So KNC would not accept even Bitcoins as a security in order to send working boards first as to minimize downtime for customers.
From where I am standing it looks like they are trying hard to work against their customers by refusing to come up with a RMA solution that works for both sides.
I can not think of a single reason why they would not accept BTC as a security in order to send working boards first, apart from trying to discourage people from using the RMA service.
There appear to be some caveats to the RMA process for dead dies as well as the diagnostic.bin being useless for new firmware. Here is a reply I received when trying for RMA (my highlights).
Hi,
The
diagnostic file will never display the new and correct output after 98.1 so its not giving us the correct information. That said, if you are still getting less than
106 GH/s per board we can issue an RMA.
Should you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact us.
Thanks
Emilia