Today I received a response about the delivery time - the order is in production, that is, at the moment there is not one uConsole in stock, for delivery to me.
At the same time, on Ali, there are a huge number of sellers - and photos with cabinets full of uConsole CM-4, at a price three times higher.
How should this be understood? You first sell on Ali, at triple the price? and only then send orders according to the list? Where do these sellers get whole cabinets with finished products?
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You know that anyone can sell on Aliexpress as is it a marketplace, and can put whatever image they want to promote a product? That photo may not even be from the seller there.
That image could be from anywhere, and as far as I know CPi is not selling on AE, there are scalpers or opportunists who try to sell a difficult to get product at a much higher price.
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you can always buy for triple the price and tell us wether youâve really recieved it in any reasonable time.
From my experience whenever thereâs high demand and low supply there are popping chinese sellers like mushrooms after the rain being âstockedâ.
There are enough reviews with photos from people who received it within two weeks. I donât think that all these people did photoshop at the request of the seller. And there are a huge number of sellers there.
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Iâm starting to think they have deals with the scrappers
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I got mine recently after about 10 months, I ordered the most delayed version, cm4, black, 4g. Have been in touch with support during the wait. They seem nice. Also have been operating for a long time and providing regular updates about batches. Doubtful they would be doing something scummy.
If we want to entertain conspiracy theories, though, what if the manufacturer is secretly making 10% more than they report and then selling them on their own for a massive markup? That would be juicy and scandalous. Itâs all being manufactured in China, right?
The scalpers all seem to have plenty to sell, and thereâs plenty of YouTube content creators who managed to get their hands on one to make videos about, but average wait times for customers is very high.
Seems like a curious coincidence but Iâm sure thereâs a reasonable explanation, itâs a shame the responses from clockworkpi donât explain it properly and just look like copy & paste nonsense.
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As a supply chain expert, I can say that it is unlikely something like this is happening, unless the OEM guys are complete idiots. This is a scam.
- Selling on the side destroys main selling channel and then the product thatâs why manufacturers want full channel control
- Selling a complete kit by âsome factoryâ is only possible if for some reason clockwork decided to put everything in production on one plant - the component base, the casing, modules, screens⌠which is not only stupid but is close to impossible
- The only reason could be that some defective units that do not pass final QA get in the wrong hands (basically stolen) on the final assembly line but that would be a tiny % and surely clockwork guys are on it
It is insanely hard for a small team to maintain stable production
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As someone who had relationship with CH producers for goods and electronics, it is not unheard to see entire batch to be sold to large entities for a good price. If someone ring the bell and ask for a 1000 pieces order, you put that person ahead of the person buying 1 item.
Those 1000 pieces are money you get right now in one shot, versus the 1000 pieces you sell to 1000 different people from 1000 different transactions; so there is a gain to be made there.
Not saying that CWP is doing that, but it is not unheard and happens a lot. Then they could not care less if whoever buy the hardware is a scalper or not⌠Once the stuff is paid and leave the warehouse, they can do whatever they want with it, it is out of the CWP power at that point to say anything.
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There also are legitimate reasons to sell in bulk. Suppose youâre selling units to a school or organization. If they got in line and their cheque clears, how many questions do you need to ask?
The very best thing to do with scalpers is not buy from them. If they buy 50 units, let $10,000 worth of hardware burn a hole in their warehouse.
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The great thing about scalpers, too, is if they canât sell their stuff, it just increases overall sales for clockwork, which is good for everyone!
It would be good for everyone if CWP were shipping in a timely fashion.
What would be really good for everyone, particularly future customers, is if CWP didnât take money until they actually had a product to sell instead of expecting their customers to provide them with an interest free loan for a year or more. If everyone whose orders had gone past 90 working days asked for a refund, I bet it would drive them bankrupt.
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Well I donât think that will happen.
Itâs a cool product and many of us are happy to wait. I got mine a few days ago after waiting 10 months. The support team has been really nice and communicative when I had questions about the wait times, too.
Seems like theyâre doing the best that anyone could expect given the scale of ehat theyâre doing compared to the resources they have.
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I donât agree with you, tbh. Yes, the tone of the messages is cordial but the content isnât true, and they know it isnât true. I had several messages insisting the lead time of 90 working days was achievable even though the forums show that isnât true and has never been true. Repeating things you know arenât true is fundamentally dishonest and shouldnât be rewarded.
Also their resourcing problems are their own problems, I donât see why customers should be expected to put up with dishonesty from a profit making company just because theyâre small. Iâd have a lot more respect for CWP if they were truthful and upfront about the delays and stopped prioritising bulk orders to scalpers over the folk waiting patiently (or semi patiently) in line
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Pretty sure I got my Devterm in that approximate 90 days period, think I was in the second batch.
How should this be understood?
Theyâre scalpers. This happens with any product that has a supply bottleneck.
Where do these sellers get whole cabinets with finished products?
Same place everyone else does, if they even have them. Sometimes they just have boxes, sometimes they have photos from Twitter or Weibo or whatever.
Maybe itâs a real photo of a large stack of empty boxes. Anyone can print a label on a box.
sadly wonât happen, those guys know what they do
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