I see lots of Deus II testers in Europe, very little here in the US. Mismanaged? I don't know that many detectorists who owned a Deus here in the US. I think we were the few rather than the many. Tough time of year in the US for field testing. World around me is pretty frozen.
My feeling about pre-paying in full for a Pre-order. No. Would I do a deposit of say $50-$100. Yes. But I would rather not. My XP dealer took my name, preference for 9" or 11" FMF coil and any additional accessories I wanted. Done. I bought my Deus 1 from him and coils and other stuff. He's great to work with. Great to hunt with as well.
My thoughts are this, if you don't like the way your dealer does business, why are you doing business with them? Give your position some thought.
Second, considering the emotional nature / impulsiveness of some buyers, I can understand that a dealer would want something to secure a position on a waiting list that the dealer may commit significant money to with their distributor. Would suck to be that dealer that orders 10 and 7 people drop due to buyers regret, change of mind / situation, or they found one faster on a different list with another dealer.
Enough said. I hope everybody is able to get what they've paid for, those waiting the item wanted and those not sure get the info needed to make their own decision.
Rich