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Whenever a new groundbreaking technology comes to market it is to be expected that demand will be high, and with high demand often times come fulfillment issues. We have certainly seen this within the virtual reality space over the last couple of weeks. First it was Facebook with shipping delays for their Oculus Rift pre-orders. Next it was HTC, who so far seems to be handling things well, regardless of numerous canceled orders. Now it appears as if Samsung is having issues fulfilling their promise to Galaxy S7 smartphone buyers, who opted for a free Gear VR headset.

If you were not already aware, Samsung had been offering a promotion in which customers who had purchased a Galaxy S7 or S7 edge smartphone could receive a free Gear VR headset. The promotion, we are told, has gone incredibly well, and tens of thousands of headsets are now expected to ship out over the coming weeks (and now months) ahead. While a number of individuals have already had their headset shipped to them, unfortunately numerous individuals now have had their shipments pushed back until the Summer. A several month delay is not something one should take too lightly, especially when the Gear VR promotion may have been what swayed them from purchasing a smartphone from another manufacturer like LG, HTC or Apple. With that said, things may have just taken an even less optimistic turn for many Gear VR voucher holders.

Samsung, aware that a shipping delay of several months might not make some of their customer very happy, decided to offer them a $100 credit at Samsung.com via a gift code as an option instead of the free headset. This sounds fair, after all, the retail value of the Gear VR was $100 to begin with, but when one individual tried to claim the gift code as a replacement for their delayed Gear VR, even further problems popped up. Instead of Samsung simply emailing the gift codes to those who opted out of the Gear VR promotion, they have even delayed the gift code distribution. In fact, one Reddit user was told that a code will be emailed to him by May 5th (one month from now).

“It takes us 3-4 weeks for the processing of the e-gift card,” explain a Samsung customer support representative. “If you do not receive the e-mail by May 5th please call us back and we can check status. I hope you have a very good day.”

To make matters worse, the $100 gift code can not be used to purchase a Gear VR headset at all, and other reports have indicated that it could take up to 6 weeks, not 4, for customers to receive an email with the actual code. While Samsung may have been surprised over the demand for the headset, these moves certainly aren’t attracting new customers.

Have you had issues receiving your free Gear VR headset? We’d like to know. Please discuss in the Gear VR Headset Delay forum on VRTalk.com.