OAK-D-WIFI Are Moving!
almost 3 years ago – Thu, May 27, 2021 at 01:32:17 AM

Some good news after the trio of bad news here, here, and here.  The OAK-D-WIFI shipments seem to be ready to ship out.  

• 31 of 1,834 have now shipped.  
• We are hopeful that the remainder will ship out by the end of this week.

To work around the EasyShip bug, we had to print customs-information and attach it to the shipments instead of electronic filing (which is more common).  

We are unsure the impact this may have going through customs, but EasyShip has assured us that this should not matter in terms of the shipments getting through customs. 

Anyway, hopefully soon anyone who ordered an OAK-D-WIFI should receive a new tracking number for their shipment.

Best,

Brandon

The Bad News Continues on All Shipments
almost 3 years ago – Sun, May 23, 2021 at 08:14:54 AM

Hi everyone,

TL;DR: We re-did all 1,800 or so shipments, but they're blocked by some unknown error in EasyShip.  We're investigating.

On late Friday we were able to re-upload all the orders into EasyShip with the corrected HS-Codes and Descriptions.  We had to do this as EasyShip has a limitation that prevents cancelled orders from being used.  So they have to be cancelled, and then manually re-exported, then mass reformatted (as the export and import formats are different).  

We changed the HS Code to what EasyShip recommends here.  We are having to trust them on this.  We have shipped ~6,700 or so unique shipments with the HS Code 8525.80.50.50, which is `Digital still image video cameras; Other; Other`.  But EasyShip is insistent on using HS Code 8525.80.20, which is similar, but seeming a little "off", with the description being: `Television cameras, studio type, other than shoulder-carried or other portable cameras`.

EasyShip is insistent that this is the only option in their platform - and the right option - so we are following their lead here.

In doing so, however, EasyShip is yet again not able to ship any of these orders.  We get the following error on 8 out of 10 shipments attempted:

• (!) Unable to retrieve Letterhead and/or Signature images.

This seems like an error that actually is not indicating what the _actual_ problem is.  

EasyShip spent until late Friday helping debug, and is continuing to help today.  We're unsure what is going on here - neither EasyShip nor Luxonis have the foggiest of an idea how/why this error is occurring.  

We're both independently debugging.  We hope to have an answer by Sunday mid-day, such that the labels can be ready evening of Sunday US-time, as that's when the warehouse comes online (Monday in Asia), and can start packing shipments.  

We'll keep everyone posted.

Thanks,

Brandon

More Bad News on OAK-D-WIFI Shipments
almost 3 years ago – Fri, May 21, 2021 at 10:11:30 AM

Hi backers,

TL;DR: All the OAK-D-WIFI Shipments that were supposed to leave UFL/EasyShip today are delayed and look to be leaving on May 28th now instead.

As we noted HERE, all OAK-D-WIFI shipments are still in the warehouse becausean incorrect HS-Code was used on all of them.  

We waited a day to find out if these can be fixed without having to unpack, re-stock the warehouse, then re pick/pack and relabel all the shipments.  We were hoping (and were told) that we would have a plan by the end of today.  But no plan was delivered, and worse, no timeline on when we would have a plan was delivered.  And further, no answer WRT if such a solution is even possible was given.  So this was putting us on the path of finding out say at the end of next week, that such a no-repack solution was possible on replacing the labels - which would then mean these would be shipping around June 4th instead.

With this in mind, and also with confirmation that the incorrect HS Code would cause all shipments to be held in customs, I made the call to unpack everything, restock the warehouse, cancel all the current labels, and start over.  As then we at least have a date when we know these will ship.  Luxonis will be eating the additional cost of all this work.

This means that the OAK-D-WIFI shipments will now go out on May 28th, if all goes well, and there aren't more surprises.  This is because the warehouse has to unpack the pile of ~1,800 orders, re-stock everything to each model, and then re-pack according to the new labels/invoices.  

As usual, we'll keep you posted.  

