Wild Country Revo now available for preorder

Thanks, Mark--interested to hear how this pans out.

Looks like it either really depends upon the representative you get or they really have no idea what's happening and are just saying whatever they need to say to complete the support call. 

Mark L wrote: 9/6/17

Status Update:  I just contacted REI customer service to find out why my order was cancelled.  The guy told me it wasn't clear why my order was cancelled, but that next week they will be available for purchase online again.  They are on backorder, but he told me the first shipments will go out on the 24th of September if I remember correctly.  He also gave me a 20% off coupon code to use when I do place the order.  I didn't even complain really, but he told me he was giving it to me for my troubles.  I don't know how accurate the information that he gave me is; for all I know it may not ship until Christmas.  The first time I placed the order I was told I would receive it by September 12th, so take this information with a grain of salt.  He said the best thing I could do was to just check online everyday starting Monday to see if it is available for order.  I contacted them through online chat, and he promptly emailed me the coupon code at the end of our chat session.  If receiving it 3 weeks later ends up saving me $30 off of the retail price, I'll be pretty content.  I'll follow up with and update in the future.

kevin deweese wrote: 9/1/17

Had a chat with REI online support: re: my preorder being canceled:

Daniel: Thank you for contacting REI, my name is Daniel.

Daniel: Hi Kevin.

Kevin DeWeese: Hello

Daniel: Yes, it looks like this was canceled. I am looking to see the reason.

Daniel: So apologies for this. This item is actually not expected to come in for several months. We are not expecting this anytime soon. It was not supposed to be available for backorder quite yet.

Kevin DeWeese: So I'm assuming everyone that preordered it will have theirs canceled as well?

Daniel: Yes, that is correct.

Kevin DeWeese: Do we have an expected date for the preorder to become available again?

Daniel: I don't think so but one moment while I double check.

Daniel: The best I can give you is that we are expecting this to come in sometime in December. It is subject to change if the manufacturer has any hickups. So I would check online starting November to see if it has opened up for backorder.

Kevin DeWeese: So it is not possible to keep this preordered/backordered until that time?

Daniel: That is correct.

Kevin DeWeese: OK. Thank you very much

Daniel: You are welcome. Have a great day.

Sounds like manufacturing difficulties, too many failing QA. Are they making them in China? 

I ordered mine only a half hour or so after it went up on Mountain Project. I dont know how long after the REI site opened up pre-orders that was, but my order was canceled as well without explanation.  

The better question at this point might be does anyone have a pre-order still valid / scheduled for mid September? 

Max Rieg wrote:

I ordered mine only a half hour or so after it went up on Mountain Project. I dont know how long after the REI site opened up pre-orders that was, but my order was canceled as well without explanation.  

The better question at this point might be does anyone have a pre-order still valid / scheduled for mid September? 

Same timeline for my order

Just got a call from my man at Backcountry. He said REI has an exclusive arrangement with wild country to be the sole US retailer for three months starting in October.  When I called REI yesterday to re-place my pre-order, per Mark L's suggestion, I was also given a 20% discount for my trouble and told that the itemwould ship on October 2. 

I used the Revo for a couple weeks. It is quite smooth for lead belaying.  You really have to rip out slack in order for it to catch.

It is limited in some of its use, ie probably not great for multipitch but its being targetted for gym use.

They really wanted to make sure they had a solid product before releasing it to the public, so that's why it wasn't released this spring

Ryan McDermott wrote:

Just got a call from my man at Backcountry. He said REI has an exclusive arrangement with wild country to be the sole US retailer for three months starting in October.  When I called REI yesterday to re-place my pre-order, per Mark L's suggestion, I was also given a 20% discount for my trouble and told that the itemwould ship on October 2. 

They just can't seem to agree on what day they will be shipping.  Either the date is changing every day, or they are just making educated guesses as to when they will be sent out.  I'd rather them delay the launch to ensure that they get it right the first time they go out rather than having to issue a recall because they wanted to get them on the market as soon as possible.  I'll continue using my reliable grigri+ until they do manage to get the Revo into the stores, but that doesn't mean that I am not impatiently looking forward to getting my hands on one.  I am really hoping that this device makes paying out slack to the lead almost effortless when compared to the grigri.  From what I have read online, I can say that I am pretty confident that it will do just that, as well as a multitude of other things.  We should all keep our fingers crossed.  After all of the hype that has been built up about the Revo, it would really be a letdown if it doesn't live up to it all.  Only time will tell.

If you placed a preorder for the Revo and had it cancelled like myself, I highly recommend that you contact REI to ask why your order was cancelled.  By doing so you will most likely be given a 20% off coupon code just as Ryan and myself have been given for our troubles in regards to our preorders.

WadeM wrote:

I used the Revo for a couple weeks. It is quite smooth for lead belaying.  You really have to rip out slack in order for it to catch.

