RS and Allied Update #6

Update: I ordered my RPi from Allied on 21 January. They just told me there's a four week lead time for getting an RPi.

- Larry

Another Update: Still no RPi from Allied . I know it hasn't been four weeks (only three). I have all the other parts ready to go, including the SD card.

Someone should seriously think about getting someone like NewEgg (in the USA... elsewhere?) or even Amazon to distribute RPi.

- Larry

Just an update: after terrible customer service I asked for a refund last week. Soon after sending the refund application I got an email from RS telling me to be patient (responding to my previous query) but giving me no ETA. I responded immediately advising I will be waiting on my refund and would the please process that for me and cancel my order - I have had no response of course.

Ordered from Element14 and got an ETA of three weeks. My memory card and power cable have already arrived.

I cancelled my order last week, and then I received an e-mail saying that they'll give me my money back soon. Does someone know how long does it takes them to cancel the order ?

RS has been quite fast for taking money, but it seems they take their time when you want it back.

By the way, I have made an order from Farnell and the Pi has been sent after only two working days.

I can confirm that the last order number that we shipped before we ran out of stock was 1010236667. We have stock coming in early part of next week and so order numbers after this will start to be sequentially shipped out mid next week.

I ordered my Raspberry Pi 2 days ago from RS because i (possibly naively) assumed that as RS are the official suppliers they would have an abundance of stock and deliver them very quickly and efficiently.

My order number nearly 250 above this number. Whats the likelihood of me receiving it anytime soon?

Another disappointed customer here. I've ordered a Pi (and some accesories) to RS three weeks ago, sent them an email last week asking nicely about my order and I haven't received any response (although, looking at Vic's post, I'll wait this week to see if there are changes within my order).

However, if it's not sent this week, I don't want to ask for a refund through their site (we've already seen how that works), but I want to open a dispute through PayPal before the 45 days margin expire. Has anybody here used that?

I ordered my Raspberry Pi 2 days ago from RS
(...)
My order number nearly 250 above this number.

Are you sure? I've ordered it more than three weeks ago and I'm more than 800 above that number...

I ordered my Raspberry Pi 2 days ago from RS
(...)
My order number nearly 250 above this number.

Are you sure? I've ordered it more than three weeks ago and I'm more than 800 above that number...

oh hold on a second...... according to these numbers im nearly 10250 behind this order! Surely that can't be right!

(im in the UK if it makes any difference - where are you based)

I ordered my Raspberry Pi 2 days ago from RS
(...)
My order number nearly 250 above this number.

Are you sure? I've ordered it more than three weeks ago and I'm more than 800 above that number...

oh hold on a second...... according to these numbers im nearly 10250 behind this order! Surely that can't be right!

(im in the UK if it makes any difference - where are you based)

Sure it is right.. !!!
Ordered two and a half weeks ago and my number is 3000 behind !!!
Let's hope Vic@RS is right and they get stock this week and start dispatching our little raspis...

I'm posting this here because there is a difficulty obtaining responses from RS to order inquiries, via e-mail. I have just received an automatic response to the below that implies it might take up to 5 days to deal with it. RS do not have 5 days to deal with it. And the matter is urgent because they take so long in responding to correspondence or in meeting dispatch dates they say they 'expect'. If they are the dates they advise the customer to 'expect', it's reasonable for the customer to 'expect' them as well. As they seem to be responding to posts here, perhaps they will read it & take necessary action.


Dear Sirs
The above order was raised 21 Jan 2013 when you advised dispatch expected within 1 week. I have neither received the product nor been advised of dispatch. The communication below seems to indicate that when the product was ordered, you did not, in fact, have the product available for dispatch within 1 week.

