So if you want to email the company, alexs email is at the top of this thread, there should be updates from him too but the last update was February. Yes you are right this forum is community driven but it doesnt mean some people from clockworkpi ie alex, are not members. Im guessing they are just hella busy with orders to keep us up to date as a whole but with people on here who have experienced, updates individually seemed to be answered when you email alex. Also they just released a new kali linux image after someone asked alex about it which also shows how responsive they are to customers.
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To be honest this excuse of shortage has become really out of place.
It is like when Covid was going on and it was the excuse for everything.
Sure, there are issues with supply chain, but the shortage is not because chip are not available; it is mainly because they cost more and nobody wants to pay more for something they paid less before… The alternative is to make less profit so the logic option is to wait for the right price for certain components (which in turn, cause delays on the production chain). The other side of the medal is chip not produced anymore… For that you need to change your design, and it cost time and money.
Welcome to the “advanced” world where you depend from a company on the other side of the ocean for your components. If we had production facilities in US and EU, this would not be a problem. Although it is more complex than this, and I won’t make an essay about geopolitics and how the macro and micro economics influence many aspects of our life 
I just wish people would just stop justifying things with “one size fits all” solutions; and accept that you may buy something and wait for long time these days, as the norm. The alternative is just not buy that item, or fill the pockets of scalpers on ebay. Sad, I know, but reality was never marketed as happy and nice.
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Well, I do understand that this “selling role model” it’s not the norm one, or the usual one. Luckily must add, for sure.
In this case, I cannot really be objective as it is not an item for me per se (it’s a present for someone else), but I do actually did a couple of times buy something for me that was a similar experience to this, and I just accepted as mostly all others did, as it was something unique, and something that I wanted. There was “non-written” rules that everybody understood, that not everything could go as expected and/or planned, but we did accept them.
I just think that this case, it’s exactly the same. Something unique that somebody else took the time to think, design, and sell it to me. I expect that not everything goes as “expected” by default.
The good thing here is
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Not a kickstarter; so you have more legal protection if something goes south
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Can get a refund if you ask for it
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They sell other products and give you updates if you mail them.
This honestly speaks to me as being a coherent and clear in terms of communication. What I would change is probably a more prominent message that says “hey, you are not buying this now but when the next batch is coming”; and other companies usually charge you when the item ship, not when you pre-order it. But considering you can get 100% of your money back and have protection if you use things like Paypal for your payment, that does it for me.
I’m at day 215; that’s nearly 160 “business days.” Four more weeks and the “90 days” promise will be doubled. I understand what everyone is saying about small manufacturers, delays in components, etc. and that we should have all (to some degree) known what we were getting into. That last point is what irks me. “Pre-order” labels aside, the website said “up to 90 business days” for delivery. Honestly, had I known how things were going at Clockwork, I would have never ordered. I think it’s an outrageous expectation to place on someone to so deeply investigate a company prior to ordering. I watched some video reviews of the product, read one or two blog articles about it, and went to the seller’s site for the finer details. Nowhere, not once, was any indication given that this product was so bespoke, it’s basically “pay and pray.” “Up to 90 days” … That’s what I was told. It was only after the 100th day that I started Googling “what’s up with” and discovered … all of this. I’m not cancelling my order yet but there is a point when unwarranted patience makes you a chump.
Where I live, we have a pharmacy chain called “CVS.” They are notorious for grossly exaggerating how long it will take to prepare your order. Do not tell me my medicine will be ready in three hours only to have it not ready after six! THIS HAPPENS ALL THE TIME! Don’t tell me what you think I want to hear, or what you think will have me walking away will the feeling of being happily served. TELL ME THE TRUTH! If it’s gonna take six hours, tell me. I won’t yell; at least I can plan around that and maybe come back the next day. My point … ? I was told 90 business days when clearly it was well known it would never be 90 days. I made plans. (All moot now.) But if I had been given a more honest and accurate estimate - even if that were “we don’t know when because …” - I could have gone in with open eyes and planned accordingly. I’m angry not because it’s been over 200 days, I’m angry because I feel Clockwork has shown me as much respect as my pharmacy.
