4 ms·
Nice! I have about half a dozen projects that could use this. A question to no company in particular, though this seems to be a good place to ask. Why are yo
by vonmoltke 13y ago
Nice! I have about half a dozen projects that could use this.
A question to no company in particular, though this seems to be a good place to ask.
Why are you not taking backorders? I have noticed, across multiple startups and other electronics companies, that the pattern seems to be:
1) Produce $QUANTITY items in the first production run
2) Sell out in $RIDICULOUSLY_SHORT_TIME
3) Order $QUANTITY * $MULTIPLE while telling potential customers, "We ordered more from the manufacturer, check back later!"
The last step turns getting an item into a sort of lottery. If you take backorders, though, you get a defined backlog to work through. Your customers will definitely get what they want (eventually). Plus, you know what $MULTIPLE should be going forward because you have a defined set of work for the future. I spent the first four years of my career as an EE with an aerospace company, and for us having a backlog was a good thing (as long as we could meet our contractual obligations, of course). Few, if any, hardware startups seem to be embracing this concept.
- inoop 13y agoFyi, DX carries a similar module with a few gpio pins, 2x uart, 2x ethernet, and wi-fi. It has 4mb flash and 16mb of ram, and runs openwrt. $15 incl. shipping module: http://dx.com/p/hi-link-hlk-rm04-serial-port-ethernet-wi-fi-adapter-module-blue-black-214540#.UtgZj3lDsuk http://dx.com/p/hi-link-hlk-rm04-serial-port-ethernet-wi-fi-... convenient breakout ($30): http://dx.com/p/vrm04-multifunction-uart-serial-port-to-ethernet-wi-fi-converting-adapter-module-w-antenna-blue-215334#.UtgaYXlDsuk http://dx.com/p/vrm04-multifunction-uart-serial-port-to-ethe...
- breakall 13y agoDX sold me a 2 amp USB charger that fried my raspberry pi upon first use. I won't take that chance again.
- daanpape 13y agoHello, I am Daan Pape from dptechnics. We do not accept backorders because we do not want to accept money before we can set an absolute delivery date. Only when the next batch comes in we will accept the next orders. Honesty and customer satisfaction is very important to us.
- ay 13y agoYou can collect the estimate of the units wanted + email address. This way you could both capture the HN's momentum and keep in touch later. I'd love to hear from you again when you have stock :-) (and I am in .be as well :-)
- daanpape 13y agoHello, this is Daan Pape again. Thank you for your comment and idea. We have now implemented a 'back in stock' notification system for subscribers.
- streetnigga 13y agoThanks for not messing around by creating imaginary order queues that allow you to accept more cash. Don't listen to some of these users, they thirst for 'disruption.'
- vonmoltke 13y agoI appreciate the reply and understand the position. Appreciate it, in fact, since if you have significant variability in your production times you should not be taking money for product you don't have yet. That said, taking money is not necessary for taking backorders. You could do something like what ay mentioned and just collect interest. I was thinking more of what Raytheon, Boeing, and similar companies do, wherein selling the product and transferring the money are separate transactions that may be spaced in time, in their case sometimes in years. You take orders and earmark production for those customers, but you don't take their money until you have the completed stock in-house.