Re: FRC Blogged - FIRST Choice Issue (And Part II)
 

Just got an email saying we lost our 3 talons and Right Angle Drill Kit :/

But hey, those aren't irreplaceable. Besides, glad to have such a phenomenal program where we can get amazing products for free anyway.

It beats buying everything we DID manage to get (cRIO, digital sidecar, battery, AXIS camera, classmate netbook & more)

Re: FRC Blogged - FIRST Choice Issue (And Part II)
 

Anyone know what time the restock occurred at? From reading over the First Choice thread it seems like at about 12:25.


Curious, what time was your order?

Re: FRC Blogged - FIRST Choice Issue (And Part II)
 

12:25 & 12:28

We made two separate orders. Stocks were jumping around so crazily we decided to lock in what was in stock before moving on to the volatile products - locked in some items with our first order and proceeded to try and get the rest of our goodies in the 12:28 order.

Re: FRC Blogged - FIRST Choice Issue (And Part II)
 

Does anybody know if unused credits will be kept for use after kickoff when FIRST Choice opens for game-specific items.

Re: FRC Blogged - FIRST Choice Issue (And Part II)
 

The opportunity to blow the whistle was early in the process when the problems were apparent. Obviously if they have already made shipments (perhaps another mistake) it is too late to redo things.

Re: FRC Blogged - FIRST Choice Issue (And Part II)
 

Well its not really a kit of parts any more, is it?
Its more of a scratching, clawing, begging activity.
Just because FIRST is not meant to be fair, does not mean that we need to go out of way to make it unfair.
I am not sure what they should call this new activity, but the kit of parts is long gone.

Re: FRC Blogged - FIRST Choice Issue (And Part II)
 

I don't like the rat race aspect, either. But I'll keep this system rather than going back to receiving a kit of parts consisting largely of items that we won't use. Having more choice in the system makes it possible to more efficiently allocate donated resources where they're likely to get used.

Consider it from a sponsor end, too - they can donate 80 or 800 of an item instead of needing to donate 2600, and they have a better idea that it's going to get used this way.

Re: FRC Blogged - FIRST Choice Issue (And Part II)
 

FIRST Choice is certainly good... until you look at the competition done for parts, and how many teams can't get what they actually want from it (How GP is it to order a ton of a particularly "in demand" item?). I'd much rather have a process that made obtaining parts a little more fair. Have 2-3 "rounds", where each round consists of a week for teams to indicate their desires. At the end of the week, FIRST distributes items (or reserves them) for teams based on limits determined by the demand for each limit. In other words, if they have 10000 Talons, and 2500 teams each want several, then a practical limit of 4 is created for that round. At the end of the rounds, ship out the entire reserved order for each team.

At least, it would end the mad rush at the start, the sellouts, and give FIRST time to handle any issues that crop up.

Re: FRC Blogged - FIRST Choice Issue (And Part II)
 

Perhaps we can call it the "Gaget-Grab".

It can go along with "Regional-Rush"...

-Mr. Van
Coach Robodox

Re: FRC Blogged - FIRST Choice Issue (And Part II)
 

After reading through the FIRST Choice thread on CD I thought that the restock was around 12:20 as well.
However my team (2583) placed our order at 12:03 and we just got an email saying we did not receive the talons or the digital sidecar.
On CD there are posts saying that the talons went out of stock at 12:18 and I was under the impression that this was the original stock and not the fake restocked talons.

Re: FRC Blogged - FIRST Choice Issue (And Part II)
 

It was certainly "restocked" after this: we were able to order at ~12:30 but won't be getting them. However, I don't believe the blog indicates that this was necessarily an isolated incident. Sorry you didn't get them despite being able to get in immediately!

Re: FRC Blogged - FIRST Choice Issue (And Part II)
 

Quantity Limits is a good idea for high in demand goods, but I feel an even better solution could be a slower release of credits. If each team was given say 10 credits each hour over the course of ten hours (or 10, 20, 30, 40 over four hours), it would prevent one team from snatching all of the in demand goods, and it would mean that teams would only be rat racing for the items prioritized as more important, which likely varies from team to team. This would also reduce the problem of many TIMS main and alternate contacts being in the middle of lectures or business meetings when FIRST Choice opens because as long as they go in during the first hour they will likely get their most important item. Thoughts?

Edit: Although, this incurs extras shipping costs for multiple orders, which could prove very problematic, maybe reservation of items instead of placing an order as an option during the first day/few hours? I realize this is more complicated on AndyMarks end, but could probably make life a lot easier on teams, and if problems did occur, they would likely be easier to debug with smaller initial orders. Again, thoughts?

Re: FRC Blogged - FIRST Choice Issue (And Part II)
 

I can cancel my day for an hour. I cannot cancel my entire day or week. I want to do this once and be done with it, whether I get what I want or not.

Re: FRC Blogged - FIRST Choice Issue (And Part II)
 

Anyone else getting billed the same amount for shipping on now drastically reduced orders? I have a question out to AM about that.

Re: FRC Blogged - FIRST Choice Issue (And Part II)
 

What if we could pick ten items per week during this time before 2013 and have all of the parts requested ship to our kickoff locations, having one big shipment instead of individual ones for each team?