"Sorry everyone, we really fucked this one up! Chalk it up to a massive learning experience for our entire company. This being our first mass email, we didn't phrase anything well enough, we didn't check it thoroughly enough, and we didn't properly communicate our business model and what people are really paying for. Like I said, we fucked this one up.

Here's the deal- the hardware delays are due to us finding some very cool improvements that increase the accuracy of the device 50% and reduce power consumption significantly. Since this is a hardware product, we don't want our first users stuck with a shitty revision that's significantly worse than a version we ship in three months. To do this only takes a one month delay, and the logistics of shipping two versions, one for people who want the 'old' version now and one for people who want the 'new' version in a month just wouldn't work. There's only three of us, so we have to make some gut decisions.

However, we didn't communicate the premium features well at all- we haven't even begun working on them yet! They have nothing to do with the delay, and, though very cool, they don't affect the core functionality of the product- helping you wake up more refreshed every single morning. This is more for folks who love geeky graphs like us :) We'll be charging something trivial like $3.99/month, but felt it would be a nice token of appreciation to people who had to have their product delayed.

Again, my apologies for all of this- we'll definitely improve how we communicate with our customers starting immediately. And, if anyone has any questions, here's my email so you can get ahold of me directly : [ceo's email here]."

Why are you apologizing for them feeling that way? It seems to me like everyone is reacting in the same way. Perhaps you should apologize for your own behavior.

I don't think the delay is near as bad as the way you guys are handling it. I'm a bit taken aback and I haven't even invested in your product. If it were my company, everyone would be refunded their $5 since they pre-ordered to receive their product on time. I would certainly not offer (what appears as) contrived premium features.

Part of the reason why there is some backlash against this announcement isn't so much against that it's going to be late, but that the monthly fee was a complete surprise.

It's totally normal (and encouraged!) to have premium features, but the shipping delayed announcement went like this:

* Hey peoples are really excited about wakemate! * We've made some breakthroughs in the development of wakemate that makes it more awesome than before (yay!) * Because we've been making it better it's going to be delayed, and we're going to compensate the delay by giving you free access to the premium analytics features. (Wait, what? What premium analytics features?)

I think this announcement would have been received better if the premium features had been mentioned in the same paragraph announcing all the breakthroughs. The premium feature could have been presented as benefit of these breakthroughs (with the increased feature set, we can now charge for value), but because it was first mentioned as part of compensation of the delayed release, it comes across as negative.

"I'm really sorry you feel that way. Of course if you want your money back we have no problem refunding your 5 dollars."

Wow, this comes across as bitter and nasty. How about:

"I am really sorry you feel that way let us refund your money," or the like. Seriously. Your previous comment is such bad business just based on how demeaning it comes across. Better yet:

"I am really sorry you feel that way let us refund your money. However, we've developed some great premium features that you may be interested in; and of course our the main features are free. Can we convince you otherwise?"

I would take the "you feel that way" out and replace it by:

"I'm sorry with our miscommunication, let us refund you your money. However, we've developed some great premium features that you may be interested in; and of course our the main features are free. Can we convince you otherwise?"

"I'm sorry you feel that way" makes it seems that it's the customer's fault and not their fault, it's demeaning to the customer.

Your tone is a bit incorrect for the particular situation. But whatever makes you happy. Just give me back my $5, I'll buy myself a beer this evening at a bar.

You don't get it. As somebody noted up-thread, real apologies start with "I'm sorry I" not "I'm sorry you."