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Oculus Rift Users Angered By Pre-Order Snafu (roadtovr.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the virtual-shipping-dates dept.

fluor2 writes: In April, Oculus announced that many of the Oculus Rift CV1 pre-orders were getting bumped from March to early May or even June...but they're still finding CV1's for supplying Rift+PC bundles. The solution for some has now been to cancel their order, order Rift+PC bundles...and cancel the PC portion.
This tactic appears to have mixed results, and those Rift+PC bundles have now also sold out, adds the Road To VR site, which reports that some of the original pre-orders "are now shipping out significantly ahead of the initial delay estimates provided by Oculus." For one customer, "Oculus estimated the Rift wouldn't ship until sometime between May 23 and June 2, around two months after the official launch date. However, the customer tells us that their Rift was shipped today, about one month ahead of the delay estimate, and about one month after the official launch date."

70 comments

  1. Duh by Spad · · Score: 2

    some of the original pre-orders "are now shipping out significantly ahead of the initial delay estimates provided by Oculus."

    Presumably because of all the cancelled pre-orders from people trying to jump the queue.

    1. Re:Duh by Big+Hairy+Ian · · Score: 3, Funny

      Perhaps they should rename the product "Oculus Grift"

      --

      Build a Man a Fire, and He'll Be Warm for a Day. Set a Man on Fire, and He'll Be Warm for the Rest of His Life.

  2. Nobody here anymore by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    everybody gone to the reddit imitating kindergarden. What a safe place slashdot became!

    1. Re:Nobody here anymore by wardrich86 · · Score: 0

      Is that even English?

    2. Re:Nobody here anymore by frovingslosh · · Score: 0

      Hey! That's racist against terrorists!

      --
      I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
  3. I'm so angry! by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

    I'm shaking my virtual first at you Facebook!

    1. Re: I'm so angry! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Virtual fail.

  4. why? by JustNiz · · Score: 4, Insightful

    >>> The solution for some has now been to cancel their order, order Rift+PC bundles...and cancel the PC portion.

    Seems to me the far better move would be to just order a Vive instead. You'd not only get it sooner but you'd also get room-scale VR, a front camera and hand controllers immediately instead of still having to wait for Touch to come out even after you finally received your Rift.

    1. Re:why? by 110010001000 · · Score: 4, Funny

      Or you could just spin around until you throw up. That way you can get the whole VR "experience" for free.

    2. Re:why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      The best move is to order no VR equipment and let the early adapters uncover all the bugs. Sit and wait for version 2.

    3. Re:why? by pecosdave · · Score: 1

      I'm beginning to wish I hadn't spent all my mod-points before this thread filled in....

      --
      The preceding post was not a Slashvertisement.
    4. Re:why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Huge amounts of people have done this, and posted about it. I got my Vive on Thursday.

      Oddly enough, the Vive community started looking for people who've done the opposite -- cancelled their Vive and switched to Oculus. Nobody could find anyone. Oculus and Facebook seriously messed up their launch, and product reasons aside I think Vive is going to capture a whole lot of market share based on that screw up.

      (I personally also think the Vive is a better product.. but that's somewhat irrelevant.)

    5. Re:why? by GuB-42 · · Score: 1

      Yep, very disappointed by the not exactly $350 Oculus Rift.
      OTOH, the HTC Vive may be a bit more expensive but according to someone who develops for the DK2 and who has tried the Vive, the additional controls and awareness makes a world of difference. On the DK2, he completely abandoned any attempt to use external controllers, too awkward, his game is almost entirely controlled by head motion.
      It is something I noticed too when I tried the DK2 : I couldn't see my hands, which is a bit disturbing, and more importantly, once you put the headset on, simply picking up a controller is a challenge.

    6. Re:why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Yep, very disappointed by the not exactly $350 Oculus Rift.

      That early estimate didn't include the cost of the server infrastructure needed to harvest all the data from it being used, and forward it live to its users, and feed back some advertisements.

      A prefect win-win situation. You have to pay to be the product.

