Still only one rpi zero per purchase?

[RoyK]

Hi

I'm a bit confused, but why on earth is it only possible to purchase a single Raspberry Pi Zero? I need a few of these for a project I'm working with, and without it, I'll need to get some chinese rubbish instead, which obviously works, but isn't nearly as god.

roy

[Heater]

Please have a search for the thousand other questions about this issue that have been posted here in the last year or so.

Bottom line is that the Pi Foundation cannot be providing everyone with endless amounts of cheap goodies for little or no profit.

Despite being a charity it's better they get some revenue to pursue other, educational, goals and develop future Pi.

[fruitoftheloom]

Hi

I'm a bit confused, but why on earth is it only possible to purchase a single Raspberry Pi Zero? I need a few of these for a project I'm working with, and without it, I'll need to get some chinese rubbish instead, which obviously works, but isn't nearly as god.

roy

viewtopic.php?f=63&t=187946

[Imperf3kt]

Its not one per purchase, its one per person.
If you want more you can arrange (via messaging the right person) to buy 500 at a higher per-unit price.

[Heater]

Imperf3kt,

Its not one per purchase, its one per person.

Except, if we order one from five different suppliers we will get five.

Even five separate orders to the same supplier will work.

[mikerr]

You can order multiple RPI Zeroes with presoldered headers from modmypi ( 20x ) and pisupply (no limit ?)
but you pay an extra £4-5 each for that:

Pi Zero: £4.80 ... with headers £9.95
Pi Zero W: £9.60 ... with headers £13.99

[jamesh]

Hi

I'm a bit confused, but why on earth is it only possible to purchase a single Raspberry Pi Zero? I need a few of these for a project I'm working with, and without it, I'll need to get some chinese rubbish instead, which obviously works, but isn't nearly as god.

roy

Please see the linked threads, but in short, you won't be able to buy multiples at the $5 *educational* price.

[Imperf3kt]

Imperf3kt,

Its not one per purchase, its one per person.

Except, if we order one from five different suppliers we will get five.

Even five separate orders to the same supplier will work.

Of course you can do that to get around the limit, but the topic the OP was asking about, was ordering more than one from one supplier and the limit set by the foundation.

[Heater]

I know, that is why I suggested a little search for the billion other threads on this topic.

[RoyK]

Thanks for the links. As for the $5 price, that's not really the reason I want to get these, only that they are better suited to what I want than for instance an Orange Pi. I don't have a problem paying a bit more for good hardware.

[RoyK]

> You can order multiple RPI Zeroes with presoldered headers from modmypi ( 20x ) and pisupply (no limit ?)
but you pay an extra £4-5 each for that:

Seems there's a limit of one on those too

[HawaiianPi]

Seems there's a limit of one on those too

No, ModMyPi only has 1 in stock at the moment. Try Pi Supply.

https://www.pi-supply.com/product/raspb ... ed-header/

https://www.pi-supply.com/product/raspb ... ed-header/

[hippy]

You can order multiple RPI Zeroes with presoldered headers

What is somewhat annoying is not being able to buy multiples without headers even for a higher price unless direct from the Foundation with a minimum quantity of hundreds.

If one wants multiples without headers, for example for a compact cluster, one has to buy from multiple suppliers or buy with headers then unsolder those or cut them off.

[fanoush]

Even five separate orders to the same supplier will work.

it depends on the mercy of supplier. You were quite (maybe even the most) frequent poster in a thread discussing precisely this issue about supplier who didn't allow second order which led to clarifying the one per order/customer/person rule. And the clarification was that it is one per person and the shop is not supposed to sell second Zero to the same person ever.
So I am quite surprised you wrote the sentence above.

[mattmiller]

The PiZero is quite a unique device

RPi have been very reluctant to publicly state that it is the equivalent of an experiment/promo/loss-leader but in reality, that is what it is.

The lack of clarity has not gone down well with some people whereas others think that there is nothing wrong in their approach

From day one, its sale has been ambiguous - all adverts stated clearly that only one was allowed per customer but almost all retailers have allowed people to buy one per order

This led to expectations that eventually we'd be able to buy more than one per order.

When the PiZeroW came out with a bit extra (WiFi/BT) for $5 more - it gave even more hope that the restrictions would soon be lifted and the PiZero range would become mainstream.

But then we got the offer of extra £4 for one with a header which turned it into a small form factor Model A with WiFi built-in

The talk of "you can have 500 if you give us a ring and discuss it" is not for us hobbyists/educators - its for small commercial device manufacturers

One day - we may be able to buy class/coding club sets but its not looking very likely

[jamesh]

The PiZero is quite a unique device

Yup! Sales levels have surprised us.

