As a customer with a number of Photons on order, and having been unhappy with the customer facing order status available on Celary, I want to commend @zach and the particle team for taking the bull by the horns and creating the informative status email I received this week.
The Celary system just does not do what Particle’s customer’s need it to do. The order status non-information is useless. That’s a fact and can’t be changed by the Particle team. What the team could, and did do, was to figure out how to solve the problem with some human, and probably, programming, glue.
The status email is a fantastic solution!
My hat is off to the team, and I want you to know that I am fully satisfied with getting order status once per week since I cannot look it up online. As to the shipping delays, well, this was a Kickstarter project and it is an amazing full stack solution to the IoT problem. Where else can you get an embedded uC with WiFi, a Cloud service with a REST IDE, a great Mobile SDK on both IOS and Android, and the support of Particle and the community; all for FIFTEEN DOLLARS! Wow!
The order status email is a great solution to a nasty problem and shows me that the leadership and team of Particle are dedicated to the customers and willing to adapt and improvise to meet out needs.
True… I stand corrected. The Core, from which the Photon was derived was a Kickstarter project. So is the Electron. When I think of Particle, I think of the entire venture as a Kickstarter project and am just amazed at what the Particle team has accomplished.
@Bendrix, I think that you raise an interesting question. In my opinion, true Kickstarter companies (e.g. shipping their first products) definitely warrant patience as they work through the basic plumbing of product development and shipping. However, once companies are established (perhaps this is defined by shipping their first product?) with a proven product and fulfillment process, I think that it is fair to expect more and hence have reduced patience.
The question in this case is whether Particle should be considered more of a “Kickstarter” company or more of an “established” company. Clearly @Bendrix view is the former, but I do think it is worthy to ponder this question because it gets to corporate maturity and expectations.
I'd say they're in a transition phase. They're still a relatively young company in an upcoming market. That comes with a few caveats as well. Considering the fact that this (IoT for makers) is still a relatively niche market, that means the order quantities are low (anything under a couple of hundred thousands is, in China, if I'm not mistaken). The thousands of components are apparently not enough to ensure producers deliver quality products without trying to rip them off. Companies like Samsung/Apple/etc. are either big enough to make their own components or have enough power to demand quality products.
Particle however, does not (yet) have that luxury. As has been mentioned, people are trying to scam them by sending fake products. Seeing as quality is regarded highly within Particle, there are quality checks in place to ensure that these malfunctioning components do no end up in their prestigious products. (Un)fortunately, this creates delays, since they have to source new components, rather than shipping less-than-perfect items.
I think I've mentioned it before, but no one hates delays more than the awesome folks at Particle. They've spent some serious effort in creating these products, and are eager to get them into our hands. Delays cause frustrations for them as well, since it messes with their, already tight, schedule.
No amount of previously shipped products can ensure that issues won't arise. Bend-gate, antenna-gate at Apple for example, malfunctioning home buttons, malfunctioning air bags in luxury cars. Murphy's law applies on all of them. Unfortunately, Particle is no different in this regard. We can however hope that things will go smoother in the future, for both Particle, and their loyal followers
I do honestly think theyre handling in in the best way they can. I've seen delays like this with other companies, that were absolutely horrible. Even though I got the product in the end, it left a sour taste, which will be very hard for them to correct. Particle has been very transparent in my opinion, and are doing everything in their power to smoothen out this whole process as quickly as possible.
Hmm… I wonder if I have been left out of the loop? I got the email that stated they would send another email with all my order info… But I never got that email, and I never got that email saying they had to push shipping. Very frustrated by their system. When I check celery it says payed and fulfilled that was about two weeks ago. Where’s my photon? No tracking info nothing. Sorta disappointed with particle right now
I had the same issue. They sent an email about my massively backlogged and relatively recent order and nothing on my much older order.
I emailed hello@particle.io about the second order, and they responded rapidly and informed me that my first order had shipped and provided tracking information.
Exactly the same thing just happend to me, where they missed my first order in the mailing, and only knew about my second order. In fact, even better, they responded with a UPS tracking number on my first order, and when I looked on UPS, it is reported delivered today! Now I have something to do this weekend.
I’ve received the payment notification for my pre-order (1st batch, ~6000) on Jul 2nd, shipment tracking number on Jul 3rd, and it was finally delivered yesterday (Jul 9th). I was so excited about it that I didn’t wait to try some code before ordering another one
From the Particle team shipping update post, I had the impression that the no headers (pins) version is faster to ship, so I ordered that one last night and guess what? I received the payment processing notification today. Would the header version order processing be as fast by now? More feedback is welcome, but I think that Particle team got some inventory up by now.
Same here. I was charged on 02 July with the same “shipping no later than 10 July”… but no shipment. I live in LA, I was hoping for a surprise at my door… no luck =(
I literally would drive and pick it up this Saturday… but they’re probably actually spending some time with their families >.<
Would you mind reporting back with how long it takes to make it to the UK? I’m still waiting for my 2x photons to ship but It would be nice to know how much of an additional wait I’ll have for them to make it to the UK
Yahoo!! My Photon came today!! Now I can finally work on my Spark… I mean Particle watch! Now I just need them to fix the Spark.syncTime(); and I will be all set! And thought all of this my tracking number never worked , But I am happy I finally got it!! Ordered on Jan 26th received Jul 11th. Thanks Particle!
, But I am happy I finally got it!! Ordered on Jan 26th received Jul 11th. Thanks Particle!