How 'splitting' it does makes sense is that by shipping the bulk of orders now the liability is greatly reduced, reducing the likelihood that people will organize to chase them down for comp unit that's pretty much worth next to nothing anyhow a few months from now.
I think that's exactly right, getting convinced to accept shipment without compensation (i.e. their price-matching promise prior to any orders even being placed) takes you out of the refund game entirely.
I think it's worth re-iterating, Black Arrow is obligated to refund your order if you request it. A pre-order is a pre-order, not a "I'm-going-to-do-whatever-I-want-with-your-money-go-fuck-yourself"-order.
yep, I think this promise of compensation is an outright lie. I think price matching was an outright lie all along. I think their telling people they would refund their money was an outright lie all along. They can easily disprove any of those opinions by simply delivering on these things, although I'm not holding my breath.
think of a promise they've actually kept to the aggregate group of customers that would cost them a dime. I can't think of one. not a single one.
I can tick off several major ones broken, not to mention shipping dates, facility capacity, etc., etc., etc., but I cannot think of one they've kept to their customers en masse.
are we supposed to believe that it's just been a string of unlikely events totally beyond their control or is it more likely that this was a strategy that utilized bad faith dealings to string people along? I'll let people decide that for themselves, I guess.