Thats no good!
No, not at all.
What they where doing is taking a 50% deposit upon order then the balance several months later (without permission and months before delivery).
I ordered mine December 2012. Was told April delivery, then May and then June. The balance of payment was taken in May. It was delivered in July 2013.
It took 6 1/2 months from order to delivery.
Reading the US forums it looks like delivery had slowed down even more but they where still taking full payment. I wouldn't like the chance of anyone who had an order seeing there money.