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Can get a refund if you ask for it
Until I start seeing people claim they asked for a refund and didn’t get one I will do my best to be patient.
I have seen it take a long time for people to get their units but I have not seen people saying they were denied refunds. I do see people emailing Alex and getting responses even if they aren’t happy with the responses they are getting.
As for Kickstarter and the like one thing I have seen all the time is some project generates a LOT more interest than the founding team ever dreamed of and that has lead to long delivery times and other issues just as we see with ClockworkPi products.
Not sure if there were refunds denied but I would assume that if nobody complains about it, then it is not happening.
I had no clue there was a waiting list until I read this thread and noticed that there is a small line on the page that says that the item is shipped in 90 days period (I don’t think it was mentioned at checkout but I could be wrong). People are getting it though, so I am not that concerned. Again, I don’t mind to wait, I don’t really need this device for anything life or death 
I am still waiting for 3 kickstarter projects after 4 years, so I would say that out of the 5 projects I backed, less than half actually were delivered. That made me totally skeptical about KS and crowdfunding in general. I get the complexity of making a new product, but I don’t get the concept that people need to risk their money, when we are not making profit… The owner of the campaign should be the sole responsible if something goes bad. It is called high risk high reward for a reason.
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I’ve been lurking and have wanted to make this comment for a few days but haven’t had the time. Personally I have experience with manufacturing assembled units in China that include LED emitters, PCB boards and other specialty components. So yeah…I get some of it.
There’s a lot going on here and it’s reached the tipping point.
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They are definitely making a huge mistake by continuing to take orders when ETAs continue to get longer.
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There’s a reason why they will be happy to give you a refund, let’s say you’ve waited 200 days for your order. That’s good for them, they have been able to float that $250 or whatever for that amount of time. Asking for a refund is fine because they shut you up by giving you your money and they have new money coming in everyday BUT the timer gets reset for those unsuspecting orders and they will likely wait long past the ETA. All you did was give the company an interest free loan for 200 days.
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If a hardware supplier screws you. You better figure out a smarter way to recover the situation than… “just keep taking orders”.
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Yes I understand manufacturing and it’s in their best interests to make the batches as big as possible to get the cost lower and lower, but where do you draw the line between greed and inexperience?
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If half the people demanded refunds (maybe more if they have an awesome profit margin) it wouldn’t be a problem (which gives the illusion of great customer service and honesty, and keeps the legal problems away) because the other half of people covered the cost of production, and as new unsuspecting orders come in at the retail rate they always have people financing the orders that came before them.
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I am also acknowledging there is a possible culture or language barrier in this situation that may be causing confusion. But again, if you wanna run an international business then GET IT TOGETHER.
For people to chalk it up to “an indie tech company” in blind faith, is just convincing yourself that you are standing high enough on the pyramid to not get burned.
Personally the money is irrelevant, and I’m sure the technology will be as well by the time I receive it. I am more interested to see this all play out (as I have a feeling there are many curious as well) and see if there will be a landslide moment where somebody is left holding the bag. Probably me lol… But I’m ok with that if my money gets refunded to someone less fortunate.
Last time I saw something like this was a maker startup called Last Room Standing (hey wait that guys name was Alex too). It was 1 month, then 3, then 6, then a year, then the bottom dropped out. Communication stopped and they turned off their site. Thankfully that situation was salvaged because another company came in and bought all the patents and out of charity for the community fulfilled all the undelivered orders.
Now mods… Keep your pants on, this isn’t an attack. Nothing I have said is incendiary or inflammatory, I’m not a troll like some here. I’m a businessman who has some valid opinions about what’s going on here. I’m sure the owner of this outfit has great intentions, but inexperience, mistakes and even bad advice can cause things to start sliding and once it happens it can be impossible to reign back in. The smartest way to save this situation would be to turn off the “add to cart” button and complete all the orders and start back at square one. Shouldn’t be a problem right? They do have all the money for the orders that have already been placed.
