Try living in the UK. It seems prices from US $ to GBP don't change yet the exchange rate for the currency isn't 1:1. For instance, if something costs $100 it's UK price is £100 which basically works out at around $150ish (give or take, I'm not sure on the exchange rate right now).

I can't say I am looking forward to my import duty and taxes on my orders but I always assume there will be something (plus the extortionate fee from DHL/UPS/Royal Mail etc.). It was £22 on my first V4 & camera which wasn't too bad.

It always reminds me of the BlinkM ThingM sent me to play around with, I could have got it cheaper over here than the import duty and taxes were. It always pays to check out what the tax and duty will be (plus any handling fee, I know royal mail charge £8 just to pay the duty and tax on your behalf which is a bit on the high side)

@sudo

Yeah, we know that now, but not when orders were placed. No one knew until fairly recently things were going to be drop shipped from China.

@Richard, I haven't had chance to pick up my order yet... Did you pay any importing? I understand the taxes side, as you pointed out, there was none applied at purchase. But should it not be the same as walking into the store front and purchasing directly. I'm sure there are no duties paid then... By the way are you located in Ontario?

@gboyden... I paid $72.15 HST, $10 processing fees and $4.25 Delivery fees... Yes, I live in Ontario....

I guess I'm glad that things are finally shipping.

I don't understand the shipping duties, as we order often from Canadian companies (e.g. Apple Canada) who then drop-ship from China into Canada. Being in Canada, we've never paid duties in such cases; although I expect it when ordering from companies in other countries like the U.S. or U.K.. There should be a way for EZ Robot to deal with Canada Customs and get an exemption or permit for drop shipping to customers into its own country. Other companies do. It's just one more example of EZ Robot's growing pains and lack of experience in moving from a small supplier of locally manufactured hobbyist boards into the world of consumer robots.

What has been really disappointing, through this entire ordeal, is the repeated broken promises by D.J. and the EZ Robot team and then having to explain this to my 13 year old son.

He had ordered a Roli using his birthday money - back in mid-October 2013 (order no. 10-3715). The October 18, 2013 email we got back said that his order "[u]will[/] ship between November 1st and December 1st". He's gone through the various explanations, videos and shipping date revisions. He even got the special personalized "Christmas" video which suggested that Santa would soon bring him his robot after the Christmas break. Then there was the Chinese New Year's delay. Then it was to be end of March. Then maybe he thought he'd get it and play with it over his summer holidays. Most of us are adults and can understand some delays. But for a young boy, it's crushed his spirit.

His next (14th) birthday is coming up and still no Roli. Yes, I'll go and explain to him that Roli is shipping last because of the extra time it takes to put the components together. And yes, he knows he can get his money back - but he wants a Roli and he wants to start learning about robotics; not get more videos.

@DJ-Sures has been successful in turning off a young boy’s interest in robotics. What was once anticipation, wonder and excitement in my son has slowly been withered away to become disappointment, apathy and sadness.

If someone has any suggestions on how now to tell him he will have to save up another $80 or so, just to pay import/shipping taxes on a product ordered from a company in the same country as us (heck, even the same Province), I'd appreciate it.

 - Sander

I am going to chime in here.

I dont pay these duties, and I appreciate the frustration that is experienced by Canadians paying extra for taxes when buying from a Canadian company. I get that. I also understand that your son is disappointed with buying an item from a startup company that is going through some growing pains. Many startup companies never get to ship their product because they cant handle the types of difficulties that EZ-Robot has had to handle. Most of these difficulties are completely out of their control. By the way, many technologies have been delayed over the years by much larger companies like Apple, IBM, Motorola, Microsoft and many more. This is the fact of trying to deliver technologies, especially those that many people want badly.

I understand your frustration, but bashing DJ-Sures isn't going to help your son or get the product in his hands any faster. What DJ-Sures has infact done is to provide a method of your son learning about robotics in a way that is enjoyable and far easier to learn than anything else out there. It is taking longer for the parts to arrive than you or anyone else would like, sure. I am sure that DJ wants this stuff shipped worse than anyone at this point, including your son. They have made every effort to be transparent and provide timelines as well as they could at the time. Have you ever promised that you would do something and then something happens that prevents you from meeting your promise? sure you have. It has happened to everyone and nobody felt worse about it than you did. Now, have you ever promised your son that you would go somewhere and then you had to work and couldnt go? I have and it isnt any fun. I have had to cancel a family vacation in the past because of work demands. It isnt any fun. I fully believe that DJ probably feels bad about making promises and then things not panning out because of one thing or another.

