When I first joined the company I felt the same way. Then I was told the whole story and it made a lot of sense. Basically, without pre-orders, there would be no WakeMate. They were in the tough position of having to prove the product's viability to investors and the investors wanted actual credit cards to prove that viability. At the end of the day, it worked out as best as could be hoped for given such a bad launch estimate: roughly 90% of customers were never charged (PayPal being the exception, though the money remains PayPal's) and investors ponied up enough cash to hire the necessary people and pay for everything going into the first big run, which all together will end up costing waaaay more than what those $5 could have bought.

Don't get me wrong, it's still embarrassing to everybody that we've had pre-orders waiting for so long; that was never the intention. It's a shitty way to treat our first customers, but it was an honest mistake. Many such mistakes were made—especially with regard to communication—but knowing what I know now I don't feel the pre-order taking itself was one. In fact it's probably the only reason the product is nearly out now.