing as we know it.

However. The lauch was a shambles.

Yeah, it sure sucks… Wait, what?

Hang on, you actually were able to order? And you canceled it? Over the shipping date being moved a month? The shipping date of a computer that some people have been waiting about a year for?
A computer that costs a fraction of what’d you’d otherwise have to pay (even after a nasty Tax+Shipping surprise)?

Yeah, that makes complete sense…

Cancelled it before finding out that the earlier shipping date stands. Someone else will be happy to get that unit.

I’m not gonna line the pocket of Farnell just to get a unit a few weeks earlier.
People keep going on about charity and a good cause. And this development is. I’m not prepared to be screwed by Farnell who didn’t tell me about the £6 shipping when i ordered on the phone.
Anyway, how can they justify changing the next day shipping price when the product wouldn’t be sent for weeks?

Well, lads… To each his own.
I understand your objection, still, I’d unhappily pay just to get one.

I cut my nose of the spite my face. But i did register early with RS so there is always hope!!!

Just got the email from Farnell and came straight here. Thanks for clearing up the fact it was an error. Hopefully I am still on for the 14th April.

I have dealt with Farnell for over 40 years both professionally as a small business, from a large firm and from a hobbyist point of view they have always been excellent. RS on the other hand have been dreadful. When I was starting a business in the 70s they even returned my check and refused to sell me anything because “i did not have adequately staffed full time premisses”, where as Farnell gave me a credit account just on a Bank Reference. I know times have changed but I do bare a grudge against them yet.

Are there any component supply issues. I used to work for a well known consumer electronics company and we had a lot of trouble with getting components on anything less that 15 weeks delivery. Broadcom were particularly bad for this, I hope it helps having an insider on the team.

Finally I think the number of very vitriolic comments stem from the fact that people feel that the trust they placed in you was somehow betrayed by your actions. When it comes to deciding between cock up and conspiracy, then cock up wins every time.

good to here that was a error, although my order has been pushed back twice, i am hopeing the first one i got was right, but i’m not to worried, i have been waiting almost a year, i can wait a couple more months (and it gives me a little time to sort the stuff to go with my rpi)

weird. actually my original estimated ship date was sometime in the beginning of may. i checked yesterday and then it was the beginning of april. i just checked after reading this and now its may 30th. so im pretty happy about that.

No delivery date should be taken as written in stone. Delays are still possible.

It seems that the RPi staff is spending too much time defending the distributors. Quite frankly, the distributors have handled this whole thing abysmally. They knew what demand was going to be like and didn’t prepare for it. They’ve presented conflicting and confusing information.

Nothing about this is “inevitable” as the RPi foundation appears to think it is. It’s poor planning and poor execution on the part of all 3 parties. The community will accept your apologies, but this constant defense of mismanagement is really starting to get under my skin.

This launch was botched in a number of ways. Both by RPi and (more visibly and more catastrophically) by the distributors you chose. Take the high ground, admit it, and we’ll all get on with life and playing with our hardware when we get it.

“this constant defense of mismanagement is really starting to get under my skin”

never let facts get in the way of a rant. if they don’t apologize for being stupider than you, what next?

First problem with your rant. No, they didn’t know what the demand was going to be. Lot’s of Psychic people have appeared out of the wood work who predicted the server meltdown, who still don’t know what the actual load was. Anyone can say it was badly prepared, no-one has come up with anything better.

If it says W/C 4/06/2012 is this April 6th or June 4th? I’m confused.

Oooh That’s good, my other half was having a bit of a grump this morning when it got pushed back!

Anyway out of curiosity, will there be any difference between the original 10k and the subsequent batches, how will you be able to tell if you have a first, second or 3rd batch, especially with RS still holding their lot back? just wondering if they will have serial numbers or RS/Farnell printed on the future batches?

:D

not sure if this should of gone in the forum btw but the forum is full of scary people who are angry lol!

I think Eben said somewhere that earlier machines have lower MAC addresses or something.

ooh thanks WhoopJohn, I’ll ask my other half what that means when he wakes up, he works nights so I was the one with the alarm set for 5:30am and he has definitely managed to get me all excited with the hype… I’ve been assured the excessive amount of time he will spend ignoring me and the kids when it arrives will be worth it… my excitement may take a nose dive at that point though lol

Hello,

Today I have received a email from Farnell Spain/Portugal requesting me that I must pay by transfer bank my order and that the stimated date to receive it is end of June.

