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As someone who has constantly managed major account expectations at a lesser-known, but critical software company (in the Internet infrastructure, federal, financial and other), especially on product/update ship dates when my (always newer to the company than I) superiors have utterly foul'd up issues to the point I had to "take control" (and it's never been easily, and definitely doesn't win me friends with the newer employees), it's something I'm quite familiar with. A combination of naivity and ignorance, especially lack of exposure to software and the release cycle (especially in the open source world), along with false hope that things will be resolved, is always the problem.
Sadly, sometimes it's a really simple thing like cutting off pre-orders -- with the clear statement, "Since you will not get it until November, we're not taking pre-orders" or purposely putting ship dates long, "Your shipment will not arrive until November," only to come back and say, "We've improved our operations, and you'll now be receiving it in July," goes a long, long-way. Customers don't mind things that move up. They cannot stand when things move down. Why? Simple. Customers have to plan. And when you say November, sure, you might lose a customer. But most customers are loyal (ours were to the tone of 96-97%, although it's dropped in recent years), so they are more concerned with planning. They can mitigate any delay ... that they know of. And you work with them in that regard.
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I have been verbally reprimanded before (never written, although more than one person has made something an issue, formally, before and legal then smacked them to the ground, not me, in every case) because I refused to string along a customer, or hold a line that someone else told, against policy, against the spirit of the company and its name. The irony is, they stayed our major account -- and I always grew it -- in each and every case. Any blind fool that wanted to make it about me and how I went against them just usually set themselves up for their own issues down the road. Especially when the customer stopped buying after I left, or drastically reduced their engagement. Not a quarter goes by that someone doesn't contact me, asking if I could come back to a customer, because of similar issues and possibly lost revenue. It's not that hard to do the right thing, and that keeps the customers more than anything! Because they can plan adequately, and mitigate delays ... if they know them.
TorTorden wrote:Seems vive is doing a lot better job of keeping things fresh with consumers.
That's because Valve is involved.
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Even Facebook, like Google, doesn't understand release cycle when it comes to and end-user product they cannot just "hack" in real time, like a web server. Explains everything about Android, especially versus iOS' sustainment. Seeing it from the inside, and working with some of the people who are now at Google, trying to fix things based on their experiences at our shared, former employer we grew from small-time into a S&P500 company (and now continuing client for myself, that I'm no longer a direct employee), I don't expect Facebook to fix anything any more than Google could.
TorTorden wrote:After the pre-order announcement there has pretty much been nothing from oculus apart from a delay (my original delivery date was june) and they will cover shipping cost. To me that's $50 less so I'll take it.
I fully expect TBD to remain for my order. That's not a bad thing either. Sometimes it's better to say, "we don't know."
TorTorden wrote:The vive and htc are using their store front connection and last week I got a newsletter announcement from the major electronics store chain here in Norway that they will sell the vive soon with a demo model available for testing in their flagship store (I don't live close enough to test) but this alone will mean htc gets a huge leg up, at least locally regardless if it is more expensive.
Yes. And I think it's because Facebook made some promises on units to some of those retail lines, and their lawyers are holding them to them. So Facebook is likely now flirting with a potential, class action lawsuit if those details leak on how many pre-orders were deferred to meet retail contracts.
I.e., Facebook likely considers it worse to go up against corporate lawyers than consumer ones ... until a class action suit finally does start.
E.g., even if people get their units, if someone can prove Facebook diverted items to a retail customers after those pre-orders, it could get nasty really quick, at least here in the lawyer-heavy US.
TorTorden wrote:The average Joe is never going to order a device like this across borders and certainly not sight unseen. That's only a very small group of avid nerds who will do this. All of them (that can afford it) has now probably pre-ordered a rift or a vive.
You'd be surprised. Non-techie people drive more tech cars, have newer and high-tech phones and newer and high-tech notebooks than I use, and I've been in IT for a long-time. High-tech is the new luxury car here in the US.
TorTorden wrote:Needless to say. I suspect vr adoption of the mainstream masses will be slow but take 10-15 years from now I hazard a guess saying this could be the equivalent to video the headphone was to music listening. In world where living space (and the illusion of privacy) is at a premium the lack of shared experience is as much an allure as it is a detraction.
I cannot really comment about outside the US, but inside the US there are a lot of lawyers. There are always plenty of lawyers looking to take on "the big boys," along with lawyers who "made enough money" from those same "big boys" that are now wanting to turn-the-tables on them, knowing them "from the inside."
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I'm optimistic what will happen in the US in the coming years when it comes to privacy. Most Americans already turn off the TV, and refuse to heed anything they hear from it. They've had enough with the two wings of politics, and realize neither are offering solutions either. The US Supreme Court -- not the one you read about in the news articles, but the actual rulings and case law -- also continues to make me smile, whether they are smacking down both sides in a ruling (even if they favored one or the other), as well as putting up their hand and saying, "No, go back to the lower court and stop bothering us with this special interest. Accommodations and negotiations should be possible on a case-by-case basis, and there's no need for a precedent to be set by us."
The average American, especially the tech-adverse -- which includes people like myself, who are actually leaders in a specific set of tech field -- is liberally stepping back and saying, "WTF is with this rat race?" We don't drive expensive cars or own expensive homes, and value listening to reason and the original concepts and views of Liberty, which haven't changed in the 400 years since the British people cultivated our nation (yes, they did ... until the late 1760s, as the debt racked up, not so different than we've done to ourselves today). Privacy, non-interference and refusal to just "label" people (which both political sides do, not just one, as a "shutdown tactic" that is really backfiring) are starting to sweep the US, and I think it's going to be an interesting next 20 years ... especially if the US cannot afford to do much, because its currency finally devalues.
It's an interesting time in history, especially if you're an original, Libertarian-type thinking American. It's quite a radical set of thoughts, invented heavily by Europeans who most other Europeans considered way too radical as well. Despite a lot of the media coverage, or assumptions of where the US is headed, the average American is parting ways with the technology-driven non-sense and hype. And it's not just one political aligned side or another, but ones that cannot stand both.
TorTorden wrote:Anyhoo I'm rambling.
I love to ramble. I know others might mind it, but I love to chat. I'm enclosing this in "Spoiler" tags for a reason.
I am honestly tempted to get a vive as well once I can get it locally. I was a little pessimistic considering the cost so it's actually being sold $300 cheaper than I assumed.[/quote]
