When waldohoover posted the offer, the terms were pretty clear. He collects BTC from each person who wants to participate, he uses that BTC to purchase a miner, he then runs the miner for as long as there is a profit (or max 30 months), he then divides any BTC mined per share to each person. He also said he takes no responsibility of HashFast does not deliver. That statement is in no uncertain terms. He has absolutely no control over HashFast.
There is a statement that refunds will be delivered in the event of a non-delivery. However, "non-delivery" could be interpreted to mean "delivery by the date the manufacturer stated" or it can be interpreted to mean "it is never delivered". In any case, while even I cannot state in certain terms what qualifies as non-delivery, logic would suggest that there was a shipment guarantee date. HashFast definitely does that. What folks have said was the guarantee date was December 31. If it was sooner than that, then waldohoover would likely have already asked HashFast for a refund (after polling the shareholders). He certainly has nothing personally to gain by sitting on his hands. Logic would therefore suggest he cannot yet request a refund.
In any case, I think it's really poor form to pick over every word in the offer.
The point we were making is that the terms were not actually clear at all. He stated from the beginning that all miners were already paid for. He wasn't collecting money to buy miners, he was collecting money to reimburse himself. He called it a group buy, but the title of the thread stated that the miners were already paid for.
Also, there was no where in the terms that stated that Dec. 31 was the guaranteed delivery date, the only date mentioned was the end of November. When I bought my shares I was under the impression that delivery was by the end of Nov. or refund or waiting was an option. Had I known the actual guaranteed delivery date was the end of Dec, I would have taken my money elsewhere. I passed on other GBs with much better terms for late Dec early Jan deliveries for one that I thought would refund me if it wasn't delivered by the end of Nov.
I was much more upset with waldohoovers lack of communication than I was with not getting a refund. Once we started asking for clarification of the terms, waldo stopped responding with any details at all. Personally I would have been fine with it if he had just said that he made a mistake by not including the manufacturer's guaranteed delivery date.
I am willing to wait and I do appreciate what waldo is doing, but he is being compensated for his work and does have a responsibility to those of us who trusted him with our money. He is getting 3% of every single miner that he runs a group buy for and that is a significant hashrate when you add that all up. This is why it is important that we hold him to the terms that we all agreed to. GB coordinators are being trusted with many thousands of dollars and should act like professionals when communicating with their customers. This is a customer service job as well as a tech job.
I agree that this discussion has gone on too long and this is that last I am going to say about the issue. Hopefully the miners are not delivered on time and we will get our btc refunds, but if we do get our delivery or the only refund option is US$, I have confidence that waldo will do a good job hosting our miners.