When are people in the U.S. getting their Pi 4s?

[W. H. Heydt]

I think my first hard drive only had 20MB of storage, and you wouldn't believe what that cost.

You might be surprised. One of the research chemists at a company I worked in that era got permission to add an HDD to his PC. He was given a budget of $1000. He was ecstatic when he found a company that was bringing out a new line of HDDs with discounted introductory prices. He was able to get a 15MB drive for $985.

On a similar note, in the early 1980s, I was involved in some high level negotiations between my (clinical) department at a University hospital and the Bioengineering Department about the joint purchase of a 'large' hard disk for our joint use. The beasty in question was about the size of a washing machine, required an air-conditioned environment, and cost nearly $100,000. Its capacity? 80 MB!

IBM 2314: 29MB per (removable) pack.
IBM 2311: 7.25MB per (removable) pack.

Both used 14" platters. The packs for the 2311 were 6 high (10 tracks per cylinder), and for the 2314, 11 high (20 tracks per cylinder). Those were both from the days when the head actuator was hydraulic, though the 3rd party "plug replacement" drives for the 2314 used a voice coil linear induction motor, where the coil was about 4 inches in diameter. Fun times...

[MisterEd]

Hi there my Canakit regular Raspberry Pi 4 4GB Starter Kit - 32GB Storage has been shipped on the 19th. I live in the states and I should be expecting it in the next 6 - 10 business days. Glad I ordered this when I did!

When did you order yours? I ordered mine on June 24th and have heard nothing yet.

I ordered mine July 15th. Sorry to hear yours hasn't shipped yet.

I sent an email to CanaKit on Sunday. Here is a timeline for what followed:

Code: Select all

7/21/2019 02:11 AM Email to Canakit:  Inquiry about reason for delay
7/22/2019 12:00 PM Canakit online order status: Pending order
7/22/2019 02:26 PM Email from Canakit: Response to inquiry
7/22/2019 04:00 PM Canakit online order status: Processing order
7/22/2019 09:00 PM Canakit online order status: Shipped
7/22/2019 09:25 PM Email from Canakit: Shipment Confirmation
7/23/2019 -------- Expected delivery from Canakit
7/24/2019 -------- Scheduled delivery by FedEx

In their response they said my order was shipped on Friday July 19th and picked up by the shipper on Monday July 22nd. They also said I should get my order by Tuesday July 23rd.

In the shipment confirmation there was a FedEx tracking number. According FedEx I am supposed to receive my shipment before 10:30am on Wednesday July 24th.

I am a little perplexed by this. If they shipped my order last Friday July 19th shouldn't I have received an email from them a lot sooner. I paid for USA - Expedited shipping (2 to 3 business days) but they upped the shipping to USA - Express (1 to 2 business days) for no extra charge.

I have no way to confirm this but I almost get the feeling they somehow overlooked my order and gave me a free shipping upgrade as compensation. Note I placed my order on June 24th the same day the Raspberry Pi 4 was announced.

[HawaiianPi]

I have no way to confirm this but I almost get the feeling they somehow overlooked my order and gave me a free shipping upgrade as compensation. Note I placed my order on June 24th the same day the Raspberry Pi 4 was announced.

Anything's possible. The only thing we can be fairly certain of is that a lot of people people are buying these things, and most of the Raspberry Pi specialty resellers are small companies with a small staff that is not capable of keeping up with a huge order volume.

It's possible your order just took some extra time to get packed and shipped, and there could be a lot of reasons for that (staff workload, product availability, and where you were in the order que are some of the obvious ones).

[MisterEd]

I have no way to confirm this but I almost get the feeling they somehow overlooked my order and gave me a free shipping upgrade as compensation. Note I placed my order on June 24th the same day the Raspberry Pi 4 was announced.

Anything's possible. The only thing we can be fairly certain of is that a lot of people people are buying these things, and most of the Raspberry Pi specialty resellers are small companies with a small staff that is not capable of keeping up with a huge order volume.

It's possible your order just took some extra time to get packed and shipped, and there could be a lot of reasons for that (staff workload, product availability, and where you were in the order que are some of the obvious ones).

All I know for sure is it just left Vancouver an hour ago. I will have it in my hands by 10:30 am tomorrow morning. Then the fun begins

[HawaiianPi]

My July 18 order from Pimoroni in the UK arrived in San Francisco this afternoon. USPS will be taking it from there...