I did my order the 3/03/2012. That I don’t understand is because I must pay now a product that with luck I will receive it four months ago.

My congratulations by the good job to Raspberry Pi organization but Farnell and RS is not doing a good job.

Many companies will ask for prior payment if it is not by credit card. With a credit card the company can just charge it as and when the item is ready for dispatch and people are less likely to cancel orders where they’ve had to provide full payment and delivery details.

when paying cash or near equivalent there is a greater risk of the purchaser ordering a product and then canceling it, or suddenly finding they can’t pay.

Pleased that Farnell have sorted it out, although really, they should be sending out emails to all those who received a miss quoted shipping date to confirm the real shipping date. For one thing, many people will not be going to the Farnell website, or this one either to find out the error.
Keep up the good work, and looking forward to the improved server/forum !!
Texy

Liz, I’m really sorry to bother you with this, but I’ve to ask.

There a few people who placed an order at Farnell on 29/02 but haven’t received an estimated shipping date yet (e.g. see comment from weasel on this post). Their orders (including mine) are just marked as “order received”, nothing more.

A friend of mine ordered on 04/03 and received his shipping date just a day later (mid May).

I tried to contact Farnell twice about this problem (via mail), but up to now I haven’t received any reply from them. A small message like “we’re aware of this problem and we’re working on it” would be really nice to know…

Another main question is what happens if these orders are processed? Are they re-queued to the “order-queue” according to the order number or are they just put at the end of the queue? That really would be bad, because that’s not what I understand as “first come, first served”.

Hope there’s some clarification soon about these circumstances.

I’ve been mostly passively reading the comments to all the threads that the foundation has been posting. Now I feel I have to post something.

Please, dear people of the Raspberry Pi foundation, I hope you are not getting totally sick and tired of all the people that are bothering and even harassing you about the delivery date of “their” Pi. It will happen when it happens, I (and I hope many other people too) am just thrilled that you have been able to accomplish what you have! Who cares whether it takes a few weeks or months longer?

I’m also absolutely thrilled at the enormous amount of interest in the Pi. That means that there will be lots and lots of software ported to it! And it makes it possible to get Farnell and RS into the picture. That will be a major part in its success, being able to order it anywhere in the world, and with large amounts being available.

I hope enough people have been saying it lately, but a big “THANK YOU” from me in any case! You all have been doing a wonderful, wonderful job. I’m amazed at what the foundation has been able to accomplish! I hope you get some of your life back soon, after this extremely time-consuming launch.

Sven

Well said, and Thank You from me.

And from me, well done Liz and the rest of the R-Pi staff. We’re all tremendously pleased with what you’ve accomplished.

Thanks for the update Liz….
I for one am not worried if my Pi rocks up in April 16th or a month later…I’ll have it by summer. So roll on warm nights a cider or two and deciding what robot stuff to code up next with my latest toy :)

Element 14 told me when I ordered it would be April 4th shipment and I’ve seen nothing to change that. Indeed yesterday I was working with one of my companies friendly UNIX geeks on getting my memory card ready in preparation for the delivery.

What a fantastic position you guys find yourselves in though. Having so much business that you can’t get them built fast enough is an incredibly nice problem to have.

Congratulations!

I think people should calm down. It is no use blaiming x or y for not having prepared correctly for this and that situation. It harms the project, and this outcry is not what the Raspi deserves.
I really have big hopes in the Raspberry to change the current it situation, and I do not want this hope to be destroyed by some angry impatient guys.

I think the Raspberry Pi will have much educational use to the social media and phycology classes as the computer classes.
How wonder the interactions are 

I just got a notification from Newark/element14 indicating that mine would ship in June. Any chance that’s an inflated lead time based on the Farnell estimates? *fingers-crossed*

Hi there !

I managed to get through the ordering Process on 29.03.2012 at 07:04 GMT+1 at farnell (Germany) … Till now I did not get any Delivery Date confirmed.
At the Farnell Forum I read that some who got through the ordering Process at 7-8 GMT+1 got a confirmation that they will get it at middle of March.
Today I called Farnell Germany to get the delivery Information of my ordered Raspberry Pi and first they said I need to give them a copy of my Student-Pass and then they said I need to place my order at the “Farnell Export Department” again because I am a private person.

Man, I woke up at 6:00 o’clock the morning of 29.03.2012 . tried to get through the ordering process and was happy that I finally got through really early. I even changed my schedule for this day and now they said I need to order again??!?! Now I will be the last on the line for a Raspberry Pi.

