I agree with you.  If the price goes up, it just is.

The problem is how it was done.  Bitmain made multiple poor choices today.

If they wanted to increase the price, after the holiday break they simply needed to open sales again at the $419.  There would have been grousing here, but it would be short lived.

The problem THEY created was by opening sales back up at $320, THEN jumping the price, and then increasing the price AGAIN, all in the same day.  If they would have increased the prices in stages over the coming weeks, it would have been a bit more tolerated.

The extra fuel to this fire today, is they even told us here, that they did it because they just found out another manufacturer isn't going to deliver any mining product shortly!  Not because the costs of goods increased.  Not because any costs increased.

How about this:
The price of gas at the pump changes.  It's a fact of life.  Would you not scream foul, if while you were pumping the gas, they increased the price of the gas you're putting in your car?  Wouldn't you scream bloody foul, if that increase was 20%?

Now the same analogy, if on your way to work one morning, you notice that your favorite petrol station just opened up after being closed for 3 weeks and you think to yourself, you should fill the 30 gallon tank of your big truck (ant farm) on the way home.  Then during lunch, one of your workmates tell you that your same favorite station just increased the gas prices by 20%!  Wouldn't you scream bloody foul?  Oh then, on your way home, you stop to fill your tank anyway, only to find out that the price made another increase - a total of more than 30% from what it was in the morning.

So then you decide to go inside the gas station and ask, why the huge increase.  The guy just gives you a bunch of smiley faces, as you pose ideas as to why.  Then finally the man tells you, he just found out that the other gas stations in the area, won't be able sell during the next few months and that is why he raised the price so vigorously through the day.

Do you think it would be disingenuous to be extremely upset with your favorite gas station, that you've supported for a relatively long time?

Bitmain has a lot of repairing to do.  They not only bit the hands that feed them, they slapped the golden goose (the one that supported them while they've wonderfully improved their products, to finally get them something they felt was good enough to now build their own mega-farm).  Based on their history of good products, I hope they do see the wisdom in making some huge steps in customer relations reparation.

It is their right to price as they choose.  It is their right to do it, exactly as they did today.  Just as it is our right to scream bloody hell about it.

As the day has wore on about this pricing event today, the business owner in me has been trying hard to cut them some slack.  I also have a pretty good BS meter.   Processing through the logic of facts as I  wrote this post, it is now very clear to me, that they really messed up today, in a lot of ways.  The multiple price changes in a single day, is a lot more than just a slap in the face.  Their explanation is even more abhorrent.  The switch to pre-orders is also a big change (even if it is not labeled a pre-order).  Even the comment about not selling S3++ except locally, is a slam.  If they think they're going to sell out of the increased price S5's, why not sell the S++?  Let the sales tell them if it is too high of a price.

Dogie, if you do work for Bitmain, you won't be able to publicly accept this.  If you don't work for Bitmain, please take a long pause and think about it all and you should realize that they just told us all to sod off.  I just realized it while writing this, so slowly on my iPad. (Lots of time to think about it, nearly an hour).

I bought S5's in January at $319 each.  A week+ later, they made a (single) price increase to $370.  There was weeping & wailing here, but not like today.  Not to mention the logic was finally made, the price of BTC was down, so the price needed to go up for them to cover their costs.  Hmmm, today BTC is about 50% higher than when the price in January went to $370.  Shouldn't that logic say, that with the price of BTC today the miner price should be lower?  Oh wait, they did do that, when they opened at the lower $320 price today.  

They figured the same thing, until that magic intelligence came in that told them that now they can charge whatever they want.

And they did.  

I'm betting my 750 watt supplies that powered my S3's & now S5's, won't likely power any future miners.  The single 400watt supply I also got for one of my S3's is already useless.

I now know better for my next psu purchase, thanks to those on this forum, to get a 2000+ watt psu.

That's it exactly! 

I'm still in awe that's even part of their explanation.

I am confused.  Please explain: you do not want to sell the S3++ because "it very unreasonable to sell to oversea buyers", but it is not unreasonable to increase the price by 30% all at once, just because of a change with a competitor?