Thanks,

Brandon

OAK-D-WIFI Shipment Issues - Bad News
almost 3 years ago – Thu, May 20, 2021 at 10:05:07 PM

Hi everyone,

The fun never stops with logistics!  

•  All shipments are on hold at the UFL warehouse.  
• Both EasyShip and UFL are doing a fantastic job helping us triage the issue and get it corrected/fixed as fast as possible (I just got off a midnight EasyShip-time call with several EasyShip staff).
• We are triaging what is needed to get these moving, and will circle back tomorrow.  
• The gory details are below.

So the why is that (we think, as of now, that) the wrong HS Code was entered for every single one of these OAK-D-WIFI shipments. 

And even before these actually left the warehouse (but were filed electronically with FedEx), we got feedback from backers that customs had contacted them with problems with the shipment - and that these would be held in customs.

This scared the hell out of us - as each time there's a problem with a shipment in customs, it's about a 10-email back/forth volley between the customer, customs, and Luxonis.  It's incredibly time-consuming and frustrating for everyone involved.

And we're talking about roughly 1,800 shipments.  

So having wrong HS Codes on every shipment is, roughly speaking, 18,000 worth of emails to get the situations resolved (round numbers - it could be more, it could be less).

That's a lot of potential annoyance and wasted time - for everyone.  Let's prevent that, if we can.  

So we're holding the shipments (for today, Hong-Kong time) to make sure that this isn't about to happen.  

So that's why these are held.  At least we caught it prior to to all these going out.  And thank you, backer Mr. Chen for bringing this to our attention.  You may have just saved - and thousands of backers - countless hours.

How'd we get here?

Here's how it happened:

1.  We provided the HS Codes to EasyShip for all the products, below:

What is an HS Code?  Well, to skip the long description - they're what customs use to know what is entering or exiting a country.  

The taxes, import duties,  etc. are all levied based on what is in the shipment going through customs.  So, the HS Code, should be, you know, correct.

And 8525.80.50.50 (used for all OAK) text translation is:
"Digital still image video cameras; Other; Other"
That's the best we've been able to find to match OAK.  Seems pretty good right?  I'd say this is a camera, and a bit "other".

 And the others?
 

• The USB Cable: 8544.42.2: Insulated Cable with Connectors; USB3 Cable
• The 5V Power Supply: 8504.40.9510: Static converters, Power Supplies, <50W
• The tripod: 9620.00.10: Monopods, bipods, tripods and similar articles

 
 Yep, those seem right too.

So if these were provided, why were these HS Codes not used?
If you want to trace it all the way back, it's an Apple-like design philosophy, probably.

2.  The EasyShip system is all about easy user experience (and they do a great job here, actually, it's really nice to use).  But because of this "Apple-like" experience the ability to enter an HS Code in the EasyShip interface doesn't exist.  At all.  There's no way to do it.

There is a way to select "Camera" in EasyShip's interface, shown below, so we did that.

And that looks right, right?  We thought so too.

But with this selected for the product category, we couldn't ship anything.  At all.

What we learned in diagnosing with the EasyShip team why we couldn't ship anything with this selection is that the "Camera" selection there really means "Camera with a LiPo battery" - and means that you have to use a special, hazardous (and MUCH more expensive and/or slower) version of shipping for items that have batteries in them.  We of course don't want to use that as none of our products have batteries in them.  Not a single battery here.  

We are using FedEx International Priority DDP (the fastest shipping option) for every shipment for which this option is allowed (some countries don't allow it), and this shipping option cannot have hazardous materials.  And since the EasyShip "Cameras" designation really means "Camera with a battery in it", this was then classifying all our shipments as "hazardous" - thereby preventing us from initiating any shipments from the EasyShip.

3. So in debugging with EasyShip, the tech team there advised us to work around this by selecting "Accessory (no-battery)" to move forward.

