Screwdriver ordered in August... Zero updates since. no response from support.

[SilentJSeattle]

As the title states, I ordered a screwdriver and two bit packs on August 31st, at that time the website stated it should ship in November. Checking back now the screwdriver listing has waves listed and according to the order number (410xxx) mine should have shipped Nov 20th. I haven't received a single communication or update beyond my initial order confirmation. I've emailed support and have not had a response. I emailed again today. but based on other comments I've seen it seems unlikely to have a response soon. This is a very disappointing experience. For a company that has made a name for themselves by calling out failures of others saying "They should do better" I'm wondering when their going to stop and take a look in a mirror on this one.

 

If I don't have my screwdriver or a very clear update and action received soon. I will be filing a chargeback with my bank. 

[tinyneustra]

So;

Not to be that guy but I do want to just bring up some things here.  And I am in a similar boat but I am being patient here.

1. Literally the top banner says "DUE TO AN EXTREMELY HIGH VOLUME OF REQUESTS, REPLIES FROM OUR CUSTOMER SERVICE TEAM MAY BE DELAYED. WE APPRECIATE YOUR PATIENCE"

2. The Screwdriver Order page BEFORE you even ordered your screwdriver: "This is a Back-Order, so there will be some delay between order & shipping. Here is our best estimated schedule so far:" 

3. Your Wave: "Wave 4 (15,000 pieces) - Ships from our warehouse by November 20 (SOLD OUT) (ORDER #399663-414059)"  IE the estimate is for it to Ship from the warehouse overseas to LTT for final assembly around nov 20th that also means there needs to be a customs process before its in the hands of LTT to final assembly and ship out to you the Customer.

 

I get it, its an expensive Screwdriver, I get it. Your excited to get it, and I get it you're a bit frustrated.

But this is a back-ordered product with shipping estimates. 

 

And the Support team is overloaded completely by the number of orders that have probably gone on since the screwdriver/backpack have been made available. 

[SilentJSeattle]

To claim I'm not being patient is rather dismissive and reductive. I ordered something in AUGUST knowing it wouldn't ship until November. I waited patiently until November came and went. I've seen others state that they ordered the screwdriver on or after the date I did that have received their screwdriver, or shipping notifications as early as October. I did my due diligence in patience and investigation with many clues that my order may have an issue or been missed somehow. I have been patient and I understand that there could have been delays. I emailed support for the SECOND time today. I emailed the first time two weeks ago with no response. The fact that there are two waves beyond mine that have shipped as well without me receiving even a single notification of delay or issue is where the problem sits. 

 

You are very confused on point 3 though, those dates are presented as when screwdrivers would be shipped to customers, not shipped from China to LTT for further processing. It clearly states "shipped from our warehouse" and is given and shown as a clear indication as to when you could expect orders to ship by. Another good indication to this is the fact that they inject mold and assemble the handles on location in Vancouver, the shaft and ratchet mechanism is what is manufactured in China and would not have a warehouse there, those parts would be shipped direct from the manufacturer to the assembly site in Vancouver. You can see that entire process in one of Linus's vids a few months ago.

[Kilrah]

Black or silver?

 

 

[SilentJSeattle]

5 minutes ago, Kilrah said:

Black or silver?

 

 

Black

[Kilrah]

Black was mentioned from the start as "Will come later than silver, no ETA, but it'll come eventually".

 

Right now that's about 1 month behind the published waves. 

Got mine last week, I was about 40k orders earlier

[crazzp]

21 minutes ago, NastyFlytrap said:

Situations like these are why i keep saying that he should have just stockpiled screwdrivers for a bit and put them up for sale lat

Numerous members have already commented to you that stockpiling is not a good decision. It adds costs in terms of labour, storage, opportunity etc. How many do you want them to stockpile? 100 000? Then those who ordered after those numbers would have to wait as well. So stop giving this idea.

 

Either you wait for them to produce the screwdriver or you wait for them to stockpile. It's literally the same amount of time.

