Bringing the Framework Laptop to more of the world

Framework Team Blog
41

Thanks for the welcome!

Well, it is already shipped in DE, we have the same adapter plug and nobody cares for ro keyboard layout anyway (they’re not common at all, I haven’t seen one in years). Yes, local regulations may apply if framework decides to have a warehouse or physical store in the country, but if they ship from DE they wouldn’t need to meet any more regulations than they already do.

I don’t think damage in shipping stands either, those cases are rare and as long as the product is well packaged it usually doesn’t happen. I’ve had racks, servers, AC units and a lot of other things shipped from all over Europe to me without ever having a damaged product. (I think they also ship in all the US, but do not have warehouses in every state. Frankfurt to Bucharest is 1800km by car (around 1100 miles) or 1400km by plane, that’s way less than shipping distances you see in the US).

The only other option remaining for people like me is to order it to a friend, which in turn they’ll send it through DHL, or use third party parcel-forwarding services which can get to prices 5x to what the shipping would actually cost. Problem is that (from what I’ve read on this forum) only German billing addresses are allowed if ordering from the German store, which unfortunately does not work for me as I need to have my company’s VAT code and billing address on the invoice.

I will just hope that it’ll be available in the next months here also.

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42

I’ve been asking the same questions in addition to why Bulgaria is not even listed in the country selector. :smiley: I don’t get it why Framework decided to treat EU as single countries and not as a whole. There is a reason why EU power plug is called like that.

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Would be great if we can ship to Singapore as Taiwan is rather nearby. :smiley:

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Would be great if we can ship to Singapore as Taiwan is rather nearby. :smiley:

Very unlikely I guess, given that one year later they’re still unable to even SPELL the country name (no, you don’t spell it in Chinese). The products look neat. The rollout looks like a train-wreck, the locales page being a part of that. Missing entries/wrong localization etc in what is a very easily obtainable public dataset: “Countries worldwide”. Oh well ¯_(ツ)_/¯

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Almost an year later. Framework family is vastly expanded. Four new countries are added. And there is still no Bulgaria in the country selector… :person_shrugging:

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@BeerAndMala @Bundyo I am sorry for your situation. I hope everyone in every country equally has the right to request the country using the country selector.

In my impression, according to this LInkedin post, there are at least 2 Framework people below who can do this task by updating RubyOnRails country database table. Perhaps, better to contact them directly. Let me share the names here.

Hello Zach and Jonathan, I assume you are busy developing the marketplace. However, is there a way to do this task easily? For example, can you share the dumped data with only country id and country description columns from the country master table data using GitHub Gist? Then this community can check it. And you can create SQL to update the table data easily.

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I think what we need is simply transparency in the selection process of countries being added. I feel the products that Framework is launching is amazing, but actively gatekeeping their products from the rest of the world without clear reasonings nor transparency in the processes IS starting to irk the community.

Why can they serve some countries in the EU but not all, since the EU was effectively created to solve such issues. And for Asia, its a huge market that has been waiting patiently for Framework to enter the markets there, but just like the tech conglomerates have done, Framework has left the them underserved.

Once again, we, as your community ask that the framework team be as transparent with their processes in getting into the larger portion of the world, as they are with their hardware. Heres a list of things that I personally want to know and I think the community can add on where desired:

  1. How does Framework determine which country to expand into, and what are the current numbers? Why have they not be shared?

  2. What would be the key factors required to overcome when entering into a new country that is holding Framework back from expanding their availability more rapidly?

  3. Why has Framework “banned” Freight forwarding discussions in the forum when currently even with the caveats noted in the pinned post, it is the only available option for community members in other countries to get their hands on Framework’s product? A conducive space for this would be better than forcing community members to find other platforms to discuss this matter.

  4. Would Framework consider working with regional partners/resellers on a temporary contract which will expire once Framework officially enters the said market so that their underserved communities be able to access to Framework’s products in the mean time?

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@Lord_Hexd We’ve already provided the reasoning as to why Framework can’t be in all countries/regions at once. There are legal, regulatory, financial, logistic, and strategic hurdles to overcome for a US company operating internationally without entities that exist in the regions you’ve mentioned. We do not have an entity in the EU nor do we have operations there. We have to apply for the ability to sell and ship our product into every country that we officially enter. As for Asia, we have manufacturing in Taiwan, but we currently do not sell into that region at the moment, with Taiwan being our first Asian country officially launching later this year.

