Are the quickstart boards going to be available anytime soon...two weeks ago est shipping was mid July...last week est shipping 7-29-11...now not unitl 8-12-11...
did so many people order QuickStart-Boards or do other products have a higher priority?
keep the community uptodate
best regards
Stefan
Guten Tag mein Freund,
We sold many QuickStart Boards very quickly (at least 500-600) and we're now in our second major production run. We released at a low price of $20 as a special treat to our customers. The price increase to $25 wasn't an attempt to capture $5 profit, but more of a necessity since our distributors are picking up the product. Mouser and Digi-Key are two important chip distributors for Parallax Semiconductor and we had to fit them in margin-wise.
The reason we ran out of QuickStarts is because we really need a second Assembleon Pick and Place machine (Karen is out getting prices). When we put a new product on the production line it could take up to a week for our first build, locking out the machine's production of other products. Add to this that the following products are all new: Lithium Ion Charger, Boe-Bot Lithium Ion Charger, PropBOE, WiFi Module, Compass, Gryo and Altimeter. You can see the challenge.
Oh, and we'll have these in stock by the middle of next week.
This will be the busiest August I've ever seen at Parallax. The team is fired up right now and making lots of cool stuff happen. Many thanks to our customers for the support.
I like my QuickStart. Never had anything so simple to experiment with, and learning how to code a new processor. Got it at the old price, but the new price is still good IMO - but to be honest, I'm happy with _anything_ that's below around $36, because that's the price point that avoids all import taxes/VAT and handling charges! (and when VAT hits it then applies to the shipping as well). So above $36 jumps the price to a quite different level for me.
I have to pay minimum 25% VAT on goods and shipping (electronics is fortunately VAT only, clothing, for example, adds another 10.5% duty - added to the shipping as well), plus another $22 in charges just to be allowed to pay the VAT. Or, if the value passes another limit (around $180) I'll have to pay nearly $50 instead of those $22 in charges.
So, if the item costs $37, and shipping is, say, $13, I have to pay not just $37+$13=$50, but $50+($50*0.25)+$22, i.e. $84.50 (and when that VAT is calculated they use a currency convertion rate which is much worse than the actual one, so it becomes even more expensive).
It's worse for almost every other shop because the cheapest USPS price often isn't offered. So that would easily be 37+39+(37+39)*0.25+22, i.e. $117. Instead of (without VAT and charges) just $76. And so on. And when it's instead shipped by UPS and passes that magic limit of $36 I won't know what I'll be paying - they keep the charges secret until you have to pay them, they use a very bad (for me) currency conversion rate when calculating the value I should pay VAT on, plus that they sometimes out of the blue just inflates the stated value of the goods 20-30% before calculating VAT. And then the unknown charge for doing all of this, plus VAT on that one as well. And if you complain (e.g. due to that random value inflation) they will re-calculate for you, but to do that they add another charge twice as high as the original one.. so you lose. FedEx is somewhat similar, except that it's even more difficult to find out what they charge to do all of this. (Another thing is that DigiKey will use free shipping to Norway if you buy goods for more than $100, but UPS will _still_ have you to pay VAT on $30 in shipping..).
So you may appreciate that I _love_ to buy items with a value below the tipping point that triggers all of the mess above.. :-)
dr hydra
Posts: 212
Comments
did so many people order QuickStart-Boards or do other products have a higher priority?
keep the community uptodate
best regards
Stefan
Guten Tag mein Freund,
We sold many QuickStart Boards very quickly (at least 500-600) and we're now in our second major production run. We released at a low price of $20 as a special treat to our customers. The price increase to $25 wasn't an attempt to capture $5 profit, but more of a necessity since our distributors are picking up the product. Mouser and Digi-Key are two important chip distributors for Parallax Semiconductor and we had to fit them in margin-wise.
The reason we ran out of QuickStarts is because we really need a second Assembleon Pick and Place machine (Karen is out getting prices). When we put a new product on the production line it could take up to a week for our first build, locking out the machine's production of other products. Add to this that the following products are all new: Lithium Ion Charger, Boe-Bot Lithium Ion Charger, PropBOE, WiFi Module, Compass, Gryo and Altimeter. You can see the challenge.
Oh, and we'll have these in stock by the middle of next week.
This will be the busiest August I've ever seen at Parallax. The team is fired up right now and making lots of cool stuff happen. Many thanks to our customers for the support.
Ken Gracey
-Tor
What might be the value of all that added VAT++ charges total; for example the minimum? Just to appreciate not having to deal with such charges.
So, if the item costs $37, and shipping is, say, $13, I have to pay not just $37+$13=$50, but $50+($50*0.25)+$22, i.e. $84.50 (and when that VAT is calculated they use a currency convertion rate which is much worse than the actual one, so it becomes even more expensive).
It's worse for almost every other shop because the cheapest USPS price often isn't offered. So that would easily be 37+39+(37+39)*0.25+22, i.e. $117. Instead of (without VAT and charges) just $76. And so on. And when it's instead shipped by UPS and passes that magic limit of $36 I won't know what I'll be paying - they keep the charges secret until you have to pay them, they use a very bad (for me) currency conversion rate when calculating the value I should pay VAT on, plus that they sometimes out of the blue just inflates the stated value of the goods 20-30% before calculating VAT. And then the unknown charge for doing all of this, plus VAT on that one as well. And if you complain (e.g. due to that random value inflation) they will re-calculate for you, but to do that they add another charge twice as high as the original one.. so you lose. FedEx is somewhat similar, except that it's even more difficult to find out what they charge to do all of this. (Another thing is that DigiKey will use free shipping to Norway if you buy goods for more than $100, but UPS will _still_ have you to pay VAT on $30 in shipping..).
So you may appreciate that I _love_ to buy items with a value below the tipping point that triggers all of the mess above.. :-)
-Tor