Some others are in the same situation as me - I also have my own business (for 15 years now) and I cannot raise my prices, in the middle of a purchase with a customer.  I also cannot raise my prices by 30% in a single step.  I also cannot raise my prices by 30% at once, just because one of my competitors stopped competing.  If I did any of these things, my existing customers would go away.

It would be very helpful for you, to share things with your customers.  Let us know what you are planning (Dear Customer, when we come back from the Chinese New Year Holiday, new pricing will be in place).  Let us know what your plans are for products - when are you planning to release a new product?  What type of product do you expect it to be?  Let us know what your plans are for upgrades to older products (S2 upgrade).  Can you see that it appears to us, as customers, that you really don't care, when you don't communicate with us - until there is a huge upset, like you have seen here in the last day.  Now you are talking... a little bit, when people ask very specific questions.  Can you see that it feels very disrespectful to us, as customers?


Also, can you please tell us when there will be new firmware for the S5?  It is a big problem when the network goes down and the S5 keeps working on nothing and the temperature goes way higher than 80C and it still keeps going, instead of stopping.

@Bitmain
It is very hard to stay positive.  How long must we wait before we hear your explanation?

I agree with this.  I talked with Rich on Friday.  He was very good to chat with.  I felt good enough about it and him, I bought, with no escrow.

That's default frequency (350).

I'm on Slush's pool and everything has been running smoothly there.  Those temps seem low, which would be true if you'r e not fully hashing.

Hopefully you have all O's in the ASIC Status area?

Anything more than that, is above my paygrade.  Some of the seasoned guys will need to jump in here.

It could well be the pool you're in.  Ghash was definitely having problems this week.

What pool are you using?  Have you overclocked or underclocked? (what is your frequency set at)

What temperature is the machine reporting?

I have not done a box fan yet.  My S5's are setup next to a window and it's winter here.  So mine are vertical blowing down (opposite of Strato's way), since the cold outside air pours in from above them.

I expect during summer to change to blowing up with a box fan underneath.

It did make a difference to turn them vertical, period.     Even though mine are reverse of the guide.

Thanks Strato!

Thank you in advance for your efforts in reviewing.

Just looks like default time zone, the same one you have.  I only changed my profile from the default a couple of days ago.

 If theerachate were a sock puppet, why wouldn't the OP have used that account created last July to make this thread?

Thank you both Master-P and Damiano for the review posts you've already made.  Looking forward to updates.

Just ordered and forgot to enter the coupon code.  Just 1 bottle.  As good as everyone says it is, I'm not worried about getting the discount.  Thanks for listing on the forum.

Thanks again for sharing.  The  pictures make a vivid point to all of us to watch the heat.

My PCI cables almost, sometimes feel a hint warm.  Yeah, a good sign. 

Just by turning mine vertical, dropped a few degrees.  Thank you Strato!

Thanks for sharing the pictures.  

Now I'm concerned about my Thermaltake 750w Gold PSU's.  My S3's were of course happy with those, but you're making me concerned that I'm running my S5's with them.  (1 psu per S5).

Advice anyone?

I've been wondering about free or low cost power.  I've  been to trying research and figure out how to find exactly that for a few weeks now, but to no avail.  No one I know has unlimited power included in their homeowners or something similar.

I'd love to hear some solid advice on how to join these many people with an edge on power costs.

Thanks.

Thanks for the OP and updates.  Thanks to the Mods that stickied this so everyone knows (including me).  Use an escrow for sales.

It's not much trouble to get a license.  In fact, now, all of the licenses are no code.  The FCC did away with the morse code requirement a few years ago.

All of the FCC ham radio tests are multiple choice.  There is a pool of questions, that is published (with the correct answers).  When giving the test, they select some of the questions from the pool.  If you're good at memorizing, you can pass the test that way.  It's good to find a local ham, or local club and get involved.  Even if you pass the test, you'll want to get some real life experience and advice from those in your area.

You can try sample tests here http://www.eham.net/exams/

Go get a license.  It's a great hobby, with many different aspects.  I know some people that have their microphone stashed away in a drawer and do nothing but morse code.  (Not my cup of tea however).

Hear hear.  Great hobby.  Got K1N on 4 band/modes!  It would be fun to get more overlap of miners and hams.

Perfect idea.  I'll have to set that up this weekend.  Thanks.