The delivery address : Apartado de Correos 50, Fungirola 29640 02 is a Spanish Post Office mail box facility, the contract for which expires on 15 February 2013. From February 16 the Spanish Post Office will take no further responsibility for items dispatched to that address. Nor then, can I. You are hereby cautioned that consigning goods to arrive at that address later than 15 February 2013 will be at your own risk. Should meeting that requirement not be possible, you should consider order number 1010237356 cancelled & arrange for the refund of the £54,70 if you have already debited my card. I would point out that when the order was originally placed, the dispatch date you advised would have provided ample time for the consignment to transit UK>Spain before the receiving facility expired. If you had advised me differently, I would not have continued with the order. You are still not providing me with a firm dispatch date, let alone any guide when this is likely to occur.
I would be obliged if you would reply to this e-mail to inform me if you have a) dispatched the goods to arrive not later than 15 Feb 2013 or b) that you have refunded the sum of £54,70 should this have been charged to my card. Failure to respond will leave me no option but to commence proceedings for return of the money.
I would point out that I e-mailed you 4 February to inform you that the delivery address would be available for a limited time & that order number 1010237356 had best be considered cancelled. You have not chosen to respond to this e-mail. I consider I have fulfilled all my obligations in this matter. Any procedures necessary to recover goods dispatched to arrive later than 15 February will be your responsibility.

Other than the support email address, is there any other way of finding out what has happened with an order that was dispatched from RS? Seems that most people on this forum are having issues with no response.

I have emailed in several queries since 11 Jan 2013 for a Pi that was allegedly dispatched on 11 Nov 2012, but no responses at all. How else are customer supposed to interact with RS? There are no tracking numbers, no phone numbers, no other way to get information. Both the RS UK and RS ZA offices are required to use the same email address. While friendly, they are also not helpful.

The email auto responder is quite friendly though, and hasn't let me down yet. Perhaps RS should work on a way of putting it in charge of customer service.

Other than the support email address, is there any other way of finding out what has happened with an order that was dispatched from RS? Seems that most people on this forum are having issues with no response.

There are no other ways and that is the most frustrating aspect.

You can tweet at them at https://twitter.com/RSComponents but all you will get is:

Hello! We are looking into it and will let you know as soon as possible. Thank you ^BT

I did follow it up, when they failed to get back to me and got

Hello! We have passed your query to the customer services team who will get back to then shortly. Thank you ^BT

Which at least proves it's a human being not just foboff.sh

Philip

I've finally got my Raspberry Pi.... but not from RS.
I sent an email cancelling my order with RS on the 8th Feb, and ordered from an Australian site (http://www.buyraspberrypi.com.au/) and they were fantastic. Got it here 13th Feb, while still waiting for a response from RS. I only got a response about an hour and a half ago as follows...

We apologise for the delay in replying to your email.
We are unable to cancel your order as it is being processed for despatch.
If you do not want your goods please refuse delivery and once back with us we will raise a credit for you.
Please accept our apologies for all the inconvenience caused.
Kind regards
Raspberry Pi

At least if it is in this stage of despatch, it should leave and I will get a tracking number in less than 24 hours (I'm dreaming, aren't I? )
So I could do as they say, but after all the trouble I would probably be better off keeping the second one.

BTW RS, How about you get your act together and actually get some customer support. It took a week to ignore my first email query, and was only answered on my third email, and my next message was ignored for almost a week but was answered from my second reminder email. At the moment it seems like you only have one person working in the RPi section.

However, if it's not sent this week, I don't want to ask for a refund through their site (we've already seen how that works), but I want to open a dispute through PayPal before the 45 days margin expire. Has anybody here used that?

It would probably be nicer of you to at least give them the chance to surprise you, and refund it. Then when you open a dispute at Paypal you can tell them that you gave them the chance to refund it.
I have had a dispute with an Ebay scammer through Paypal once, and unfortunately because I didn't have enough proof that I did the right thing, they gave my money to the scammer. Even though I had proof from heaps of websites that this guy was a known scammer.
At least in this instance if RS hasn't sent anything, you have a better position. Also remember, if RS doesn't give you a tracking number for your parcel they have no proof that it was actually sent (which was my problem when I returned goods to the scammer) Just as long as the dispute is opened before the 45 days is up.

The BBC seem very keen on Raspberry PI stories. Maybe we should let Watchdog know our experiences:

https://ssl.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mg74/contact

Hello people,

As you may know, I'm from Brazil, and the only place I could order the Raspberry Pi was from RS Electronics, and at least for the first 7 months and yet to receive the Raspberry Pi I've ordered back in july, 18th, 2012.

