NEW: When Will the ThunderBolt be Available for Purchase?

[motty69]

Impatient much people? Cripes you would think that a VZW rep called each of us personally and guaranteed an announcement at exactly 11:00AM on the dot. If we see nothing today I'll be right there with you howling at the moon, but VZW never offically promised jack squat.

You would think someones life depended on it reading some of these posts. :icon_eek:

 

[Allen K]

i like how "so it doesnt have any major flaws"

isnt that part of the development process. DONT have a preorder and announce a phone if it isnt ready. thats the reason people are "mad"

Verizon still doesn't have a preorder up. It's BB that jumped the gun.

Then Verizon should have stopped it... regardless of what BB wanted, or said about it.

/\\/\\orlince

And stop the free publicity? Why would they do that?

Which official statement do you think would lose more sales:

1) This phone is having issues and it's going to take time to fix it

or

2) We're going to release 2/14 I mean 2/21 I mean 2/28 I mean 3/10...Q1

If you say the phone is going to have problems, people are dumb and it will hurt sales after launch even if all those problems are fixed. No formal acknowledgment of problems = no problems!

 

[bthomp21]

Impatient much people? Cripes you would think that a VZW rep called each of us personally and guaranteed an announcement at exactly 11:00AM on the dot. If we see nothing today I'll be right there with you howling at the moon, but VZW never offically promised jack squat.

You would think someones life depended on it reading some of these posts. :icon_eek:

yet you come in here. pot meet kettle

 

[Allen K]

i like how "so it doesnt have any major flaws"

isnt that part of the development process. DONT have a preorder and announce a phone if it isnt ready. thats the reason people are "mad"

Verizon still doesn't have a preorder up. It's BB that jumped the gun.

bb is a sister company with vzw access. next

Please, BB is a major retailer that took a date and ran with it.

 

[guitarchris123]

Yeah, I think that some transparency would make a lot of people feel better. Just saying "It has issues you...but it's super fast" Isn't the least bit comforting and has me considering other options. Silence is never a good form of communication. As long as they are addressing the problem(s) I have no problem with knowing that there is an issue.

No. Wrong. Verizon has clearly dropped the ball on this, and despite the fact that they may have never publicly committed to a specific date, they are still responsible for being accountable to their customers. They don't have to come right out and say exactly what is wrong and what is causing the delay, but they have a responsibility for engaging their customers somehow.

It is never a customers fault when a corporation drops the ball. It's now clear that they've delayed the release of this phone on more than one occasion. Instead of a condescending tweet telling their customers that nothing has been delayed because they haven't announced an official date (which they did when they delayed from Feb 14), they could just as easily say that they're working on some issues and hope to have the product to market as soon as possible. Instead, we either get condescension, or a stubborn silence.

Nobody said it was the customers' fault, last minute issues often arise in phone launches (for example, not realizing that battery life on LTE was not as long as anticipated until a late stage, and scrambling to find a cure, causing a delay from a planned date). Would you rather have a delay, or a device that did not function properly? I did not see the tweet in response to the Feb 14th date as condescending, but merely factual (that date was leaked by Best Buy and should never have been out there in the first place, and was always subject to change, and Verizon got flamed for it!)

I think the point is that all the "delays" have been so the device does not have any such major flaws when it is finally released.

Ok, but if that is the case then we would appreciate that and be happy to wait for it. That is all I'm saying. If it's for our benefit in the long run then that is just super duper but them saying "we'll tell you something when there is something to tell" is just utter douche-baggery.

You guys must have all missed this post from Verizon's facebook page then? I don't know what more you want from them short of an actual date.
Verizon Wireless Hey fans, we appreciate all the excitement about the anticipated launch of the ThunderBolt by HTC. We're excited too! Verizon 4G LTE is America’s fastest, most advanced 4G network & we want to ensure the advanced technology behind our first 4G LTE phone is flawless. We will announce its release date as soon as it is confirmed. Thanks for your support & patience while we work to bring you the ThunderBolt by HTC.

In my mind, this essentially says "We are having some technical issues, but we are doing our best to correct them. Rest assured this phone is coming out soon, and we will let you know a date once we figure out exactly when it will be ready, so please bear with us." To me, that is communication and being accountable, while staying within the basic business guidelines I mentioned earlier.

All that being said, I am on your side, I want this phone just as bad or worse than you do, believe me. I am just trying to be rational and objective about it and understand some of the decisions that had to be made and why they were made that way. I would love to know what is going on behind the scenes, but it won't happen.

 

[MeganLeigh1122]

I'm going to say it now. An announcement by Verizon is eminent. It will happen today. Not the TB itself but they will announce when it will become available today. Have you guys signed up for email notification?

hookbill - will verizon announce the thunderbolt via email notification only to those that signed up for notifications or will it be announced on their website?

It will be delivered by unicorn to your doorstep, and covered in pixie dust! Sorry just needed a laugh!

Sent from my Droid using DroidForums App

lol my dog would not like that at all

 

[viper1549]

I'm going to say it now. An announcement by Verizon is eminent. It will happen today. Not the TB itself but they will announce when it will become available today. Have you guys signed up for email notification?

no joke was prob one of the first 100 to sign that thing.. but just like the droiddoes website a year and a half ago i think its a waste of webspace.. maybe this time will be different and we will get some info before we read it 3 days prior.. lol

 

[bthomp21]

Verizon still doesn't have a preorder up. It's BB that jumped the gun.

bb is a sister company with vzw access. next

Please, BB is a major retailer that took a date and ran with it.

sister company has nothing to do if its a major retailer or not, they dont just magically come up with dates on their own. if the phone is on verizon network, verizon ultimately has the say so. come on now.