This happens to many large companies also. My company had purchased a 2 million dollar SAN just before the flooding in Indonesia happened. This flooding took the worlds hard drive supply to nothing, making the promise of brighter days for my company dwindle into nothing for about 9 months. There was nothing that we could do other than suffer through horrible performance for 12 more months and listening to the employees complain about poor database performance. We couldn't go with another vendor or anything. I didn't like my job much at that point, but stuck it out promising people that when we could get the SAN we would.

I can assure you that the product that has been developed is amazing and is well worth the wait. The EZ-B V4 that I have is truly impressive. We have bought a Roli, Six and JD for a program at school. Two of the boys who will be attending this program have a father who has stage 4 cancer right now. This program will do a lot to get their minds off of the difficulty of watching their father be sick. I want nothing more than to get my hands on this shipment and get these robots into the hands of these boys. Believe me, I understand your frustration. I also understand that what DJ has done is truly impressive in the world of robotics, especially for children. Making technology easy to use is not easy. Going through the growing pains that EZ-Robot is going through is not easy. Having to pay a tax when buying a product from a company in your own country is a valid concern and is not easy. I would see if there is something that I could do about it if I were Canadian. I am not so there is noting I can do about that, but if I were, I would be trying.

I hope your son gets his Roli soon. I hope that he finds comfort in knowing that they are shipping. I hope you get some resolution to the tax situation. I also hope that you will understand that DJ and team are working their tails off to get these orders out, and some things happen that are beyond their control.

@Sander, i'm sorry you feel frustrated. However, we are shipping product already and have started earlier this month (August). We were unable to ship the product any earlier because it was not completed. Your son would not have been very happy with a product that didn't work and that surely would have turned him off robotics.

As for import duties, they are specific per country. Apple and other multi-billion dollar companies import inventory into each country and embed the duty charges into the product cost. We could raise the price of our product to include the duty charges, but then we would also need to raise the price for inventory per country. We sell to 138 countries, and that would cost us tens of millions of dollars to stock inventory per country.

I appreciate your comparison of EZ-Robot to Apple... That's very flattering. Although our product is pretty amazing, we are not a billion dollar company.

When purchasing product from EZ-Robot, you must agree to the Shipping Terms. Here is a screenshot of the checkbox you agreed too...

@d.cochran

I guess there was a bit of DJ bashing, but that is to be expected when one makes promises and then breaks them. I receive the same bashing when I promise something and don't deliver. I take that criticism, feel bad about it and work to resolve it. It also wasn't done to try to hurry things up. I mentioned it because that is what I've seen happen with my son - he used to be very excited about robots. All that is left now is a small flicker of that original excitement.

Seeing as how things are shipping (although not Roli yet), I see that D.J. and his team are indeed working on it. We're keeping our order and my son still asks if it has shipped. I'll continue to tell him "not yet, but soon".

The main point I was trying to make is that I now also have to explain to him why he has to pay another $80 or so in custom taxes. My son saved up over $400. This is a very substantial amount to him. A further $80 customs charge is not small for him either.

Also please realize that he received emails from EZ-Robot in September 5, 2013 that mentioned a "Christmas 2013 presale availability", that there then was a clear promise of a shipment date window (due to pre-order status). Both online and in the October 18, 2013 confirmation email we got from EZ Robot which said that: "Due to high demand, some items in your cart are in pre-order status. [b]Your order will ship between November 1st and December 1st. [b]".

At no time when we placed the order did it say that our order would ship as soon as possible, or as soon as foreign Chinese manufacturing facilities were properly located, or as soon as plastic mold designs were finalized, or as soon as sufficient electronic components are sourced, or as soon as we can arrange for assembly and drop shipping from China. This has all come up once it was apparent that shipping wouldn't happen by the end of 2013.

So, although he now realizes what a "start-up" company is and that promises may be broken, my son did not know this back in 2013. This also was not a Kickstarter campaign, but a company that looked very professional and is actually fairly local to us.

I've been trying to use this delay as a learning tool for him, to teach him to have patience and to understand that unexpected things happen. But it's hard to have a 13 year old's savings spent and not have the robot in his hands.