Thats not good Tom. I pm'd Ken recommending futurelec. That was just going off my own positive experience. Maybe LittleBird is the way to go. ????? But futurelec is bound to be selling the items cheaper !
Futurlec would be much worse than we are now. I would have placed half a dozen orders with Futurlec over the years and at least that with RTN and would say RTN has been much prompter and easier to deal with from my perspective. Both suppliers offer a different kind of value, but Futurlec imho are much more exposed to the spiral to the bottom and competition from AliExpress these days. This is only good for the consumer when you take the shortest possible outlook (price).
I was involved with RTN in presenting some propeller stuff to a local university sports science conference once, and this kind of thing is very important from a grass roots point of view. From a commercial/industrial point of view dealing with RTN has been good. I understand hobby use and website presence point of view, maybe not
There's a new breed of online stores coming through that offer low price but hold local stock and support the product, eg TronixLabs. LittleBird too, but they don't seem to stock as great a % of what they advertise on their site, which gets annoying. Both these examples engage on multiple fronts - eg TronixLabs has published book(s), I've attended a LittleBird course on the ioio.
Didn't one of Jaycar or Altronics use to carry basic stamps at one stage? I've thrown out the old catalogs unfortunately
I don't disagree a more "retail" presence could be good. A quick solution might be for Parallax to use RTN for AU/NZ order fulfilment? Or just convince RTN to put together a solid web shop
There is a company https://au.rs-online.com/ they charge no postage at all if you order online. If you want to have them stock Parallax products all that has to be handled by their Office in the UK. THey have severa;l warehouses in Australia.
Free postage yay !!!!!!
Someone Mentioned Wiltronics. Well Ive looked at a couple of random prices, they were Xbee modules, 30% more than parallax sells em and over $11 postage.
Going back a couple of months, I ordered a made-in-USA activity board. I had to wait a couple of weeks for it. However Ron helpfully pointed out a heap of other prop options that he did have in immediate stock, and their pricing. He had several quickstarts for $33, and half a dozen other options whose pricing I would regard as very competitive. Prop chips are $8. So I don't think local stock, price, support, response time is an issue. Its that final (& vital) step of advertising what's on hand and at what price. An online price list would be sufficient.
Comments
I was involved with RTN in presenting some propeller stuff to a local university sports science conference once, and this kind of thing is very important from a grass roots point of view. From a commercial/industrial point of view dealing with RTN has been good. I understand hobby use and website presence point of view, maybe not
There's a new breed of online stores coming through that offer low price but hold local stock and support the product, eg TronixLabs. LittleBird too, but they don't seem to stock as great a % of what they advertise on their site, which gets annoying. Both these examples engage on multiple fronts - eg TronixLabs has published book(s), I've attended a LittleBird course on the ioio.
Didn't one of Jaycar or Altronics use to carry basic stamps at one stage? I've thrown out the old catalogs unfortunately
I don't disagree a more "retail" presence could be good. A quick solution might be for Parallax to use RTN for AU/NZ order fulfilment? Or just convince RTN to put together a solid web shop
Free postage yay !!!!!!
Someone Mentioned Wiltronics. Well Ive looked at a couple of random prices, they were Xbee modules, 30% more than parallax sells em and over $11 postage.
Mike, RTN is the current AU Parallax distributor
Going back a couple of months, I ordered a made-in-USA activity board. I had to wait a couple of weeks for it. However Ron helpfully pointed out a heap of other prop options that he did have in immediate stock, and their pricing. He had several quickstarts for $33, and half a dozen other options whose pricing I would regard as very competitive. Prop chips are $8. So I don't think local stock, price, support, response time is an issue. Its that final (& vital) step of advertising what's on hand and at what price. An online price list would be sufficient.
regards
Lachlan