I wrote them an email where I described all this and no answer till now! I made also some screenshots on 29.03.2012 of the Ordering Process. I knew that something would go totally wrong!!

I am really P*** right now!

Liz, Eben, James and the other Guys from the RaspberryPi Foundation. It is not your fault, I am aware of this!

Greetings from Germany
Ronald

Hey Ronald,

have a look at my post a few over yours. Many of us having the same problem, especially here in Germany.

I’m still waiting for some clarification from Farnell and maybe some comment from the foundation as well…

Sounds very simular to my experience! No delivery date! Had to order as a business, privat person link was going no-where.

Best wishes,
Robin

No worries! Just happy I’m getting one ;)

Can use the RaspberryPi as a thin client, specifically without an OS (assuming the fact this device has a functional BIOS)? PXE boot mode is the idea behind the previous question to see if it’s capable of loading a virtual hard drive in a XenDesktop environment (RaspberryPi connecting to a provisioning server).
Regards,

I just hope that the right people (people who can advance the pi with hardware and software expertise) got some from the first batch. I think its probably best that I have to wait a few months.

Sadly the Farnell “answer” has what looks like a marketing get-out clause in it….

Pre-ordered from Farnell on 29th against a published statement of delivery within 30 days, but look at the email confirmation and it has no dates on it. So putting my “anti sales flim flam” filter in place I read the statement as “if you ordered from us and your email guarenteed a specific April date we might honour that but if your confirmation had no date on it then don’t expect to be able to hold us to the delivery timescale you ordered against….”

Maybe I am cynical, but unless I receive a clarification from Farnell I will assume they built in that reference to “as per original communication” deliberately.

The comment about new customers placing pre-orders is odd given the site has not yet reopened for pre-orders, only registration of interest.

I got up at 5:30 on 29/02 was able to get on rs at 6:05 and was only able to post my interest.
Haven’t recieved any mails with the possibility to order…not even with farnell where I registrated on the 1/03..
Looks like it was better to order in Usa then here in Belgium.

Thumbs up for the team though!!!
A lot of people should be ashamed of the wining posted here…
This is a unique project not dictated by multinationals, give the guys some slack!!!

Phew! …and breathe. I was beginning to despair. Thanks for the update. Will they be sending a correction email?

Seriously, thanks for the quick clarification – much appreciated.

I feel very sorry for every one at the Raspberry Pi foundation for the outright abuse they have endured by inconsiderate, self centered, and ignorant people. I always hear about young Americans (under 30 or so) having this undeserved sense of self entitlement and arrogance and I have been embarrassed by it as I am from the USA myself…but it seems that we are not alone.

The rest of the world seems to feel that they are of divine nobility as well. I’m sure it’s only going to get worse once they get their Pi and can’t figure out how to “make it go.”

I don’t have a Pi, but I would like to help volunteer a little of my time if possible. If you (all)(the “users” not Raspberry Pi) really want to get things going you will do the same.

I really hope that the everybody in the forums will be patient with beginners when they start to come along asking questions, too. We’re pretty confident that almost everyone will be; our forums are a very pleasantly civilised place compared to many. We’re grateful to everyone who comes along and lends a hand.

Holy h***! Do you know if this quote from Farnell accurate? 700 per SECOND?
http://www.techspot.com/news/47673-35-raspberry-pi-is-selling-at-a-record-700-per-second.html
That is just mind blowing – and helps explain the delays. Clearly you guys have done something magical, well done!

Yes, we’ve spoken to them and understand that it is accurate; it was only the case for a short period last week, but it’s still pretty amazing. (And it does give you some flavour for what a mammoth task organising all of this is, as well as explaining why there are delays.)

Look, I don’t want to be Captain obvious here, but, It takes little less than a semi-functional brain to figure out the suppliers are lying to you, or the press, or both.

700 orders per second means 42.000 per minute, meaning that within lets say 5 minutes they have 210k orders.

Then they say that the the demand was 20x greater than their supply (which was 5k).

Meaning, there were: 100k orders for the Rpi

IF they WERE ACTUALLY selling 700 per second that means they got 100k orders in 3 minutes max! and then no one ordered.

Seriously, do you think the maths add up?

