September Update
Delivery update and V2 Incoming
We know you’re eager to get your SyncroB.it Gateways and join the network as soon as possible, and that the delays that you’ve faced from us have been frustrating, so we wanted to give you some important context and updates on fulfillment.
8,000 Units out the Door
To date, over 8000 gateways have been sent to our customers, or are en route to our warehouses for imminent distribution. That will represent the fulfillment of gateways for all orders placed through the end of March. If you haven’t received tracking for your order yet and you placed your order in March, just keep an eye out and you should have it soon!
The SyncroB.it team is keenly aware that the delays can be frustrating, and are incredibly thankful to all our customers for your patience. We want to earn your respect and trust as we move forward by only giving you numbers that have shipped and that are no longer at the mercy of supply shortages.
Global chip shortage…”Yeah, yeah, yeah…we know.”
As you may have heard, the world has been hit with an unprecedented shortage of electronic chips, to an extent never seen before. Some of the largest companies in the world have been impacted by this, from phone producers to car companies, and unfortunately, Gateway manufacturers haven’t been spared. Sourcing components for Gateways has been a struggle, and something our team has been working tirelessly through. Our early suppliers had some big misses, and that has, unfortunately, lead us to miss our initial delivery projections. Being a fairly young company, there have been growing pains along the way, and we’re doing our best to learn from the challenges we’ve faced and not repeat our mistakes.
Our Team is Growing to Meet Your Needs
We have brought on a number of sourcing agents to assist in finding the components needed to fulfill every order, our technical team has worked diligently to find alternatives so we are not solely dependent on the handful of components that every vendor is scrambling for, and along the way we’ve been working to improve the product at every turn.
We have a dedicated support team and tech support team who are ready to help with questions and assist as your units arrive.
Between SyncroB.it and our partners, the entire team including admin, tech, marketing, design, support, fulfillment and manufacturing has grown to over 75 people dedicated to this product being delivered.
We have partial ownership in our Factory in China and their entire production line and team of 50+ members is dedicated solely to SyncroB.it. This means that if components allow, production capacity is never a limiting factor.
Warehouses and Shipping
For shipping, we have a dedicated warehouse and staff in Romania to make the process as smooth and seamless as possible as production ramps up. We saw the recent batch shipped within 2–3 days of arrival in the warehouse, fulfilling hundreds of orders a day.
That said, one of the challenges we’ve faced, in addition to the chip shortage, is the massive shipping delays that have also been caused by Covid-19. More people are purchasing online than ever before and fewer people are available to work at the ports and shipping facilities, which has caused unheard-of delays in products being delivered to consumers. The most frustrating part being the variability and inconsistency of timelines; sometimes shipments would sit for over a week in Hong Kong just waiting for their spot in the queue then get held up again for customs clearance once landed.
The Shipping Fix & “Why did #SBxx get delivered before my SB1XXX?”
After our first, not so great, experience with shipping several large pallet orders we decided to try an alternate route and send some individual orders direct from our factory in China. This is why some of you have received orders in the SB2XXX range while some in the SB1XXX range have not. As promised, they were shipped in the order they were paid, however, some earlier orders are still awaiting customs clearance. Later orders that shipped direct from China to some of you have already arrived, often in a week or less. This is a lesson well learned, and we’ll be shifting more of our fulfillment to direct from the factory to customers.
We are constantly seeking every opportunity to get these Gateways out and in your hands as fast as possible. This may well come with its own set of challenges, but we are working to use the most efficient options and will ensure our support team is well equipped to help with any import issues you may face.
Making the most of the time we have — SyncroB.it Gateway V2
Thank you again for your patience, and for it, you’ll be rewarded with an even better product.
Over the last few months, we’ve taken the lessons from our first Gateways, and created an even better Version 2 Gateway (V2), with:
- Improved thermal regulation
Equipping your gateway for even the hottest summer day - Stronger wireless connectivity
Connect more reliably to weak wifi thanks to a dedicated wifi antenna - Better weatherproofing
We’ve upgraded some of the hardware for outdoor enclosures to ensure it stands the tests of time (note that the existing outdoor enclosures work great, but we’re always looking to improve)
V2 Gateways are expected to start shipping soon, with existing orders upgraded automatically, no action needed.