    7. Re:why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The Vive that the person you responded to suggested is supposed to be usable by people who get VR sick. Movement is 1:1 with actual movement in the real world. Give it a try, and it will probably change your opinion on VR. It's still no holodeck, since if you lean on something in VR, you'll wind up on the floor, but it's as close as we'll get at home.

      That said, there's also a long wait if you order a Vive today as they fulfill pre-orders, so JustNiz may be wrong about getting it sooner.

    8. Re:why? by spire3661 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      This is like saying 'Dont play Asteroids, wait for Pac-Man'.......

      --
      Good-bye
    9. Re: why? by severn2j · · Score: 1

      To be fair, the Vive launch was a massive screwup as well. I preordered one and was supposed to be one of the first "wave" of UK orders, until they screwed up my payment and then cancelled my order.. Two days later and one their reps tells me the only way to fix it is for me to let them have remote access to my PC so they can reorder it..

      I refused, so never got the Vive and will wait until the dust settles to see which is worth getting, but I can confidently say it was the worst online buying experience I've had.

    10. Re:why? by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

      I know that's meant to be funny, but the Vive seems really good in this regard - I occasionally get sick with long FPS sessions but I didn't even get a win of sickness with the Vive when I tried it. With the head tracking being very good and being abele to move a bit with movement tracked perfectly, I get zero sense of disorientation...

      The Oculus from all reports is just as good, I don't have mine up and running yet to say.

      --
      "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    11. Re:why? by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

      The Oculus is supposed to have similar hand controllers shipping later this year. I agree the Vive controllers are amazing and I don't think now you could really do VR without hands you can "see"... I'm also not sure you can do VR at all well without roomscale features as it adds so much to the immersion.

      --
      "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    12. Re:why? by JustNiz · · Score: 1

      Yeah damn those new things to try. Everything is a lot easier if you just stay in bed all day and never move out of your parents basement.

    13. Re:why? by PsychoSlashDot · · Score: 1

      This is like saying 'Dont play Asteroids, wait for Pac-Man'.......

      No, it's more like "don't spend $500 for Asteroids on a monitor at 800x600 with a joystick that only goes left and down, wait for next year's version that supports double the resolution and adds right and up and costs $300". Suggesting that waiting for v2 of the various VR gear is waiting for some completely different thing makes no sense at all. This tech stuff is iterative. Quality, capability, applicability and availability go up while price goes down. Sure, in the meantime you're stuck with 2D gaming but... well... strangely that's been pretty damned fun for the last three decades. What's another year or two?

      --
      "Oh no... he found the .sig setting."
    14. Re:why? by spire3661 · · Score: 2

      After playing on my Vive for the past 3 weeks, 'flat-games' are kind of tame. There is a LOT of fun to be had in VR right now. Cockpit games alone are worth it, not to mention Room Scale is awesome. There wont be a v2 for at least 2 years.

      --
      Good-bye
    15. Re: why? by shitzu · · Score: 1

      You are advocating jumping on the VR bandwagon early as an opposite to being in your parent's basement?

    16. Re:why? by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      a win of sickness

      Is that where you don't lose your lunch but you capture somebody else's?

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    17. Re:why? by PhrostyMcByte · · Score: 1

      I don't want touch controllers. I want to play racing and flight sims. Why spend $200 more to get some extra controllers I'll use maybe a handful of times before putting them away for good?

      If some non-gimmicky room-scale game eventually comes out that gets me excited, I'll buy the touch controllers then. Why do it before?

    18. Re: why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't think I've heard a valid payment issue after 2010 that wasn't customer caused in some way (ie, different shipping address, initially declined, etc).

      Taking people's money efficiently has long been solved.

    19. Re:why? by JustNiz · · Score: 1

      I think its a tightening mistook because like me he's concerned enough to use a smelling chekov

    20. Re:why? by mobby_6kl · · Score: 1

      And the Rift was supposed to ship last year or at least in March. I wouldn't consider the Touch controllers until you can actually... touch them.

