This has been a somewhat frustrating week. Just when June ended up being the biggest month ever for the shop (no doubt propelled by the special June discount), Mr. Murphy strikes again.

I’ve been waiting for several weeks now for a batch of pin headers. Had lots of them when I ordered, but since the 6-pin headers are included in just about everything, I still ended up running out sooner than expected.

This is the cuplrit – the 6-pin female port header connector:

It’s not easy to find alternatives, because I insist on having a clean 6-pin header, not some cut-off-from-a-long-strip header with very rough plastic edges on both sides.

All would have been well, if the shipment had gone its normal route. But it’s been in this country, at Schiphol Airport, for over a week now! And some lazy bum in customs seems to be sitting on it. The irony is that they do this to charge me 19% VAT – which I then get back (being a company) a few months later. More paperwork.

I’ve started shipping some packages without this item, but often even that is not an option. I can’t really send out new JeeNode kits without these headers, for example – it really wouldn’t solve anyone’s problem.

So there you go. If you’re among the several dozen people waiting for the goodies from Jee Labs to get sent to you: I’m just as eager as you to get it all resolved! – probably more, because here, all those frustrations tend to accumulate by proxy :(

Affected are: Plug Headers, JeePlug Packs, JeeNode kits, Wireless Starter Packs, and probably a few more.

(A separate issue is that the JeeNode USB won’t be back in stock for at least another week)

What can I do? Order lots and lots of them, evidently. Which is what I did (many thousands) – in the hope that this silly state of affairs won’t happen again. And offer my sincere apologies to everyone waitng.

Six lousy pins! And in two days I’ll probably be drowning in them…

Update – Just got a letter from the postal service: no invoice included. Need to supply info. By mail. So there is light at the end of the tunnel, but it’s going to take several more days. My apologies. All for some VAT, which gets refunded later. What a silly world.