 

[Sentrix]

Just got a text message from a corporate source:

"It's happening today"

 

[bassmankc]

I'm going to have to break down and go get a battery for my OG or get a DInc to get me by, I've had to charge 3 times since we were supposed to have an announcement!

Sent from my Droid using DroidForums App

 

[jcbsides]

Yeah, I think that some transparency would make a lot of people feel better. Just saying "It has issues you...but it's super fast" Isn't the least bit comforting and has me considering other options. Silence is never a good form of communication. As long as they are addressing the problem(s) I have no problem with knowing that there is an issue.

No. Wrong. Verizon has clearly dropped the ball on this, and despite the fact that they may have never publicly committed to a specific date, they are still responsible for being accountable to their customers. They don't have to come right out and say exactly what is wrong and what is causing the delay, but they have a responsibility for engaging their customers somehow.

It is never a customers fault when a corporation drops the ball. It's now clear that they've delayed the release of this phone on more than one occasion. Instead of a condescending tweet telling their customers that nothing has been delayed because they haven't announced an official date (which they did when they delayed from Feb 14), they could just as easily say that they're working on some issues and hope to have the product to market as soon as possible. Instead, we either get condescension, or a stubborn silence.

Nobody said it was the customers' fault, last minute issues often arise in phone launches. Would you rather have a delay, or a device that did not function properly? I did not see the tweet in response to the Feb 14th date as condescending, but merely factual (that date was leaked by Best Buy and should never have been out there in the first place, and was always subject to change, and Verizon got flamed for it!)

I think the point is that all the "delays" have been so the device does not have any such major flaws when it is finally released.

Ok, but if that is the case then we would appreciate that and be happy to wait for it. That is all I'm saying. If it's for our benefit in the long run then that is just super duper but them saying "we'll tell you something when there is something to tell" is just utter douche-baggery.

You guys must have all missed this post from Verizon's facebook page then? I don't know what more you want from them short of an actual date.
Verizon Wireless Hey fans, we appreciate all the excitement about the anticipated launch of the ThunderBolt by HTC. We're excited too! Verizon 4G LTE is America’s fastest, most advanced 4G network & we want to ensure the advanced technology behind our first 4G LTE phone is flawless. We will announce its release date as soon as it is confirmed. Thanks for your support & patience while we work to bring you the ThunderBolt by HTC.

In my mind, this essentially says "We are having some technical issues, but we are doing our best to correct them. Rest assured this phone is coming out soon, and we will let you know a date once we figure out exactly when it will be ready, so please bear with us." To me, that is communication and being accountable, while staying within the basic business guidelines I mentioned earlier.

All that being said, I am on your side, I want this phone just as bad or worse than you do, believe me. I am just trying to be rational and objective about it and understand some of the decisions that had to be made and why they were made that way. I would love to know what is going on behind the scenes, but it won't happen.

I think rational thought went out the window a long time ago for most of us :icon_rolleyes: I see your point, I can see how as far as the mass consumer base this may be the right business decision, but it has been so so so frustrating and I felt like what little communication we have had sounded very condescending. I'm sure they didn't mean for it to but it did. They could have chosen their words more carefully or (I think) actually told us something, but bickering about it is pointless. We're all on the same team here dancedroid

I just want to ditch this LG Voyager:icon_evil:

 

[TcRoc]

Just got a text message from a corporate source:

"It's happening today"

Did they say whats happening ?
Could be Bob's surprise B-day party,, you know the guy from Cube d-12

 

[bthomp21]

Just got a text message from a corporate source:

"It's happening today"

Did they say whats happening ?
Could be Bob's surprise B-day party,, you know the guy from Cube d-12

LMAO, finally someone is able to make me laugh

 

[scottt732]

You guys must have all missed this post from Verizon's facebook page then? I don't know what more you want from them short of an actual date.
Verizon Wireless Hey fans, we appreciate all the excitement about the anticipated launch of the ThunderBolt by HTC. We're excited too! Verizon 4G LTE is America’s fastest, most advanced 4G network & we want to ensure the advanced technology behind our first 4G LTE phone is flawless. We will announce its release date as soon as it is confirmed. Thanks for your support & patience while we work to bring you the ThunderBolt by HTC.

In my mind, this essentially says "We are having some technical issues, but we are doing our best to correct them. Rest assured this phone is coming out soon, and we will let you know a date once we figure out exactly when it will be ready, so please bear with us." To me, that is communication and being accountable, while staying within the basic business guidelines I mentioned earlier.

I read this as "We're busy trying to figure out how much of a premium we can charge for LTE." The word about the tiered pricing was ominous. I bet this phone has been good to go since 2/14. I don't buy the battery issues or other hardware problems. I don't think they've been waiting on Skype.

Screw it... I'm getting a Dyntec 8000X.

 

[hookbill]

They are watching this thread and laughing at everyone. Even I'm getting paranoid. It's 11:00 on the West Coast so it's still early.