Frustrated about Delays

[escozul]

Ok so here is the story:

More than 2 years ago In (and many many early backers) paid upfront for an HMD, base stations and controllers (along with all other rewards) that were supposed to be shipped within 5-6 months.

After many delays, in Nov 2018, I (and many others) got my HMD with promises that the rest would soon follow. It turned out that the HMD, even so late, was rushed to backers and mine produced problems within 8-9 months of use. A cracked housing and discolouration of the panels. So I asked for a replacement that took about 5 more months to arrive. That made it Dec 2019.

After I got the new HMD I asked about the warranty on the replacement unit and I was informed that there is no warranty for that unit as the warranty counts since I first received the initial HMD. Even if I had to wait 5 months to get my replacement, that period counts as part of the warranty! And I still see no controllers, base stations, sturdy head strap or any of the stuff I ordered.

Furthermore, I opted to pay the difference in price for the base stations and index controllers by Valve so that I would not have to wait till April to get the pimax version. I also ordered the comfort kit and the hand tracking module. However, support just informed me, that even though I (and many others) paid extra to get the index controllers, I still have to wait till April.

What for? I mean, just refund the cost of the controllers, along with the cost of the controllers by pimax (since I won’t be getting any controllers at all) and let me order them directly from Valve. I will get them sooner. it’s 460€. refund this amount and let me get it directly from them. Or arrange a coupon with valve and we can use that coupon to receive the base stations and controllers through their system. It won’t take another 2 months for sure.

They should have done that a long time ago and we would most probably have them in our hands by now.

I mean can you imagine this? I will be getting a comfort kit for an HMD which is not certain it will be working by the time they ship the items. Although I was promised that the new units are far more sturdy, who can tell?

Also, the new date is late March or early April, but who can tell. They initially promised delivery within January For the index controllers.

In any case, I will be getting technology that was innovative when first ordered, but is close to being obsolete by the time I will be receiving the last items. You see, the goal is not only to ship items. It’s to do so in a timely fashion. The delay window these guys have is huge.

Closing, with all the advertising they do, the eshop, new units etc etc, it appears to me that they treat original backers that paid in advance a long time ago, not with the highest priority. Rather they treat us as not very “Urgent” cases of RMA and postpone shipping to give priority to new customers.

I believe that we are “new customers” too, as we have not received our products yet. Furthermore, we are frustrated “new customers” who have shown a lot of patience and our patience is growing thin.

[peteo]

This is interesting I remember seeing a pimax video at ces (by sweviver which I assume is an official pimax video, but its hard to tell these days) where he is talking to the COO (kevin) that says index controllers were starting to ship.

also we have this kickstarter update from December 3:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/pimax8kvr/pimax-the-worlds-first-8k-vr-headset/posts/2700805

4. Index Controllers & Light Houses - Delayed

• Estimate early Jan 2020 starting shipping

Details:

We received Valve Index Controllers & Lighthouses in an OEM bulk shipment. As a result, we have had to:

• Design Consumer Packaging for items by SKU.

• Test Controllers & Lighthouses to reduce the chances of consumers receiving defects.

• Assemble components for shipping to different regions (Power supplies & instructions)

So it seems they have been delayed again. Kind odd when they state they already have them, and the COO says they are shipping.

That’s Pimax for you!

[jules3454]

Test controllers and Lighthouses? Not very good job. I received mine and the base stations are not calibrated from factory so after couple hours of TeamViewer the tech person toll me that the log said I had a pair of useless Lighthouses. Waiting for Pimax to reply. (nothing yet).

[Pimel]

Well, Pimax doesn’t produce lighthouses. So if there is any issue there it’s not Pimax’ fault. Do you expect them to test all lighthouses they forward?

[MrScopi]

@Pimel, we wouldn’t expect them to test every lighthouse if they didn’t explicitly state they were testing every lighthouse. They set the expectations, we’re holding them to their word

[escozul]

Internal process is shared for the sake of sharing. It’s not an one week delay. They keep postponing shipment for months at a time! I opted to get Valve index controllers and lighthouses and paid 170€ extra so that I would not have to wait till april! And with their latest update, I will have to wait till April??? Just to get a product they only reship? What for?

[Axacuatl]

The eternal wait for the lighthouse boxes… yeah, I had hoped I would receive them finally in January and get my loaner 8K out of its box before sending it back to Pimax one day, but I guess that’s not going to happen. Just can’ be bothered to do 3DoF VR.

In general I have to say the KS and Indiegogo campaigns I backed are not performing very well at the moment.

Pimax - well, quite a delay, but delivered a good headset (5K+) but still waiting for lighthouse boxes & controllers & 8KX & stretchgoals in February 2020.

PicoPix Max - what seemed to be taking to Indiegogo just as a means of guerilla marketing of a Philips product is seeing quite a bit of delays as I have not received it yet, and the Corona Virus has pushed this one out too.

FeelThree - don’t really know what the status is.

And then there is a bunch of others which are not yet ripe, so no complaints on them (yet).

But as a take away I am starting to think that I should really educate myself to wait for a product to hit the shelves, because only then you will have a decent view on what it really brings to the table, and typically you will not have to wait for ages to get it.

The savings in terms of money are honestly not enough if you take into account which projects failed by either not delivering at all, delivering way too late so you spent the money yet had no use of the product for years and didn’t by another available one either as you were waiting for it to show up, and/or you get receive it and it doesn’t perform as you had hoped it would.

I am not even pointing at Pimax because at least their products were really moving some goal posts when they eventually delivered them, and the upcoming ones seem to take this even further, and there simply is no true alternative if you want to get that kind of resolution on a big FoV.

But the really annoying part is just the wait for stuff to materialize which it then doesn’t - and that for years.

end of baby-rant

[Pimel]

I just cut my losses with Pimax and got me a used Vive. Had that for two months and then my 5K+ and 8K arrived. Having a blast ever since. Vive was 400 euro. Divided by all the time spent with it plus resale value, it was a very smart move

[mazi]

I am frustrated too. But many delays were because of further progress so the device was not outdated already on early shipping or barely usable while delivering on specs as originally intended.

ATM I don’t see how this company can scale and grow customer base substantially.
Hope they don’t run out of capital while trying. Main issue for me is still valve base station and controllers.

[Axacuatl]

The point is, I have a Vive and Rift since 2016. So I could initially use my Vive lighthouse stations for the 5K+ / 8K loaner, but both lighthouse stations have died on me. HTC effectively refused to provide warranty (and having pre-ordered internationally I obviously did not want to go through the hassle of enforcing my warranty).

So when the second lighthouse station died, I had to get back to my Rift - in the meantime I have replaced it by a Rift S for less SDE.

I just didn’t want to invest into lighthouse stations when tehse should be arriving at my doorstep any minute - since @PimaxUSA said they were going to ship in 2-3 weeks. That was spring 2019.

Had I known how long it would take I would have tried to purchase them 2nd hand.

As I said, the really annoying part is that I could afford to pay a bit more, so I am better off waiting until a product becomes commercially available and then simply ordering it with delivery within a couple of days rather than backing stuff (or pre-ordering from Pimax which seems to fall into the same mould).

Not trying to slash out at Pimax, and in my case the financial advantage of having backed the 8KX as opposed to a regular purchase is pretty significant, but still, this kind of waiting for months, then years makes you think about the strategy, and I think I will change mine for future opportunities: don’t back it, just keep an eye on it.