HTC Quickly Patches Communication, Shipping Errors For Vive Orders

News
By Rexly Peñaflorida
published

The launch week for the HTC Vive (our full review here) could have been better. Even before the first units arrived, some customers had to deal with processing issues, and HTC also had to handle shipping and communicating with customers. But it seems that most of the problems were resolved.

The shipping issues started as early as Monday, the day before the Vive’s launch. Some users paid for express shipping on their Vive, but they received economy shipping, which meant it took longer for the Vive to reach their front door. HTC apologized for the mishap and said it will refund the shipping costs to affected customers within five to 10 days of the shipment.

There were also some issues with communication. HTC Vive “channels,” one of which is its Twitter page, had some conflicting statements when compared to HTC Care, the company’s support center. However, the problem seems to be resolved, and HTC Care and the HTC Vive social media channels are all on the same page now.

The company also set up a page to answer the most pressing issues from customers. This includes topics such as when users can expect the bundles, as well as the expected delivery date.

HTC said that each customer’s Vive will be shipped “in the month noted in your order confirmation email.” Other than that, the exact date is unknown. This is due to the company’s “first in, first out” policy for fulfilling orders, which means that there’s a digital queue of sorts based on when you placed your order. However, this policy didn’t start off smoothly.

“There were a small number of orders at the beginning of April that were processed out of sequential order,” the company said. “However, we have corrected the situation, and all future shipments will be sent in the order in which they were received.”

With that problem out of the way, HTC reported that its order fulfillment process is on time and without delays, and customers can check their confirmation emails for the expected arrival date.

Still, the HTC Vive’s launch was rocky, to say the least. Even though most of the issues were resolved, it’s not exactly the best image for a company that’s been touting its revolutionary product for the past year. Nevertheless, boxes of HTC Vives are finally headed out of the door and on the way to their new owners.

Follow Rexly Peñaflorida II @Heirdeux. Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+.

Rexly Peñaflorida
11 Comments Comment from the forums
  • PopinFRESH007
    "...the exact date is unknown. This is due to the company’s “first in, first out” policy for fulfilling orders, which means that there’s a digital queue of sorts based on when you placed your order. However, this policy didn’t start off smoothly.

    “There were a small number of orders at the beginning of April that were processed out of sequential order,” the company said. “However, we have corrected the situation, and all future shipments will be sent in the order in which they were received.”

    With that problem out of the way, HTC reported that its order fulfillment process is on time and without delays, and customers can check their confirmation emails for the expected arrival date..."

    This is still incorrect! Even today, 24hr+ after their blog post there are many people with 10:00am - 10:01am orders that still haven't received shipment emails and there are still people that ordered 10:06am+ that are getting new shipping notices today.

    It's not all of a sudden rainbows and butterflies in HTC land.

    -PopinFRESH
    Reply
  • PopinFRESH007
    "...the exact date is unknown. This is due to the company’s “first in, first out” policy for fulfilling orders, which means that there’s a digital queue of sorts based on when you placed your order. However, this policy didn’t start off smoothly.

    “There were a small number of orders at the beginning of April that were processed out of sequential order,” the company said. “However, we have corrected the situation, and all future shipments will be sent in the order in which they were received.”

    With that problem out of the way, HTC reported that its order fulfillment process is on time and without delays, and customers can check their confirmation emails for the expected arrival date..."

    This is still incorrect! Even today, 24hr+ after their blog post there are many people with 10:00am - 10:01am orders that still haven't received shipment emails and there are still people that ordered 10:06am+ that are getting new shipping notices today.

    It's not all of a sudden rainbows and butterflies in HTC land.

