So my kid is big into virtual reality/VR stuff after I built a proper tower gaming PC for them with all the works. However, visual wasn't enough, they wanted to be fully engaged with body trackers as well. So, with a number of errands, tasks, recycling and some graphic work for my NFT project, my kid ended up earning enough to buy some of the needed equipment. Not only did they learn the value of money earned, my kid also learned how to window-shop and score better pricing when looking around comparing prices. All good stuff.

However, this is where the story goes a bit sideways. We ended up finding trackers for a very good price of $90 from a "U.S. based" supplier, Subikar.com. Everything looked good. The trackers were the right ones, normal pricing was something like $150-$200 on Amazon, and the company was located in Arkansas with now complaints that we could find about them online. So we put the order in. We expected to get an email pretty quick the next day or so confirming the order and the shipping. Since it was going to ship DHL, I was anticipating the tracking number as well.

Instead, silence.

My kid has been pretty antsy to get the whole VR thing working before summer ends, so the questions about shipping status started in less than 48 hours.

"Did you hear anything yet?"

No.

"Any update?"

I already said no.

"Anything on your email?"

You just asked me that two hours ago!

Since I'm not monitoring my email, tweets or phone every 30 seconds, I was probably operating at dinosaur speed for them in terms of any news. Finally, however, we did take a look.

No emails.

No notice.

No nothing.

Okay, back to the vendor website to see what was going on.

Fortunately, the site had a customer account system, so I was able to get a status on the order pretty quick. Much better than the usual nonsense of having to call customer support and getting some third party call center who knows nothing about what you're talking about. At least here I was dealing with the actual transaction records.

What we found, however, was a bit of a surprise. First, the company is a drop-shipper. I originally came across the term a few years back around 2010 when I was writing marketing articles for people's websites selling pet stuff. Pet love was going big, and all these stores were popping up on the Internet selling lots of stuff for pet-owners to spoil their cats and dogs. They weren't really running as true operations, though. Instead, these popups where just digital front ends, kind of like cardboard cows on hills with motorized tails waving. The real business was being handled by some factory overseas, getting the orders from the website owner, splitting the payment, and shipping the goods ordered direct to the customer based on the details. The popup person just ran the website and pushed the selling. Very low entry cost for a startup, as long as the back end stayed true to their part in shipping the goods timely and not sending crap.

So, fast-forward to now, we took the tracking info and order details from the site and checked it out on the link given for shipping. I was expecting to see DHL. Instead I got what looks to be the mainland Chinese postal site. Hmm... Everything was in Chinese, so with a bit of help from Google translate, and clicking the colored button on the screen that looked like the submit button once you entered the tracking number, we found out my kid's equipment order was moving around couriers in...

Guangzhao City.

To date the order has made it through outbound customs and supposedly now is in a Conex box and boat floating its way to Washington.

Long story short, we have no idea where our order is, much less when it will arrive. The last time my kid ordered something that ended up in this confabulation, the goods didn't arrive for three months, well after Christmas when they wanted it. So, yes, sometimes you do pay more for stuff from Amazon or the like, but at least you know it's actually shipping from the warehouse distribution center down the road versus halfway around the planet, disguised to look like an address in Arkansas.

I should have known Arkansas had nothing to do with VR.

Doof.