Shipping during COVID: No phone to play with during quarantine.

[dumarcm 3]

I ordered mine in late April, literally at the heat of the pandemic. So i can understand if there are delays. It does suck not having a phone during quarantine. 

  But reading some of the other threads I'm understanding that others have not received their pre orders months before the pandemic. That raises some concerns.

I must have watch every YouTube video about the phone i could find (Though i wish many of the users on here who have the phone would make more videos. 

I guess i should hear some word like shipment  at the end of the month ( i ordered mine on April 28th)

Does anyone know where they are shipping from and if the the Fx Staff are not too badly affected by COVID?

 

Edited May 15, 2020 by dumarcm

[MvBoe 31]

14 minutes ago, dumarcm said:

I guess i should hear some word like shipment  at the end of the month ( i ordered mine on April 28th)

That will probably not work. At the moment, production is re-starting very slowly. The good news is that they keep sending out smaller lots.

[dumarcm 3]

2 minutes ago, MvBoe said:

That will probably not work. At the moment, production is re-starting very slowly. The good news is that they keep sending out smaller lots.

SO maybe for me June - July ya'think?

[c3cf 19]

I've ordered mine at the end of February this year and I don't expect to get it this summer, rather this fall/winter. 😄 

[3zet 100]

40 minutes ago, dumarcm said:

I guess i should hear some word like shipment  at the end of the month ( i ordered mine on April 28th)

Dude, there are still few people which ordered phone over a year ago and still not received it. I think only the people which ordered phone on it's announcement like me got it. 

[dumarcm 3]

16 minutes ago, 3zet said:

Dude, there are still few people which ordered phone over a year ago and still not received it. I think only the people which ordered phone on it's announcement like me got it. 

good to know and very unfortunate 

[Hook 3,043]

Welcome, dumarcm.

You won't really get much in the way of answers here because we don't know-- which is both good news and bad news. All we can do is make guesses without much data.

On the one hand, they got one good sized shipment out prior to the Chinese New Year and were ready to roll when everyone came back-- except that's when the virus closed down China.  But we know they can do it.  We just received an update HERE that they now finally have 100% of staff in factory and probably most of the parts (moving pieces around in China is still a bit slow but improving). If they now get things rolling like in January, they could fulfill orders pretty quickly.  Maybe you see your phone in late June (call me an optimist).  Maybe sooner. (Okay, a dreamer).  But at least you might see real progress on the backlog getting taken care of.

On the other hand, maybe, despite the best intentions, they still run into obstacles. Maybe because they are a small UK startup with low priority at the factory (They don't own the factory and there may be larger companies demanding assembly time), maybe because a new flare-up closes down China again.  Even their software development for the units that are out there is slowed down (because they don't develop software, they contract out to a large firm called IdeaLTE that had no work-from-home ability and also probably has larger clients).

Hard to say.  F(x) Tec is trying not to say too much so that they aren't making promises they can't keep.  But I feel confident assuring you of two things. One, they are trying to do everything they can to get everyone's phone to them.  Two, as one of the lucky ones who has one, this is a phone worth waiting for.  Be nice if you didn't have to.

By the way, there's an unofficial Discord channel if you want to hang out while you're waiting. 😉

Cheers!

[Slion 1,201]

On 5/15/2020 at 6:17 PM, dumarcm said:

SO maybe for me June - July ya'think?

If I were you I would count myself lucky to get it this year.

Production was just ramping up in December. Since January when production was interrupted for Chinese new year and virus, there has only be a very small batch of devices being shipped like 2 or 3 weeks ago.

The FxTec team which used to travel to China a lot to organise it all with their partners is most certainly not capable to do that right now. Shipping and production costs have most certainly increased quite a bit. To me things look really bad for them now. Until they can demonstrate they can still produce the device in volumes I would not recommend to anyone to order it. That's true for FxTec and that's true for every start-up in those difficult times. However if you can write off the cost of the device then by all means order it to show your support, it will surely help them to survive that crisis. However if you need a phone within the next 6 months just get one from the shelves.

It's the the sad truce right now, pandemics are not good for innovations and start-up scene.

Edited May 16, 2020 by Slion

[Hook 3,043]

2 hours ago, Slion said:

However if you can write off the cost of the device then by all means order it

 

On 5/15/2020 at 11:53 AM, dumarcm said:

I ordered mine in late April,

 

Moot point, I think.  😉 

I agree with @Slion that things are difficult right now.  And yes, if you need a phone, you may want to get one to use for now (when my Nexus 6p died, I spent 6 months on a cheap Moto G6).