I was just at a training seminar and we were told that the V5 system won’t be ready to ship until maybe February. Has anyone else heard this? I’ve got 5 teams I was going to trade in equipment for, but if I won’t get the new stuff until February I can’t do that and leave my teams with no way to compete this year. How can we get assurance V5 will ship by September when robot building really gets going for the year?
How about you say which training seminar and who said it? If it is not from VEX, it sounds more like rumors.
If they thought this wasn’t going to be done until after the qualifying season was over then they would get in front of that. But wait to trade in so I can be sure that I get my two on time!
I’m starting a program almost from the ground up so it’s only V5 for me.
I’ve heard that if it doesn’t ship, some suppliers are saying that they’ll allow you to change the order for something of equal value (cough cortex system).
Hello,
Where did you hear this? This sounds bad :(. I hope it’s not true.
-Sal
If this is true, I honestly don’t know how my team is going to run. We have designed everything with the idea that we will have V5 motors available and we don’t really have a way to have our current design with only 12 393 motors. I’m praying this is just a rumor.
This is why you don’t pre-order. Esp at full price.
Consider the trade-in, though. The deal ends before the next school year. If you’re trying to get the deal so you can afford the change-over, then you need to do it this school year. For consistency through a school year and so you don’t deprive yourself of stuff in the middle as you send stuff in and wait, you want to do this before the school year starts. So based on the school year, how the trade-in is set up, the release date, and common school finances, it’s pretty much a necessity for many to pre-order.
I just checked with our sales team, and our targeted ship date has not changed.
Just a reminder, you can always reach out to us for official information at sales@vex.com or by calling 903-453-0802.
Since it is now down to 70 days before the “expected” and “targeted” window is over, is there any chance of an actual release date, or some form of guarantee? It is still a lot of faith to ask for a product that has been the center of 2 new product reveals and still isn’t available.
But Danger is my middle name. 
It did feel a little weird paying up front. If my school would have done a PO then we could have paid when it shipped, but they like to have their books clear over the summer. It always gets tight as I’m buying things for next year and ordering and paying now lets me think about other things. I have almost everything paid for next year.
It’s done and I can move on.
Yeah I realize that some clubs finances are a totally different experience from ours.
I’ve just never seen a pre-order program when you are expected to pay 100% up front, and that made me fairly uncomfortable especially without a firm release date.
I’m not looking to name names and get anyone in hot water for saying something they shouldn’t have. We were hearing this from 2 different people who have significant ties to VEX and the new system. Normally, I wouldn’t have bothered to ask and risk spreading what others might consider just a rumor, but this is a unique situation and I was hoping to see if anyone had heard something similar. Or, even better, had concrete conflicting info like a firm ship date.
Thanks for checking! Honestly, though, I’m not sure how reassuring it is to hear that from the sales team. Isn’t their goal to get more sales? Are they really going to tell customers to go ahead and wait to buy the new system because it won’t be shipping until February? In my experience, sales teams are usually not among the first ones to know that there is a problem and a targeted date won’t be met. Hopefully VEX keeps theirs more in the loop!
Given that there are 20,000 teams, and they will almost all upgrade in the next couple of years, there will probably be a backlog for a while.
If they have 1000 units ready in August and 2000 orders, then the first 1000 will ship 1000 will be on backorder and they will get the others made ASAP. They will be making them as they go. Perhaps they expect to have a backorder log until February, but even if that’s true the vast majority of the orders could get filled within 4 week window.
They aren’t going be build capacity to make 20,000 units per month because they will end up with a ton of stock and then they will have to dismantle that capacity within 2 months of getting it going. They probably want to be able to make 1000 per month over the next two years, or something like that.
I would like know know a little more about the logistics of getting these things made, seems very interesting.
I’m still not worried. But, I already spent my money. In VEX I trust. If I don’t have them until February… Well… We still have a couple of Cortexes.
I take DRow’s version over your two unnamed sources any day.
Hello,
I have read/heard that the date may be subject to change to December. Has anybody else heard something like this? I cannot remember where I read/heard this.
With love.
-Sal
Can you lock this thread? It is only going to spawn more speculation and uncertainty if kept open.
I am sure VEX will post updates should any information about shipping change.