If like me you are a lover of shiny new technology you have certainly pondered the fashion sense of wearing the new Apple Watch upon your wrist or perhaps yearned for the convenience and overall cool factor of the Amazon Echo and its ability to respond to your voice to satisfy a musical whim of listening to James Brown or adding items to your Amazon shopping list or even controlling your lighting in your home. If like me you have been sucked into the promise of these amazing new toys perhaps you might sit back and wait before you buy. In fact, whether you buy now or later you will certainly wait.

Let’s start with the Amazon Echo. I wont bore you with the details as to what this device claims to do, in fact it is pretty cool, but I must tell you that this may become the Edsel of the Amazon story. When the product was first announced Amazon members were asked to request and invitation to purchase an Echo at a special Amazon member only price of $99 (retail price will be $199). On the very first day I could in late November of 2014 I submitted my request, and viola in January I finally received an invitation to purchase. While frustrated with the long wait for the invitation I went ahead and made the purchase. With the excitement of a boy waiting to receive his secret decoder ring in the mail I checked the order status on my Amazon account only to see that the estimated delivery date would be sometime between May and July. Amazon the company that has revolutionized the way we shop has failed miserably on the launch of what could have been a beautiful thing. Known for it’s quick turn on items, even same day delivery on certain items Amazon has single handedly time warped themselves back to the 1800’s when catalog orders where taken buy Pony Express and eventually fulfilled many weeks or months later.

Apple’s much awaited watch was released for pre-sale earlier this month and excited purchasers were informed that they will eventually get delivery later. The latest skinny I have heard indicates that some of these watches will be shipped in August. It’s like biting into a delicious apple only to discover a worm inside.

Some will argue that these delayed shipping dates are by design. Build anticipation and see the numbers soar. In my humble opinion both Amazon and Apple have over promised and under delivered. Think about how you market to your clients. Are you over promising? While no company or individual is perfect we all want to make our customers happy but perhaps when it comes to taking care of our clients we need to focus less on marketing and more on communicating.

Winning a client or customer is a courtship. Relationships built upon facts will be successful relationships. An Amazon representative told me today that “we had no idea the response from the public would be so strong”. Really? This is Amazon we are talking about. And Apple? Well lets just say that they should know better.

I must admit that I am still on the list to receive my Amazon Echo and upon arrival I will test it thoroughly and if it is not what they promised will ship it back to them at their expense.

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