[Yoinkerman]

9 minutes ago, NastyFlytrap said:

I dont seem to recall a single person telling me so

I know flytrap has being drinking a bunch of hatorade lately but let's not huff too much copium over this.  It was very clearly said they wanted to open "backorders" with minimal stock on hand to free up cash flow and soft launch both the backpack and screwdriver.  Yes there's a component of that that gets the product to people quicker.  On the other hand there's the absolute disaster shipping and support response times.

[Alex T88]

13 hours ago, SilentJSeattle said:

To claim I'm not being patient is rather dismissive and reductive. I ordered something in AUGUST knowing it wouldn't ship until November. I waited patiently until November came and went. I've seen others state that they ordered the screwdriver on or after the date I did that have received their screwdriver, or shipping notifications as early as October. I did my due diligence in patience and investigation with many clues that my order may have an issue or been missed somehow. I have been patient and I understand that there could have been delays. I emailed support for the SECOND time today. I emailed the first time two weeks ago with no response. The fact that there are two waves beyond mine that have shipped as well without me receiving even a single notification of delay or issue is where the problem sits. 

 

You are very confused on point 3 though, those dates are presented as when screwdrivers would be shipped to customers, not shipped from China to LTT for further processing. It clearly states "shipped from our warehouse" and is given and shown as a clear indication as to when you could expect orders to ship by. Another good indication to this is the fact that they inject mold and assemble the handles on location in Vancouver, the shaft and ratchet mechanism is what is manufactured in China and would not have a warehouse there, those parts would be shipped direct from the manufacturer to the assembly site in Vancouver. You can see that entire process in one of Linus's vids a few months ago.

I am in Wave 2, order 3750XX, black shaft screwdriver. It was supposed to ship, starting with October 30th. At first they had it stated that it "may delay". I contacted support on the 8th of November, a week later they answered that it will delay 3-4 weeks from the original wave estimate. At that time, the info that the black shaft will take an estimate of 4 more weeks than the original wave did not exist on the purchase page. What is baffling for me is that they keep using the wrong semantics, "may" instead of "will". Which is wrong and it only induces even more confusion. Fast forward, the label for my screwdriver was created on the 27th of November. It eventually shipped on the 13th of December. My complaint was from the very beginning about their very poor or inexistent communication. And when they do communicate something, they provide totally inaccurate information. Both from support and from tracking. As others have said, they could have written something on the forum or send out emails with a decent notification. It almost feels like they are mocking us. And their 1 minute "justifications" to why they can't answer in a timely fashion and their half measure notifications simply don't cut it for me. They can't expect people to respect them and to take them seriously, when they treat you as if you were a trashcan. Because this is what's been happening so far. This is not about hate or anything, these are the facts. 

 

To cut to the chase, you either wait or ask for a refund. I would not count on them to provide you with anything accurate, except for a standard copy-paste message which they send out to everyone, which is basically and estimate, because they are unable to deal with certainties. That is if they ever get back to you. And for me, every estimate they delivered so far, became long overdue and every shred of info I got from them was inaccurate. 

[Needfuldoer]

12 hours ago, SilentJSeattle said:

those dates are presented as when screwdrivers would be shipped to customers

 

12 hours ago, Kilrah said:

Black or silver?

 

12 hours ago, SilentJSeattle said:

Black

 

They only added this to the Screwdriver product page in late November, but the black shaft screwdrivers have about an extra month of lead time on top of the published shipping estimates. (From what others have said, it seems like it could be up to 6 additional weeks.) That would put your shipping estimate sometime around the third week of December.

Communication all around hasn't been great, if it was clearer they probably wouldn't have been deluged with "where's my X" support requests. At the very least, they could've used the newsletter or a simple blog to keep customers up to date on current shipping estimates. If they're just using a shared inbox for the support address, emailing support feels like screaming into the void from the customer's perspective. (A ticketing system with automated "your ticket number is 42069" responses would help that.) Ramping up customer support reactively, after two massively hyped product launches generated a nearly insurmountable backlog of support requests, feels like too little too late. The warehouse just rubbed salt in everyone's wounds then they pre-printed huge batches of shipping labels days ahead of time (customers get their hopes up and dashed, then support gets even more emails), but that's the third party's doing.