We’ve seen the stats and it is really, truthfully the case that for a short period last week, there were 700 orders per second. I think the papers left out the “for a short period” bit, though…

I wish I could even be on a wait list. I’m in Canada, and after years of watching and months on the waiting list, it’s upsetting that the “big set your alarms” announcement excluded most of the world. I would gladly pay full shipping from the UK, and even pay for an extra unit to get donated, just to have a stab at an early unit. Now, reading that people who HAVE been able to place orders are being backlogged to Arpil/May leaves me feeling impatient and disappointed.

What if my original date was April 3 *during checkout a few days ago* and *the day after* not *today/yesterday* was pushed to May 24? Be sure to read inside the asterisks…I put them there for a reason.

[…] Posted by salan Just had a notice from Farrnell to say that I will be waiting until May!! Alan Has your March/April order just been pushed back to May? Read this! | Raspberry Pi Reply With […]

This is great and I have not been able to even preorder. Good for Foundation that there’s lots of interest and paying customers sad for me to wait and wait and wait. This was just too good to be true.

I have received an email from Farnell a couple of minutes ago, answering a pre-order made a week ago. No credit card, only bank transfer. And delivery date !!!! the third or forth week of june!!!

I’ll cancel the pre-order and try again this summer. I think, as things are going on, that raspberry pi can be (maybe, not sure) a good Xmas gift. Disappointment.

Are you sure you want to cancel? Might be worth staying in the queue, although we do hope that productions will have ramped sufficiently by the summer that delays are minimal.

[…] http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/764 Share this:Facebook Internet News, Personal, X-Press News […]

I also got this second email with information that shipping date has changed (july), but Farnell also blocked some money on my bank account. I know that it is only a “block” not a real payment, but could somebody check, if has the same situation? Now I have two blocks on my account related to shopping in Farnell.

msg to the italian guy that posted a comment about Farnell: do you actually HAVE an estimate shipping date? Where? Cause on the web area at Farnell I see no shipping date, nor in the confirmarion I got by mail…

FXI Cotton Candy – avaible today 199$ ……2×1.2 ghz , 1gb ram, alot smaller than raspberry pi b model …..dont be …..dont wait till june

You do realise I can see your IP address, don’t you? I’ve left this comment up, but not the other ones you’re leaving under different names (which, for those interested, were much along these lines only ruder), and I’ve blocked you from commenting again because we do not welcome sockpuppetry. We think Cotton Candy is great, and we also want to see it succeed, but it’s not for the same market as the Raspberry Pi.

Is it actually available? If I order one today, when will I get it? If 10k people order them today, when will I get it? Serious questions, not trying to catch anyone out, just interested.

OK, just tried the FXI website – only available for preorder – limited availability from March 2012. Sounds just like the Raspi in that respect! No sign of any delivery estimations on the site.

[…] März bzw. Anfang April genannt bekommen. Nach einem Update des Liefertermins im Shop auf Ende Mai häuften sich die Anfragen nach dem tatsächlichen […]

I wonder how soon there’ll be a thread on this forum (or elsewhere, such as on the unofficial Google+ page) which doesn’t have at least one boring, inutile whining from spotty bedroom boys who think they were somehow entitled to one of the first 10,000 Raspberry Pis created, or who have Really Good Ideas about how the launch should have been handled etc.

We are told that was unavoidable to crash everything and not having a single item dispatched. I can assure you that in this forum there are dozens of people who handle high volume jobs/sites, and does not blame users for being so silly to order.
Take things for what they are: this was a paper launch, after months of “we eill sell at the end of month”.
Do not create expectations, if you’re not able to fulfill.

Stop trolling Joao. If you don’t want a board, or are so unhappy, don’t get one, and don’t post. Things didn’t go great for you. We get it. It didn’t go great for lots of people. We know. It’s time to give it a rest. There are bigger fish to fry.

Along with the other 90,000-odd people, I didn’t get one from the first batch either.
I wasn’t surprised by that – I had a less than 1 in 10 chance of ‘winning’.

I assume that you also complain bitterly that you don’t win anything on the Lottery every week. It was similar odds.

I complain mainly for the paper launch. No board exist, and the “magnetic connector” problem tells us that *at present*, there are no boards to sell.

just got a confirmation mail from my order (03/03).
Expected delivery week 23 (beginning of june) …
the mailpress dev !

I had an e-mail from Farnell yesterday about my order but no actual content in the e-mail. I checked the site and it said the order was processing. I haven’t actually seen any other e-mails but I figure that since they have probably had so many orders then I’ll get an ETA for delivery sooner or later. :-)

In the mean time I’ll continue to be really excited and have a look around for a cheap SD card and mobile charger and play around with the image in qemu.

