Post Pi Launch Snag List (questions not venting)

[welshblob]

Hi,

I posted this over on the element14 forums last night as I thought it might be useful, at least for me, to ask some questions on what I think needs clarifying post release. It maybe useful to put something similar up on the main page to stop having to answer the same questions over and over again ….. like and FAQ .

Yes I was disappointed and frustrated the release didn't go as smooth as it could have but I expect there has been a lot of hard work behind the scenes and that will be overlooked for the few things that caused problems. Also despite all those complaining I expect most of us will still buy one at the first opportunity!

Anyway on with my list;

Farnell

- I am slightly confused over the pricing that has been applied as I have managed to order two (yes I know but I assume they aren't for the first batch) one was at £26.55 + VAT and the other at £24.55 + VAT (only ordered the 2nd due to the lower price expecting to cancel the first). Which is the correct price and will the incorrect price be adjusted automatically?

- Some people appear to be charged an additional £6.50 for telephone orders. Will that charge continue to be applied in the future and if it is then is it clear that it is not necessary and would not apply if ordering from the website?

- Farnell appear to be including shipping in the base price. Why can't they split out the delivery charge because if, in the future, I want to order multiple Pi's and accessories then I only want to pay for one shipping charge?

-Is there anyway to get to the information that was in pdf attachments to the order confirmation email via the account portal as I can't seem to find them? My account was originally using an old email that I no longer have access to and I don't be able to see this information on the portal.

RS

- In my experience RS detest the public and think they are above us mere peasants. Or at least thats the impression they have always given me and the way they have made me feel in the past. Due to this I have always given my trade to other much more friendly companies such as Farnell. As this isn't a venting thread my question is whether RS have now seen the light and will allow us non-trade customers to buy Pi's from their website and we won't get hassle from them. (my heart sank when I saw RS were a supplier and even the register interest form had a mandatory "Company" field which has now been made optional)

- RS don't appear to have sold any as yet so are we right to assume they have ~5000 to sell in the next few days? It was also stated over on E14 that the UK only have an allocation of 900, is that correct?

- For those that registered an interest were we supposed to get any confirmation from the RS website? Updated : I see some people are getting a confirmation a few days later and that it implies that order will be fairly handled based on the time the interest was registered.

- If they do have ~5000 to sell in the next few days then how do they intend to do this fairly and to stop a meltdown of their website? Updated : This is partly answered above but I'm not convinced how they can avoid a meltdown again.

- How much will RS charge for shipping and/or will we be allowed to pick them up from their trade counters?

Paypal - Originally it was stated Paypal would be able to be used for purchase and to the best of my knowledge neither Farnell or RS are able to do this. Will that be the same going forward?

Overseas Friends - I think it would be good to confirm to our overseas friends exactly how much the Pi's will cost including shipping to ensure expectations are set correctly.

Further Manufacturing Batches - To help set expectations it would be good to understand the future ramp up of production and in particular the relation to the estimated delivery dates e.g. I have a delivery date for the end of April ….. so is that batch 2, 3 or 4?

That's all I can think of for now. It would be great if anyone can shed some light on this or add anything to this thread on what you think you would like some clarification on.

Also congratulations to the foundation for managing to release a device which has already gathered so much interest globally.

Cheers

Rob

[Skygod]

I was bored , so I had a good look around many of the Farnell websites and it would appear that the pricing is based on the Base Price of $35 with any Import Duty already added. Here are my findings with exchange rates simply based on Google conversions.

Every site has it's own policy on delivery charge which has to be added as well as local VAT. I've yet to find anywhere more expensive than Thailand as not only do they have the most expensive Pis in the world, the shipping cost is another $25








Base Price



$ USD





Russia



26.73 EUR



35.64





Lithuania



92.54 LTL



35.74





Hong Kong



279 HKD



35.98





Denmark



201.22 DKR



36.09





Germany



27.07 EUR



36.10





Singapore



45 SGD



36.11

(shipping to Thailand $8)





Switzerland



32.69 CHF



36.17





China



235 CNY



37.34





Korea



41850 KRW



37.50





UK



24.55 GBP



39.08





New Zealand



48.26 NZD



40.68





Australia



38 AUD



41.10





Israel






41.49





Malaysia



125 MYR



41.73





Ireland



31.87 EUR



42.50





Phillipines



1820 PHP



42.59





Netherlands



33.02 EUR



44.04





France



33.07 EUR



44.10





Taiwan



1361.25 TWD



46.30





India



2350 INR



47.97





Thailand



1485 THB



49.07

(Shipping $25)






Some sites will let you ship to other countries. The Singapore site allows a Thailand destination, but neither the Malay or Hong Kong sites do. As you have to create an account on each site before you can see if the destination is okay, it became too much like hard work to do more.

