Last year I pledged for a batch of Zimaboards on Kickstarter. Very cool boards. I ordered 3 because I had big plans for them, 1 for use at my parents' place to improve general internet QoL, 2 for development and my own apartment's home networking.
Expectation:
Reality:
Something something supply chain.
An update from end of 2021 was all good news. Small batches of Zimaboards were getting shipped out to earlier backers, with rest of shipments to continue in the new year. Except Lunar New Year happened. LNY is a 2 week affair so that was half the month gone. Everyone in China goes on holiday, factories and warehouses are all closed, etc etc.
The real bait happened after that, when this update said all remaining batches would be shipped that month:
Dude accidentally jinxed it. This post was on March 7. Not even a week later, China imposes total lockdown on Shenzhen because of a big outbreak.
And this is how shipment stalled another 3 months. I initially held off on pledging when I saw it because I wanted to see if other Kickstarter SBCs would be better value. Instead, I pledged 2 days before the campaign ended. I could've been one of the first people to get the boards in the initial 2021 batch if I didn't hesitate feelsbadman. Just that difference of a couple weeks cascaded into half a year of struggle. More if shipment transit takes longer. I have really bad experiences with 4PX.
Ok 4PX, ball's in your court. What will happen first: Zimaboards arrive at my parents' place, or I move back to my own apartment? I went from having a list of how to use the Zimaboard at my parents' place to wondering if I'll still be here when it arrives, struggle is real.