Point taken. I apologise if I came across as “nose in the air”, since that was definitely not my intention, nor has it ever been. Like @mumblepins and @AndyW mentioned, I do not work for Particle. They don’t pay me for being on the forums and spending my time here.
I do what I do because I really, genuinely, like Particle and their products. That’s where I suspect the issue was. I’ve been active on the forums for quite some time, and have been fortunate to meet most of the Particle team. I can honestly say they’re amongst the nicest people I’ve ever met. I know for sure they’re working as hard as humanly possible to get the product out there and into out hands. Delays don’t benefit them in any way, and are at least, if not more, frustrating to them than they are to us.
It is because of that, that I might have gotten defensive. I’m currently still waiting on a Kickstarter from almost a year ago from another company. Contrary to Particle they don’t even bother responding to people at all. I think Particle has always been very open about what’s going on, and as informative as possible. Take the antenna issue for example: they could’ve just as easily sent out an under-performing product. Instead, they chose to delay to ensure quality, which I personally appreciate a lot. Delays are not nice, and I’m not going to convince you otherwise. The message I’m trying to convey is that I, personally, am convinced Particle has the best intentions.
Once again, I do not, and never have, meant any offence, of any kind, whatsoever. I apologise if any of my posts have come across as such.
Is it the Luma Lamp? Just guessing, because I'm waiting on those, too. That has been orders of magnitude more frustrating than any Photon delays. At least people are receiving Photos already, so I can probably reasonably expect to get my shipping notice this week, even if it's a couple months later than originally projected. But the Luma Lamp was supposed to deliver in September of last year. And while some of the delay excuses sound reasonable, others sound like they just didn't have a complete product design in the first place. And in the time we've been waiting, there have been several other similar products that have come and gone that I might have preferred, if I hadn't already committed.
Continuing the discussion from Photon Manufacturing/Shipping Update:
So, here we are on the last day of the beginning of the week (I would count Wednesday as the middle of the week). Has shipping started?
I know this must sound a bit impatient, but I've been waiting a long time. And when I found out that sparkfun got 1,000 units to resell, I feel like I was cut in line by a bigger more powerful customer.
Have you considered that they may have ordered before you? I also recall some update which mentioned that there were more Photon 'Kits' available than just Photons - & SF only seem to have the kits available. (Presuming you didn't order a Photon Kit)
One idea would be to cancel your pre- order & re-order directly with SF. Oooops scratch that it looks like they sold out their 800+ units since your earlier post.
I suppose that is possible that sparkfun ordered them back in 2014, over 6 months ago, and before all of us individuals pre-ordered. But it seems like the partnership with sparkfun occurred in this year, with the changing of the name, and the product appearing on the sparkfun website very recently. So, it is possible, and that is why I used equivocal language like “I feel like I was cut” rather than “I was cut”.
Don’t want to stir the pot, but here it is. I just registered at Orielly Solid in SF, and was handed a FREE photon. Thanks Particle 
There are piles of them on the registration tables ready to give away. That being the case, if any of you have not received your Photons it is incumbent upon the folks at Particle to explain the plethora of free stuff here… Could be this was committed to long before, but it does beg for some explanation.
In defense of @Moors7, he is unpaid and donates a ton of his time to help forum members. His work ethic is to bear down and figure it out for himself. When he started with Particle he’d never used an embedded uC prior. Check for his questions on the forum. You won’t find them. He’s the guy who figures it out on his own. He’s pushed back on me too, but that’s because he holds people up to his standards, and that is natural for people to do; and it is his right. His contributions here are exactly that, contributions. If he or any of the other brilliant Elites (disclaimer, I am not one nor a candidate), rub you the wrong way, push back, appear short, suggest you calm down, well… Just deal with it. We are lucky to have these guys helping us for free and I for one am willing to pay them back with a bit of tolerance if they don’t word everything in a way that preserves my emotional balance. 
Just sayin…
Like a kid, the day before Christmas, I anxiously await.
