Q: How long does it take for orders to ship?
A: Most products ship the same day or within 1 business day. Because orders are manually reviewed by our US operations there may be a slight delay on some orders. Orders which require configuration (mainly laptops/desktops) also have a build time to account for. See below for estimates.
Q: What is the normal build time for laptops?
A: We try and get all laptops out within 2-3 business days.
Q: What is the normal build time for desktops?
A: We try and get all desktops out within 2-3 business days.
Q: I live in [ your country here ] and would like to order a laptop/desktop. How long does it take and what are the taxes/shipping costs?
A: It depends on the items being ordered. Most small items in the United States and [censored] are delivered in 1-5 business days depending on the exact destination. Outside of the United States and [censored] delivery to countries with a modern postal system and no barriers to entry such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Switzerland, Japan, Israel, and Iceland will generally take 6-10 business days. Expedited shipping to most major destinations via DHL usually is around 1-3 business days.
Larger items like laptops and desktops can take anywhere between 1 and 5 business days to most major destinations worldwide. DHL is usually 1-3 business days for those in [censored]. USPS is usually a bit slower where available and can take closer to 5 business days and sometimes even a bit longer.
Q: Can you recommend a wireless adapter?
A: Our Wireless G USB Adapter is the easiest to install and has the broadest support. Its a great choice for most users. If your using the latest release from any of the major desktop-oriented distributions you may like the Penguin Wireless N USB Adapter (TPE-N150USB). This adapter supports the latest N standard and is easy to install.
Q: I'm new to GNU/Linux and didn't receive any documentation with the USB wireless adapter. Do you have any tutorials or other documentation?
A: Yes, we have a video on connecting to a wireless network here: https://www.thinkpenguin.com/files/connecting-to-a-network.ogg and further documentation here: https://www.thinkpenguin.com/gnu-linux/penguin-wireless-n-usb-adapter-gn...
Q: What are your companies hours of operation?
A: We maintain a regular hours of operation Monday-Friday 10:30AM-5PM eastern, 7:30AM-2PM pacific. During other hours please contact us by e-mail. We are constantly responding to email at all hours. Please keep in mind some communications may take us longer to answer. Particularly if its best answered by a particular employee.
Q: What is your return policy?
A: We have a 14-day return policy. Please contact support for an RMA #. Shipping and handling not included.
Q: Do you have drivers for [proprietary operating system x]?
A: The first place to look is on our product support pages. If you don't find the drivers you can contact support. Keep in mind we don't actually offer support for proprietary operating systems although will generally provide a link to the drivers if they exist.
Q: I can get product X elsewhere, why should I buy from you?
A: Mainly because despite appearances product labelling can be very misleading. Manufacturers often change things up from one manufacturing run of a product to another without changing model #s. Often these changes are significant enough to cause problems. There are dozens of different and/or related problems:
- mixed stock without any way to distinguish between product versions; ie not all versions will work / be fully supported
- misleading chipset information listed : version a of a product contains chipset x, but version b contains chipset y, and chipset y won't work
- contained the listed chipset, but is not compatible : a manufacturer modifies a reference design and the modified driver needed does not exist
- multiple versions of a product : dozens of different versions of a given product of which some or many aren't compatible
- correct chipset, but different device ID : a product uses a different device ID and the driver doesn't know to initialize the device
- the product works sort of, but isn't the same : the USB ports don't work, the internal serial port is missing, etc
- the product is counterfeit : the product simply only pretends to be something it isn't, you can't flash it, or use it as intended
- the product has different versions for different regions with the same model : if things are different some work, some don't
- digital restrictions : newer versions ship with signature checks which prevent the running of third party software; worked yesterday? well, not today
- quality / features : some products may have greater range or support more features even with the same chips
When we design, manufacture, use, or just stock third party products we have to be very careful. It's easy to end up with multiple incompatible versions of something despite regular testing. We're always making sure factories and companies upstream of us understand our needs and that of our customers. Generally we buy most third party products in significant quantities to reduce some of these issues and ensure we can continue that availability beyond the expected life of the product within the market. This ensures the product you get works and works out of the box regardless of versions and continues to work for that matter. However despite our careful communications with other companies it's still not a guarantee we've received identical units of anything. We have to do random spot checking of components/stock received to confirm everything is the same and up to our standards.