Shipping Progress

[kflorek46]

I ordered a 2G Pine64+ March 22, 2016, so I am not a kickstarter who gets priority. People thinking plain orders are jumping the queue over kickstarters are jumping to conclusions.

I got a surprise email May 26 saying my board has been shipped, with a USPS (United States Postal Service) tracking number. As people who often track their orders know, the USPS number does NOT indicate the post office has gotten anything yet to ship. If this new to you, you may jump to conclusions. USPS puts up this notice (which is what I see in my tracking) at least until it gets the package:

"The U.S. Postal Service was electronically notified by the shipper on May 26, 2016 to expect your package for mailing. This does not indicate receipt by the USPS or the actual mailing date."

 It may not be typical, but it is not unusual either, for packages delivered between US locations, that whoever orders the shipping from USPS does not deliver the package to USPS until 3 days later, after which USPS starts listing the jumps between shipping stations. And there are also combined shipping methods, called by various names, first with another carrier (DHL, UPS, Fedex, and others), and later USPS; where you sometimes get a USPS tracking number immediately, but USPS itself will not even get the package for a week. If shipping is really from China, as some people say, then because of combined shipping, it may be that USPS will not get the package for 6 weeks.

USPS tracking also says the shipping that was ordered is "Priority Mail 2-Day", which is spectacularly great, and expensive shipping, but rather pointless if the package is 6 weeks away still in China. (However the container could also already be in the US, as later explained)

The only wording about the deliver time in my order is "set to ship in May 2016." In other words, their plan was to ship in May, not a guarantee. I have always understood that a company such as this, still not complete, could not possibly guarantee a time.

 The way I understand that shipping is done across the Pacific is not by individual items, because of the high cost. So a business in China may be sending orders out daily, but the sent packages will be accumulated somewhere to be put in some giant container with a lot of packages from a lot of other businesses. When a container is full, the container is shipped whole to the US. The container then is unpacked for delivery of the separate packages by shippers in the US. A manufacturer could also ship their entire production by container, and items would only later be packaged for delivery when at the destination. The upshot is that the delivery in the US could be several days out of order and not in sync to the time it was sent in China. An order six weeks earlier than another could come out some days behind.

IAC, I am expecting that a container (or a second one for plain orders) has arrived in the US, and that is why Pine64 is currently ordering shipping from the USPS. (Orders in bulk from USPS are probably cheaper than individual orders.) If Pine64 subcontracted the shipping to a specialist company, just like they contract the manufacturing, they do not necessarily control or know the details of what the company does.

To add to what I said a few days ago:

A far as I understand, kickstarter ended in January. Anything after January is an order, although some later people are thinking they were kickstarters.

At the time I ordered, the order site called it a pre-order, meaning that you could order before they had the product. The USA page made no claim that orders would be shipped no later than May. I specifically remember because I was looking for a commitment to a date, and they didn't have it. I can't say what appeared in other countries. When they have a time that covers a month, like "in May," you know they don't know. It's like when they say a consumer product will be out in the third quarter of a year two years from now. I expected maybe July. I don't know how people were complaining, or demanding an investigation, before May ended, about their order "to be shipped in May."

It was a bit of a shock to be charged immediately for a product that would not ship until later. Any other pre-order I have done was charged only when and if the product shipped. That sort of makes me a participant rather than a customer. (Which was fine with me. I figure they need more money for a larger manufacturing run.) I don't understand how other people are saying they have not been charged yet for their pre-order.

I did not understand that the meaning of "shipped" was shipped from China with a 6 to 8 week time to arrival. So my order was shipped in May (26), but it may very well be I will not get it before the end of July. USPS is not saying, as of June 2, that they have received the shipped item. But I'm not feeling wounded, because I only expected to get the product by August originally. I am just getting antsy now that I know it is on its way.

later addition:

USPS tracking says they received the package for shipping:
June 2, 2016 , 5:26 pm at MILPITAS, CA.

This is competently prompt considering the three days total of the weekend plus the Monday holiday. I've had longer delays to USPS, at times, from Amazon and Newegg around holidays.

Next tracking locale:
June 2, 2016 , 6:41 pm at SAN JOSE, CA

Expected Delivery Day:
Saturday, June 4, 2016

The conclusion is that Pine64 must have had boards in the US, and not still in China, when they ordered USPS shipping. They were as good as could be expected so early after startup. Congratulations and thanks to Pine64.

tracking:
June 4, 2016 , 9:48 am Delivered, In/At Mailbox