An OpenROV Horror Story
Posted: Jul 1st, 2016, 6:54 pm
Hi All,
I usually like to roll my own ROV using Blue Robotics Thrusters, WTCs, and cable penetrators and use either a BBBMINI or a Pixhawk as a navigation controller and QGroundControl as my GCS.
However I have been following the OpenROV product line and decided to consider the purchase of an OpenROV 2.8 Developer's Controller Kit (http://store.openrov.com/collections/ex ... -8-dev-kit) and a Webcam (http://store.openrov.com/collections/co ... 100-webcam) because I like the fact that the controller uses a twisted pair instead of a Cat5/6 cable for a tether, can transmit HD video up the tether, and it has its own GUI instead of using a GCS like QGroundControl or similar GCGs.
So on Wednesday, June 22nd, I charged $461.62USD to my charge card for the 2.8 Developer's Controller Kit and the Webcam plus USPS shipping. The USPS 2-Day Priority shipping was the only alternative to an insanely priced expedited shipping method which I declined to use.
Since I had not heard from OpenROV by Friday, June 24, I sent OpenROV Support an email asking for the shipping status of my order. I received a response from Nima who stated that my purchase had been shipped on Friday, June 24th, and provided me with a USPS Tracking Number.
On Saturday, June 25th, I entered the Tracking Number that Nima had given me into the USPS Tracking System and it stated that "Pre-shipment info had been sent to USPS", but they had yet to receive the parcel for shipping. Okay, no problem as this was just the day after the parcel had been sent to USPS.
So on Monday, June 27th, I entered the Tracking Number again into the USPS Tracking System and it again stated that "Pre-shipment info had been sent to USPS", but they had yet to receive the parcel for shipping. Okay, sometimes the Tracking Number system does not provide tracking information until the parcel has arrived at its destination. I have had that happen before.
On Tuesday, June 28th, I entered the Tracking Number again into the USPS Tracking System and it again stated that "Pre-shipment info had been sent to USPS", but they had yet to receive the parcel for shipping. Now I am getting a little worried so I emailed Mima at OpenROV. He responded with "Your order has indeed shipped out, not sure why they haven't registered it. If you don't receive the package by the end of the week let me know and I'll contact USPS to figure out where it is."
Since the parcel had been sent 2-Day Priority Mail by OpenROV I figured I should have it by Wednesday, June 29th. So I hopefully entered the Tracking Number into the USPS Tracking System and it again stated that "Pre-shipment info had been sent to USPS", but they had yet to receive the parcel for shipping and there was no parcel in my mailbox that day either. Once again I emailed Nima voicing my concerns and he responded with "Sorry for the inconvenience. I will take note of this so that in the future orders that are to be expedited use a more reliable courier, USPS can be slow sometimes. If you don't get it by Friday let me know."
Well, here it is Friday, July 1st, and the USPS Tracking System again stated that "Pre-shipment info had been sent to USPS", but they had yet to receive the parcel for shipping and again there was no parcel delivered to my mailbox. So I have emailed Nima again concerning the USPS non-delivery of my OpenROV parcel, but I have yet to hear from him. Since it is a holiday weekend I am probably not going to hear from Nima until Tuesday, July 5th, which is making me very frustrated especially given the amount of money I paid for the OpenROV products. I was really hoping to get the 2.8 Developer's Controller Kit working over the holiday weekend.
The bottom line here is that the OpenROV support has been responsive, but not too effective at determining what has happened to my OpenROV shipment. I will say that the USPS will not investigate a missing parcel until a week has gone by with no delivery. However it has been a week since the parcel was shipped from OpenROV and I was hoping that Nima would submit a USPS Search Request today to get the ball rolling, but I guess not.
Regards,
SSN626B/TCIII
I usually like to roll my own ROV using Blue Robotics Thrusters, WTCs, and cable penetrators and use either a BBBMINI or a Pixhawk as a navigation controller and QGroundControl as my GCS.
However I have been following the OpenROV product line and decided to consider the purchase of an OpenROV 2.8 Developer's Controller Kit (http://store.openrov.com/collections/ex ... -8-dev-kit) and a Webcam (http://store.openrov.com/collections/co ... 100-webcam) because I like the fact that the controller uses a twisted pair instead of a Cat5/6 cable for a tether, can transmit HD video up the tether, and it has its own GUI instead of using a GCS like QGroundControl or similar GCGs.
So on Wednesday, June 22nd, I charged $461.62USD to my charge card for the 2.8 Developer's Controller Kit and the Webcam plus USPS shipping. The USPS 2-Day Priority shipping was the only alternative to an insanely priced expedited shipping method which I declined to use.
Since I had not heard from OpenROV by Friday, June 24, I sent OpenROV Support an email asking for the shipping status of my order. I received a response from Nima who stated that my purchase had been shipped on Friday, June 24th, and provided me with a USPS Tracking Number.
On Saturday, June 25th, I entered the Tracking Number that Nima had given me into the USPS Tracking System and it stated that "Pre-shipment info had been sent to USPS", but they had yet to receive the parcel for shipping. Okay, no problem as this was just the day after the parcel had been sent to USPS.
So on Monday, June 27th, I entered the Tracking Number again into the USPS Tracking System and it again stated that "Pre-shipment info had been sent to USPS", but they had yet to receive the parcel for shipping. Okay, sometimes the Tracking Number system does not provide tracking information until the parcel has arrived at its destination. I have had that happen before.
On Tuesday, June 28th, I entered the Tracking Number again into the USPS Tracking System and it again stated that "Pre-shipment info had been sent to USPS", but they had yet to receive the parcel for shipping. Now I am getting a little worried so I emailed Mima at OpenROV. He responded with "Your order has indeed shipped out, not sure why they haven't registered it. If you don't receive the package by the end of the week let me know and I'll contact USPS to figure out where it is."
Since the parcel had been sent 2-Day Priority Mail by OpenROV I figured I should have it by Wednesday, June 29th. So I hopefully entered the Tracking Number into the USPS Tracking System and it again stated that "Pre-shipment info had been sent to USPS", but they had yet to receive the parcel for shipping and there was no parcel in my mailbox that day either. Once again I emailed Nima voicing my concerns and he responded with "Sorry for the inconvenience. I will take note of this so that in the future orders that are to be expedited use a more reliable courier, USPS can be slow sometimes. If you don't get it by Friday let me know."
Well, here it is Friday, July 1st, and the USPS Tracking System again stated that "Pre-shipment info had been sent to USPS", but they had yet to receive the parcel for shipping and again there was no parcel delivered to my mailbox. So I have emailed Nima again concerning the USPS non-delivery of my OpenROV parcel, but I have yet to hear from him. Since it is a holiday weekend I am probably not going to hear from Nima until Tuesday, July 5th, which is making me very frustrated especially given the amount of money I paid for the OpenROV products. I was really hoping to get the 2.8 Developer's Controller Kit working over the holiday weekend.
The bottom line here is that the OpenROV support has been responsive, but not too effective at determining what has happened to my OpenROV shipment. I will say that the USPS will not investigate a missing parcel until a week has gone by with no delivery. However it has been a week since the parcel was shipped from OpenROV and I was hoping that Nima would submit a USPS Search Request today to get the ball rolling, but I guess not.
Regards,
SSN626B/TCIII