- The invite system. In the early days it was excusable, a way to control distribution at a time when they didn't anticipate demand and were literally creating a market category. Now they have an idea of what demand is, so retaining the invite system for the 1+2 becomes just a lame publicity stunt. The substantial effort to obtain an invite, IMO, adds to the cost of the phone unless your time is worthless. Furthermore ... the invites, when they come, arrive without warning and have a 24-hour expiry, so it's nearly to buy one when you want to do so ... like when you need to replace your existing phone. What the hell is up with that?
- To get an invite (without buying one or getting a rare "sharable" invite) you have to participate in their social media presence, dominated by fanboyz and cool-geek-wannabes. Apple fans, though bigger in numbers, have nothing on this crowd when it comes to blind loyalty. Last year when I joined the forums, looking to get an invite, it was one of the most content-free discussion experiences I have ever encountered
- The online company reps are very friendly and open to talk about features and Neat Stuff, completely unresponsive about issues or deficiencies. There is robotic, heavily scripted, ever-cheery-even-when-useless feel to customer service that I can best characterize as that of staff at Disneyland; I found it immensely frustrating;
- OnePlus has had quite a lot of problems with Canada Customs; for a six-month period last year they completely stopped shipping to Canada, and their ever-so-useless support staff wouldn't explain why. After piecing together some user forum posts it appears that OnePlus lied on its customs declarations, and a whole bunch of devices were held at customs for a LONG time. They have switched shippers often enough to make one uncomfortable. This matter may be solved by now, but my experience eliminated my confidence in the company to handle shipping issues should I ever need to send the phone back for repairs. (There are no repair depots in Canada of which I am aware),
- The company's management totally botched its OS strategy. It failed to anticipate the (totally predictable) problems it would have as CyanogenMod commercialized, which (amongst other things) kept it out of India for nearly a year. Its update schedule has never met targets, Why it is not just going with stock Android is a mystery, I foresee problems with Oxygen as well; everything they know about Android seems to come from the custom-ROM-modding world, and that environment has its limits.
When the OnePlus One came out it was indeed a market-reshaper. For a long time it was the only phone in its class, and was worth the grief listed above. But now Asus, Motorola, Alcatel, Huawei, Xiaomi and others have discovered that the real growth market for phones is in this midrange rather than flagships. So now, if I don't care to buy a OnePlus within the 24-hour window they bestow upon me, I can tell them to go screw themselves and check out the worthy competition.
I hope I have answered the question sufficiently :-)