 

If they had hired a couple extra customer support reps ahead of the launches, and they were more communicative with shipping updates, the time between support request and response would probably be days instead of weeks and customers wouldn't feel so shafted. (Pun absolutely intended.) Of course that's all easy to say with the benefit of hindsight, but as I'm sure Linus would put it if this was any other company, "C'mon, you had to have seen it coming".

 

[Razercake]

2 hours ago, Needfuldoer said:

 

 

 

They only added this to the Screwdriver product page in late November, but the black shaft screwdrivers have about an extra month of lead time on top of the published shipping estimates. (From what others have said, it seems like it could be up to 6 additional weeks.) That would put your shipping estimate sometime around the third week of December.

Communication all around hasn't been great, if it was clearer they probably wouldn't have been deluged with "where's my X" support requests. At the very least, they could've used the newsletter or a simple blog to keep customers up to date on current shipping estimates. If they're just using a shared inbox for the support address, emailing support feels like screaming into the void from the customer's perspective. (A ticketing system with automated "your ticket number is 42069" responses would help that.) Ramping up customer support reactively, after two massively hyped product launches generated a nearly insurmountable backlog of support requests, feels like too little too late. The warehouse just rubbed salt in everyone's wounds then they pre-printed huge batches of shipping labels days ahead of time (customers get their hopes up and dashed, then support gets even more emails), but that's the third party's doing.

 

If they had hired a couple extra customer support reps ahead of the launches, and they were more communicative with shipping updates, the time between support request and response would probably be days instead of weeks and customers wouldn't feel so shafted. (Pun absolutely intended.) Of course that's all easy to say with the benefit of hindsight, but as I'm sure Linus would put it if this was any other company, "C'mon, you had to have seen it coming".

 

honestly, so many people didn't even realize it was a backorder & the dates were estimates at best, even when it said so on the product page. LMG def should've prepared with getting more customer service(looking at the hiring page they are hiring temp CS now, so thats a +) but the amount of people incapable of reading before pressing the order button, flooding support asking for their order would happen either way. 

even though I got my screwdriver & love it. I think might've been smarter for them, if they had just gotten through the backpack first before doing the screwdriver launch. they released very closely to each other so the already flooded support just got another big wave of tickets thrown on them. its unfortunate & they do seem to be actively working to fix the underlying issues. lack of CS, not printing labels in bulk too early etc. sadly these changes are great but won't do much for the immediate issues.

 

I think around mid to end of Q1 2023, stuff will die down. the initial waves of screwdrivers are handled, looking at the waves they are far from sold out on wave 8. which is estimated for January 20th. so it won't be on backorder anymore, thinking that will help a lot on the amount of support tickets coming in making it easier to get through the backlog. the situation sucks, should've been handled better, I just hope like any other company that they learn from this so they don't create these problems for themselves in the future.

[Alex T88]

1 hour ago, Razercake said:

but the amount of people incapable of reading before pressing the order button, flooding support asking for their order would happen either way. 

Sadly, I agree. There are many out there who can't/refuse to understand basic info. Either way, flooding support is bad practice, in my opinion. However, poor/inexistent communication, inaccurate info, overly delayed estimates and total lack of certainties, is on LTT. 

 

1 hour ago, Razercake said:

its unfortunate & they do seem to be actively working to fix the underlying issues. lack of CS, not printing labels in bulk too early etc. sadly these changes are great but won't do much for the immediate issues.

Don't know where you got that info, but to me it seems they did nothing to fix the current issues. CS is still (mostly) useless, after they said they doubled or tripled CS personnel, labels were still printed way earlier than they shipped the parcel and probably still are, even after Nick Light said that they will stop batch printing, etc. 

 

1 hour ago, Razercake said:

I just hope like any other company that they learn from this so they don't create these problems for themselves in the future.