    -PopinFRESH
    Reply
  • hoofhearted
    First in first out my ass!!!! I ordered mine, seconds after it went live. I even received the confirm email 2 minutes after the hour. Yet no ship notice and no attempts to charge my CC. Yet, I have seen on ebay and on reddit threads where orders place well after mine already have physical units in hand. There are even fools on ebay that photographed their orders and their order number is sequentially after mine that have ship notices and physical units in hand. and yes, this is taking into consideration the first part of the order number is regional (mine starts with 9482 and I am well before some of the other 9482's I have found in my searches).
    Reply
  • rewindrewind
    "With that problem out of the way..."

    What? Is this article a joke? They put up a blog post filled with lies and inaccuracies. Orders are either not going out AT ALL, are still out of order, their support is an absolute joke and the only people communicating about it on Twitter from HTC's side are utterly clueless. Then this article comes up saying all is well because an HTC blog says so? Take a look around. This is terrible journalism.
    Reply
  • iwanttobevive
    This absolutely is not the case for many of us, check out any Vive forum to confirm. My order was confirmed 3 minutes after pre-orders went live, and I still haven't even been properly charged. Every call over the past week has ended in a promise of tracking information in "24 to 48 hours." HTC and Digital River's system is way worse off than their little blog post suggests.
    Reply
  • DuncanConner
    You people will believe anything big companies tell you, apparently.
    Reply
  • youanden
    First in first out my ass!!!! I ordered mine, seconds after it went live. I even received the confirm email 2 minutes after the hour. Yet no ship notice and no attempts to charge my CC. Yet, I have seen on ebay and on reddit threads where orders place well after mine already have physical units in hand. There are even fools on ebay that photographed their orders and their order number is sequentially after mine that have ship notices and physical units in hand. and yes, this is taking into consideration the first part of the order number is regional (mine starts with 9482 and I am well before some of the other 9482's I have found in my searches).

    I'd contact HTC via twitter if you haven't had any luck with email support. I ordered my Vive 12 hours after preorders opened and my card was charged on the same day.
    Reply
  • jasonelmore
    First in first out my ass!!!! I ordered mine, seconds after it went live. I even received the confirm email 2 minutes after the hour. Yet no ship notice and no attempts to charge my CC. Yet, I have seen on ebay and on reddit threads where orders place well after mine already have physical units in hand. There are even fools on ebay that photographed their orders and their order number is sequentially after mine that have ship notices and physical units in hand. and yes, this is taking into consideration the first part of the order number is regional (mine starts with 9482 and I am well before some of the other 9482's I have found in my searches).

    I'd contact HTC via twitter if you haven't had any luck with email support. I ordered my Vive 12 hours after preorders opened and my card was charged on the same day.

    Sounds like you used paypal to pay for your order.. Paypal orders always take the money immediately, instead of waiting for it to ship like traditional credit cards.
    Reply
  • youanden
    17792277 said:
    First in first out my ass!!!! I ordered mine, seconds after it went live. I even received the confirm email 2 minutes after the hour. Yet no ship notice and no attempts to charge my CC. Yet, I have seen on ebay and on reddit threads where orders place well after mine already have physical units in hand. There are even fools on ebay that photographed their orders and their order number is sequentially after mine that have ship notices and physical units in hand. and yes, this is taking into consideration the first part of the order number is regional (mine starts with 9482 and I am well before some of the other 9482's I have found in my searches).

    I'd contact HTC via twitter if you haven't had any luck with email support. I ordered my Vive 12 hours after preorders opened and my card was charged on the same day.

    Sounds like you used paypal to pay for your order.. Paypal orders always take the money immediately, instead of waiting for it to ship like traditional credit cards.


    Yep, that's what I did. Didn't know credit card wouldn't take immediately.
    Reply
  • rewindrewind
    "With that problem out of the way..."

    What? Is this article a joke? They put up a blog post filled with lies and inaccuracies. Orders are either not going out AT ALL, are still out of order, their support is an absolute joke and the only people communicating about it on Twitter from HTC's side are utterly clueless. Then this article comes up saying all is well because an HTC blog says so? Take a look around. This is terrible journalism.
    Reply