While we understand people are losing patience, the honest truth is, many billion/trillion dollar companies do not exist globally for the exact reasons I’ve laid out above. Even the behemoth Apple doesn’t exist in all countries.

Freight forwarding is an attempt to bypass regulatory requirements and delivers a terrible customer experience as we cannot support logistics or warranty in unsupported countries/regions. We’ve already lost significant product, revenue, and staffing hours dealing with freight forwarders, lost product in the Customs system, and angry customers that forwarded demanding warranty support when we are unable to assist. We will not jeopardize our ability to enter new countries legally, or incur fines by either directly or indirectly facilitating/supporting this activity.

If customers want to discuss freight forwarding, please do it elsewhere, not on our managed platforms as we will continue to shut down conversations and provide warnings/bans for those that refuse to follow our Community Guidelines.

We will continue to expand our global operations in a way that is supported by legal guidelines, regulatory rules, financial means, logistics capabilities and available resourcing.

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49

Thank you for the detailed response.

We’ve already lost significant product, revenue, and staffing hours dealing with freight forwarders, lost product in the Customs system, and angry customers that forwarded demanding warranty support when we are unable to assist. We will not jeopardize our ability to enter new countries legally, or incur fines by either directly or indirectly facilitating/supporting this activity.

I think adding this section to the pinned post might make things clearer. We your community certainly do not want Framework to be jeopardizing their ability to enter new countries legally. This is a much stronger statement than simply losing warranty/support.

I am sure the community base from Taiwan is rejoicing now, but I am also certain the majority would prefer a more transparent and trackable means of keeping up with the progress of Frameworks expanding availability. You mentioned a slew of items holding Framework back and I feel that Framework can certainly leverage their community to nudge their own legislators towards smoothening the processes.
We aren’t simply your potential customers after all but rather advocates of Frameworks vision!

Finally on my fourth point regarding partners/resellers, while I understand the concerns that may arise, there have been communities that formed entities solely for the purpose of serving regions that were underserved temporarily in-lieu of the official service.

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50

Hello, I’m also adding my disapointment for not having the country in which I live (Bulgaria) in the list.
At this point I think would be easier for me having the laptop shipped to a friend in Germany and while visiting her bringing it back. I don’t understand why it’s not possible to have shipments in the whole EU but most incredibly, why Bulgaria is not even in the list of the countries. It is small but do exist!

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Wow, still? I remember this being complained about more than a year ago - Bulgarian customers being asked to use the thing to register interest so FW can see there’s customers, but… It was impossible. And still is?

FW, come on! I’ve never visited the place but even I know through work that there’s a thriving tech industry and community in Sofia especially and Bulgaria in general that’s ripe for the taking, and some tiny blip in the website for two years is making it impossible for them to even let you know they’re there. :wink:

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When will you do sale on PRC?

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Sadly, the timing isn’t revealed for any country.
The best you can do is just add yourself to the wait-list by setting your country to the PRC. :slight_smile:

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Still waiting to see the option for requesting Bulgaria. Literally the only thing stopping me from preordering

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For random reasons (some reddit shenanigans), I ended up checking, and Bulgaria is now in the country/region selector thing, so they will now get numbers on hopefuls in Bulgaria! Better late than never. :slight_smile:

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You mean 80% of reddit was dark, and you were forced to wander the internet looking for something to do, like millions of other redditors. :rofl: I feel ya

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Actually no, I was on the Fedora reddit and someone was asking for Framework-specific advice, so I ended up clicking a thing and - after a reinstall - ended up at that locale selection screen. So I was like “hey, is Bulgaria there yet?” and… Yup. :smiley:

Fortunately for me, there’s not much of reddit I normally frequent.

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58

Not only was Bulgaria added, so was Nepal, Kazakhstan, Serbia, and Guyana

https://twitter.com/FrameworkPuter/status/1669461150365548547?s=20

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What if you use amazon to ship in EU, like Spain, it still will need licences?

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Greetings. Any plans for distribution or supply to South Africa? There is a strong well developed IT community in SA.

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