I hope they learn to communicate, to disseminate truthful and reliable information and ultimately to treat their customers with respect. That's an essential factor to averting problems and averting creating discomfort, both for themselves and most importantly for their customers.

[Needfuldoer]

14 minutes ago, Alex T88 said:

Don't know where you got that info, but to me it seems they did nothing to fix the current issues. CS is still (mostly) useless, after they said they doubled or tripled CS personnel, labels were still printed way earlier than they shipped the parcel and probably still are, even after Nick Light said that they will stop batch printing, etc. 

All we have to go by is what they communicate to us, and Linus has said they're working to resolve these issues on WAN Show a few times. 

 

All I know for certain is, I ordered a silver shaft black/orange Screwdriver on September 10 (order #439xxx), I got a UPS tracking number on December 8th, and as of this post it still hasn't started moving yet. Not mad, not worried, I'll get it when I get it. 

 

[Razercake]

11 minutes ago, Alex T88 said:

Don't know where you got that info, but to me it seems they did nothing to fix the current issues. CS is still (mostly) useless, after they said they doubled or tripled CS personnel, labels were still printed way earlier than they shipped the parcel and probably still are, even after Nick Light said that they will stop batch printing, etc. 

I mean even triple the CS staff is still going to need/take time to get through the backlog of tickets, which is also why I don't think we will see much improvement until screwdrivers are out of the backorder phase.

 

has there been any preprints in december? iirc around mid November was when the first prelabel printing happened about a week later they said on WAN show, that they would stop doing that. once I get a tracking nr. my max is about a week before I start wondering why it isn't moving from the "label created" step. 
 

3 minutes ago, Needfuldoer said:

All I know for certain is, I ordered a silver shaft black/orange Screwdriver on September 10 (order #439xxx), I got a UPS tracking number on December 8th, and as of this post it still hasn't started moving yet. Not mad, not worried, I'll get it when I get it.

if you don't see it moving start of next week, id say they are printing too early. I don't really see an issue with printing about a week in advance but the automatic "item has shipped email" is not ideal though.

[Alex T88]

1 minute ago, Needfuldoer said:

All we have to go by is what they communicate to us, and Linus has said they're working to resolve these issues on WAN Show a few times. 

 

All I know for certain is, I ordered a silver shaft black/orange Screwdriver on September 10 (order #439xxx), I got a UPS tracking number on December 8th, and as of this post it still hasn't started moving yet. Not mad, not worried, I'll get it when I get it. 

 

Honestly, the 10 hour difference between me and Vancouver and my lack of time are factors that restrict me from watching WAN Show. I am aware that Linus has said a bunch of times that they are working to resolve their problems. Honestly, taking his word for granted is like guessing if it's going to snow or be sunny tomorrow, by this point as far as I consider. Again, I have to restate, a simple pinned message on the forum, on the website or an email update, with actual truthful and reliable info, would have been enough for me. Don't know if they are unable or unwilling, don't care anymore. As far as I am concerned, I am done with purchases from LTT. If they open a shop/warehouse/whatever in Europe, I might reconsider. 

[Needfuldoer]

6 hours ago, Alex T88 said:

Honestly, the 10 hour difference between me and Vancouver and my lack of time are factors that restrict me from watching WAN Show.

I rarely watch live (east coast of the US but I basically run on GMT at work), I listen to the audio podcast version over the course of 4 or 5 commutes.

[Alex T88]

3 minutes ago, Razercake said:

has there been any preprints in december? iirc around mid November was when the first prelabel printing happened about a week later they said on WAN show, that they would stop doing that. once I get a tracking nr. my max is about a week before I start wondering why it isn't moving from the "label created" step. 
 

My label was created 27th of November, after they said they stopped doing that. The parcel started moving on the 13th of December. Wizmo, was erroneously showing, from the get go and still is, that my parcel is in transit with Asendia. Which was clearly not the case, after I double checked with Asendia, only to confirm that they don't have the parcel, only the shipment info was created and I should contact the seller. I know it takes time to implement changes and to get to a better result, but a bit more transparency, an update here  on the forum could have worked wonders, in my opinion and it would have definitely put a lot of doubts and frustrations to rest. 

