If you are referring to the passive-aggressive tone in the “Davebobman answers your questions” section, then the answer is… partially. I had originally named the section “Captain Obvious answers your questions”
I was getting kind-of annoyed that people kept repeating the same questions over and over when you could answer most of them by spending about five minutes looking at the slides or watching the stream. It is basically just a “spot the difference” game.
That being said, the whole “upgrade plan” nonsense is convoluted and unnecessary. All they needed to do was add some question prompts to the store page.
ie
- Did you back the 5K(+) or 8K on Kickstarter… or pre-order them through the Pimax store?
- Yes
- No
If you answer yes, then it prompts you for your backer/pre-order number and associated email. Then it asks follow up questions.
- If you originally backed the 8K and chose to downgrade to the 5K+, then you are eligible for a $100 Pimax store credit. Would you like to use the coupon for this purchase?
- Yes: $100 credit towards this purchase
- No
- Not applicable: I backed the 8K and didn’t downgrade to the 5K+
- Not applicable: I backed the 5K
- If you backed the full package (headset + basestations + controllers), then you are eligible for one of two options - trade in your BS+controllers for credit or exchange them for Valve Index BS+controllers at an additional cost.
- I would like to keep my BS+controllers as-is
- Trade in for credit: $300 credit towards this purchase
- Exchange for Index: additional $100 cost
- Not applicable: I backed the headset only (no BS+controllers)
- If you backed the headset on Kickstarter, then you are eligible to receive the items from this list of stretch goals . Alternatively, you could trade your stretch goals for credit.
- Trade in all stretch goals: credit of $150 towards this purchase ($100 after December 31st)
- Trade in stretch goals except for $100 eye-tracking coupon: credit of $100 towards this purchase ($50 after December 31st)
- I want to keep my stretch goals
- Not applicable: I wasn’t a backer on Kickstarter
Hopefully I am being overly pessimistic but it seems like the whole “upgrade plan” system is set up to get people to give up their stretch goals for much less than they are worth. They are only giving $100 for the stretch goals ($50 after December 31st) when the value of the stretch goals is ~$200+:
- $120 for MAS
- $50 for Comfort kit
- $100 coupon for wireless (worth $50 credit towards headset - using the downgrade coupon as a reference)
- Cooling fan + prescription lens adapter + 3 pieces of content
If I want to trade in my BS+controllers but don’t want to give up my stretch goals, then I have to go through the support ticket system. The whole process is set up to encourage you to give up your stretch goals and discourage you from keeping them.