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[Update] Oculus Apologizes For Rift Shipment Delay, Taking Steps To Speed Delivery
Update: Oculus has issued a statement regarding the extensive shipping delays, apologizing to customers who are now waiting an additional six to eight weeks. The company says it has increased production to catch up.
The company also says it hopes to beat the estimates it issued last night to pre-order customers. Oculus believes that most Rifts will ship with less than a four-week delay from the original estimate.
The component shortage impacted our quantities more than we expected, and we’ve updated the shipment window to reflect these changes. We apologize for the delay.
We’re delivering Rifts to customers every day, and we’re focused on getting Rifts out the door as fast as we can. We’ve taken steps to address the component shortage, and we’ll continue shipping in higher volumes each week. We’ve also increased our manufacturing capacity to allow us to deliver in higher quantities, faster. Many Rifts will ship less than four weeks from original estimates, and we hope to beat the new estimates we’ve provided.
If you order a Rift today, shipping estimates now peg delivery in August. That's a month later than the estimate had you placed an order yesterday.
Original Story:
Last week, Oculus announced that it had run into a problem sourcing a component for its recently released Rift VR headset. Last night, the company issued more concrete delays for many of its customers.
Prior to last night, customers were unable to see projected shipment times on their orders. These began appearing prior to communication from the company. The Oculus subreddit is filled with comments from frustrated hopeful owners who are now subject to a month or more of delay.
These include those that received an email on March 24, four days prior to launch, that their hardware was scheduled to process (go through payment collection and shipping) in “one to three weeks.” I received one of those emails after having ordered in the first 10 to 15 minutes of the pre-order window, placing me in the “shipping in March” group. My projected shipment window is now May 2 through May 12.
Those who didn’t get their pre-order in as quickly are seeing delays of one-and-a-half to two months. Users report that shipments originally projected for April have been shifted to June or July, with later orders seeing similar six to eight week delays.
Oculus did send an email to affected users later in the evening, though no more detail is offered. Many who pre-ordered have lamented the lack of communication and detail from the company:
We've updated your Order History with a new shipment window for your Rift.
This window may be later than your original estimate, due to the early component shortage.
As a reminder, we'll send you an email when we charge the payment method on file for your purchase and prepare your shipment. We'll also cover all shipping and handling costs for orders placed through 11:59 PDT on April 1, 2016.
Don't hesitate to reach out to the Oculus Support team if you have any questions. Thank you for supporting the future of virtual reality.
The Oculus Team
We’ve reached out to Oculus to find out more about the cause of the delays. We’ll update should we receive a response.
Our Take
As someone who is anxiously awaiting his Rift, this news is disappointing. But personal feelings aside, I want to address the email that was sent to pre-order customers.
When the company sent an email on April 2 announcing the delay, it apologized for not updating order statuses sooner. Last night’s email is missing a contrite tone. Even if this is out of Oculus’ control, an apology goes a long way.
I also wonder how this is impacting developers who have games on Oculus’ storefront. Without hardware getting out to pre-order customers, the install base is extremely small. That directly translates to lower software sales (and for multiplayer games, diminished experiences for those that do have their Rifts). This launch has been anything but smooth, and it seems Oculus’ best play is to increase its transparency with the crucial early adopter market.
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