Anyone who has been trying to buy an rpi these days knows it is not an easy task, unless you want to pay ransom to scalpers on Amazon etc. So I’ve been diligently following the few vendors who still sell at MSRP; Adafruit, Sparkfun, Vilros, Digikey, Newark, etc… Last month on the 8th, I managed to score myself a pi4 2gb for retail, which I’m using for a picoreplayer. I was also after an 8gb model, to replace the 2gb one in my primo’s control box (the 2gb would become another picore-player… almost there with my hifi setup).
Well, this morning it seemed I lucked out again, and managed to purchase an 8gb pi4 from Adafruit at about 9am. Unfortunately, just a couple hours later I get an email from Adafruit saying my order was voided. When I got back to my pc I logged in to my Adafruit account, and it says voided and refunded to my CC with no reason. Then I looked into contacting them to find out what happened, and realized they are trying to be contactless or something (sigh). I filled out the contact form, but the info page implies I may never get a response. I’m pissed… been waiting for several months to get one, snagged it fair and square, now it feels like I’ve been robbed!
Has this happened to anyone else buying something at Adafruit? This is only my second purchase from them, so not sure if this is the status quo or what. How about getting pi4 from other vendors recently… is anyone else doing shady stuff like this too?
Bought tons of Adafruit stuff over the past few years. No issues, happy with their service and all the docs, electronics/3D tutorials and libraries they make available. They’re usually pretty good about only letting you buy something that’s in stock. They even implemented 2 factor auth and buying throttle limits to help raise effort required by scalpers.
Considered using ESP32, runs C/Micropython/CircuitPython?
What are you planning for the Pi? Fwiw, seen info that Octoprint can run on Windows, too many hoops for me to try, plus I have PIs acquired in the Before Times.
I am running bCNC on a pi4 with my primo… also have assorted software for entertainment when not cutting. I used to use octoprint with my printer for all sorts of things. However the romance ran out when I could not get rid of the arduino serial micro stutter issue when printing round features fast. Now my printer has no pi, just sneakernet and smooth printing for dense segments.
That rpi locator project is interesting indeed. I figure using python it may be possible to run bCNC run on esp32? Unfortunately I don’t know any Python, just C, some Linux, and limited Java.
I wonder if they’ve tightened their ordering process up again.
I also saw the availability, and by the time I made it online (wasn’t more than a few minutes after RPilocator indicated in stock) they were out.
Even though I’d signed up for notifications, I did not receive an email telling me that it was in stock.
Perhaps they’re now only selling to the users who were notified?
Something needs to be done- though I don’t fault Adafruit so much as the RPi foundation for doing a HORRIBLE job of getting their product fairly distrubted. I can find RPi 4s or CM4s available if I’m willing to pay a massive markup. (I’m not willing…).
Makes you wonder how much financial interest RPi foundation or its individual members have in the organizations selling at a ridiculous markup.
I’m ready to start giving the other ARM embedded boards a try. Like say the NanoPi R4S.
I don’t think so. I could be wrong, but building a fab out to make twice as much product would be quite an investment. As soon as they managed to for the market with enough that they would be in stock, the arbitragers would lose interest and they would not need that second fab.
It seems to me that they are mostly just ignoring the problem and hoping it goes away. They would rather be in demand, with enough capital to be stable than to risk it on a bust of possible income. But it gets really hard to know what is actual demand and what is fake.
I don’t know if that is the right thing to do. But it isn’t easy to take risks. Especially when things are going well for you.
They are going well for rpi, unless the projects and tutorials dry up and they start losing actual demand without being able to tell.
So turns out Adafruit has some fine print that says they will only sell one pi of any kind to each location-person. That means since I got a pi4 2GB early last month, they will not sell me a pi4 8GB… until they change their mind. Now I wish I held out for the 8GB.
It is intentionally going further than just stopping scalpers. I think the idea behind their policy is they are trying to save inventory for the entry level market. That group are more likely to purchase other items at the store to go along with their pi. This contrasts the common market among experienced tinkers these days, many of whom have already sourced everything else and are waiting on just a pi to complete their project… or they are pre-emptively purchasing knowing how hard it will be to get one when they need it. I have a feeling many folks here fit in that market (currently, I’m the pre-emptive type).
So on the surface it seems almost like woke business, but if all this is taken into consideration it may actually not be all that crazy. Why sell that solo pi4 to me, when they can sell a pi4 with sdcard/wall wart/touch screen/sensor kits, etc to someone who’s starting out? Adafruit has a long history of catering to the entry level market. So it wouldn’t surprise me if their board meetings discussed similar ideas.
I don’t think resellers really make much on pi sales either. Official resellers anyway. They have to use the prices that raspberry sets, and I am sure they have enough muscle to keep the margins low. Those warts and hats are where the real money is. The pi is for the sale, and the credibility. They lose that if they are out of stock.
It still seems weird that an order would get canceled after a previous purchase so long ago.
I’ve been a bit OCD over tracking stock for the past few months. Adafruit’s strategy appears to be working. They are the only ones that are consistently stocking every week at least, be it 2, 4, or 8gb versions. The closest competitors are Sparkfun and Digikey, who struggle to offer stock more often than once a month. If I look at that as 5x higher frequency of accessory sales, then letting folks buy 1 every month could cut that by ~20%.
I’m just hoping those local chip plants come to fruition very soon.
Just a note… some time ago I entered a DigiKey order for two RPi 4B 8Gb, when I caught a notification that they had some in stock via rpilocator - Find Raspberry Pi Computers in Stock. I was ordering within a couple of minutes of the notification.
As it turned out, although I completed my order with them, by the time I had submitted the stock was all gone. I elected to leave the backorder in place for these two items just in case I couldn’t locate stock anywhere else.
Earlier this week, those two backordered boards were delivered to me.
So, traditional suppliers may be a good choice even if the supply chain is so crazy that there isn’t much determinism.