Once your order has been moved to the 'back-order' pile, things tend to get very unpredictable. Back-ordered prizes seem to get filled randomly. Although there is most likely some logic/method to it, we just can't see it. Just hypothetically speaking, if they were being filled in alphabetical order it would seem random to us because we don't know what the name is on all of the orders.
Also, due to the weight of the camera it is difficult to distinguish it from the many other prizes that ship in that same weight range. However, back when they were shipping consoles, it was the only prize in the 15 lb range, which made it easy to differentiate in the tracker. Being able to watch just the consoles made it easy to see that they would fill their 'normal' number of console orders on a daily basis, and then every once in a while they would 'catch up' with a single huge shipment. In the case of the consoles it was under 10 daily. And then there would be a day with a couple over 100. My guess is that on that day they shipped a 'back-order' load of 100 consoles, in addition to their normal inventory (i.e. 100 plus the daily number). And, since they probably had over 100 requests in their back-order pile, many people had their orders ship that day, but there would not have been enough to completely catch up. Although we don't know how the orders are picked out of the 'back-order pile', but we do know for sure that it is NOT in chronological order.
So, once your order ends up in the back-order pile, it is difficult to estimate when it will ship. And the order date on other people's shipping prizes (including back-orders) does not indicate anything as to the status of your specific order... Your account may be flagged, or your order was just lower on the [seemingly random?] back-order fulfillment list.
Also, in back-order situations, there tends to be higher a occurrence of orders that fall between the cracks. Based on my records, I believe that this has been the case for all of the orders I have had to email them about, most of which were refunded because the prize was no longer available. So, even if you don't get your camera in 12 weeks, it still does not mean your account is flagged. If it was a fulfillment error, they either refund the tickets or ship the prize immediately (i.e. you do NOT have to wait another 29-to-32 days).
I would suggest that you wait out the 12 weeks, and as long as you didn't do something that obviously violated of the ToS (like order to the same address with multiple accounts using the same name/email), then contact support. I prefer to use the
Customer Support Form since it seams to get a quicker response, or you can email them at
[email protected]. If you have more than one account, be sure you are logged-in or emailing with the correct account.
