Delayed Oculus Rift Units Shipping Out Free Worldwide
Oculus Rift recently launched on March 28 and shipped to excited customers worldwide—supposedly.
Reports are coming in that a majority of people who pre-ordered the Oculus Rift have yet to receive their Oculus Rift sets as of this writing. Oculus Rift is shipping to more than 20 countries and region all over the globe and it seems it bit off more than it could chew. A lot of customers were waiting for the momentous moment that virtual reality finally becomes a technology available to many, but what better way to spoil this excitement than to delay the Oculus Rift shipments?
Posted March 28 at their website, Oculus stated the following.
“Kickstarter units will start arriving today, and the first pre-ordered Rifts will start shipping mid-week and arrive soon after. We’re working as fast as we can to get Rifts to customers who pre-ordered. If you pre-ordered, you’ll get an email when your order is being prepped (1-3 weeks prior to shipping) and then another one when your payment method has been charged and your Rift is on its way.”
But the shipment delays are getting worse.
The launch of the Oculus Rift should have been perfect because so much has been riding on this one product. One is the redemption of the failed virtual reality movement of the ’90s. Virtual reality started firing up gamers back in the day, but dev kit after dev kit, the industry realized it was just too soon for such kind of technology to penetrate the market. But here we are, decades later, and virtual reality is already a reality–and Oculus Rift is a huge part of that reality.
Two is competition. With the HTC Vive and PlayStation VR neck-in-neck with the Oculus Rift, the Oculus Rift had to set the edge. Consumers forgave Oculus Rift for charging their units at prices almost double of what they hinted at in the first place. But with this disaster in Oculus Rift shipments, it looks like Oculus Rift doubled time on their launch just so they could beat the behind of their competition. We waited this long. It should have been perfect.
A lot of people anticipating the launch of the Oculus Rift are not too happy with the delays. As of March 31, not even customer service representatives could give a date for the release of the Oculus Rift units.
Jeff Grubb of Venture Beat was one of the people who received an email from Oculus Rift VR as April opened regarding the status of his Oculus Rift order and the email read as follows.
“We know you’re anxious to receive your Oculus Rift and apologize for not updating your order status sooner. We’ve been working through an unexpected component shortage, and unfortunately, that issue has impacted the original shipping estimates for some early customers.
“We’re working hard to get up-to-date ship windows, and you should expect to see your order status updated on oculus.com by Tuesday, April 12. Although many Rifts will be arriving on schedule and in line with original estimates, we’ll be covering shipping and handling costs for all orders placed through today.
“We’re shipping Rifts everyday. Don’t hesitate to reach out to the Oculus support team if you have additional questions.”
It seems its going to take more than weeks for the Oculus Rift shipment issue to be resolved. With customers unhappy and negative reports flying, Oculus Rift is doing its best to calm the store and sweeten the deal a bit for its customers. Oculus VR chief executive officer Brendan Iribe himself is trying to quell the anger of gamers taking it out on reddit and confirmed that Oculus Rift will be covering all shipping expenses to make up for their incompetence.
“We apologize for not updating you earlier. The first few batches are going out slower than we estimated, so we’re giving free shipping for all preorders, including international.”
The failure of Oculus Rift to deliver comes after the supposed release of the Oculus Rift, celebrated with a video of Oculus VR founder Palmer Luckey hand delivering the first unit to Ross Martin. Watch the awkward video of the delivery of the first and only Oculus Rift to the very first person who pre-ordered below:
[Featured image via Oculus website]
