Tips for beginner poultry farmers: how to buy Parrot AR.Drone

    A year or two ago I read about a curious toy - Parrot AR.Drone. This is a quadrocopter equipped with a camera and allows you to arrange games with elements of augmented reality. And so, in early March, I decided to buy this cyber bird. At Amazon, it cost $ 299.99. March 5, I made an order.
    image

    Since Amazon refused to send the toy to Russia, I used the services of the Shipito.com intermediary office, where I have registered a California mail box for more than a year. I paid for the purchase through PayPal with a Sberbank dollar “visa”, indicating the California address for delivery. The delivery of the copter in the States itself was free. Shipito parcel handling cost me $ 8.5.

    The parcel was sent from Amazon only on March 10. And on March 13, I realized how stupid I did! A couple of years ago, when I did not yet have an account in Shipito, in order to find out how much I would have to pay for the delivery of a product through Shipito, I entered their address in one of my Amazon accounts as one of the delivery addresses - indicating an arbitrary number subscriber box (I didn’t have mine then). That is, my "parrot" went unknown to anyone! What a fool I am! I had FULL FIVE DAYS to see and correct the error - and I noticed it a few days after sending. Imagination painted pictures, like an unknown Romanian or Chinese, seeing a three-hundred-dollar toy unexpectedly dumped in his box, he joyfully pays for the delivery of an unexpected gift. Or how an unclean Shipitovets writes to me that the premise, which I sent to the wrong address, has already been sent to the recipient - and he himself imagines how his children will enjoy the copter. And after all, there is no one to blame - the mistake is exclusively mine!

    Resigned to the fact that $ 300 was donated to someone unknown, I wrote a letter in which I outlined the situation and sent it to all Shipito contacts I had. And on time! On March 14, the parcel arrived at the company’s office - and it was placed exactly in my mail box :) Well done guys, they promptly and honestly responded by correcting my mistake!

    But the adventure did not end there. In terms of weight and size, the parcel did not fit any delivery option - for one postal service it is too heavy, for another it is too overall ... But this problem was also solved. Shipito has a parcel repacking service. On March 15, for an additional $ 8.5, they repackaged it so that delivery of USPS Express Mail® International, $ 86.57, became possible. On March 18, the package went across the ocean.

    And then I remembered that after the adoption of ourcrooks and thieves deputies of the damn law on criminal prosecution for covert video filming - even batteries for mobile phones began to be wrapped up at customs, and it became possible to get a deadline for work in the field of augmented reality (in any case, several experts who installed apartment video surveillance systems have already received such a deadline ) Hassle has begun - whether my “parrot” will go through customs - or it will be wrapped up as spy equipment for covert video surveillance. In one of the videos with an advertisement for a quadrocopter, the “pilot” pushed the rotorcraft out of the window, lowered it a couple of floors - and the drone flew into the window of someone else's apartment. Fortunately, WiFi and video transmission from the drone’s camera allow them to steer at a sufficient distance and without line of sight. Real espionage technique!

    However, the drone went through customs and on March 22 landed at the EMS warehouse, from where I picked it up.

    Bottom line: Parrot AR.Drone flew to me for 18 days, not without adventure. Cost Amount:
    (drone cost: $ 299.99) + (Shipito.com services: $ 8.5 + $ 8.5) + (USPS delivery: $ 86.57) = $ 403.56

    This weekend we plan to conduct the first tests of the copter, so after a while I’ll try to tell in detail about the drone itself :) Taking this opportunity, I would like to find other owners of Parrot AR.Drone in Moscow - all "augmented-real" games are designed for the participation of two quadrocopters. So if you have Parrot AR.Drone and are tired of driving it alone - write in a personal!

    A few related links:
    Game videos for AR.Drone
    Developer Corner

    Also popular now: