Valve definitely dropped the ball on communication, but there is a real distinction between the lists.
The reservation list likely ties to guaranteed inventory. This would cover everything from warehouse stock to parts awaiting manufacturing and/or assembly, RAM being the probable bottleneck. As long as a full bill of materials is confirmed and finalized, Valve would consider those allocatable units.
The waitlist would then be all demand beyond that, and since Valve might not have RAM or storage obtained for them, those people might see a price increase.
IchNichtenLichten@lemmy.wtf 1 week ago
I’d argue it’s more than just dropping the ball.
I received an email to say I have a Frame reserved. To me that means that I will soon be given the option to buy one, not some time next year.
They should’ve only reserve listed as many customers as they have actual inventory for, anything else is misleading. I’ve even seen people commenting that they’ve been moved from the wait list to the reserve list when it’s obvious Valve don’t have the inventory to meet demand.
ericwdhs@discuss.online 1 week ago
Well, I think the reserve list is still actual inventory and that the wait list moving is still inventory getting allocated. If you ordered a cake from me and I had all the needed ingredients in the back, I wouldn’t think twice about saying, “Okay, we have a cake reserved for you.” That’s just how I’ve always thought the word worked.
That said, I do have the 'tism, and I don’t have prior experience with making product reservations shaping my expectations.
IchNichtenLichten@lemmy.wtf 1 week ago
I get it but with your analogy, if you had all the ingredients and told me you’d get back to me at the start of next year with further information about when I might be able to expect my reserved cake, I’d be pretty unhappy.
ericwdhs@discuss.online 1 week ago
Yeah, Valve should really have more information to give. Still, to keep the analogy consistent, any baked-in (hah) time expectations are going to scale with actual production times and hard deadlines. Cakes can be produced in the range of hours or days and are typically ordered ahead of dated events. A device like the Frame is 3 months minimum from part procurement to delivery and is a luxury good no one should expect to need.