A huge thank you to Jenny from element14, who has been answering your questions in the comments section with the patience of a saint. Thanks again, Jenny – we really appreciate it!
It’s nearly one in the morning. I’ve just got home from a Parliamentary Forum on ICT teaching in the UK, where Eben was speaking on the panel; my, but the House of Commons has some nice wine (and some very generous guys topping up the glasses). There’s a giant heap of email still wanting my attention (there’s tomorrow spoken for), but right at the top was this from Jenny at element14, and I had a feeling that you lot wouldn’t thank me for sitting on it until tomorrow morning.
element14 is pleased to confirm that we received our first delivery of Raspberry Pi’s last Friday, April 13th, and that these were all shipped out the same day, or over the weekend, to customers across the globe. Pis from the first shipment went to people in Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Singapore, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK, Ukraine, and the USA….24 countries in total! [Liz, 12.10pm Apr 19: We just heard from element14 Asia Pacific that they also went to Hong Kong, Indonesia, India, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam - which actually makes 30.] We expect to receive our next shipment early in the first week of May. These are being shipped from our manufacturers directly to our global Distribution Centres to get them closer to you quicker, and shorten shipping times to your door.
Shipments will be made strictly in the order that commitments were received within each region. As the volume manufacture now gets underway we will be updating delivery commitments to individual customers just as soon as we can give an accurate confirmation of your delivery date, and you will receive a further confirmation at the time your product actually ships. We appreciate how desperate you are to get your hands on your Pi and we understand how frustrating it is not knowing! We really are working on this as quickly as we can, and would please ask you to wait for your email updates rather than calling our sales teams, who will not be able to update you any faster. As soon as we have the precise information you want, you will be the first to know…we promise!
We now have in excess of 100,000 confirmed orders for the Raspberry Pi globally and can confirm that everyone who ordered before 18th April (i.e. today!) will definitely receive their Raspberry Pi before the end of June 2012, whatever your existing order confirmation says! Those placing new orders from today can expect a July delivery. We will revert to collecting registrations of interest from time to time for new orders whilst we await updated delivery information from our manufacturers. This is to avoid further confusion and ensure that we are able to give new customers accurate delivery information on their orders. We hope this update will help alleviate some of the anxiety of the wait. Our commitment is to keep you updated just as quickly as we have accurate information to share.
We shortly expect to announce the availability of customised cases for your Raspberry Pis, and these can be found on the accessories page of our element14 community along with the other accessories needed to get the most from your Pi; beginners guides; the latest tech news; delivery updates; early user reports and feedback; and other valuable information. http://www.element14.com/community/groups/raspberry-pi. Thank you for your patience and support.
The Raspberry Pi team at element14
Update, 11.55am, Apr 19: Jenny, who sent us the mail below, is AFK for the rest of today and only able to get online using her phone, from which she can’t post comments as she was doing earlier . She did, however, send me the following updates to some of your comments below:
1. Orders have been shipped in order they were taken to the best of our ability by region allowing for thousands of enquiries an hour to multiple contact centres and websites on launch day….please don’t track us by the minute.
2. We did in fact send 2 to italy so another one for the list making 31 countries and have orders for many many more countries – this is just where the first 750 went and not in equal numbers …first come first served and all that!
3. Taiwan can order from element14/elemoung14 (name of our business in china) whenever they want. Register interest and we’ll get back to you.
4. Some people register interest and fill in the form to ask not to receive updates…then complain they’re not getting updates!
5. We are a business and cannot tell them some of the things they are asking! [Liz: I'm sure you guys can work out which of the questions below she means.]
6. We will not tell people exactly where they are in the queue – what we will do howeevr is confirm them a delivery date when we are confident theirs is in production. Our order numbers are not sequential globally and unlike RS we are not shipping them all from the UK, so comparing order numbers really won’t help them.
Finally, could the student complaining about his final year project, the guy ranting about the UK and Austria and the Swiss IT guy in West Africa please email me (Liz) at liz@raspberrypi.org – Jenny has asked me to pass on your email details, but I need your permission first.
