FM3 in Europe is $500 more than USA?

No, what I meant was that Fractal are being discriminatory not supplying units to any distributor outside of the USA. There are no FM3's available outside of the USA and Fractal is not advising when stock will become available for the distributors. There is plenty of stock in the USA. How does that work?

Define 'plenty of stock in the USA'? When is the replenishment for those units due to arrive?

If the foreign distributors pay up front for their allotments, might it make sense for their waitlists to hit a certain number before they place that order?

If Fractal sends the foreign distributors the units to be sold on consignment, might it make sense that they'd want to retain enough units here to cover their home business instead of hoping they sell elsewhere? Especially if there's a potential for the replenishment to be delayed, like everything else these days.

It's not discriminatory, it's just business. I'd guess they probably know it better than you do.
 
Define 'plenty of stock in the USA'? When is the replenishment for those units due to arrive?

If the foreign distributors pay up front for their allotments, might it make sense for their waitlists to hit a certain number before they place that order?

If Fractal sends the foreign distributors the units to be sold on consignment, might it make sense that they'd want to retain enough units here to cover their home business instead of hoping they sell elsewhere? Especially if there's a potential for the replenishment to be delayed, like everything else these days.

It's not discriminatory, it's just business. I'd guess they probably know it better than you do.
He must refer to the stock abundance that meant I didn't have to wait a year to get one. Oh, wait...........
 
He must refer to the stock abundance that meant I didn't have to wait a year to get one. Oh, wait...........
That was then, the current situation is this:

If you are in the US, you can go to Fractal's website right away and order a FM3 and probably get it in a few days. If you are in Europe, you go to the G66 website and can only join a mystery waitlist and get the FM3 who knows when.

If I try to order from the US Fractal site, it will just say "Unfortunately one or more items in your cart can't be shipped to your location. Please choose a different delivery address." so ordering directly from Fractal is not an option unless you go around that using a mail forwarding service that gives you a US address. Which is its own can of worms when it comes to things like returns or warranty.

So basically Fractal will not sell to you directly but only through their official European distributor, which would be fine if it wasn't a case of "you will get it someday, not gonna tell you when, you're just going to get an email one day that says you can now buy it".

COVID aside, Fractal should be able to tell how many units per month they can build, how many are allotted to US customers and when they could ship a batch order to a distributor. The distributor would then be able to show an estimate on their website.

By comparison, let's look how NeuralDSP handled the launch of their Quad Cortex. Like the FM3, it also was delayed a lot but when they finally started shipping it, they first fullfilled their direct tier 1 and 2 preorders, then they started shipping US Sweetwater preorders because it takes longer to get them to the US. Now they are shipping to European vendors so the end result is that those who ordered from a dealer will probably get theirs around the same time on both continents, with the assumption that say a US dude and Euro dude bought theirs in the timeframe that gets them into the first batch of units sent to dealers. During this time I always had an estimate of when I might get mine from Thomann, even if that estimate kept slipping it was a better experience than being in the dark.

Fractal should strive to be more transparent about their shipping times. Seeing something as "sold out" and having to check the stock situation regularly in case more becomes available or joining a waitlist where you don't know where you land in the queue is a terrible way to shop online.
 
COVID aside, Fractal should be able to tell how many units per month they can build, how many are allotted to US customers and when they could ship a batch order to a distributor. The distributor would then be able to show an estimate on their website.

Just asking, but like I said - are you sure the delay is on the side of Fractal? In many cases the distributor would be required to do a minimum order and if so, I don't blame them for not making that order if the waitlist isn't to a certain level.

And COVID not aside, stock replenishment is likely still a big issue. Hell, Ford, Dodge, and GM are cutting production of some of their flagship cars and trucks because they can't get semiconductors/chips to complete the ECU's. I don't blame anyone for being vague about deliveries now when the true reason for the delay is several steps removed from your own supply chain.
 
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