I am not looking for validation or arguments. I just want everyone to read this and think about it.
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Let me ask you this: would you prefer to see uconsole sold on ebay for 400 dollars, because they would stop taking orders? Would you prefer to not know for sure you get one (whenever it may be), compared to go around searching and scavenging for one, to the point where you get frustrated and pay scalpers whatever they ask you?
I get your point but at the same time I see products sold in batch, only when they are ready, with short 3 hours windows that generate a heck of a hype, and I don’t really like that. Just try to buy something like an Analogue pocket and you can see what I mean. People spend 3x what that thing is worth on ebay, just because they sell in limited batch and have those “special limited edition”. Sometimes you wonder if some products are just sold in that way to bump the hype; as they could care less about users in general if their only concern is to keep hype going.
As far as refunds goes… Why do they shut you up? What is this, mafia? You paid and you ask for your money back… the only thing going bad there is the transaction costs, which are paid by the seller; so they have all the interests in NOT giving refunds (on top of that if you order parts for 400 devices and 50 people bail out, you are left with 50 units unpaid in stock; which is not what many companies that sell by batches, wants).
Also not sure what bank you have; but you may bring up some examples, outside stocks of course, where your bank account give you meaningful interests? Average bank interest rate for investments is .05% (yes, point-zero-five. not zero-point-five); so if you give them 300 dollars in 2 months they make the incredible gain of 0.15 cents. If a thousand people give them money, that account for 1 dollar and a half in interests? Can’t even buy a cup of black coffee with that.
If they are using pre-order money for anything but purchase the hardware, that is quite a risk. And even IF they can score a big hit on the stock market doing daily trading; that is taxed at 47% as short capital gain… plus trading commissions. And this is before you even get the bill from IRS for whatever income they make.
So I would say only someone desperate and with not much experience in the financial market area, would be so crazy to take people’s money and invest them for few months.
For those that don’t check the first post for updates.
Thanks for the update Alex 
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Regarding the scalpers. Combating scalpers is a NOBLE sentiment, but it’s not anyone’s job to do that, the best thing you can do is just resist FOMO and don’t buy from scalpers. Some people will choose to do so and that’s their business. Hey at least the scalpers actually have the product in hand and maybe that’s worth paying more for.
Regarding the refund shutting people up. Yes, when someone is complaining or whining when you give them their money back theres really not much more they can say. Once you have your money back, then people just move on because they don’t really have a right to complain anymore. So yes, it shuts those noisy people up.
Regarding the money and the interest, your looking at my statement the wrong way. Before the internet the only way to invent and manufacture a product was to get a loan from a bank or investors. Those groups are very shrewd and they will need interest paid on they money loaned. But now with the internet anyone can obtain an interest free loan from their customers just by taking orders until they have enough money to make the product. It flys under the name “crowdfunding” or “crowdsourcing” but in reality it’s just the inability to get a loan from the bank so they’ll need to get it from unsuspecting buyers instead. When banks loan money they know they won’t get paid back for a duration of time so you gotta pay for that privilege that’s called a loan. But when people buy a product under one premise and then they wait almost a year, then that’s called an “interest free loan” from your customers.
Also regarding recent shipping date updates. Let’s all wait a week and see what transpires. I’m interested to see if the specific timetables mentioned are true and realistic, and the only way to do that is of course… Wait.
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scalping can be fought and reduced to minimum; as long as you have a system to avoid it. Many companies allow only one purchase from a specific IP for example, or using a specific payment method. It takes more efforts, sure; but if you care about your customers you go the extra mile to ensure that customers get your devices, not scalpers.
Then if you don’t care about customers and are just looking at getting your stock sold, then of course everything goes. Also is is funny to hear you saying to resist FOMO and a line after, almost praise the "benefit"of having scalpers with the product in hand
You talk about people asking for refunds as if they were complaining… A purchase is a legal transaction where money goes one side and a product or service goes the other side. If either party do not abide to the rules of the legal agreement established when you make the transaction, the consequences are pretty standard. So refunding is a right, not a “favor” that a company does to you, to make you shut up. It may sound strange but if you pay money you have all the rights to complain… That is why you pay money, as the right to evaluate a product and express your opinion is part of the package. And what you call noise I call it “feedback”. For some it is hard to see the difference, I know.
