Very disappointed. I sort of knew it but wanted to give them the benefit of doubt.... Batch1 will coincide with the delivery of the Batch2.... blarrrr
Everyone over-promise but under delivers.
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We have to inform you that our schedule to manufacture and assemble the system has been disrupted and we are unable to make delivery of the Batch 1 Minion ASIC chip on the initial scheduled date (end of February). We are now expecting to dispatch all Batch 1 orders on 1st of May 2014.
Please be re-assured we are confident that we have tried our best to accomplish our initial ambitious targets. However, we came to the conclusion that it is in the best interest of our customers to delay shipping in order to ensure that the product provides the best-possible user experience.
Without this delay we would have achieved 1.5W/Ghash which would have meant that our chip would not have been competitive at all.
We have now finalized the design process using our newly improved code and will start manufacturing the chip (tape out) in the next few days.
We are happy to announce that Black Arrow Softwares products remain on target for being the best in their class for power consumption. We confirm that our latest improved design has the following technical specifications:
·0.75w/Ghash on TT corner @ 25C which is expected to run at 120Ghash/sec.
·SS corner will be 0.6w/ghash and will run at 100Ghash.
·A further underclocking and underpower should be possible and should yield 80Ghash @ 0.5W/ghash. However, please note that this is not guaranteed to work stable.
Please note, that a further push for improvement in the optimization process would have guaranteed further delays for at least 1-2 months.
It is no secret to us that the Bitcoin mining process is proving to be more and more difficult every day. To compensate our loyal customer for the unforeseen delay of in delivering our miners for batch 1, we are happy to offer free extra hashing power which consists of 25% of your purchased hashing power from our Rent-Some-Minions cloud program for 4 months.
The account for the tape-out has been settled in full and we are confident that the delivery will be completed shortly.
We are taking all the necessary measures and positive actions to expedite delivery to you as soon possible and we are confident that we have the resources to be successful.
Please note:
·We estimate that the delivery for the Batch1 will coincide with the delivery of the Batch2
·The delivery of Batch2 remains unchanged
·The one-off offer presented above is open to the customers who placed orders for Batch1
Sincerely,
The Black Arrow Software Team
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I can confirm this message, got this in an email ~22 minutes ago.
^ You have to go back to page 81 to read this announcement that BA were unable to meet their promised deadlines and that in place of delayed hardware, they'll be offering 25% of the purchased hashing power in cloud format while they try meet their new deadline.
What followed was a general outcry of customers and concerned citizens declaring that they were unhappy and wanted more information and answers to why they'd been kept in the dark by BA for so long.
The limited information which didn't really qualify as answers at all from BA wasn't very persuasive so the level of outcry increased.
It's as yet unclear whether the limited information provided by BA contradicts their previously provided production guidance and, you guessed it, this increased the level of outcry further.
It's safe to say that this has been one of the worst PR responses to customer breach of contract that I've ever seen in any industry. In the absence of any proper comment from the company, speculation, hyperbole, diatribe and investigative efforts have been pursued to shock, shame and scare some information from BA who appear so disorganised that not only can they not manage to take control of this their own official thread, they've displayed a sheer lack of comprehension of why they're subject to the understandable backlash that when customers who have paid for their product and get treated with very little courtesy, that customers get very angry and demand information and accountability.
However, if you've only joined this thread recently, you'll probably perceive that the outcry is being characterised as 'fanbois' on the one side and 'trolls' on the other which, sadly, tends to deflect from the very genuine attempts of customers demanding to know when they'll get what they paid for or how they go about getting a refund.