Rob

I would just like to say that I would like to congratulate the guys at RPi for getting this far with bringing something to market.

I think people seem to be forgetting basic things such as tax, delivery costs and the limited manufacturing quantity that you as a charity are able to manage – they would be waiting an awful lot longer if you didn’t involve distributors.

I’m currently sitting in the list of pre-orders and due delivery at some point in April – do I mind? No, i’m patient because it’s very early on in the release of this device and I think it’s worth the wait

[…] Re: News – Raspberry Pi announcement and likely release tomorrow FAO anyone who's had the date pushed back: http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/764 […]

Hi everyone.

Great job Liz, Eben and everyone at Raspberry Pi.

Thanks too to Mystic Beasts for the website.

I am starting to get concerned. I registered an interest at RS (in UK) at a few minutes past 6 and Farnell a few hours later (as soon as I could access their website). I have heard nothing. I keep returning to both websites to try to place an order, but only get offered the chance to register an interest.

Surely by now they should have worked through the backlog? I would have thought I was neer the top of the RS heap as it was something before 6.10?

Does anyone have any (sensible/constructive) suggestions?

Thanks

Opposite experience, ordered with Newark on launch day and got a May 5 ship date. Just checked and now says April 3. At this rate it will be in the mailbox tomorrow.

I think a lot of the complaints could have been avoided had people been told how sales would be handled. I checked the RS site just after 06:00 on the launch day and found what looked like a pre-order form that hadn’t been updated. So I went to work and checked again in the evening, and it was only some 14 hours after the launch that I found out that the form I’d seen WAS the ordering process. I could have registered my interest within a couple of minutes, had I only been told that was how it was being done. Under the circumstances I can see why people are upset.

Also, what was the point of registering for the mailing list on this site? Has it been used at all? I’d registered both a home and work address, and have received no notification on either one. (And no, no messages have been mistaken for spam.)

You points have been covered extensively elsewhere, but I suggest you ring RS/Farnell to see what happened/status. It’s possible that the server failures have dropped some early registrations I suppose.

As to the email, there was a problem sending out the emails to all subscribers – its was supposed to inform direct you to the website where more information was displayed, but it appears some went missing.

Nice to see these are still pushing through. I ordered one through element14 (Australia), but am yet to hear from them for a delivery date. I assume it will be a while :(

Any update on ETA from RS? All I’ve had from them so far is (belated) acknowledgement of my expression of interest. I still have no idea if this means I am in their first 5k batch (unlikely) and I don’t have any hint of a schedule for orders. If anyone hears something definite from RS an update here would be useful.

Thanks for getting the DB problem fixed.

If this gets past spam free wordpress I’ll be happy (why do all the trolls get through?).

First of all, sorry, i know my level of English is TERRIBLE.
Secondly, I’m fed up with some commentaries here in the post.
The Foundation has done a great (awesome) work, this is the first time they launch a mini-computer without pre-existent infraestructure , and yes, it can be frustrating the fact we have to wait for the Raspberry PI for weeks with eventual delays, but i understand the RP Foundation is not a enterprise looking for profit for theirselves but for charity, and the most important thing is that they are making a PC with awesome price with both carity and learning purposes. I also received the email, in which the delivery estimate date changed to June… but i didn’t care, because i know they have done a great work for free… and maybe for wanting a better world.
So… thank you, in spite the delays ^^.

No they are not but the two companies they work with are and both of them is the ones doing the poor job not the foundation.

I think that is a little unfair. Although RS and Farnell are large commercial companies, they are entering into unknown territories in this joint enterprise with the Foundation. They were taken by surprise at the demand that hit them on launch day, and it has taken them them a while to get back up to speed, but both are supporting the Foundation with the recent Ethernet jack issue, for example, and putting considerable resources into the whole Raspberry Pi project.

Then i apologize but since my experience this far has been low information from one and disappointing customer relations behavior (if your sales staff ask for emailed orders you don’t send the customer back a “you are shit out of luck go to website” email instead of queuing the customer ) and then no information when you follow those instructions from the other i had a low irritation threshold on this subject and unfortunately that post triggered it and now its out there.

I agree with Lynbarn. My experience with Farnell Spain is that they have been very polite, and i’ve been noticed in their e-mails that they have had an enormous and unexpected demand of the RP. Could al known troubles have been avoided? Maybe, but i insist, they had no pre-existent infraestructure and/or time enough to develope it quickly
And i was told i will have to wait until May or June because of the demand. I wish i had to have the RP on my own hands right now, but it is not possible… So i will wait for it patiently ;).

