Oculus VR is shipping the second edition of its development kit this month, and certain preorder customers have noticed something: you can fetch a hefty profit with these things on eBay. Oculus VR does not allow such practices, however, and has threatened to cancel the preorders of those who intend to sell their headsets upon receiving them.
The issue was noted earlier by TechCrunch, with some users reselling the $350 kits for as high as $800 on eBay. Oculus VR’s FAQ explicitly states the company’s stance on such practices.
We do not allow resale of our development kits for any reason as they are meant for developers and are not consumer products.
Seems pretty clear, no? The company is taking strides to stop future eBay sales before they happen, and the possibility of cancelled preorders is no empty threat. It’s already happening, according to an Oculus VR community manager.
We found this guy’s order and cancelled it. We don’t allow resale of the development kit. We also don’t provide warranty on second-hand sales, so if you buy on eBay you are on your own.
Of course, the practice or preorder cancellations has raised concerns, mainly with Oculus VR’s methods for determining which preorders to cancel. Additionally, the feeding of false info could be used to force cancellation of others buyers’ preorders, in order to move up the waiting list more quickly. The company doesn’t seem too worried, though, and a customer service representative replied in a new forum thread with the following.
Just so everyone is clear, the information provided alone was not enough to take action. We perform our own investigations with tools at our disposal to make sure that there isn’t a false positive. Our community is awesome! Thank you for helping us make sure that we are getting kits into the hands of devs and shutting down profiteers.
Despite over 45,000 preorders for Oculus VR’s second Rift dev kit, only about 10,000 of them will ship this month, hence the panic over a potentially corrupt preorder system. Luckily, it seems as though order has been restored, and one thing is now very clear: if you want to sell your Rift headset on eBay, you’re going to have to be very clever about it.
[Via: GameSpot]
