I think it will be good to have one central place to have the latest news people here about the updated release date. DCR said it looks like early March. The garmin site says 5-8 weeks but thats the default time on all new products. Everywhere I read it says "By end of Q1" which is the end of March. Rei still doesnt have it listed yet either. Has anyone heard anything more specific?
They're being cautious. If there is an issue with the early units, they'll recall and replace them, which is what they ended up doing with theFR 920xt. Which is better than giving all the buyers a free bumper case because the device stops working if you hold it wrong.
Apple sell a huge proportion of their devices directly, either online or via Apple Stores. Garmin don't and they don't have the same level of control over the supply chain, and they fulfil their own online orders relatively late, because other retailers are a much larger proportion of sales.
The thing which does bug me is that in the UK, they generally pick one supplier to have an exclusive with early supplies, but you can't always find out who that is so you don't know where to order. We tend to be some time behind the US, too, which may be what's going on with Cotswold.
Apple sell a huge proportion of their devices directly, either online or via Apple Stores. Garmin don't and they don't have the same level of control over the supply chain, and they fulfil their own online orders relatively late, because other retailers are a much larger proportion of sales.
Agreed .. Apple is in another league entirely .. but with total revenue of $3 billion US dollars in 2016, Garmin is no slouch either.
Still though .. when you place a preorder, you have an expectation of priority. It kind of burns me a bit to hear they were freely selling the Fenix 5 at the DC Marathon, and running shops here and there have posts on Facebook about having the Fenix 5 in stock, when I placed a preorder very early on with Amazon and still don't have any indication when it will ship.
Garmin is free to run their business as they see fit, but still, don't allow online retailers to accept preorders if you aren't going to prioritize them to the head of the queue.
Garmin always does slow rollouts.. It makes sense as if there is an issue they'll only have a few thousand units out instead of tens of thousands. As far as preorders go, I agree but I understand why Garmin trickles them out to smaller shops as well. Not everyone gets their info from forums like this and some won't even know it's out and for sale if they don't see it at their local shop..
My Slate Gray / Black is out for delivery so I should have it in my grubby paws soon...
Garmin is free to run their business as they see fit, but still, don't allow online retailers to accept preorders if you aren't going to prioritize them to the head of the queue.
Not sure they have the power to tell retailers what to do about preorders. Those will be the first fulfilled by the retailers as they receive their stock, and the retailers have to decide that somehow; all they're doing is telling prospective purchasers what they're going to have at some point, and building an internal queue, which will be smaller than the number of watches the retailers order. Look at it this way; if they don't release anything at all until they have manufactured enough to cover all preorders, nobody gets anything until the day that the last preorder would be fulfilled anyway. Which would be fairer, but means any individual person probably gets their watch later than under this system.
Though I also can't help feeling that at least part of this is to drive market interest and anticipation. This thread would be a lot smaller if we were just waiting for a mass release date, rather than getting snippets from people who've seen them at marathon expos, or in twos and threes at small outlets.
This is what I got from Clever Training . I asked the approximate date for shipment if I ordered today.
"If you place an order today, your order will be a "pre-order" that will ship in April sometime. We will be fulfilling all pre-orders based on date placed and only after all pre-orders are fulfilled, will our stock status change on our website to "ships in 1 business day" or "ships in 5-7 business days".
This is what I got from Clever Training .
I asked the approximate date for shipment if I ordered today.
"If you place an order today, your order will be a "pre-order" that will ship in April sometime. We will be fulfilling all pre-orders based on date placed and only after all pre-orders are fulfilled, will our stock status change on our website to "ships in 1 business day" or "ships in 5-7 business days".
Called them this morning to check on my order placed on 01/27... Was told they should have more units by the end of March, but hopefully they will receive more before then.
Called them this morning to check on my order placed on 01/27... Was told they should have more units by the end of March, but hopefully they will receive more before then.
Ugh, so I guess that means all theirs shipped out. I ordered a 5x 01/04 at 148 pm EST
Ugh, so I guess that means all theirs shipped out. I ordered a 5x 01/04 at 148 pm EST
I ordered a 5X on 1/8. I called CT this morning, and they indicated they haven't yet received any 5X SKUs. They did offer that they have received other non-5X Fenixes that they have shipped out. They weren't able to confirm a specific date for 5X availability, and I'm very anxious to receive my 5X, especially after hearing about the DC marathon booth sales this past weekend.
Even though I don't like it either with a pre-order myself, Garmin is probably smart by trickling some out. Even smarter to sell them at somewhere like a marathon because they pretty much know they will be selling to people that will actually use them. I realize this is the internet and most everyone on here is a multi-time Ironman that has also finished Barkley multiple times, but I need only look at the Insights tab on Garmin Connect to get a real feel. I don't consider myself even a high mileage runner (compared to the people I know anyways) but I don't know if I should laugh or be proud when I select All for age range and things are all sitting at 99%. So they probably are smart to make sure they get out to people they know will be using them for real activity and not just stressed about how sleep tracking and all day heart rate is. While that's cool and all.....probably not exactly their largest concern. Get them to people that will immediately be using them in activities and very likely to report issues. Then mass release. Just hope that testing goes quick!!!