    21. Re:why? by JustNiz · · Score: 0

      Cool you have a solid reason thats great. It sounds like you haven't tried Vive yet. You need to before you write off "gimmicky" room-scale though. I kinda thought the same but after I tried a Vive my mind has very definitely been opened.

    22. Re: why? by JustNiz · · Score: 1

      Aw heck no you wont catch me doing any advocating.

    23. Re:why? by PhrostyMcByte · · Score: 1

      Cool you have a solid reason thats great. It sounds like you haven't tried Vive yet. You need to before you write off "gimmicky" room-scale though. I kinda thought the same but after I tried a Vive my mind has very definitely been opened.

      I've used both, actually.

      The problem I've got with room-scale isn't the tech so much as the games, which from the ones I've seen are very reminiscent of the Wii: fun if you've only got a short time, good to quickly wow a guest, but ultimately not very fulfilling gameplay. Gimmicky.

      I like to think I'm pretty creative when it comes to imagining uses for new technology and I've been a gamer ever since my hands met a keyboard, but I just can't think of a compelling mechanic that could fit a 5'x5' square. Myst maybe, but how many Myst clones can you play. Warehouse-scale, now that's another story, but I don't own a warehouse.

      I'm sure someone smarter than me will think of something and when I see that first great game come out for room-scale, I'll jump all over it. It just isn't ready yet.

    24. Re:why? by Immerman · · Score: 1

      >You have to pay to be the product.
      Rather like cable TV...

      --
      --- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
    25. Re:why? by Type44Q · · Score: 1

      Nice. :)

    26. Re:why? by Type44Q · · Score: 1

      Functional analogies require logic.

    27. Re:why? by Type44Q · · Score: 1, Insightful

      So you're saying you've never tried either one.

    28. Re:why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

      I've tried Occulus DK2. And it looks like a crappy mobile screen sitting an inch from my eyes. Fucking ridiculous screen door effect. Still.

      Friend of mine ordered all this crap so I suppose I'll get to see the consumer version. Maybe they'll have fixed that. Doubt it!

    29. Re:why? by Big+Hairy+Ian · · Score: 1

      Already got me a pair of these http://www.cnet.com/au/news/ha... I'm fine with it but it makes my 8yr old nephew want to throw up so finally I have a piece of tech kit that he doesn't want to borrow every time he's around :D

      --

      Build a Man a Fire, and He'll Be Warm for a Day. Set a Man on Fire, and He'll Be Warm for the Rest of His Life.

    30. Re:why? by JustNiz · · Score: 1

      >> The problem I've got with room-scale isn't the tech so much as the games,

      Jeez its hardly out yet give it a chance. With any new gaming device hitting the market the first games it ships with are always mostly crap. Exactly the same has happened so far with every version of Xbox and Playstation launch too.

    31. Re:why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It is very true that for some of us the VR experience is very likely to end in terrible nausea. But it seems that for many people this can be trained. For me it took about a week of light VR use to start feeling a decline in VR-sickness to the point where I now can enjoy a couple of hours of Elite without wanting to throw up. There are still many experiences that i just can't do and to try and "push through" the nausea is apparently a very bad move. But as the quality of lenses, screens and GPUs go up I expect this to become better.

      The sad part is that there seems to be a small percentage of humans that just can't do VR. But there is serious research into this as the military et al. are very keen on good VR for training.

  5. Business in America by frovingslosh · · Score: 1

    If you can't screw your customers, who can you screw?

    --
    I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
    1. Re:Business in America by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Who can else can you screw? Really??

      How's this for starters:

      Your investors.
      Your suppliers.
      Your neighbors (by destroying the environment).

    2. Re:Business in America by pecosdave · · Score: 1

      Technically, if you're hiring hookers then you're the customer doing the screwing.....

      --
      The preceding post was not a Slashvertisement.
    3. Re: Business in America by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No matter how the Zuck dresses up...

      Oh, screw it, never mind.

