From CablePair in Oct '12:

"And yes as of right now I still have an open refund policy. If you change your mind on your pre-order just send me an email and I will process the refund right away - only 2 people have done this since I began taking pre-orders on 09/03 - and believe me my other customers will be happy to have your order out of the way  Also while we are on that topic it is likely the refund policy will change when we go into production because I am going to have to spend a LOT of money to have these boards made (the bASIC order count around 700 as of right now) and I still have to finish paying back the investor that fronted the money to have the chips made. When the time gets close to start production of the boards - I will give a weeks notice on the change of refund policy so anyone that wants to change their mind will have enough time to do it, however just like ModMiner Quad owners are happy as hell with them - I know you guys are going to love this little device. It was engineers in California who are at the very top of their profession. This is a really special product and you guys are going to love it."


How much you want to bet the "investor" took no loss on this business venture and was paid back his investment before customers were paid back their money.  If there was really an investor and they weren't stupid they probably had a contract written up and it said something like, "If Tom is an idiot and can't get this done I have recourse to get my money back from his hide."  Maybe he even put his house up.