[HankB]

I'm one of the lucky ones in the US that has a Microcenter within striking distance. I missed their first shipment but the 4GB models were listed in stock Friday and I was there Saturday morning when they opened to get one. . I also picked up a 3B+ for $25US. And the power supply and the voice kit for $3US. It was a fun morning.

[p26grinz]

I ordered from Newark on June 24th, RPi4b, wall wart, case, HDMI cable.
Checked this morning and have a combined ship date in late August.

Poor service by someone - I'm not sure who is to blame.
Thanks, morris

[W. H. Heydt]

I ordered from Newark on June 24th, RPi4b, wall wart, case, HDMI cable.
Checked this morning and have a combined ship date in late August.

Poor service by someone - I'm not sure who is to blame.
Thanks, morris

Having an order pending shipping from them, I can make a pretty good guess what the problem is. To wit...one or more of the items is out of stock and they're waiting to get them back in before shipping anything. I'd be inclined to bet it's the case.

My most recent order from them (2 PSUs and one of each Pi4 case) got an order confirmation on 23 June. The notes on the confirmation indicate the cases should/should have ship(ped) on 19 July. No indication of movement yet.

[MisterEd]

I ordered from Newark on June 24th, RPi4b, wall wart, case, HDMI cable.
Checked this morning and have a combined ship date in late August.

Poor service by someone - I'm not sure who is to blame.
Thanks, morris

Having an order pending shipping from them, I can make a pretty good guess what the problem is. To wit...one or more of the items is out of stock and they're waiting to get them back in before shipping anything. I'd be inclined to bet it's the case.

My most recent order from them (2 PSUs and one of each Pi4 case) got an order confirmation on 23 June. The notes on the confirmation indicate the cases should/should have ship(ped) on 19 July. No indication of movement yet.

For a lot of companies shipped only means a shipping label was created. For me the actual shipment does not start until the shipper picks up the package. That might be up to three days after the label was created.

[HawaiianPi]

Poor service by someone - I'm not sure who is to blame.

Newark is to blame. As I said previously, they are just pulling "Expected" ship dates out of their rear ends. They have no clue when Pi4 orders will actually ship. My June 24 order got pushed back repeatedly (July 5, 10, 12, 16, 22 are the dates I can recall at the moment). And I only ordered the Pi4 4GB board (no accessories).

Got tired of waiting while seeing them in stock elsewhere, so I cancelled and ordered from Pimoroni on July 18th, and that order has passed through US customs and is now in the hands of the US postal service on its way to me.

So let's analyze. My original June 24 order from Newark had an original "Expected ship date" of July 5, which is 11 days from date of order. My order from Pimoroni in the UK has already shipped and passed through US customs in only 6 days (and that's ignoring the fact the Newark pushed my "Expected" ship date back FOUR times).

I've ordered from Newark in the past and had good luck, but there is something seriously wrong with the way they are handling Pi4 orders!

[W. H. Heydt]

Poor service by someone - I'm not sure who is to blame.

Newark is to blame. As I said previously, they are just pulling "Expected" ship dates out of their rear ends. They have no clue when Pi4 orders will actually ship. My June 24 order got pushed back repeatedly (July 5, 10, 12, 16, 22 are the dates I can recall at the moment). And I only ordered the Pi4 4GB board (no accessories).

Got tired of waiting while seeing them in stock elsewhere, so I cancelled and ordered from Pimoroni on July 18th, and that order has passed through US customs and is now in the hands of the US postal service on its way to me.

So let's analyze. My original June 24 order from Newark had an original "Expected ship date" of July 5, which is 11 days from date of order. My order from Pimoroni in the UK has already shipped and passed through US customs in only 6 days (and that's ignoring the fact the Newark pushed my "Expected" ship date back FOUR times).

I've ordered from Newark in the past and had good luck, but there is something seriously wrong with the way they are handling Pi4 orders!

I've seen that behavior in the past, so it's not just a Pi4B effect. What I think is happening is that the ordering site is set to expect new shipments after a certain interval (and that can probably be set on an item basis and may have a "default" value as well). If new shipments aren't received at the expected time, the system automatically (or manually) picks a new date.

The intrinsic problem is, I think, that Newark/Element14 and other US located suppliers are at the far end of a pretty long supply line. Thus, a new shipment takes longer from factory to warehouse than it does for the UK-based suppliers. Hence your experience.