So I decided to give up, they stole my money and that's that, too bad, but life goes on.

So I started seeking other sites that could sell me a Raspberry Pi and send it, as no other official Raspberry Pi distributor sends it to Brazil, and I've found a site I've bought there before called GoodLuckBuy ( http://www.goodluckbuy.com ) where you can buy it for less than 70 US dollars (I know, it's a hefty price, but at least they don't disappear with after payment) and it's free-shipped worldwide.

So if any of you were struggling to get a Raspberry into your country, you don't have to rely on RS Electronics anymore!

I have to state that I'm in no way affiliated with them, I've just bought a oscilloscope from their site two years ago and it works fine up to date.

Wish I had read all this first. Ordered mine 2 weeks ago with RS, despatch time would be 2 weeks.

So fingers crossed, let you know how it works out

Wish I had read all this first. Ordered mine 2 weeks ago with RS, despatch time would be 2 weeks.

So fingers crossed, let you know how it works out

Don't worry, maybe you get lucky with them!

Just be sure that if you don't received it within 45 days, you should issue a dispute out of a non-received item in Paypal, if you paid by that way.

well, i had ordered RPI 3 month ago, after sending many emails to RS, they offered to send a replacement. I was surprised when i got my PI after 3 days, directly to my room in dormitory (didn't expect that) ) I haven't tested it yet, but I hope it will work well.

My Raspberry Pi (ordered on the 21st Jan) arrived today. A bit of a surprise as I was not expecting it (no dispatch email got to us). So good job I was in.

Frustration gone.

It's a lovely bit of kit that actually lives up to the hype!

So hopefully everyone else will be getting theirs soon.

Philip

I received a response from RS today advising that my order was apparently dispatched on 14Feb13.

You may recall my previous post in which I mentioned that on 25Jan13 they claimed it had been dispatched on 24Jan13 then they later emailed to tell me they were wrong and it had not been dispatched at all.

I certainly hope it really has been dispatched this time. RS you are an appalling company.

I received a response from RS today advising that my order was apparently dispatched on 14Feb13.

Mine was dispatched on the 14th so I would guess that it most likely was.

Philip

My Raspberry Pi (ordered on the 21st Jan) arrived today. A bit of a surprise as I was not expecting it (no dispatch email got to us). So good job I was in.

Frustration gone.

It's a lovely bit of kit that actually lives up to the hype!

So hopefully everyone else will be getting theirs soon.

Philip

What was your order number? Also, what country are you in?
Ordered mine on 25Jan13, order 1010238847...

What was your order number? Also, what country are you in?
Ordered mine on 25Jan13, order 1010238847...

1010237446 and I'm in the UK.

It was sent via Parcelforce on their express 24 hour service. Which is pretty good actually, that's not a cheap service.

Philip

I think RS may be lying to me...

I ordered my Pi from them on January 22 with an estimated 1 week before dispatch. When I mailed them two weeks later they said they ran out of stock and were waiting for the next batch (with no ETA), so I cancelled my order.
They replied to my cancellation by saying they couldn't cancel my order because it had already been dispatched. But appart from that I never received any mail saying that my order had been dispatched...

So unless they received a new batch and sent them to me in the few hours between the e-mail and my cancellation, someone at RS is not telling the truth, and I have no idea if my order has been sent or not :-/
I asked them and I'm waiting for the answer, but if they really sent it, it should arrive before their answer ^^

Wow!

Filled in their online order cancellation form after deciding to abort my RS order after seeing this thread.

Ordered it last week and decided to cancel on Tuesday, ordering from CPC instead.

Just got my PayPal refund now- which by going off the info on here is really fast!

I must say that i have been mighty impressed with CPC. Ordered at 5pm on Tuesday (posted 7pm) and it arrived in the morning post on Wednesday with a few cables etc.

For those that haven't found the form it can be seen here:
http://authenticate.rsdelivers.com/stat ... tions.aspx

i might have been lucky in being dealt with quickly- who knows?