Not exactly the first post I was envisaging writing but I believe this is fair feedback/criticism.
I placed order on 3rd March (not for a Pi 3). I expected that there might be some delay (I think the site said 1 day at the time of ordering) but it is now 5 days later I haven’t heard a word since placing my order. No apology for the continued delay. Nothing.
That is not exactly a great experience for any customer let alone a first time customer, which I am.
I understand that order volumes will be high due to the Pi3 launch but it is not as if this was unexpected as previous launches would have provided enough experience as to what is likely to happen.
As a comparison, I also placed orders with another PI supplier on 1st and 3rd March and both were despatched and received within two days.
There is no point me ‘losing my rag’ or cancelling orders as that is rather a knee jerk response but it would be nice to have a bit more feedback from you in future as I don’t think that I am the only customer that would appreciate a bit more communication from you.
I have to agree with this. Other suppliers are tweeting and messaging and letting people know progress, but with Pimoroni, other than occasional twitter replies to individuals, there is no contact at all.
I like what you guys are doing, but when we can get most things off Amazon next day, please give us a reason to support the little guy!
I (we) really do appreciate the frustration here. I’d be happy to look into both your orders if you want to drop me your order numbers.
We are getting through the backlog but when a smallish supplier/Maker company like ours receives a months worth of orders in a day (and heavily increased volumes in the days following) it does affect delivery times. While we do our best to prepare for these kinds of launches the products only arrives with us a couple of days in advance and we still have to manage our normal orders (from over 1,200 different products).
We’re currently pushing through around a thousand orders a day (our normal volume is in the region of 100-200 per day) and will maintain that rate until we clear through. It looks like we’ll be caught up to roughly Thursday of last week by the end of the day today.
Thanks for bearing with us, and if you do want me to look up your specific order drop me a line.
Thank you for your reply. My order ref is #PI58281
I do appreciate the hard work you are making and it is most appreciated.
It is the lack of any information which is aggravating rather than the delay itself. Luckily I do not need the items urgently and was aware there could be a delay when the order was placed.
Thanks for your response. My order number is PI58335.
Can I just say that I really do understand that these launches are overwhelming for you guys, and I’m pleased that, if nothing else, your accountant is going to be very happy this month!
But it’s not a criticism of the fact you are busy, more that it would be great to get more timely and useful information out there. So having information out there such as [quote=“jon, post:3, topic:1989”]
It looks like we’ll be caught up to roughly Thursday of last week by the end of the day today.
[/quote] is really important.
I’m very happy to support the small guy, and I understand you don’t have a highly sophisticated order management system like the huge companies do. But in lieu of that, a little more information would help us to understand delays and appreciate the workload you are under. These forums or twitter are great for that. Just letting us know how far through the backlog you are makes a huge amount of difference.
Thanks for your response, and I hope that Pimoroni can look at providing this info in a more communicative fashion in the future.
I have to agree with you.
I would much rather support the little guy than a money grabbing multi-national.
This is why I have (hopefully) come across as being reasonable and my feedback will hopefully be of use to them in the future.
We’re past the courier pick up cut-off for today but your orders definitely appear to be in the current batch we’re processing (we continue to pick and pack orders after the mailman has been) so should get checked through tomorrow!
Again thanks for the understanding (and patience!). :-)