Where is my computer?

Last ditch effort here.

I’ve written Lukas, I’ve used the contact us, I’ve reached out to crowd supply numerous times and hear nothing. I paid 1550$ 16 months ago, plus another $100 for taxes. I’ve not gotten any updates in months and no one is responding. Where is my computer???

Hello! I assume that you bought the computer after the campaign had closed as a pre-order. Crowd Supply is fulfilling those orders through Mouser. The last update from Lukas on the CS page says this:

A question we often get is “When will my order ship”? In the post-crowdfunding phase, this is a lot harder for us to answer, because we are not doing the fulfillment. Our job now is to stock Crowd Supply/Mouser, and they will send packages with your custom configuration to you whenever possible. At 10-15 units every week, that means about 3 more months of production time for the current batch. Factoring in some time before the first units start shipping (this is determined by the time it takes to finalize all paperwork), time in transit to the Mouser warehouse, time for Mouser to unpack the units, time for Mouser to ship to backers, some buffer time and some time for things to go wrong, it could take up to six months until all pre-orders are shipped and Reform is officially in stock. We very much strive to be faster than this, though.

I’ve been a bit on edge about this as well the last few weeks, specifically since CS posted this tweet:

Hi, yes we have experienced some difficulties with the import. I can only apologize and thank you for your patience. We have made significant progress over the last couple of days and there will be an official update (with very good news!) going out before the end of the week.

@crowd_supply on Dec 16, 2021

And last time I checked there has not been any update since (from CS that is)

To be clear, I’m not blaming MNT here, but the comms from CS have been pretty bad. Plus… what import are they talking about?! My order needs to go from Berlin to France, there’s zero border in-between the two (EU ftw) and frankly if CS/Mouser is doing any real import/export to get this done then a) this is 100% their fault and b) they’re not doing logistics the right way. I really hope I’m misunderstanding this one…

That all being said, I’ll wait. But I’m also super happy that new orders now seem to just go out via the regular web shop, that seems to be the way to go.
Also I learned the lesson to never, ever, buy something just after the campaign ends. I ordered less than a month after the campaign, and… I should have really just waited this out. The suspense is kinda killing me. :stuck_out_tongue:

1 Like

The import they were referring to was likely the shipment of the MNT Reforms for post-campaign sale from Berlin to CS/Mouser in the US so they can be distributed from there. It did take a lot longer than anyone anticipated. Not to be vague but things are in motion! Stay tuned.

1 Like

yes, thanks for the replies.
I expected more communication, even if to say the same thing (another delay). It’s not communicating I find irresponsible. I too will not be ordering anything post-campaign. I feel I’ve been pretty patient thus far, but at this point I’m over it.
Thank you

I can understand how folks in the US are sort of insulated from the difficulties of international shipping, customs, etc. It is a complicated mess than many have to navigate on your behalf and the customer never really sees any of it.

MNT does not have clout like larger companies. They are small, count on one hand personnel, company. I’m not answering for Lukas, but as I’ve been in similar situations, I’ll just mention that being an engineer does not mean you are human relations. Could there be more communication? You bet. But it is easy to armchair quarterback when you are not sitting in the thick of it. None of this is easy.

I know patience is a dying breed these days, but unless you know another fully open source laptop meant to last forever, perhaps it is just the course of the day? Also since CS / Mouser is handling the actual order, your argument and complaint should be lodged at them.

From what I’ve witnessed and seen with my own order, MNT is working very hard to do everything they need to.

Sorry to insist but now I really need to get this clear in my head. I’m gonna repeat my question from Reform shipping updates? - #31 by mmcm

Is my Reform going from Berlin to France via the US?

2disbetter I have no complaint with MNT, Lukas has been great the whole way. Indeed I’ve held out reaching out to him knowing they’re doing the best they can with a very small crew. His updates were what was keeping me informed. My issue is with CS.

2 Likes

Sorry mmcm, I can’t speak directly to this. but my best guess would be yes.

I wouldn’t think so, but I’m not MNTMN either. But France is a part of the EU. To fly all the way to the US and deal with US customs (which are a cake walk compared to EU customs) and then come back to france to deal with french customs wouldn’t make a heck of a lot of sense.

Hi,

I totally understand your frustration and believe me, I wake up every day hoping for that message from Mouser that we are finally allowed to ship something to their warehouse. So far we are still waiting for the final order manifest and shipping account info (since several months).

We’ve not been idle but also steadily building our stockpile of MNT Reforms that we will ship out to Mouser, and we have been working with Crowd Supply on figuring out many little bureaucratic details of this transaction. There have been a bunch of internal hiccups related to the fact that our project was set up in the middle of Mouser’s purchase of Crowd Supply and to Mouser logistics. We have provided all information that we were asked for and a few days ago I got the first (still empty) statistics emails from Mouser which means that we have arrived in their supplier database.

I believe we will get the green light Very Soon Now™ and then about two thirds of the backlogged order volume will be fulfilled at once pretty quickly, with the rest following shortly after.

The problem regarding communications is particularly irksome for me. I like to communicate with customers a lot, but I am in no position to speak for Crowd Supply or Mouser, and I simply don’t have more information, just like you. We need them for this whole thing to work, and I am grateful for everything they’ve done for us, even if this means we have to wait out this particularly painful corporate setup delay.

Regarding the shipping: yes, all units ordered after the crowdfunding (i.e. after June 18th, 2020) are distributed by CS/Mouser. That means we bulk ship to the warehouse in the USA and from there it will go to you. Even if you are in Europe.

If you are in the EU and want to order in a more direct fashion from us, you can do so in our online store, but at the same time I don’t want to encourage anyone to cancel their CS order for obvious reasons.

Thank you for your patience and ongoing support.

11 Likes

Thanks for clarifying this @minute. I just want to reiterate that this is not a complaint to you, I’m very happy with your communications (and shitposts on twitter) and keeping up to date with the developments is part of my daily feel-good routine :slight_smile:
So, thanks for stepping up and providing the updates that others should have given. I’m pretty shocked at this US-centric operation by CS/Mouser, especially, that can’t be resource efficient (both economically and ecologically) and I hope they can sort that out in the future…

Keep up the good work!

Thank you Lukas!
I always appreciate your diligence and communications.

The Mouser/CS purchase order for the post-crowdfunded MNT Reforms arrived. We’ll get on it ASAP.

4 Likes

Here’s the official update on CS, just posted and emailed to all who preordered. MNT Reform - Pre-orders Shipping Update | Crowd Supply

1 Like

Looking forward to what projects come out of my little box from MNT :articulated_lorry:

Today UPS picked up the first big shipment to Crowd Supply / Mouser. The first ~70 people who ordered after the campaign should get their MNT Reforms soon! Also 60+ additional units have passed QA here and will be shipped out shortly, so we are catching up with the order backlog.

5 Likes

This is great news. Sadly CS could have handled this so much better, the lack of communication from them has been frankly abysmal.

While I’m grateful for Lukas’ explanations in this thread, the truth is, I don’t think it was his job to give excuses on CS’ behalf. They created this mess, they should have been the ones to own up to it, TBH.

Thank you Lukas! I would buy from you again and recommend others do the same.
Seems like there is consensus regarding CS handling and communication.

So it turns out this can be resource-efficient for CS. I just got an email from them saying that my payment of “tax” (not further specified) of $233.80 bounced. I mean, that makes sense, the credit card I used back then was stolen & deactivated in the meantime. But I’m pretty baffled at this late-stage capitalism stuff…

2 Likes