Thanks for clarifying your point about money and interests. Although I don’t get the rest of your statement… You can get a loan or ask for money in a crowdfunded way… The concept is not that different as you get money to buy parts to make a product, isn’t it? Unless you are going for the scam from the start, you have to order parts and make agreement with oversea companies to produce PCBs or what not, so money goes there, not in anyone’s pocket. What you make immediately is the profit before you even ship the product, and that to me is just fine.
If you have ever worked for any company, you would know that you get paid after you work for 2 weeks or a month or whatever is the pay cycle you agree with. Here instead you get the money before doing the work… Same thing, just a different way to see cash flowing for a product or service.
If they take preorders and pay for the suppliers/manufacturers and then ship, or they get a loan and pay back that loan after the sales it is not really changing much in my book. If this was a kickstarter project I would not pay for sure, but as it is a product shipped in batches; it is totally legit (as long as they tell me I have to wait)
this device was definitely worth the wait
I didn’t have any specific and urgent use for it, but it it the most fun thing I’ve played with in a long time. For me its uselessness is its best feature.
I checked in with Alex last November… it had already been about a three months wait. He assured me I was a few batches away from shipment.
I thought “oh god, we’re headed into the holidays. That’s at least two and a half months out with all the holiday interruptions lined up”
I decided to trust the process, having previously bought two DevTerms and being highly impressed with Clockwork’s engineering and design chops.
So about a month back, the box showed up. I wasn’t expecting it. I stopped paying attention to the timeline. It felt like Christmas. Unexpected Surprise Christmas.
It’s an ingenious little gadget. I find myself tweaking on it randomly throughout the day just for kicks. Whether it’s a little software mod or opening it up for the 100th time with its easy-to-pull machine screws and pondering what hardware hack i might want to try, it just begs you to fiddle with it.
Totally worth the wait, and to be honest I think they are undercharging for it by a good 20% or more.
Trust the process.
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There’s no point in guessing and arranging things in a mess, so since the official said to wait 90 business days, I’ll wait until it’s shipped quietly.
I don’t agree.
This device started as a campaign. Taking orders without the final product is ready and if it becomes successful with such a start it leads to long waiting times. These times are already shrinking but slowly. I had the same experience with the first NexDock and with Flipper Zero. The say 90 days shipment (ok this could be updated), bit taking this and reading the forum shows you it wil take 1-3 quarters. So, this is known. And you can cancel your order of you do not like to wait. So, if you don’t want to wait than just don’t order and if you made a mistake ordering you can easily cancel…
So, the shipping times are annoying but customer service is excellent!
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I would like to add, with what happened with the op-1 from teenage engineering, instead of stopping any new orders coming in so that they could catch up they instead added $200 (going from $800 to $1000) to the product so that less people would buy it. Be glad that clockworkpi doesnt follow in teenage engineerings footsteps. Even though i love thier products for their creativity, i really dont like the companies decisions on doing business and pricing.
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Yup, that’s literally what stopped me from buying it, cuz I truly wanted it badly xD
I got mine “second” hand for 650 which was only used once for some guys project. Turns out one of his team already had one so they just used theirs 
I ended up getting an MPC One. I have it quite hardware modded and software modded already, and actually want to take a look to see if somehow can “implement it” to the uConsole and make a single “turbo music production device”, so buy one for myself xd
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I ordered on the 21st January and just got shipping notice. That means I’m at 83 calendar days or 58 business days.
- Order Nr. 265XX
- Matte Black
- Wifi Only
- R01 Core
- Adapter for RPiC4
This was way faster than I thought it would take after reading this thread. I believe the main showstopper are the RPi Compute Modules. If you are able/willing to source them by yourself, I woud seriously advice you to do so. Nevertheless, I’m happy and hope that everyone else will be, too. Eventually.
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