Here is the problem with your statement:
The difference is that it doesn't matter whether they are a 100 year old billion $ company or a brand new start-up, neither company can use customer money to fund their business, that is called investing, non of us agreed to invest in their company, did you? would you?
This is not kickstarter!
No I didn't. I might have, but I didn't have the cash available. But I was seriously considering it. However, I've read enough about Butterfly Labs to know the risks, and it wasn't a risk I was willing to take. The same information that I used to make my decision was available to everyone else, including you. Some are willing to wait it out, although I doubt they're happy about it. Some want refunds. Some just want to complain. Me, I was just too much of a pussy to send the money.
You may not have agreed to invest, but ultimately that's what you did. If you didn't realize it then you've only yourself to blame for that. It seemed pretty obvious to me. Terrahash has stated time and again that delivery will be two weeks after receipt of chips, and as of yet they're true to their word.
I'll say it again, kickstarter or not, comparing a startup business with a multibillion dollar corporation is ludicrous. Even if Terrahash didn't need your money to buy chips from Avalon you were still willing to trust an unknown business with it. Even with the best of intentions new businesses sometimes fail, (and it's not a rare occurrence). Sometimes they truly are scammers, in which case as soon as pre-orders were filled they would have disappeared off the face of the earth and you'd never see a dime again. The obvious seems to escape people on here, but Terrahash are nothing more than a struggling startup trying to bring a product to market while they're underfunded and up against supply issues beyond their control. And anyone who sent them money should have sent it in the full knowledge that that was the case and they're not goddamnedmotherfuckingSony.