Context; link; something for reference?

Never really shipping, constant delays, bad communication, device failures, android lagging behind, etc etc.

http://www.reddit.com/r/lockitron

With such a good track record with all of that, I would absolutely trust a device these people made to secure my home! /s

88 readers with a huge delay between posts. Is it really that bad?

Go through and read the posts. Doesn't seem like a single person was happy with their lockitron. Some are still waiting for theirs to ship... It's a dud.

Same thing was said about Soylent, who just now are getting their house in order.

Shipping delays for kickstarted products are not a new or unexepcted thing nowadays.

What do you mean? Their product delay was minimal compared to lockitron (~2years!) and they kept everyone well informed regarding the delay(same can not be said for lockitron). Their refined shipping estimates in light of delays were also spot on. I could not be happier with how Soylent handled things, while I would NEVER purchase anything from lockitron again.

I pre-ordered one in August 2013. Note: pre-ordered, not "kickstarted" or anything of the like. I went to their web site, I saw the product described, I saw a predicted ship date a few weeks away, I placed an order, I gave them money.

A year and a half later and I still don't have it. Communication has been pretty bad, with many blown dates, infrequent messages, and a dashboard that often showed "ship by" dates that were months in the past. Now they're switching my order to a completely different product that I'm not sure I want.

Pre-orders have risk too, but not of even remotely the same magnitude. This behavior might be reasonable for a crowdfunded product, but not for one where the product is supposedly done and shipping imminently.

It's right there in the article: http://techcrunch.com/2014/01/16/lockitrons-long-march/

OP was references something so horrid that he would physically not come into contact with said device. The article mentions smoothed-over growing pains for a new hardware company.

I placed a preorder for a Lockitron on Jan 12, 2013, with the general expectation that it would ship in the spring/summer of that year. It did not. I'm still waiting for it.