Why are we not pursing a full refund for all batches?
You need to re-read the email. If everyone
requests a refund, then all batches will be refunded. "We will process any orders for those that wish to continue with assembly, and our policy of not forcing anyone to accept a refund still stands." This is a group buy, by participating you need to accept that you're somewhat bound by the decisions of the group.
I think from his email it is clear he is recommending we ask for refunds (as he has for his chips).
You're missing the point, why is delivery even an option when it's becoming more and more liekly the chips will never arrive? Just seems odd with all the management of the refund process AND also managing the distribution of chips if they arrive (probably in Jan'14) that will have negative ROI... If 90% ask for refunds (which I expect it to be), why not just refund all batches to the original senders bitcoin address instead of monkeying around for dozens of hours trying to process everyone's individual needs? The odds are 1 batch will be stuck with a small group of trolls/afks not caring about a refund at all.
The extra 5% commission on 1 batch of delivery definitely wouldn't outweigh the work involved with processing all these each refund individually so i'm not sure why steamboat is going this route, I sure as hell wouldn't.