    4. Re:Business in America by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Investors? They're owned by Facebook. The entire O.R. bandwagon was hot-air and retarded "gaming" rag reporters. Now the truth is out how power the tech actually is, the original investors are laughing and long gone thanks to FB's stock exchange. All that's left is zealots that have bought into the dead product and the poor that believe they're going into the bloody matrix with it, if only they could get within 100' of a unit.

  6. trying to jump the queue? by frovingslosh · · Score: 3, Insightful

    " trying to jump the queue ." is harsh. These marks, I mean people, ordered first. Oculus decided that they already had their money and would sell their devices to other marks who were also willing to buy a PC. Some learned that they could reduce the already too long wait by playing some games with the Oculus order department. Who do you feel they are jumping the queue on? They are still behind the people who ordered a device and a PC yesterday. They may be getting ahead of the people who ordered the device only yesterday, but since they ordered months ago they certainly should be. The only people who they are jumping ahead of are the marks that Oculus told they were getting screwed and said they were OK with that.

    --
    I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
    1. Re:trying to jump the queue? by TheReaperD · · Score: 2

      When will people learn that pre orders are complete garbage and stop falling for them? Companies have shown time and time again that they are willing to screw over pre order customers for either other money, promotion or convenience and that doesn't even include when the delivered product is garbage and you can't back out of the sale.

      --
      "Be particularly skeptical when presented with evidence confirming what you already believe." -
    2. Re:trying to jump the queue? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      " trying to jump the queue ." is harsh. These marks, I mean people, ordered first. Oculus decided that they already had their money and would sell their devices to other marks who were also willing to buy a PC. Some learned that they could reduce the already too long wait by playing some games with the Oculus order department. Who do you feel they are jumping the queue on? They are still behind the people who ordered a device and a PC yesterday. They may be getting ahead of the people who ordered the device only yesterday, but since they ordered months ago they certainly should be. The only people who they are jumping ahead of are the marks that Oculus told they were getting screwed and said they were OK with that.

      They're jumping the queue on the other people who pre-ordered but didn't jump the queue. There's no mystery.

    3. Re: trying to jump the queue? by Namarrgon · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Oculus decided that they already had their money and would sell their devices

      Except of course, Oculus hasn't charged them anything yet, and the devices are not "theirs" in any sense.

      All these preorders are is a place in a queue. You don't know which place, and it isn't even the only queue. If you want to try your luck with a different queue, then go right ahead, but feeling anger that "your" device isn't in your hands yet just sounds whiney to me. (Disclosure: am also somewhere in an Oculus queue)

      --
      Why would anyone engrave "Elbereth"?
    4. Re:trying to jump the queue? by im_thatoneguy · · Score: 1

      Oculus decided that they already had their money and would sell their devices to other marks who were also willing to buy a PC.

      Or they pre-sold a number of items to PC retailers in exchange for cross-promotion deals. It's a bit like being mad that you pre-ordered from Amazon but Best Buy still has inventory.

    5. Re:trying to jump the queue? by frovingslosh · · Score: 1

      It's a bit like being mad that you pre-ordered from Amazon but Best Buy still has inventory.

      No, it's like pre-ordering from Oculus and having Oculus ship to others first because they can get more sales that way. And your theory about selling to PC retailers is complete bullshit.

      --
      I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
    6. Re:trying to jump the queue? by SuperDre · · Score: 1

      Except if you haven't pre-ordered the Rift, you know you won't have at by the end of the year... There is a difference with pre-ordering some game or pre-ordering a device which is send in order of ordering..

    7. Re: trying to jump the queue? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      >"No, it's like pre-ordering from Oculus and having Oculus ship to others first because they can get more sales that way. And your theory about selling to PC retailers is complete bullshit."

      No, It's like Best Buy, Amazon, Etc preordered their inventory long before direct-to-consumer preorders went live. We knew that stores would receive their Rift bundles early long before they even started taking preorders.

    8. Re:trying to jump the queue? by tlhIngan · · Score: 1

      No, it's like pre-ordering from Oculus and having Oculus ship to others first because they can get more sales that way. And your theory about selling to PC retailers is complete bullshit.

