The virtual reality future is off to a rocky start.
Shortly after the Rift launched late last month, Oculus had to inform many of its customers that their Rift orders would be delayed due to an “unexpected component shortage.” Although the shipping cost for any delayed orders was waived, it appears that this was just the first in a string of issues.
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On Monday night, an Oculus customer support representative visited the Oculus subreddit with more bad news for Kickstarter backers:
“Kickstarter Backers, we’re changing your Order History to show “TBD” instead of the date as that date was applicable to the time in which we imported the orders. We’ve already fulfilled a large number of the orders and more are being fulfilled on a regular cadence. Your Rifts are from a different allocation.”
Many Oculus Rift preorders have been fulfilled, as the message states above, but countless others have been delayed by weeks or even months, with some preorders expected to arrive as late as August. Polygon says that several members of its staff placed their orders for the Rift within minutes of the preorders going live, but the shipping estimates on their orders now show May or June.
As expected, customers aren’t happy with these developments:
Cancelled my Oculus Rift pre-order. A 2 month delay is insane; no point in doing a review 3 months after release. Gonna vote with my dollar.
— ThioJoe (@thiojoe) April 12, 2016
As a content creator I am not really happy with the delay at Oculus. My viewers want Rift content now not in 2 months. Bummer. @oculus #VR
— Nathie (@NathieVR) April 12, 2016
I'm trying really hard to not be frustrated by the multi month delay on my Rift order. I'm lucky to even be in a position to buy one.
— Justin “Hoops” McElroy (@JustinMcElroy) April 12, 2016
Email from #Oculus just arrived; I’ll be getting my #Rift in June, not April. Sad about the delay, but at least they’re paying for shipping.
— TyTan Zirakuta (@zirakuta) April 12, 2016
Order processed 12 mins after Oculus went on sale. My new estimated ship date: 5/16-5/26, 2 months after “release” That’s a botched launch.
— Jeff Cannata (@jeffcannata) April 12, 2016
We’ll keep an eye out for any further updates on the situation.
UPDATE: Oculus provided the following statement regarding the delays:
“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.”