If BMs would like to see this table populated more, just post your shipping costs in the local currency, and I'll add columns for shipping local and USD eqquivalent with a final Total Cost of RPi.

I haven't been able to work out how RS make up their charge as yet, but in Thailand, it's base cost + import duty + 'other'. It cannot be delivery as the site states 'free delivery'.

[welshblob]

That's some good work there Skygod. How does the $25 shipping charge compare generally with other couriers in Thailand or is this some anomaly due to how Farnell is set up there?

[teomac]

This is the detailed cost in italy raspi 27,07, shipping 9,00, VAT 7,57, everything in euro.

With the current conversion rate about 57,60 USD and 36,40 GBP

Edit: pre-order at Farnell

[sebastian.tschen]

First of all, really helpful post there, thanks welshblob and Skygod.

It seems like it was naive of me thinking, that i would be able to buy a raspi for 35$ + shipping. I'll always have to include the local VAT. Is that correct? leaving me with a price around 42$ plus shipping.

Also to add to what welshblob said about RS, i got a call from farnell telling me i could not order my raspi, unless i was a company, and that they would cancel my order. That's certainly not what the foundation had in mind, right?

[teomac]

sebastian.tschen said:


Also to add to what welshblob said about RS, i got a call from farnell telling me i could not order my raspi, unless i was a company, and that they would cancel my order. That's certainly not what the foundation had in mind, right?


You are right, when I placed my order Farnell asked me for the company VAT number (here in Italy it identify each company), but I'm a private customer. So I called Farnell and they indeed accept my order.

[welshblob]

Update : Read in another thread that the option to pay with PayPal was changed due to them choosing to license to Farnell and RS. The foundation are looking at ways to allow a Paypal payment later in the year hopefully as they understand a number of people would like that option.

Sebastian : Yes as far as I'm aware the cost of the Pi should be base price in local currency (converted from $) + local VAT + shipping. As for not being a company with Farnell then the UK might be slightly different as Farnell took over a more consumer supplier a few years ago, CPC, and so may not as strict in the UK as other countries. From some of Liz's twitter postings I think both companies should be allowing the general public to purchase. However I get the impression that maybe this message has to get out to their local distributors. Maybe we can get a confirmation of that from the foundation?

teomac : Seems to be about £6 more than the UK which I think is mainly due to the shipping charge.

[welshblob]

teomac said:


So I called Farnell and they indeed accept my order.


Did they add any phone handling charge onto your order as that appears to have happened in the UK (not sure if it is still happening)?

[Skygod]

How does the $25 shipping charge compare generally with other couriers in Thailand or is this some anomaly due to how Farnell is set up there?


There isn't ANYTHING that works the way it does in the West.

Maybe it's that the Thai site knows the issues with delivery in Thailand

Unlike in most western countries, street addresses in Thailand are not in sequential order as you go down the road. They are in the order in which they were built, so house number 6 can be next to number 5 or number 55, and number 7 may be a kilometer away!

[teomac]

welshblob said:


teomac said:


So I called Farnell and they indeed accept my order.


Did they add any phone handling charge onto your order as that appears to have happened in the UK (not sure if it is still happening)?


No, maybe because the call was made to unlock the order process

[liz]

Thanks guys - please keep the (non-venting) questions up. I can use this in meetings with both companies on Monday, and it's very useful to have your input.

[Judicator]

teomac said:


This is the detailed cost in italy raspi 27,07, shipping 9,00, VAT 7,57, everything in euro.

With the current conversion rate about 57,60 USD and 36,40 GBP

Edit: pre-order at Farnell





Same here, that puzzled me initially.

I wonder if there's a cheper shipping rate to Italy, I don't mind getting the thing a couple days later.

[JonB]

liz said:


Thanks guys - please keep the (non-venting) questions up. I can use this in meetings with both companies on Monday, and it's very useful to have your input.


Liz, I think you should tell them both that for the time being they should treat the Pi as a consumer device, and thus treat Pi customers as such. It is clear they will sell bucket loads of them and make a ton of cash, so that ought to give you some leverage. The other thing worth mentioning is that, if they want to be trade only, they should offer big volume discounts in the future so resellers like Maplin can stock them.

Good luck!

JonB

[TheManWhoWas]

OK, I'm one of the "RS 6.10am" crowd. I couldn't even get onto the Farnell site, but I did "register my interest" with RS and got a confirmation page too.

I also went back at 10.30am after I saw the Tweet that this was the wrong page, and so I registered an account with RS (and got an email confirmation of that) thinking it might lead to a new page, but ended up just registering my interest a second time.

But I've not received any further emails from RS (I checked my spam) and so now I don't know where I stand, or whether in fact I've even got in the queue yet.

It seems everyone who went with Farnell has delivery dates etc, but those who went with RS are still in the dark.

