Quote from: minerjones on July 19, 2021, 03:36:32 PM

UPDATE:

After shipping out the box sets to people, some users had found their cards to have production issues.
Working with Ballet and Bobby Lee, they have come up with some options for any of the customers who have an issue with their cards. (Only these 21 sets)
There was a delay in response due to getting new production set-up and evaluated.

There will be 4 options that can be chosen from:

1) Keep the cards. These 21 box sets will be the only ones that have gilted "B" on the silver card. Further production of PURE series silver cards will only be silver, no gilt.
So the 21 cards will be unique.

2) Return the box set to either get a refund in bitcoin or a new box set. The new set will have the non-gilt silver card (1 btc) + all gold card (0.1 btc) and serial number will be random. (Limit of 500 sets)
This can apply for gilting issues or scratches.

3) The silver/gilt card can be sent to Ballet and they have a safe process to remove the gilt and then return the card.

4) Alternatively, they can instruct the user to a DIY process to remove the gilt as in Option 3. This way the cards do not need to be shipped.

If there are any questions, comments, or concerns, please PM me. Cheesy

Thank you.

Thank you minerjones for explaining the 4 options.

We realize that these are not perfect solutions, but we just don't have any other choices. Please let me add some more color by giving you some perspective:

There are 2 types of damages:
A) the gilt that peels/falls off, caused by an imperfect manufacturing process.
B) the scratches on the card, caused by the cards falling out from the packaging during shipment.

As mentioned, we were quite surprised and caught off guard by both of these above issues. On behalf of Ballet, I want to personally apologize to all of you about the above 2 issues.

for (A), we've worked closely with our vendor of the pure silver cards, and just could not come up with a suitable and satisfactory solution for the "gold" gilt on the BTC letter. Our solution is to forgo the gilt completely, and just ship a pure silver product. I know it's a compromise, but that's the best we can think of, other than to cancel the product altogether, and not ship anything.

So for existing customers who've already purchased the sets, we can either offer you a full refund or a replacement (option 2 above), remove the gilt at our facility (option 3), or teach you how to do it yourself (option 4). Of course, you're welcome to just keep it as is, and yours will be unique, and there are only 21 sets out there made like that.

For the replacement, unfortunately, the serial numbers cannot be replicated. We have a strict company policy to never replicate serial numbers for the private key stickers. This policy is to ensure the integrity of the manufacturing process and the overall security of our 2-factor key generation process. For these reasons, and also because of manufacturing complexities, we CANNOT and WILL NOT remake wallets to utilize the SAME serial numbers (either with the same OR different private keys & public addresses). This is a company decision, and we are just not willing to cross that bridge.

for (B), this was also unanticipated and we are regretful that this happened, causing scratches on cards for some of you. We have since improved the packaging for shipment, adding a foam layer inside the box, to prevent the same issue of the wallet cards being shaken out of the acrylic box during shipment.

Regardless of the (A) or (B) issue, our best offer is to give you a full refund. You can ask for a replacement, but do know that it will be without the gilt, and that the serial number will no longer be in the range of #01-21.

Just remember: if you ARE NOT satisfied with what you got, then you are welcome to return the product for a full refund. If you ARE satisfied and DO decide to keep it, then please understand that it's your decision to do so. In other words, we are NOT FORCING any of you to keep and accept a dissatisfactory product.

As a company, we try our best to make GREAT products to satisfy everyone. But the reality is that at times, we fall short, and we are regretful of that. We learn from our mistakes, and try to improve in the future. That's the best I can promise you.

And lastly, I founded Ballet to make crypto easy for everyday people. To be clear, we did NOT create Ballet to solely serve the collectables market. Yes, some of our products are special and limited, which some collectors like. Most of our products were made for mass-market adoption. As a company, it's a fine balance, to serve the mass market audience, and also offer some nicer products for collectors.

I know that some of you have expressed that you'll never want to buy any collectibles from Ballet anymore, and you're certainly entitled to your decision. We will continue to release new products, of which some will certainly interest this collectors audience, so I hope you will continue to stay as our loyal customer. (On the other hand, if one day no one cares to buy our collectibles products, then we will simply stop making them.)

For those of you who seem to think that we are putting profit above customer service, it's really not so simple. As a company, we are still loss-making, and not profitable. Our decision above is not for profit reasons, and I've already explained why we will not remake duplicate serial numbers. (So far, we are not even close to making a profit in selling these 21 sets of PURE Bitcoin.)

Now that you have a better understanding of my perspective, I welcome your feedback and would like to hear further constructive suggestions from all of you. Please let me know.

Thank you all for your time and understanding.

cheers,
Bobby