      Well, perhaps they're just selling to those who pre-ordered first... the retailers. You think you were the first to pre-order? Hell no, retailers often get first dibs long before the pre-orders were opened to everyone. The order lead times can be quite long and retailers often get their orders in long before production is even started so they can estimate how many to build.

      If you ever wondered why Costco sells Christmas stuff in July, that's how long the lead times are.

    9. Re:trying to jump the queue? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Just so you're aware when ordering Oculus, you don't actually get charged for it until it actually ships. So "decided that they already had their money" is incorrect.

  7. Tell me, Slashdot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    What's the M$ angle on this? I'm sure they are responsible, somehow...

    1. Re:Tell me, Slashdot by kharbour · · Score: 1

      What's the M$ angle on this? I'm sure they are responsible, somehow...

      Oculus --> Facebook --> Microsoft, if memory serves...

    2. Re:Tell me, Slashdot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They are one of the companies selling the Rift bundles...

  8. No way by Kohath · · Score: 1

    People on the Internet are angry about something? Amazing.

  9. Not all bad by AC-x · · Score: 1

    Hey, I'm happy to receive my Oculus a few weeks late in exchange for the free shipping they've offered delayed orders.

    1. Re:Not all bad by Type44Q · · Score: 1

      That must've saved you quite a bit; don't they have to deliver that thing on a truck?

    2. Re:Not all bad by AC-x · · Score: 1

      Yeah it's a pretty hefty box, but the Vive (as it comes with more parts to support room scale VR) is even bigger

  10. Waaaahhhhh by ArchieBunker · · Score: 0

    Waaahhhhhhh my bleeding edge hardware pre-order was bumped a month or two waaaahhhhhhh! They sound like crying children.

    --
    Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
    1. Re:Waaaahhhhh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't understand. Bleeding Edge is a term used for non-production solutions. I.E Use at your own caution as the version you've opted to use is not stable enough and we advise as such.

      Are you saying people pre-ordered a production version of Occulas which is akin to bleeding edge version? Not even Microsoft is that reckless, at least they try to pretend it works. To imagine that FaceBook which is Wall St's tech industry golden goose can get this wrong. I mean realistically in today's awesome new tech world if it was some low quality Chinese manufacturer trying to make its name like HTC it would be understandable right? Oh wait ... its called Vive and they've done it right.

      This is not only an embarrassment for FaceBook but its an embarrassment for Silicon Valley in general.

  11. Cancelled weeks ago. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I've been waiting years for CV1, I built a high end gaming machine for it last fall.

    I cancelled my order when they extent of spyware became known. Zuckerberg can stick Oculus Rift up his ass.

    I'll buy a VR headset in a year or 2, but I'm 100% sure it won't be Oculus.

    A VR headset spying on me is no different from my computer monitor spying on me. They're just simple displays.

    1. Re:Cancelled weeks ago. by Noxal · · Score: 1

      Vive.

    2. Re:Cancelled weeks ago. by Type44Q · · Score: 1

      I built a high end gaming machine for it last fall

      You better put that thing to use; at the rate it's depreciating, it soon won't have the horsepower to run XP...

    3. Re:Cancelled weeks ago. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I bought a $30 VR headmount for my phone from Amazon and use that. My phone is higher resolution than Oculus Rift or Vive and the motion sensing works pretty well, though I usually play flying, racing or FPS games with it so there isn't a lot of moving around needed. With Vireio and Nvidia ShadowPlay I can watch and play most stereoscopic 3D content.

  12. If you dont have rift yet, get vive, its worth it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Spent 3 hours yesterday in vive playing hover junkers and another 20 minutes in audioshield. Not a touch of motion sickness. Only issue is how sore I am from all the movement I dont normally do.

  13. I feel guilty about being a kickstarter backer.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I've got my Kickstarter edition still sitting in the shipping box in the dining room for the past 4 weeks, because I haven't had time to get to it, and upgrade my PC hardware.