[Paul Copioli]

When we set up the two distributors this year we did it for a few main reasons:

1. Make it less expensive for teams to ship from a more local place.

2. Decrease the time it takes for teams to receive parts.

These two things will happen assuming you order from the place that makes the most geographical sense for you. I can tell you with certainty that teams are absolutely baffling me with their decisions on where to purchase. We have teams from the Midwest purchasing from VEX and WCP, teams from the West Coast purchasing from VEX and The Robot Space, and teams from Texas (even 10 miles from our facility) are shipping from The Robot Space and West Coast Products. Maybe we needed to do a better job of explaining the best ordering practices and I have that in my notes for next season.

Regarding the orders from WCP, VEX is very late in shipping to our distributors. It was a new philosophy for us, parts were late, etc. As such, we offered to drop ship from our facility direct to their customers. RC gave me over 100 orders to place for WCP today and we shipped them all. WCP gave us specific shipping methods for each customer and we shipped to WCPs directions. We shipped all of the orders tonight with very few items on back order (the same items everyone already has heard about). All I can tell the WCP customers is that VEX shipped the items WCP asked us to ship, to the address we were requested to ship, using the shipping method we were requested to ship by.

I apologize for any confusion this has caused.

Paul