Any news on how Batch 8 is coming along? Looking forward to tracking it down to the UK.
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I am also wondering what shipping in February is supposed to mean (shipping from within EU or shipping from TW?) and if they are shipping by ship or air. I will leave the country for at least two months beginning of March and I had hoped to take the laptop with me. No heart broken if it does not work, but still.
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Yeah, some clarity on that would be really appreciated.
If they’re shipping non-express direct from Taiwan it could take an eternity to get to Europe….weeks upon weeks upon weeks usually!
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im not sure they can bulk ship by air because of the batteries, the aviation industry gets very nervous about lion batteries in bulk, somewhat understandably.
They’ve said it will be the same shipping process they used for the early batches to the USA and Canada, which arrived in a matter of days by all accounts.
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The whole shipping process of Batch 4 (US) took two weeks as TsukidaEiko mentioned:
If I play with the “Transit Times” tool on the fedEx website (FedEx | System Down), It takes 5 days from Taiwan to USA as well as germany. It appears the batch will to be transported by air. Is there any information which packing delivery service is commissioned for the EU?
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No, we’ve not had any detail at all, other than that the emails will be the same as the US…
It would really be good to have this detail so that we can all know what roughly to expect when things do start happening, which is why I’m trying to push Framework to provide us with at least some level of expectation. For a supposedly open company, they have got really depressingly corporate in their communication style recently.
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For a small company they have a lot to do right now and making an announcement about the impending announcement of the initiation of the dispatch process seems a bit… superfluous?
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Sure, they have a lot to do. I didn’t say they didn’t! But people are asking specific questions and getting no response. This is quite an important launch for them - they need to be international if they want to really succeed - so you would think they would be keen to show they are confident in it going well. I’m not asking them to promise exactly when it’ll be delivered, just to clarify the process of how the intend to get it delivered. There’s a vast number of variables that each can have a huge impact on the expectation in terms of time from dispatch to delivery, and at the moment we know none of the answers.
How they are distributing their product also has an impact on how we can expect support to work - are we going to have to ship stuff to Taiwan to return it? That’s gonna get difficult. If they aren’t actually building/partnering infrastructure in Europe now, that’s also going to mean it’s going to take a lot longer to get Marketplace up and running here.
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Ordered 8 weeks ago.
DIY Build
Intel i7-1165G7
Have sourced -
Kingston Fury 2x8GB DDR4 3200 CL20 ram 1.2v
WD Black SN850 1TB NVMe SSD
As for Cards -
2 x USB A
2 x USB C
I have never hooked my laptops up to projectors or monitors, plus I have a USB C to HDMI cable anyway.
Just hoping it arrives in a couple of weeks or so. The lack of updates is concerning for such a large outlay.
I’m also waiting for batch 8, but personally I never expected anything before the end of February. Framework said they would notify me of any important information, and I have no reason to doubt that.
So it’ll be another two weeks before I start getting nervous.
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I don’t get this honestly. What is the benefit of this extra information?
From the company’s perspective, it does not seem prudent to raise any unneccesary expectations, as it can lead only to disappointment if something goes wrong.
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Part of their reason for doing the pre-orders as a reservation and then full payment shortly before dispatch is to manage that anxiety.
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Nah, I think they could try a bit harder. Just hints of past Kickstarters when they can’t inform you enough when they are asking for money and soon as they get it…silence.
I know that probably isn’t the case here but I feel you keep the customer fully informed all the way. It’s the way I work. I ordered 17th of December and not heard a single peep or update AFAIK. Just a note to say “Batch X is on schedule folks!” would be fine. Not difficult.
If this was a $20 item I wouldn’t expect much but this is a £1200 item. I’ve waited 8 weeks before asking if everything is okay? I don’t think that’s too much.
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@Moffintops - it’s exactly as @Jason_Dagless puts really. There are a lot of things they could easily tell us that would give confidence that they’re on time, instead they’ve told us nothing.
Like I said, I’m not asking for the date I’ll receive my laptop. I’m asking for some confidence that things are on time and going well. If they’re not, that isn’t necessarily a problem. But it’s worse not to know than to know!
We are now in the month they said the devices would ship. Manufacturing and assembly should be done, and they should be on the way to final distribution. Are they expecting them this week? Next week? Are 75% of the SKUs there but there’s a few holding everything up? This wouldn’t be difficult information to share.
I didn’t even ask for that much information actually…I just wanted to know are individual orders shipping from Taiwan, or locally from Europe (and I’d quite like to know by which actual method, which they did give for US orders). That makes a significant difference in speed of delivery, reliability in the shipping process and variability in the actual delivery date.
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Indeed, the more markets you open to and the more customers you get, the more questions.
As Andy says. All we need is a note saying “Folks, Batch 8 is on schedule!” or Batch 8 will now be shipping in early March due to some delays in the supply!"
That’s all we want to know.
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I agree, and I also don’t understand what’s the point of being too anxious; or, why the world has lost the ability to exercise patience…
I’ve been waiting for this laptop since 16th December 2021, it’s less than two months. I’m well prepared to wait even another month, and I don’t care if the “end of February” deadline will be pushed back to half March, or even end of March (let’s not hope so, though!). If that’s the case, or if there is some major roadblock that prevents shipping batch 8 in time, we will all be notified, via email or even here in the community.
Then, why bother?
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Sounds reasonable, in theory, but I prefer to settle on “no news, good news”: I assume that batch 8 is on schedule, unless the company says otherwise. Eventually, the latpop will arrive or, alternatively, the money will come back. I would love to add “just relax, mate!”, if you allow me.
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Always keep customers in the loop. I know younger folks have much lower expectations but I’m from a time when customer service was very important.
As I said the more customers you get the more this will happen. So better start planning for better customer engagement sooner rather than later.
Seen this all too many times with other start ups. Once thing start ramping up, it all falls apart. Silence, is in most cases an indicator of this. Seen it on Kickstarter way too many times. Once the updates stop…it means trouble.
I do hope this isn’t the case here. Framework is a amazing ideal and I hope it 100% succeeds but things have to change and adapt as things grow.
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Two years ago, I backed a couple of Kickstarter projects. Between COVID, and Chip shortage issues, both slipped way beyond the initial expected delivery date. For one of them, shipments have finally started, but due to supply issues, the shipments are not proceeding rapidly. Most of the comments, since the shipments started are in the line of “Where’s mine?” sometimes with much stronger wording.
The items I backed are also multiple configuration devices. Accessories for camera’s that will support multiple brands and models.
My particular order must support three generations of USB cables, Mini, Mini 3.0, and USB-C. So if they don’t have all of the pieces, my reward is delayed.
They indicated recently that they will be posting weekly updates, at least until the majority of shipments are out.
Communication is always better than letting your customers start saying it’s a bad deal, and I want my money back.
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