Ok, so what is next. Legal options please. They have our money, we want it back, what is the best way to accomplish this?
I cannot begin to tell you how many times their promises have not come through, and how many times they have changed their tos and pulled their own posts and agreements as well as customers.
Again.. where do we go from here?
Scrap'
If I were in your situation I would write Alpha an email explaining that you are not a business and have bought the product as a consumer. Therefore under the Distance Selling Regulations 2000 you are entitled to cancel at any time before shipping or up until 7 days after receipt of the item, for a full refund without penalty including all deposits. I would also point out their T&Cs at the time of purchase stated this (original T&Cs):
"Balance payment of 70% shall be collected 8-10 weeks before shipment date. The exact shipment date shall be notified on our website"The EXACT shipping date has not been notified on their website so they are currently in breach of contract. They are in the ninth week since they asked for payments (22nd May). If they do not ship by the 31st of July they will again be in breach of contract. Both these violations render the entire contract null and void and you expect a full refund.
I would also state that you will be issuing proceedings with the UK small claims court and passing all the relevant data on to the Citizens Advice Bureau and Trading Standards if you have not received a satisfactory response and restitution within 7 days.
You can file small claims court proceedings online here:
https://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk/web/mcol/welcomeMoney claim online can be used by people living outside the UK but you will need a UK address. Fortunately you can use a service address. More information about money claim can be found here:
http://www.inbrief.co.uk/preparing-for-trial/problems-with-small-claims.htmSmall claims can be heard in absence and the fees are very reasonable and can be found here:
http://hmctsformfinder.justice.gov.uk/courtfinder/forms/ex050-eng.pdfA small claim may be the fastest way of getting your money if you do not have CC protection. Most are not disputed so the awards are given fairly quickly.
You can contact the UK Citizen's Advice Bureau direct on 08454 040506 or fill out the form on their website. They will pass your complaint on to UK trading standards. If they receive enough complaints they may start a criminal investigation into Alpha. The form can be found here:
https://ssl.datamotion.com/form.aspx?co=3438&frm=citacomplainform&to=flare.fromformsYou can take these steps even if you are not a UK or EU citizen, as Alpha being a UK company are bound by UK Consumer law.
Hope this helps.
Thanks for the well drawn out post. That really helps us who don't know our legal rights.
Just to throw something out there (again) for customers. At current prices per Mh/s, we are basically at the time where you probably won't break even. (
) If these units are shipped sometime in August, looking at the current quick rise of the difficulty, it will be a HUGE loss. We are talking Huge in the sense of e.g. Buying a BTC Jalapeno that mines you 25% of its value over a year. I plugged in small difficulty increases, like 1%-3% and there still is no break even (nor close) by years end.
In the last 3 weeks app. the difficults has gone up OVER 50%!