I have a Pi4B2 on order from OKdo, which is nominally a US supplier, but actually ships from the UK. While it took them several days--even after I received a "your order has been shipped notice"--for a package to actually start moving, I'm now watching the actual transit time. For instance, tracking showed the package at "ISC NYC" on 23 July, and in a Queens, NY distribution center 28 hours later. (For those unfamiliar with those two cities, Queens is actually *part* of New York City...so it took the package 28 hours to move perhaps as much as 10 miles, and quite possibly a lot less.)

About all one can do is to only order items that are listed as "in stock" (and hope that's accurate) or contact the vendor to ask when they will actually get the item in and not take "well...maybe...by X date" as a valid answer.

[HawaiianPi]

I got my 2GB from PiShop.us (they seem to have that model in stock more often than not, and at this moment they also have the 1GB). I ordered it on 4th of July and it shipped the following day (July 5), which is pretty awesome, considering the holiday. It arrived on the 10th, which was one day later than expected, but that was on USPS (unexplained delay in delivery).

So, 6 days from order to delivery, with a holiday and weekend in the mix. Not too shabby, especially for "standard" shipping.

[scruss]

I'm told that Digikey have a bunch available, just at a price premium:
https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/ ... D/10258781

I may be scooting by a Micro Center in the coming weeks: I'll see what they have. My experience of the Brentwood (MO) MC is that their stock control is, um, interesting.

[HawaiianPi]

Got my 4GB with Fan Shim and official PSU from Pimoroni today. Ordered on July 18 with standard shipping. So, 8 days from order to receipt, which is not bad from the UK to USA.

It was packed in a padded envelope with no additional protection, which is not good. The boxes for the PSU and Fan Shim were fine, and the Pi4 box was only slightly dented, but a 2x20 pin header I had ordered for my Pi0W was in 2 pieces. Not a huge deal since it probably won't be noticeable once it's soldered in place, but still annoying. Flashed a 16GB card with Buster Desktop and all went well.

More testing will have to wait because I've got a doc appt and then Mushu and Poppy are coming to stay with us for a while.

[mwrich4]

Just received a Pi 4, 4GB from Canakit.com. I ordered it via Amazon on Prime Day.

They still show having them in stock as of yesterday.

[rarecoil]

Hello,

I have a few updates for everyone on this thread.

element14: Some people (including myself) noticed the date slipping from July 5, to 8, to 10, to 12, to 16... So, I talked to element14, and they said that they actually are getting a shipment in SEPTEMBER. The system is just automatically shifting the date and will keep moving the date until that shipment arrives.

There are some very strange dealings going on with Newark/Element14. I've had some really weird interactions with them, and I have not had them with CanaKit or OKdo, both of whom have been awesome from the customer service front.

I was really interested in getting 3 Pi 4 4GB computers when they were released to build a PicoCluster given their increased performance. I ordered three from Newark/Element14 on their release day. I was told I would have them shipped from their first batch in late June. This didn't happen, and with absolutely no contact, my order status got pushed to 7/16. Eventually last week I reached out to customer service and was told in a one-line message from Newark customer service that I would receive them in early October.

Their own reviews have been filled with 1-star reviews for the 4GB item with others that have been mad about this ship date. They are all mysteriously deleted from the website.

This has not been my experience with other vendors. CanaKit ships great and on time. I eventually placed an order with OKdo to replace the failed Newark order and they shipped on-time immediately with the stock they stated that they have. I am not sure what is going on at Newark, but I am skeptical that they should be considered a "preferred vendor" if they're lying about stock that they have, or giving larger orders preferential treatment for a hobbyist board.

[ejolson]

Their own reviews have been filled with 1-star reviews for the 4GB item with others that have been mad about this ship date. They are all mysteriously deleted from the website.

While visiting my parents I used the Micro Center website to reserve a Pi 4B (the 2GB model) for pickup in the store. When I arrived it was right there at the counter with my name on it. I also purchased an official power supply and one of the $3 store-branded 16GB micro SD cards. Everything is working great--even the SD card.

[trejan]

Their own reviews have been filled with 1-star reviews for the 4GB item with others that have been mad about this ship date. They are all mysteriously deleted from the website.

If the review isn't actually about the item itself and just complaining about shipping delays then it isn't surprising it got removed.

I am not sure what is going on at Newark, but I am skeptical that they should be considered a "preferred vendor" if they're lying about stock that they have, or giving larger orders preferential treatment for a hobbyist board.

