Both the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive virtual reality headsets are now - theoretically, at least - available to buy, but many of the UK's VR early adopters are mostly still waiting on their little slice of the future.
Kotaku UK has been contacted by a large number of disgruntled people in the last week. Oculus has already explained that an "unexpected component shortage" is behind the dearth of Rifts in the world. From our research, it appears that original Kickstarter backers are the only people in the UK currently in receipt of a headset. Everyone else will have to wait until April 12th for more news - despite the fact that the Oculus Rift nominally launched on the 28th March. Customers were originally informed that they would have their units between 1-3 weeks of launch, readers have told us, but it's now looking like mid-April will be the earliest that any non-Kickstarter backers will receive a Rift.
The HTC Vive, meanwhile, launched this week - and UK customers are having issues with payment, which are being attributed to Digital River, HTC's payment processor. PayPal orders have evidently gone through fine, but as evidenced by this Reddit thread and numerous emails we've received from other pre-orderers, everyone else is still waiting. Purchasers claim that not a single European credit-card payment has gone through.
HTC representatives have so far reassured customers that there are no problems with payments, but the amount of correspondence we're getting on the issue suggests otherwise. On Twitter, HTC's Daniel O'Brien has told people he is looking into the issue.
"Like many others I pre ordered within minutes of opening and since then have had nothing but a bad experience from HTC/Digital River," says one reader. "I heard nothing between 29/2 - 26/3, at which point I got the obligatory 'It's in the works!' email. I started to become nervous: no confirmation, no shipping notification - nothing. Eventually I received a voicemail from the Ecommerce team telling me the order has to be cancelled and re submitted to 'keep my place in line'. Come the end of business 4/4 I had received no call back and no details on who actually left the voicemail or how to contact them again. The next day I direct messaged HTC UK - suddenly I got a call back apologising for the voicemail and advising that I didn't need to cancel my order and everything was 'fine'. I have heard precisely nothing since."
Early adopters are doubtless used to launch wrinkles, but it's unfortunate that UK and European purchasers appear to be the only ones affected by payment problems. We've contacted both Oculus and Vive representatives to clarify when people can expect to receive their headsets.
shares