I didn't order an asic from HF but if I had I would much rather just get an asic even if it is late. I did make the mistake of pre-ordering a bfl product but I was able to sell the asic when I got it for a profit. It is a huge mistake to preorder hardware from a company that has never delivered a product expecting it to be shipped on time.
I don't see why we should be happy about getting our ASICs delivered late, unless your only objective is to sell it on to some other poor sap and screw him over. I hope most of us bought the equipment to mine with, not to speculate. Mining implies we need to recover the amount in BTC we paid otherwise we'll never break even.
Past performance is not a guarantee for the future, ask that to those who ordered batch #3 from Avalon. Or compare that with those who preordered from KNC. First case Avalon had already successfully delivered 2 batches but ended up screwing all their later customers (batch #3 and chip orders). KNC had never delivered a product. BFL has now delivered FPGA's and ASICs but no way anybody should ever order their Monarch (unless they want to repeat your initial BFL experience)
Batch 3 and chip orders were both offered a 100% full bitcoin refund.