When buying new parts from VEX, how long does it take for your items to arrive? Obviously, this varies based on your location but, hopefully we can get an average that might help new teams know how to organize timing with buying new parts.
So, please post the normal amount of time that it takes for your parts to come.
I get parts around 1-3 days after ordering.
Within the day, we live within 45 min of the greenville center so our coach picks them up
Haha, nice.
That’s super fast.
Yea we are lucky ourselves and are only about 40 miles from Greenville, so we get our stuff the next day unless I feel like driving up to pick stuff up. Usually I am content with paying the shipping and not dealing with the road construction and semi truck races around Fate, TX.
VEX is really efficient when it comes to shipping. I’ve had stuff shipped when I order well after 4 p.m. and still get it the next day.
That being said the only problems I deal with are UPS drivers marking fake exceptions (saying business closed two hours before closing time when it was a residence), leaving stuff at the wrong house, or marking it as delivered and not actually showing up with it for two days. There is an entire section on Amazon about actual delivery time may be different from tracking information. Guess it’s part of that whole logistics plan they talk about all the time.
Live in PA. IFI generally ships things that day. So UPS is the one to point fingers at, not Vex. I recommend signing up for the UPS app to automatically track all your packages (to residential addresses, sorry it won;t allow you to track your school’s packages).
We generally get the orders the next Tuesday if we order on Thursday, but lately UPS has been taking an extra day to deliver things. So we get them the next Wednesday now if ordered Thursday (by at about noon ET). We generally only see that kind of delay around Christmas but we are seeing it now for some reason.
Weekends make a difference with UPS too. See this link… Put in Greenville, TX zip code.
That map says I am supposed to be in the 3 day color but it has been 4 the past 2 weeks. 
The two large VEX resellers that offer free shipping in the US on orders over $50 are Idesign and RobotMesh. Idesign orders are shipped from VEX in Texas, who use UPS ground. This map shows the transit times for orders from VEX or Idesign:
https://www.ups.com/using/services/servicemaps/maps25/map_0440.gif
For RobotMesh, I believe most orders ship from their Redmond, WA location by UPS Ground or USPS, and some West Coast orders might also be shipped from VEX. You’d have to ask them to be sure though, and they (at last check) can’t ship orders from VEX in Texas to the East coast. So, generally speaking, if you’re on the West coast Robotmesh would be faster, while in the central and East US Idesign would be faster.
I live in AZ. It takes about a week after I email the order to my mentor to get the parts, but I suspect about half of that is bureaucracy and red tape.
Weeks… Because Australia
A day.
At the cheapest shipping rate, here in Wisconsin ordering directly from VEX Robotics.com, I get my delivery pretty consistently in 3 days from e-mailing the order to them.
Remember UPS deals in business days for their ship times. Weekends make a difference.
I get parts in Delaware three business days after order is placed. VEX is really pretty amazing about same day shipping if you give them a chance. It’s a little iffy the first two weeks of January with another robot contest just swamping them with orders but the rest of the year they fly through the system.
I had a similar problem with UPS with the “oh we couldn’t find the house” nonsense and the “expected delivery Tuesday but gets there on Wednesday”. I took a stack of orders down to the UPS office and talked to a manager about how I could get @100 orders delivered fine and on time and suddenly they couldn’t find the house. Hasn’t been a problem since. (I think it’s because the local delivery office expects to have complaints go to the 800 number, it surprises them when an actual customer shows up. )
We get our parts from RobotMesh with their free shipping, but it usually takes a full week to get from WA to MI once an order is placed, so our teams have to plan ahead a bit. Also, our college doesn’t receive UPS on Fridays which is kind of a pain for a Saturday build. (more planning-ahead required by the teams!).
Robot Mesh usually ships from our Redmond, Washington, warehouse, but sometimes drop-ships from VEX in Texas, depending on what’s best for the customer. We do ship free to Alaska and Hawaii on orders over $50, and offer extra-cost options for overnight, second-day, etc. Being on west coast time, we can sometimes do an overnight shipment when VEX has already closed for the day (when it’s 5pm in Texas, it’s only 3pm in Washington). Overnight IS expensive, but when you have to have a part the next day and VEX is closed, we can sometimes help. We are also investigating other (free) shipping options that may shorten our already-fast delivery time to California and Utah. We also offer pick-up at our warehouse in Redmond. Come by and say hi.
Hey Rick, is there a way to request the drop ship from VEX? Being in FL, we would order most of our stuff from you if we could get it sooner shipping from TX. Fine if not, cause maybe it costs you more, but just checking.
I’d recommend taking a look at Idesign. They ship orders from VEX in Texas, which would be a 3 business day transit time to Michigan.
The last time I asked this, I was told they can only dropship from VEX to the west coast because that’s their distribution area, so unless that’s changed, I would recommend the above too.
Florida is out of our territory, and we cannot drop-ship from VEX to outside our region. Neither can iDesign or any other VEX reseller. Sorry about that.
Ya I just purchased parts from robotmesh for the free shipping and it was kinda a mistake. Over a week shipping time, rip.