If you’re comparing AliExpress and a kickstarter project with hardly any previous experience shipping stuff, then I’d say that you’re indeed expecting too much
I’m SO EXTREMELY glad that I’m working on The Things Network’s backend and can ship stuff within minutes instead of having to depend on a long chain of people/companies in order to get your stuff to the people. Lots of respect for @rish and the @TTP guys. I can hardly imagine the these guys have to deal with.
After waiting for over two years for my Kickstarter reward, I’ll survive another few weeks of refreshing the Skynet tracking page
Hi, I received the tracking info, but on which website can I look it up? I found 2 of them and they give different info. One is already delivered and the other is not handed over to the shipper.
The mail of Wienke said:
Order Number 584
Shipping Carrier:
Smooth Parcel - DDP
Tracking ID TYPQ56400042150001
I never heard of smooth parcel but found this: https://app.smoothparcel.com/listshipment/trackmyparcel
And it says it is delivered:
Wednesday, 10th Jan, 2018
13:03
Delivered
Your parcel has been delivered, click here for more information (link)
I assume the tracking information or lack of it or lack of updates has nothing to do with kickstarter or ttn or ttp from the moment when the material with its address info and item info has been handed over to the shipper and a tracking number was assigned. The shipping of my stuff is done with a professional shipper i.e. Honkong Post EEX and its their tracking Portal which does not show any updated status https://www.hongkongpost.hk/en/mail_tracking/index.html
But maybe the assignment of a tracking number does not really mean, that the shipper has received the parcel to be shipped. Who knows…
My frustration comes from the fact, that other people around me have received their GWs a week ago already.
i expect it is handed over to a ‘local’ courier (have seen the same with other deliveries) and the tracking is not properly propagated. The only thing we can do is wait (patiently)
My Skynet package has now been stuck with NO movement and NO communication in London since 2nd of january. Ultimate delivery to the Netherlands. Shipment started over a month ago…
Regardless of whatever anyone says about Kickstarter risks, as an early backer… this is really disappointing. When we were all in the same boat, waiting for product due to design, manufacturing, and certification delays, this was acceptable to me. Part and parcel of funding a Kickstarter project. Even the ridiculous VAT issue, most here seem to accept it.
However, since the product has become freely available through risk-free, third party channels, and early backers that enabled the development in the first place are still waiting for their reward… now that’s really unacceptable.
Have The Things Network thought of redirecting stock from Farnell to early backers, and passing damages / costs on to Skynet for lack of performance?
And then redirecting Skynet “in-transit” stock to Farnell instead? Or allowing backers to return their unopened Skynet packages when they finally arrive using an honour system? You know you can trust us, we’ve trusted TTN for long enough…
Parcel 1: Shipper Skynet,
Start: December 4th, Location January 15: Wasaw. Travel time: 42 days.
Status: Arrived at hub (since January 10th) .
Parcel 2: Shipper Whistle:
Start: January 10th, Location January 15: Hongkong(?). Travel time: 5 days.
Status: Item Data Received (Since January 10th).
Update at 19:18 (15-1)
I received the request from WARCEL to fullfill CUSTOMS CLEARANCE AND CUSTOMS DEBT and payed immedeately.
Don’t get your hopes up. I paid the VAT 6 days ago to that Warsaw hub and it is still stuck at the hub today. Just nothing happened. Parcel in transit from 15 december 2017 and counting for backer 93.
After contact with TTN and Skynet (UK) I finally received the invoice for the EU clearance, changing the status to Customer contacted. It seems that this is a manual process as the initial reply from Skynet was:
Yes this is on hold pending VAT payment and customs clearance. I will submit an entry now and send over the payment invoice with customs entry shortly.
However the shipment is not complete. Content of the customs invoice is one The Things Uno at a customs value of US$ 405,- over which I have to pay 66,87 UK pounds VAT. (I backed one gateway, TTN Uno and TTN node)
An other thing that is really annoying is that Skynet sends a VAT invoice from the UK, meaning that getting the VAT back is a different process than normal VAT (as a NL company) and you have to wait until 2019 (unless the amount you’re requesting back is exceeding €400) before you can request it back. See Drempelbedragen.
Will contact @TTP about the content of the shipping and Skynet if they can send the invoice from their NL office to avoid the VAT hassle.
For all those who received the tracking codes last week, it has been a huge challenge shipping all the 800+ gateways in one go. Initially the plan was to get them out last week but due to a delay at the shippers side it has now been postponed to this coming Friday. Quite disappointed but we should have foreseen these incidents before and communicated to all of you accordingly. From our side we have given all the information there is to the shipper but beyond this just have to wait when the products are picked up. It has been all hands on deck for the last couple of months with this distribution. The priority has always been to get them out as soon as we can to the backers and sort out issues if there are any.
For the one dealing with Skynet, we have been in constant touch with their clearance team in London and Warsaw and people should have started receiving the documents and information for custom clearance. A bit slow in progress but getting there in the end.
Lastly for all the remaining people within EU and US who haven’t received any shipping information yet, please drop a line to info@thethingsproducts.com and we will add you to the next batch which is going to be the last one from our side.
Do note that this shipping distribution of over 1800 gateways is quite resource exhaustive. We would like to make it a smooth experience as we deliver the third batch to the remaining backers. After this, we plan to outsource this entire distribution right from the webshop so we can focus on what we do best - building an IoT data network.
Had contact again with @TTP. It turned out that on all shipments only the Uno was specified on the invoice, with the total cost of the complete pledge (thus + gateway and node). The shipment should be complete. Also they requested Skynet to send my package to their Amsterdam hub and perform the customs clearance here.
Parcel 1: Shipper Skynet,
Start: December 4th, Location January 16: Wasaw. Travel time: 43 days.
Status: On Hold - Consignee to Pay Charges.
Skynet is predating their logs!. Last status is dated Jan 12 at 08:38 (?)
Parcel 2: Shipper Whistle:
Start: January 10th, Location January 16: Hongkong(?). Travel time: 6 days.
Status: Item Data Received (Since January 10th).
these guys have to deal with.
