However, I find it amusing that you ignored this part
did work with us and we agreed on a fair amount (with Alex Bodromian) of which they just didn't pay
If you gave him a promise to pay him a certain amount -- it overrides your DOA policy.
Things like this make me wonder why people don't use escrow when buying mining equipment. I guess because they don't know anybody trustworthy enough to facilitate it.
Unfortunately, we have clear steps defined for all DOA issues which often include repair, or replacement of units. In this case, said units would have been replaced upon receipt. We did not priorly discuss any unauthorized third-party repairs, and instead, we have been presented with an invoice after the fact. This being said, we had no way to verify that the repairs that have been done were performed on the hardware that was shipped out and not any other units, thus our DOA guidelines and policy.
Wouldn't it have made more sense to simply verify that the machines were working properly before sending them out? Then you could avoid the whole DOA procedure and possibly cancel the order.