I contributed more than 10 ETH to the ICO and I'm still waiting for a refund. I've tried to be as patient as possible but this is getting out of hand.

Like any good horror movie, things got off to a nervy start. Any momentum the ICO could have hoped to generate with its launch was stopped dead in its tracks when the website (and its pretty videos) was DDOSed, leaving people unable to contribute for some time after the official launch.

Disrespectfully to contributors, the terms of the ICO were then changed on two occasions: first by decreasing the minimum target, and second by increasing the period of time the ICO would run (notwithstanding that it was clear, at that stage, that the project wouldn't come anywhere close to reaching the soft-cap).

The refund process has been even more poorly managed than the ICO itself. Avalon/TokenLot had at least a week to prepare for the reality that refunds would need to occur but it felt like an unexpected pregnancy in Avaland when the deadline mercifully arrived after two weeks in which a total of about 3 people threw their lunch money at the project. A highlight (lowlight?) for the project in this time was the signing of convicted drug-cheat cage fighting champion, Jon Fitch, as an official sponsor. Move over Groupon

After the deadline passed, there was no official word about the refund process released in a timely fashion on the website, twitter, or on reddit. There was, eventually, a post made on this forum, albeit lacking specificity and clarity generally. The post set a deadline for refunds which wasn't honoured and foreshadows a 'phase 2 announcement', 'coming back huge', and we (apparently) 'won't want to miss out'. Needless to say, I'm giddy with excitement.

After not meeting the self-imposed timeline for refunds, there was further delay before any update was received. The team appeared to be tweeting people saying a refund would occur 'soon'.

Some contributors then received an email which advised that 'you have required action to get your refund processed' and that a refund address would need to be verified. No indication about how that verification process should occur was provided and so, causing apparent shock to the people down at Avaland, concerned contributors (presumably) provided their refund address via reply email. Despite advice that the refund would be processed 'as soon as' this information was received, this did not occur.

The next chapter in this sorry story was a further post on this forum advising that, surprise surprise, the TokenLot email address had been overloaded with refund requests and questions but that all refunds would now be processed 'at the very latest' by 10pm EST on Friday. It is left to assume that this was Friday, 6 October 2017, but why be specific when hundreds of thousands of dollars are being transacted internationally, right?

As at the current time - around 6pm EST - I have: verified the address, received no refund, and no reply to two emails sent to TokenLot. I genuinely cannot believe the Avalon squad thought they could manage a multi million dollar project which would be market disruptive.

I will sit here for the next 4 hours staring wistfully at the picture on Avalon's website of the project 'Treasurer and Financial Markets Expert' as he stares back at me with that moronic grin. Please sort this out.