Wheeeee, so much anger, so much hate, so must distrust. I for one am using the time between now and when my Pi comes to refine my case designs for my media centre one, plan where it will be mounted for my in car one and plan what sort of awesomesauce (yes AWESOMESAUCE) robot i can *try* to build. Oh, and where im going to my my home automation one and what im going to make it do, oh and my torrent one, and my ftp server one, and my http server one, wait a minute, thats like what, (1 + 4 carry the X drop the y add the Z divide by google) OH MY GOD I NEED SEVEN RASPBERRY PI’s!!!!!
……hmmmmm, its gonna take me a while to get that many isnt it!!!
Ah well, more planning time :)
Good on You Raspberry Pi Team!!

Oh and the most important one, Making one that runs off solar panels & tiny batteries that i can then get a working durable, easy to use interface on and buy mass amounts of them to pump into under privileged communities in Uganda so that the children there can use a computer :)
Thats my first project!

Ha from pre order …
Order Code Description Qty Ordered Qty to Follow Estimated Delivery
2081185 SBC, RASPBERRY PI, MODEL B 1 1 W/C 16/07/2012
4 months !! ….

Ouch. I guess this sort of lead time (which is pretty much unaffected by the component problem mentioned on the blog) gives some sort of indication on how popular the device is.

i guess with the cock up with the RJ-45 sockets, the new revised delivery dates that we were told was wrong, will probably be right !!

Haven’t even managed to ORDER yet!!!

RS just don’t respond. Stupidly haven’t registered with the other distributor yet as I thought it was ‘one pi per customer’ and registering with both would not work.
Sod it… RS, you are lame and can’t respond to an email… even an automoated response, ironic for a elec comp supplier. Grrr..

Looking forward to purchasing a Rasberry.

I ordered from Farnell on the 29th February; delivery date confirmed on the 1st March as W/C 23/4/2012.
Four days later, updated to 14/5/2012.
Now, on the phone, they are saying July, and do not acknowledge any “error in communication”

So who should I believe?

Rather than errors in communication, they are updates in communication. Now that they are getting to grips with the demand, they are able to fine tune their delivery dates. There are also the issues with the Ethernet plugs, as outlined on the home page. I’m sorry its taking so long to get all these things sorted out, but it is down to the terrific demand for the devices.

thanks for the update

I placed my order with Farnell on 1st March and the original order confirmation from stated w/c 23rd April. That was pushed out to w/c 14th May five days later which disappointed, but then I read this blog and was heartened. Until today (20th March) when Farnell emailed to say “Congratulations – Farnell element14 will deliver your Pi to you around early May”. Is this another mistake or a real slip? I know it’s not Raspberry Pi’s fault and stuff happens, but the communications from Farnell are becoming very confusing. Three delivery estimates in less than three weeks?

I got my confirmation today from Farnell saying July or later…
Seems to be still a problem!

Liz, I ordered the Raspberry PI about 3 weeks ago and have not heard nor receive an email Kindly help.

You need to contact the distributor you used to order it from. If was was RS they’re not shipping and you were only expressing an interest to buy. If you have not heard back from them yet it means they missed your request and you need to re-express your interest. If was Farnell check you account and see what it has to say, but the good news is that while you gave them your payment information, it seems like they will not charge you until they actually ship you the device.

I hate it but i just ordered at Element because it said Ship Date 3-30-12. I placed my order and it said same on checkout 3-30-12. I get an email that says thank you order .. Now an hour later i get an email saying August 12th. Sorry unwilling to wait that long, i may have waited if they had said that on the page, and on checkout. But to change it after i place my order is down right bad business and dirty. I’ll order from another location when they have them in stock.

Out of interest, I initially had a delivery due date of 26-03-2012, then 23-04-2012 & then finally 14-05-2012; all sent out in the space of 7 days from 29th Feb to 6th March. From reading this post I assumed that the 26-03-2012 day would be the correct one, but this date has now passed. Assuming this might be one of the second batch that was affected by the incorrect ethernet ports does that mean it will be later by a wee bit, or should I assume one of the later dates is correct?

I ordered this October 2011, it’s now May 2012
I think they took us for a ride and run & took the money?

Any explanantion?
How come none of this dealer ever notified those who placed an order if this product is legit and delayed?

I think you must be mistaken – it’s physically impossible for you to have ordered from anybody earlier than 29 Feb 2012.

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