Newark is Farnell who are one of the main manufacturers for RPi boards. Good luck removing preferred vendor status from them.

[pfletch101]

Newark is Farnell who are one of the main manufacturers for RPi boards. Good luck removing preferred vendor status from them.

If they are manufacturing them, you would think that they might have a better idea of when they would have them in stock! I cancelled my order (from June 29) a week or so ago, after I was given a "possibly in September" shipping date, and ordered a 4B-4 from Canakit, which arrived four days later.

[pagenotfound]

Their own reviews have been filled with 1-star reviews for the 4GB item with others that have been mad about this ship date. They are all mysteriously deleted from the website.

If the review isn't actually about the item itself and just complaining about shipping delays then it isn't surprising it got removed.

I am not sure what is going on at Newark, but I am skeptical that they should be considered a "preferred vendor" if they're lying about stock that they have, or giving larger orders preferential treatment for a hobbyist board.

Newark is Farnell who are one of the main manufacturers for RPi boards. Good luck removing preferred vendor status from them.

@RPF, if that's true then maybe it's a mistake to put any partner company in a position where they can get away with everything. Keep manufacturing and distribution separate.

[W. H. Heydt]

@RPF, if that's true then maybe it's a mistake to put any partner company in a position where they can get away with everything. Keep manufacturing and distribution separate.

You may wish to read up on how the Pi got to the point of selling 5 million boards per year. The first 10K were paid for by the folks that started the foundation. One of them--Dr. Upton, I think--went so far as to take out a mortgage on his home to help pay for the initial order. What it comes down to is that the RPF (and, later, the RPT) don't have deep enough pockets to fund enough manufacturing capacity to have anywhere within several orders of magnitude of demand. Listening carefully to the recently posted Q&A blog post, it appears that the pre-release production of the Pi4B boards was about 150K. Think about the amount of capital that sort of order takes when you can't sell them until launch day (and, therefore, get paid back what you spent to do it).

What it comes down to is that it requires a big company with lots of money to make this work. One of the privileges of being in that position is that your own retail arms will be near the front of the queue to get product to sell. Welcome to a market economy.

[trejan]

Farnell and RS have been the main manufacturers/distributors since the beginning. Not even sure if it is even possible to remove their ability to sell direct or act as a distributor without a lengthy contract renegotiation. Even if it was easy to do, you'll be severely annoying your main manufacturing partners which isn't a good idea. Raspberry Pi Trading only makes the Pi 4 1GB, Pi Zero and Pi accessories like the camera.

Are the multiple delays by Newark annoying? Yes but calling for the entire relationship to be drastically changed isn't going to improve matters. All Raspberry Pi Trading can do is pass on your concerns but at the end of the day, it is up to Farnell and RS. We don't have any visibility into their internal processes but the retail branch is going to be separate from the manufacturing branch. Newark might be as annoyed as you are about this if the manufacturing branch doesn't give them enough stock. The people who have to answer order queries definitely will be.

[drgeoff]

I think it would be more accurate to say that RS and Farnell are the ones ordering and stumping up the money to have most (not all) of the RPi models manufactured under licence from RPF or RPT. I don't know what manufacturing facilities those two companies have in-house but it is well known that many RPis come off a production line in South Wales run by Sony, some are made in China and some in S. America. (Though the latter are for local sales for import tax reasons.)

[W. H. Heydt]

I think it would be more accurate to say that RS and Farnell are the ones ordering and stumping up the money to have most (not all) of the RPi models manufactured under licence from RPF or RPT. I don't know what manufacturing facilities those two companies have in-house but it is well known that many RPis come off a production line in South Wales run by Sony, some are made in China and some in S. America. (Though the latter are for local sales for import tax reasons.)

There is (or was) also a local market manufacturing plant run by Sony in Japan.

[pagenotfound]

All of that was probably true in the beginning. Nowadays the RPF should have millions in the bank, can set up production in Japan and Brazil, and have some reputation in the industry as well as among banks. Shouldn't be too difficult to get a better deal.

Also, frankly, producing only 150000 in advance (with most of them 2GB models)...

I guess the underlying issue is that RPF/RPT don't have a clever hard nosed manager near the top who can take care of these matters. From my own experience these people can do seemingly impossible things but it's also dangerous to let them into your company. So I don't really know what advice to give to Eben&Co if they can't do it themselves.