Samsung Gear VR Finally Shipped By Amazon, But Best Buy Proves To Be Most Trustworthy
Those who ordered their Samsung Gear VR virtual reality headsets from Amazon.com and haven’t cancelled their orders due to late shipments will receive their Gear VR very soon. According to posts at Reddit, some who ordered their Gear VR units for one-day shipping from Amazon are expected to receive their units any day now.
Earlier this month, Oculus, the company that makes the Gear VR, announced that the mobile virtual reality device was available for pre-order.
“We’ve been working closely with Samsung to bring the absolute best portable virtual reality experience to people all over the world. Starting today, you can pre-order the all new Samsung Gear VR, powered by Oculus, for only $99. Gear VR is available on Amazon.com, BestBuy.com, and Samsung.com and will ship on November 20th.”
Those who ordered from Best Buy and paid for express shipping received their units on Friday. Those who ordered from Samsung had their orders cancelled. If you ordered your Gear VR from the usually trustworthy Amazon.com, you were out of luck. Several Reddit users were livid with Amazon over not only failing to ship the Gear VR on time, but the lack of communication.
“I pre-ordered GearVR on amazon a week ago, it hasn’t shipped yet. I ordered GearVR on bestbuy.com three hours ago and it just shipped,” claimed an angry Reddit user called “kevinstonge.”
“Amazon needs to be shamed for the lack of communication, horrible customer service. I bought my Note 5 from best buy and it was the easiest phone buying experience I had. Should have trusted them with the GearVr, Bestbuy gained a future customer,” Cowmoogun responded.
If you haven’t already ordered your Gear VR from Amazon or Best Buy, you may be out of luck. Tech Crunch has the news.
“If you didn’t pre-order the new consumer version of Samsung Gear VR, you might have some difficulty finding it on your favorite online shopping destinations. Amazon and Best Buy, both places that have been touted as having a supply of the virtual reality accessory, are showing ‘temporarily out of stock’ and ‘sold out online’ messages respectively.”
However, potential Gear VR buyers shouldn’t be too upset. T-Mobile says that a select amount of stores will start carrying the device on Friday, November 27. There have reportedly been a few AT&T stores that have a limited number of Gear VR units in stock. If that doesn’t go well, there is always eBay.
Judging from some of the Gear VR reviews, you may want to pick one up as soon as possible. Gizmag is quite impressed with the device.
“Right now the Gear VR looks like an essential purchase if you own a 2015 Samsung flagship and are at least mildly curious about VR. Its US$99 price tag is very reasonable for what amounts to the Game Boy of VR (that analogy assumes that the Oculus Rift will be the NES of VR),” says reviewer Will Shanklin.
CNET gave the Gear VR four stars.
“The Gear VR’s relatively low price belies a compelling VR experience, and the games are quickly catching up to the hype. The headset is fairly light, and offers a completely cordless experience.”
Samsung’s Gear VR is the best virtual reality device you can buy until the Oculus Rift (for PC desktops) is released during the first half of 2016. However, the Oculus Rift needs to be connected to a PC through wires while the Gear VR just uses your phone as a screen. Samsung’s Gear VR is definitely ushering in a new era of virtual reality computing.
[Photo by Eric Eison/Getty Images]