This is well into the fulfilment week, and I am sure everyone is doing their best to get the photons delivered.
It would be nice to get an update on the progress. Are all (or half) photons now in California, or still in China?
I have cleared a spot on my work bench for the Photon.
Thanks guys.
@Bendrix, it is my suspicion that O’Rielly had a deal with Particle in regards to the book they published which must have included some Photons. I, like most everyone else, ordered photons and JUST received confirmation of payment meaning shipping is imminent. It can be frustrating when delays keep us away from our goodies. However, I can say to those who are (im)patiently waiting that the road paved by those who had photons earlier than you will save you huge headaches. The early growing pains of the the Photon are starting to fade and I believe the wait will end up being a boon not a bust. 
Yes, I figured there was some timeline involved, but given the level of frustration the delivery issue has caused, it is better to post the giveaway info and get a quick response from Particle.
Thanks @peekay123, and all the others that have been debugging the Photon. Yes, I would prefer to receive one that is pretty well debugged.
The thing is, the buyers that ordered with the cyber monday deal have already been charged over 6 month ago. You really need to deliver the items that are already paid for before you are fulfilling uncharged orders.
I ordered on the free shipping deal back in November (12th if I remember correctly). I got an email stating mine would be shipping.
So @Bendrix, are you willing to sell me the free one you picked up today?
I received no message, I guess mine isn’t ready to ship.
Hey guys - sorry for any radio silence here, much of the team has been at Solid conference today! I just wanted to respond to the various concerns here. We’re not trying to hold any information back purposefully, just dealing with trying to get tens of thousands of products out at the same time.
@rvnash the announcement from SparkFun about selling Photon Kits was a miscommunication; if you visit their site you’ll see that they’re still taking pre-orders. I think they accidentally jumped the gun.
We are, as @Bendrix mentioned, giving away Photons to the attendees of Solid Conference, and that sponsorship was a deal we worked out with them many months ago. However, those Photons came in the same shipment as the many thousands of Photons that are literally going to be shipping out the door over the course of this week. I apologize to anybody who feels slighted by this, we’re definitely not trying to give them to Solid before we give them to you, it’s simply faster to bring one big box of Photons across town than it is to ship out thousands of tiny packages around the world
You guys are our first priority and we’re working hard to get everything out the door and on its way to you. Thanks all for your patience!
@zach thank you for your post.
I often buy goodies from China. Lots of Chinese suppliers offer free international shipping with tracking numbers. I see Photons first shipped from China to US and then to backers around the world. May be part of Photons should be shipped from China? It could save some money and time. Just such a suggest.
I ordered on March and today I checked my order, found it is still a open order which is not paid yet. I assume the photons are shipped for those who had paid.
A idea for particle is to make more distributor around the world, that is how seeedstudio is doing right now.
Good suggestion, and in fact we've tried this before; we did this for our first major distribution (the Spark Core Kickstarter campaign). What we found was that shipping was much cheaper but also much less reliable; a lot of packages were lost, and it was hard on our team to try and track them all down. Working with U.S. distributors and high-quality delivery services like DHL is more expensive but more reliable.
In the long term, our best solution for low-cost distribution around the world is to work with distributors (as @helxsz suggested). That said, we have to first ship all of our pre-orders before we put Photons in the hands of our distributors, because you guys get first dibs! Once we've shipped all of our pre-order Photons we'll start building out the distributor pipeline.
A million times this. I have asked if they are including these orders in their timelines (see above), and have gotten NO response.
And my order was charged but is simply showing fulfillment as “failed” now. Emailed support but haven’t heard a thing.
Hi @arenner, @jonathan, and anyone else who ordered with the cyber Monday deal - I am really sorry about the radio silence you have gotten on your Photon shipment. I am drafting an email explaining what happened, but the good news is that your Photons are at the ahead of the line now. We have inventory shipping out this week so all of the cyber Monday orders will be shipping out this week into early next week. Once again, very sorry for the delay in getting these to you, but they will be coming soon!