It is limited in some of its use, ie probably not great for multipitch but its being targetted for gym use.

They really wanted to make sure they had a solid product before releasing it to the public, so that's why it wasn't released this spring

Curious why you think it's not great for multipitch (compared to grigri). Weight?

Doug Chism wrote:

Sounds like manufacturing difficulties, too many failing QA. Are they making them in China? 

If they were manufacturing them in China then there probably wouldn't be QA issues. 

Just ask Black Diamond. 

They manufactured in China for roughly a decade without any recalls. Then, after shutting down their factory in China and moving production back to Utah virtually every product line that came out of that factory got recalled!

Ryan McDermott wrote:

Curious why you think it's not great for multipitch (compared to grigri). Weight?

The pulley that the rope sits on will cause it to back feed pretty easily if you dont constantly man it. This can happen with the grigri, but to a lesser degree.

It's also harder to 'boink" up with the revo because the device has certain places that it will lock up while the grigri has micro-adjusting ability.

Im sure you could easily use it multipitching, but I think a grigri style device will still be king in that arena

Khoi wrote:

If they were manufacturing them in China then there probably wouldn't be QA issues. 

Just ask Black Diamond. 

They manufactured in China for roughly a decade without any recalls. Then, after shutting down their factory in China and moving production back to Utah virtually every product line that came out of that factory got recalled!

I was more thinking that would explain the lengthy delay ( to December ), because if they were failing QA, any changes to the line would take a few months before the product would be in the states in quantity. 

Ryan McDermott wrote:

Just got a call from my man at Backcountry. He said REI has an exclusive arrangement with wild country to be the sole US retailer for three months starting in October.  When I called REI yesterday to re-place my pre-order, per Mark L's suggestion, I was also given a 20% discount for my trouble and told that the itemwould ship on October 2. 

Let us know when you get it - I called REI this morning and got no luck re-placing my cancelled order.

Ryan McDermott wrote:

Just got a call from my man at Backcountry. He said REI has an exclusive arrangement with wild country to be the sole US retailer for three months starting in October.  When I called REI yesterday to re-place my pre-order, per Mark L's suggestion, I was also given a 20% discount for my trouble and told that the itemwould ship on October 2. 

First time a gearhead has been useful?!

Khoi wrote:

If they were manufacturing them in China then there probably wouldn't be QA issues. 

Just ask Black Diamond. 

They manufactured in China for roughly a decade without any recalls. Then, after shutting down their factory in China and moving production back to Utah virtually every product line that came out of that factory got recalled!

Not really. They announced in Feb 2015 that China manufacturing ops was moving back to Utah. Since then the recalls across relatively few product lines have been entirely voluntary, having been caught by their QC and not by consumers in the field. There were also no failures in use.

BD recalls since production moved back to the US:

2016

Easy Rider and Iron Cruiser Via Ferratas (April 13, 2016)
Index Ascenders (April 13, 2016)
Camalot™ and Camalot™ Ultralights (April 13, 2016)
Carabiners and Quickdraws Recall (February 3, 2016)
Nylon Runners Recall (February 3, 2016)

2015

JetForce Recall (July 9, 2015)

Various Euro retailers give October, 149 days from now or 1st Feb 2018.

And:-

"UPDATE:The final certification process highlighted the need for a design modification to guarantee the REVO’s performance across the widest possible spectrum of rope diameters and whilst we regret that this will delay its release, ultimately we are pleased to be working with a certification body that has helped us to realise our ambition of producing the safest belay device on the market. Wild Country will begin production of the REVO with a new supplier that specialises in precision manufacture to deliver an exceptionally high level of finish to our new innovation. We now aim to deliver the REVO for resale to commence in the winter of this year and rather than committing to a new date we will confirm a new timeline once manufacture is confirmed. I would like to take this opportunity to apologise for this delay, we appreciate your commitment to this project to date and regret to have to inform you of this change to the timeline. Your orders in the system will be provisionally re-dated for November to avoid any confusion with spring/summer dispatch, if you have any questions please don’t hesitate to get in touch."

And it’s back on REI, now showing as a pre-order, which wasn’t the case before. FWIW, my estimated delivery date is 11/27. 

Ryan McDermott wrote:

And it’s back on REI, now showing as a pre-order, which wasn’t the case before. FWIW, my estimated delivery date is 11/27. 

Could you post the link? I can't seem to find it... 

https://www.rei.com/product/115409/wild-country-revo-belay-device

its no longer available  it looks like they made a mistake 

Inane wrote:

https://www.rei.com/product/115409/wild-country-revo-belay-device

its no longer available  it looks like they made a mistake 

Incredible. Somebody at REI reeeeely wants to sell this thing, maybe even more than we want to buy it. Then somebody else smacks him down. Over and over.