I can order laptops from the UK (for example, PC Specialist) to almost anywhere in the EU. The UK isn’t even in the EU anymore. Same with niche Linux laptops from Germany (Tuxedo) and Spain (I forget the name), as well as Starbook and the Purism.
And, of course, let’s not forget that I have always been able to order from System76 in Colorado, United States of FWEEDOM, and even some manufacturers in Australia.
Anyway, my own problem is solved: NL (yay!), Austria and Ireland started taking orders today.
I’d love to see shipping open to Belgium. I know we’re not a big market but I know a lot of people who’d dig the idea of the product and buy it instantly.
It really isn’t as simple as that - every EU member state has different local laws that will need to be complied with, and logistical challenges, if they want to offer proper support to that country.
Sending something to a country is easy. Doing the job properly and actually setting up business in a country, and providing proper support, is much more difficult.
What are those local laws? I don’t know about any which would affect laptops.
On the support side, what kind of a support do you mean? I wonder what they offer in Germany and how so they couldn’t offer that EU wide. Is that a phone line? We are pretty much in the same timezone, so they could cover whole EU. Do they worry about the language? Come on, who would buy a framework laptop without speaking english?
And you don’t need a company in every country to sell within the EU. You need a company in one of the EU members, that’s all.
I guess the issue is more that they still can sell more laptops then they can produce due to the initial hype. But that will die off, many of us, who are excited to get a framework will fed up waiting and will buy something else.
Don’t worry, the people buying the laptop will have patience. There’s no other notebook like it. Interchangeable mainboards, I/O, the ability to just get the bear-bones without price hikes because you’re not paying for the extra parts.
You don’t know what’s going behind the scenes, they could have worked out the laws and regulations right as we speak. It’s just really hard to ship stuff inter-continentally, setting up a business over the pond just to receive and ship orders is even harder.
Laws like packaging heights, weight requirements and local postal service mandates make the process of shipping a laptop (functioning and not damaged nonetheless) really hard when your HQ isn’t even on the same continent. Don’t forget that Framework Computer inc. is still in its startup stages and has yet to acquire a lot of experience, contacts, and/or manpower within its industry.
@Cheese I think you are missing my point. The EU is a free market and since they are already selling to a few members, they are meeting the regulations for all members.
As for the shipping, there are providers serving the whole EU, so that also shouldn’t be an issue.
Absolutely, the EU is a free market. But internally they could be working with a shipping provider that’s only shipping to countries with a certain volume of laptops. The company could also only be shipping to countries where there’s greater demand.
As said in the last comment, there could also be local issues with shipping providers, or authorities.
It’s not just because the EU has regulations in which states that a company ‘could’ ship to every EU member without extra taxation or with certain requirements met by members that should make the process easier that they have to.
It might just not be economical or worth the hassle to ship laptops or products right off the hook. With a little patience, your country will have availability if not for the marketplace yet, for the laptop.
Well, I’ve been waiting for over half a year now. I’m in the market of buying a new laptop and I really need one soon. Since the covid restrictions have been lifted I’ve been traveling around and I work remote and currently own a laptop with 4GB RAM which really limits my work when I’m not at home. I’ve been waiting for that laptop for too long now I am loosing patience (and money).
All they need is to enable to pick the shipping country in the German store and I don’t know where the issue is since I will otherwise buy a random laptop from German Amazon anyway.
I was able to configure a laptop and put in a shipping address, if you’re having issues with ordering you can always contact Framework via their support lines.
All of this infrastructure also makes it easier for us to scale up our product and Marketplace volumes and reach new countries, which we will continue to do over the next year. You can help us prioritize by registering your interest on our country selection page.
It’s now August and since the 3 countries they added in February there haven’t been any updates, despite 2 of those 3 being in the EU. I had to buy a new work laptop recently and would absolutely have gone with a Framework if it at least shipped here, but it didn’t. No other brand has this problem, I don’t get how System76 or Tuxedo can ship me a laptop, but Framework can’t. Are there actually any legal problems where you can ship to some EU countries but not others, or is it just them not wanting to?
I don’t want a localized keyboard. I’m fine with support in English. I get that some people aren’t and those people should indeed wait, but I don’t see why everyone should. And be honest here, do you actually expect to have support in every country? Because that’s a massive endeavour and if it’s necessary to even have the laptop available in that country then it will take multiple years before smaller countries have it.
They won’t open to more EU countries this year: EU Shipping estimate - #114 by Gergely_Molnar
There are no legal issue, I think it is more likely the fact they sell out batches pretty quickly to the current markets they operate in, and they don’t want to open others until they ramp up the manufacturing.
Same with niche Linux laptops from Germany (Tuxedo) and Spain (I forget the name), as well as Starbook and the Purism.