So then I did this change, but I made sure to let EasyShip know that we still need these to have the correct HS codes, sharing the table at the beginning of this post, and also this descriptive email (which links to that table):

So we do not know yet how long this will delay the shipments.  But we know it will delay them (as they were all supposed to have finished going out today, and they're now on hold, at least until tomorrow).  
 

We also do not fully know if the Description and HS code that EasyShip selected for this ("Accessory (no-battery)" HS 8517.12.00) will -actually- be a problem with customs (from the issues we have already seen, it sure seems they will be), so we are awaiting feedback from EasyShip on this as well.  

As far as we can tell, this HS Code selection classified OAK-D as a cell phone?  That seems wrong.  We're waiting to hear back on that as well.

I do commend EasyShip on this.  This error did occur, but EasyShip has done a FANTASTIC job triaging to try to recover from the error.  I just got off a call from them at midnight their-time working on this.  And even though the error doesn't involve UFL at all, they hopped on a call right away and offered to help in any way they can.

As usual, the journey continues.  We'll get all of these to all of you. 

We'll let you know tomorrow what the resolution is here, and at least an estimate of when this will be resolved.

Thanks,
Brandon






 

Quick Update on OAK-D-WIFI Shipping
almost 3 years ago – Mon, May 17, 2021 at 02:13:44 AM

Hi backers,

Another large wave of shipments was just kicked off.  

They're a lot of shipments, so these are estimated to take about a week to make it out of the warehouse. 

Details below:

• 1,720 of the 1,781 in this (OAK-D-WIFI) wave of orders were just successfully paid for in EasyShip (shipping label purchased) and are theoretically marching towards shipping out of the UFL warehouse.  
• We had needed to wait until we got confirmation that the inventory had been inbounded in the UFL warehouse - which we just got - to actually pay for these and move them to ship (which we have now done).  
• So theoretically, these 1,720 shipments are now in the process of flowing to pick/pack/ship in UFL.  
• This is our first time using EasyShip/UFL, so we are not yet sure when you will receive your tracking numbers, but we think it should be this week.
• UFL is hoping to have these 1,720 shipments actually shipped out by the end of this week (i.e. by the 21st), but we will keep you all updated as we track progress.

Important Note 1: 

For those who have an order that contains OAK-D-WIFI and OAK-D-POE or OAK-1-POE, we chose to ship OAK-D-WIFI to you now and will do a second shipment of OAK-D-POE/OAK-1-POE (at our cost) later when these are complete.

So DON'T PANIC if you receive a shipment that contains OAK-D-WIFI but not OAK-D-POE/OAK-1-POE.  If you ordered OAK-D-POE/OAK-1-POE, these will ship later (at our cost, likely in June).

Important Note 2:

There were a handful of orders that had OAK-1/OAK-D and OAK-1-POE/OAK-D-POE who had chosen to wait to have all shipped together (to save cost).  We're shipping your OAK-1/OAK-D now (at our cost) since the POE were delayed further than the WIFI models - and we don't want to keep you waiting any longer.  

So DON'T PANIC if you receive a shipment that contains OAK-D or OAK-1 but not OAK-D-POE/OAK-1-POE. If you ordered OAK-D-POE/OAK-1-POE, these will ship later (at our cost, likely in June).

The remaining 61 orders have some form of issue that is being manually resolved:

• 32 orders with shipment address issues where FedEx International Priority rejected the address.  These are mostly Japan and Brazil, with a couple being South Korea, the US, and Taiwan.  We'll be reaching out to these backers directly.
• 11 Shipments to PO Box.  PO Box ship-to addresses force us not to use top-tier carriers (e.g. we can't use FedEx, UPS, DHL, etc.) and instead have to use postal services, which are lower quality tracking, and much, much slower.  And more likely to be delayed in customs.  So we are reaching out to backers who chose a PO Box to give them an option to change to a non-PO-Box address such that we can use a higher-end courier.
• 18 that have some other error that we think we can solve without contacting backers.

Thanks,

Brandon