[Razercake]

3 minutes ago, Alex T88 said:

My label was created 27th of November, after they said they stopped doing that. The parcel started moving on the 13th of December. Wizmo, was erroneously showing, from the get go and still is, that my parcel is in transit with Asendia. Which was clearly not the case, after I double checked with Asendia, only to confirm that they don't have the parcel, only the shipment info was created and I should contact the seller. I know it takes time to implement changes and to get to a better result, but a bit more transparency, an update here  on the forum could have worked wonders, in my opinion and it would have definitely put a lot of doubts and frustrations to rest. 

Yea, that is way too long for a label. 100% agree

[samxtham]

Just to add another voice to this late delivery, lacking communication issue:
I made my 2nd wave order (#377xxx) of an All-Black, Silver Shaft screwdriver on August 31.
- At this point, it is estimated to leave the warehouse on October 30 with a shipping time of 14-28 days to Australia.
I received a tracking number on October 10.
- Wizmo states "Shipping Data Received". I assume this is when the label was created.

I wait, and November passes by. Shipping information on Wizmo has had no changes, but clicking on the DHL tracking link gives me this:

 

Concerning.

 

I send a support ticket on December 11.

December 18, still waiting for a reply.

[Alex T88]

4 hours ago, samxtham said:

I made my 2nd wave order (#377xxx) of an All-Black, Silver Shaft screwdriver on August 31.
- At this point, it is estimated to leave the warehouse on October 30 with a shipping time of 14-28 days to Australia.
I received a tracking number on October 10.
- Wizmo states "Shipping Data Received". I assume this is when the label was created.

Incredible ! This just stands, to further prove that the entire mess they made is not only in regards to the black shaft screwdriver ! This is simply atrocious !

[vong]

I'm in the same boat as samxtham except wave 1. Gonna wait until late January, if nothing shows up then I'm opening a paypal case. Has Linus addressed this issue on the wan show lately? Or is he still just saying contact support? I contacted them on the 13th and no response.

[samxtham]

On 12/18/2022 at 10:28 PM, samxtham said:

Just to add another voice to this late delivery, lacking communication issue:
I made my 2nd wave order (#377xxx) of an All-Black, Silver Shaft screwdriver on August 31.
- At this point, it is estimated to leave the warehouse on October 30 with a shipping time of 14-28 days to Australia.
I received a tracking number on October 10.
- Wizmo states "Shipping Data Received". I assume this is when the label was created.

I wait, and November passes by. Shipping information on Wizmo has had no changes, but clicking on the DHL tracking link gives me this:

 

Concerning.

 

I send a support ticket on December 11.

December 18, still waiting for a reply.

 

December 20, received a reply from customer support.

 

I'll be asking for a replacement and praying for a better second attempt.

Good luck to everyone else that has had a similar experience thus far.

[vong]

45 minutes ago, samxtham said:

 

December 20, received a reply from customer support.

 

I'll be asking for a replacement and praying for a better second attempt.

Good luck to everyone else that has had a similar experience thus far.

Dammit, I'm afraid it'll be the same for me. Hopefully I get a response from them.

 

I literally ordered an item from aliexpress last monday and it arrived in australia TODAY

[vong]

Got a response right after leaving a 1 star review on the screwdriver page. I'll be taking a refund and probably reorder when things settle down.

[Dawjaw]

On 12/20/2022 at 1:32 AM, samxtham said:

 

December 20, received a reply from customer support.

 

I'll be asking for a replacement and praying for a better second attempt.

Good luck to everyone else that has had a similar experience thus far.

 I'm waiting for my order  (#371xxx no idea if that is first or second wave) Silver shaft one as well. My tracking number also never updated past "shipment data received". I guess it would have been wiser to write an email to support a bit earlier it seems.