This is on my mind because various forums (reddit, Facebook, Pimax) are getting flooded with pissed people with preorders. This is making pimax look very bad. A lot of people are staying away from ordering because of this. (this goes for the Lighthouse and controllers too)
They should have never taken pre orders. What they should have done is waited to all backers HMD’s had shipped. Then Produced at least 1000 or so additional HMDs, (fully tested) shipped them to their warehouses (overseas) and then took orders. I also think pimax should have waited until its software (PI Tool) was stable and working good for the majority of people. This is what a typical company would do. You build up stock then sell. Why pimax took preorders before all the backers HMD’s were even built perplexes me. I wonder if the latest round of investors pushed them to do this, or as a chinese company the just do not understand what people around the world expect when ordering products. Whatever it was it is coming back to haunt. With bad forum posts and press. Please Pimax do not make this mistake again!
I think a simple answer is money, maybe they needed some to ramp up the production.
All Kickstarters backers headset have been shipped.
It has been confirmed this morning by @anon74848233
Moreover, Pimax is a startup. They were so much successfull that they had to build more than they could provide. That why they were late.
Now they run at full speed, 200 units / day.
Actual waiting Queue for a pre order today is around 25 days. Confirmed by the staff.
For now they just build and ship what people orders. They don’t build for future orders.
They just go one chain of supply for whole world
Pre orders where taken in November before all the backers HMD’s were even built.
Thats what they are were saying last month but so far that is false.
Yes but the numbers of pre orders that where shipped before backers is very low.
Most of the time it was because 8k for backers on production were late, so they had a few 5k/5k+ left they could start to ship to preorders, which didn t extend 8k backers waiting time, just a parallel process
Now they finished to ship backers, 25 days is actually pretty close to what we can expect.
It was indeed closer to 2 month in january
I do not care if they were shipped before backers (well sorta do) What I am saying is you have both backers and pre oders complaining on social media that they still have not received their head set. Now backers got a discount and as a backer you know that there are “start up issues” but preoders paid full price, there should not be issues with receiving it (this is why preoder customers are more vocal). This should have been ironed out. On top of this I would have NEVER shipped the HMD (even to backers) with out 3 face foams since a good fit is required to get a good experience on the pimax HMD’s. Its causing a lot of backlash and unflattering posts on social media. I think Pimax is shooting itself in the foot.
I see what you mean, they should have wait to be sure to fullfill shipping date expectation. I think someone in their hierarchy putted pression 
I m a preorder of january myself, so yeah, still not get it, and i complained too 
They took preorders (to rob peter) to pay paul
I never confirmed that detail as I do no have access to those details.
I think you mean @anon74848233 confirmed that detail. Of which that imho will only be truly confirmed when the last backer receives minimally a tracking number or more preferably their headset. 
There is still disconnects as there are quite a few still waiting on 5k+ even now.
Oh right, let me modify my answer
The problem isn’t that they took pre-orders. The problem is that (as usual) they were WAY too optimistic about when they would start shipping the pre-orders.
Regarding the software, I doubt that PiTool will ever actually be stable (based on the software development for the 4K). If it does become stable we will probably already have the Pimax 16K.
Yes it is. They should have waited to have production kinks worked out and have STOCK of hmd’s.
I.E. We have 1000 5k+'s built and tested in boxes and shipped to wearhouse now turn on pre orders.
Thanks prefer not to be in the line of fire. 
Truth your right on one side. But if finances were almost dried up it could have resulted in collapse. Much like the 3d spatial audio headset; Successful KS, built 100 headsets & shipped 0; siting they’d need at least $2million more. Folded & no one received anything.
You seem to be missing the point of preorders.
- It lets them gauge interest in their product so they don’t overproduce (aka lots of money sitting on the shelf)
- If you give yourself enough time (Pimax didn’t), then you can build up enough stock to cover the preorder and a bit more for regular orders.
- If they already had a stockpile of headsets, then they could just skip the pre-order phase.
The problem with Pimax’s preorder is that they didn’t give themselves enough time to properly take advantage of it. If they had set the release date 3+ months later than they did, then there wouldn’t be nearly as many people complaining about the headsets being late.
I dont have an opinion on the preorder situation but to your other point about the software, Pimax came onto this forum last year and asked if people were ok with them shipping the headset with unfinished software or delay things until the software was stable. The response was an overwhelming yes release the headset as soon as possible so you cant really get in them for having beta software as thats what everyone here wanted.
Thanks for your thinking, here are some response from me. @peteo (personally)
1.Things always been like this at very beginning, the unexpected challenge will be emerged in any single moment and it’s impossible to be fully prepared.
2.Some preparation just make no sense. We may think we have question ABCDE, but we may don’t need to solve these problems at all.
3.Pitool,logistics, Device test is three totally different system. system is not one or two colleague,is not one or two single process, it’s a set of connected things or devices that operate together.
4.We might didn’t ship any headsets if we need to be fully prepared before arrange the shipment.
You might have already think anout the questions below:
Can you tell me me how to balance the emerged questions and over preparation?
Can you tell me how to build a stable software in limited time and your announcement to tell your consumer?
Can you tell me what’s fully tested mean and how to do this without feedback from consumer?
Can you tell me how to balance the account if you have so many stocks?
Can you tell me how long will you take to finish all of there preparation?
Looking forward to hear your great answer for pimax to learn
that so mean
It’s almost impoossible to be fully accurate for a startup with so few feedback and a so big success