Pi-Scan wrote:I agree, they could have known when we ordered that they did not have enough chips. You know what you have in stock right?
I'm dubious that RS *ever* had Pis "in stock". From the way things have gone, I think RS was shipping them out as fast as they got them in.
Also, if they don't have the chips by now, they'll probably won't make the 5 week delay. (+3 weeks?)
Given that they'd've been looking at a looming chip shortage sometime last month--before they sent out the e-mails and made the announcement here--figure at least two or three weeks in front of the times you're looking at, so 3 weeks from now isn't out of the question.
Also, why did they accept bulk orders since they allready knew they would not have enough chips to make the single orders complete?
Who knows? Perhaps their projections in early July (when bulk orders were opened up) they thought they had enough supplies lined up. They may have made market projections that looked like the initial rush was over and there would be enough Pis to meet larger orders....and once having accepted bulk orders they discovered that they'd seriously underestimated the true demand. Companies do make honest mistakes...every corporate foob can't be attributed some conspiracy theory or other.
(and why did some bulk orders allready get sent out?)
Aside from the--now admitted--errors that missed a couple of blocks of orders (maybe that's why the underestimated demand...), they appear to be handling--or, at least, trying to handle--orders in the sequence in which they are received.
I have to say that it worked for me. after the initial "once only" period, I placed an order through RS' US subsidiary, Allied, for 2 Pis and received them (Rev. 1, Vers. 0002) in due course before the original estimated ship date. (The same has occurred with my most orders to Newark, Farnell's US subsidiary. They ship before the order estimated date...won't know what board version I get for a couple of days yet, but because of one reported receipt with a similar shipping date, I'm expecting them to be ECN 0003 boards.)
Honesty will keep you your customers RS!
I haven't found RS to be less than honest. Confused. Uncommunicative. Not very successful at forecasting demand (for *cases* as well as for Pis...still waiting on a case order from July...which should be unaffected by the SoC shortage), but no honesty issues.
Now for what I do wonder about, with regard to both RS and Farnell... Some time back a knowledgeable poster described the general cycle of chip foundries. The point was made that Spring and early Summer are a *relatively* slack period for them. Starting with late Summer and into the Fall, the foundries are busy making chips for the Christmas selling season manufacturing ramp up and that this would like impact the ability to order more BCM2835 chips unless scheduled well in advance. So it becomes a question...have RS and/or Farnell planned well enough ahead to avoid another chip shortage manufacturing bottleneck for the roughly December to March demand? Especially in light of the forthcoming Model "A"?
or 
dont like when someone like RS makes me an idiot and I paid them instantly and they regularly charge my credit card. I decided to wait for next 4 weeks that I have left to dispatch, becuase I cant afford to pay two RPi at same time. Cant wait for start of next month just to see what will be then.