RPi have been very reluctant to publicly state that it is the equivalent of an experiment/promo/loss-leader but in reality, that is what it is.

The lack of clarity has not gone down well with some people whereas others think that there is nothing wrong in their approach

“You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time”.”
― John Lydgate

From day one, its sale has been ambiguous - all adverts stated clearly that only one was allowed per customer but almost all retailers have allowed people to buy one per order

This led to expectations that eventually we'd be able to buy more than one per order.

When the PiZeroW came out with a bit extra (WiFi/BT) for $5 more - it gave even more hope that the restrictions would soon be lifted and the PiZero range would become mainstream.

But then we got the offer of extra £4 for one with a header which turned it into a small form factor Model A with WiFi built-in

The talk of "you can have 500 if you give us a ring and discuss it" is not for us hobbyists/educators - it's for small commercial device manufacturers

Correct. The majority of complaints about not being able to buy in quantity is from industrial users, for whom it is a cheaper option than almost anything else. And we have sorted out that. It also the most cost effective for us - large scale purchases at a higher price, but still very cheap for the buyer for what they get.

One day - we may be able to buy class/coding club sets but its not looking very likely

Being looked in to - "not likely" is not the correct state of play. As are other ways of making the Zero more generally available - but at a higher cost. Nothing to announce yet.

[W. H. Heydt]

One day - we may be able to buy class/coding club sets but its not looking very likely

Being looked in to - "not likely" is not the correct state of play. As are other ways of making the Zero more generally available - but at a higher cost. Nothing to announce yet.

I would suggest that the optimal way to handle these problems would be to raise to nominal retail price, possibly only by a dollar or two, and then create a channel through which education organizations (schools, code clubs, etc.) could establish their bona fides and order in at least modest quantity at the educational discounted price.

Sure, some people would get nostalgic about the $5 Pi0, but given the number of posts by people wanting to buy in bulk where "bulk" is in the 6 to 10 range and have said they'd be willing to pay more, it ought to go quite a ways to quieting things down. At least until the next tempest in a teapot comes along.

[Heater]

fanoush,

So I am quite surprised you wrote the sentence above.

Don't be surprised.

I think I also pointed out that is impossible, or at least unlikely, for all vendors to collude and track how may Pi Zero I have.

And that I would be surprised if even a single vendor counted how many Pi I have bought from them.

All in all, the one Zero per person is impossible to enforce.

[Heater]

W. H. Heydt,

I would suggest that the optimal way to handle..

"Optimal" for whom? To what end?

Perhaps the situation now is "optimal" for the Pi Foundation and its aims.

[hippy]

There is little which can be done to stop people buying Pi's on behalf of other people but retailers should be able to come close to restricting sales to one per customer. They have records of customer names, addresses and credit card details.

Even if a few people snuck through the safeguards they could have done a much better job than they have at restricting sales to one per customer.

The Foundation imposing a "get caught selling multiples to the same customer and you lose your official reseller status" agreement would have gone a long way to ensuring they stuck to that.

[Heater]

hippy,

The Foundation imposing a "get caught selling multiples to the same customer and you lose your official reseller status" agreement would have gone a long way to ensuring they stuck to that.

How do you propose that the Foundation would police such a thing?

It's a ridiculous notion.

[DougieLawson]

Can we go back to the pink ponies and unicorn threads (where folks ask about what's going to be included in RPi4x, CM4 & RPi5x, Cm5 computers)?

Those speculation threads were tedious in the extreme, but orders of magnitude less tedious than these circular, raking over old ground discussions about something you can't & won't change.

You're allowed one RPiZ per order, get over it.

[fanoush]

And that I would be surprised if even a single vendor counted how many Pi I have bought from them.

I bet you would. Because I certainly was when it happened to me. And my second surprise was when jamesh corrected himself and confirmed that the vendor is actually following the guidelines correctly by cancelling my second Zero related order (done 2 weeks after the first one).

I also pointed out that is impossible, or at least unlikely, for all vendors to collude and track how may Pi Zero I have.

That vendor is the only official one selling Pi0 for CZ and SK and most other vendors worldwide have quite short list of countries they ship to. So what seems impossible to you may be quite real for others.

EDIT:added link

[fanoush]

You're allowed one RPiZ per order, get over it.

That is not correct. You are not. EDIT: but still we can get over it I guess

[Imperf3kt]

The issue, as I see it, is you've got the Raspberry Pi foundation saying you can only buy one per person and at the same time, on the forums here, official representatives are encouraging people to buy more than one.

Make up your minds. Either enforce this silly rule or pull it out. Right now it feels like Pi Towers staff are disfunctional and nobody knows what they're doing, communication between marketing and sales and every other division is disjointed and unprofessional.