We published a shipping windows between Point A (end of Oct) and Point B (Dec 31) and committed to issuing full refunds if we ship outside of this window (IE after Dec 31).
Actually, you'll be "committed to issuing full refunds" if you miss the self-imposed October 31 timeline, per FTC rules. This forum is all too familiar with these rules, having done battle with BFL, PayPal and others. If anyone should be speaking to an attorney, it's Hashfast.
I thought the Dec 31st was the deadline for batch 1 and Jan 31 for batch 2. Read the fine print.
If you bought this pre-order you have agreed to the terms. They will refund you the money if the don't ship by Dec 31st. If they don't, I think you'll have a good case to take them to court next year. If they ship right before or on Dec 31st (tracking number in your email/fax), you can kiss 90% of your investment goodbye. Just wait in few weeks they will announce that products are shipping so no more refunds.
My guess is that they will get the first miners ready sometime by the mid of November, they'll mine them for a month or so and start shipping, just to give them enough time to meet their legal obligations. Or just refund you your money in bitcoins (a small portion of the mining profits). Essentially giving them free capital to develop the product. After that, they will auction them on ebay or some other tradehill like place. Rinse and repeat for gen2.
I believe those terms where added in mid-August AFTER many of the batch 1 orders were made. Initially there was no Dec 31 clause in the agreement.