[sebastian.tschen]

RS has released a FAQ saying that they will send out confirmation mails until tomorrow night. See http://www.designspark.com/kno.....s-answered

I which you luck. Let me know if 6:10 was too late already.

[TheManWhoWas]

Thanks for that update, last FAQ I saw said 2nd March.

I will post back if I hear anything, though I have resigned myself to the fact that 6.10 was probably the point at which the RS IT guys were having to use fire extinguishers to cool the servers...

[Mattylad]

At 6:30 I went back to sleep as like many others that have not been able to order one of the first - I had work to go to so could not sit around waiting for a website to come back to life.

The Pi killed the internet on Wednesday - simples.

[TheManWhoWas]

Woke up this morning to find I have received an email confirmation from RS sent late last night. Looking on the threads it appears other members of the "6.10 Club" have also received theirs too.

So that's one snag to cross of the list, and hopefully RS's slow motion approach means they'll have their processes sorted out before they start taking orders for real.

[prodata]

TheManWhoWas said:


Looking on the threads it appears other members of the "6.10 Club" have also received theirs too.


Please don't assume that because some have received the email, all have done so. Certainly I haven't. I don't know precisely what time the RS submission was accepted but it would have been somewhere between 0605 and 0615. (And the mailbox any RS email would have been sent to doesn't use any server-side or local spam filtering - I've managed to keep that address relatively clean and so it's not generally necessary.)

[Skygod]

I read that RS captured the timestamps when the Thankyou page appeared after you'd entered your details, so they should have a fairly accurate log.

[prodata]

Skygod said:


I read that RS captured the timestamps when the Thankyou page appeared after you'd entered your details, so they should have a fairly accurate log.


The concern is that though they may claim this, there are indications that the RS logging process was overwhelmed at some times and failed to capture the acknowledgement at all.

[arm2]

Some of the price differentials from one country to another could be local import duties (sales taxes are different). If the Foundation had used the original plan they would still have been payable on top of the $35.00

So price would have been

$35.00 + post, packing & fullfillment + import duty + sales taxes + in many/most countries an Importers handleing fee.

If I import to the UK something by post from outside the EU that has a declared value of more than (£19? I think) I have to pay VAT, sometimes Import duties and an import duty/vat collection handeling fee .

Say value is £20 I get sent by the post office a bill for the VAT@20%= £4 + the Post Offices flat rate handeling fee of £8.50 or £13 (I'm sure in the last year I've been charged both figuers, I didn't have the time at the time query the variation).

By using RS and Farnell the Importers handleing fee shouldn't ever apply, so the total cost could well be lower for many people

It also appears that some prices quoted by forum posters are for importing from another country, buying from your own country RS/Farnell/E14 outlet should always be the cheapest. Unfortunately they don't have sales offices in every country, I gather the Foundation is trying to ensure with RS/Farnell/E14 that everyone is charged as close as $35+ post, packing & fullfillment + import duty + sales taxes as possible.

They have also said they expect to find a route so that people can pay by PayPal later in the year.

Having said that some counties may have misscalculated and things will hopefully be adjusted before shipping(and card debiting)!

[welshblob]

I guess these local price differences shows why it is the right model to license the manufacture of the Pi and let these existing distributors with their years of experience work out the in country logistics and financials. I expect each countries true pricing will become apparent in the next week or so especially when RS start allowing orders. It's also quite good to have some competition between the two distributors which should help keep them in check. So far I'd say that Farnell seem to be making more of an effort so we'll have to see how RS try to match their efforts.

I finally got my RS confirmation last night on the 11.29 mailshot having registered my interest sometime between 6:00 and 6:10 on Weds. It will be very interesting to see how RS sell their first batch and how fair it will be.

Also I've seen some people state about the distributors making money on the Pi. I'd expect that the foundation have some control over pricing of the Pi and how much they receive per unit. I'd then expect the distributors to primarily to make their money from selling accessories and getting the base manufacturing cost per unit down to as low as possible.

Rob

[nick.mccloud]

welshblob said:


I'd then expect the distributors to primarily to make their money from selling accessories


Would you be happy working for free on the off chance of some occasional overtime?

[welshblob]

nmcc said:


welshblob said:


I'd then expect the distributors to primarily to make their money from selling accessories


Would you be happy working for free on the off chance of some occasional overtime?


Hmm selective quoting there I think If you look at the price that RS have quoted then they appear to be adhering to the $35 base price so I guess we'll just have to see what their postage cost will be. Farnell are quite fair too whilst it is 1 per order but I want to see a separate delivery charge when I want to order multiple Pis and cases in the future.

Also to be associated with this initiative is good from a PR perspective and that can't be underestimated e.g. the BBC was at a Farnell distribution centre last week.