ASIC Refund Experiences with BFL & BTCFPGA

[Meatball]

Recently I've come to the realization that I just won't see RoI on my ASIC pre-orders unless BTC spikes pricewise, and I personally don't think that's going to happen so I decided to pull the plug and put in cancellations for the orders I had in place.  Of course I could be wrong, and if I am, all the better for you folks that tough it out.

All in all I had 4 Preorders with BFL, and 2/3 orders with BTCFPGA.  They've all been cancelled and I've received all my money back with just a little bit of hassle.

BFL

Had 4 separate pre-orders placed in the Sept-October timeframe.  Sent an email describing my exact orders, the dates and information on 12/09/12 @ 7:04 PM.  By 12/10/12 @ 4:30 PM all the orders/payments had been refunded through Paypal without a problem.

BTCFPGA

Had a bit of a hitch with BTCFPGA, partially due to my own screw-up.  Put in a preorder in early November, but accidentally put in the wrong email address as mine.  Never received the verification info, so I called Tom, spoke with him, and after a few calls, he cancelled the original order, and credited me the amount on a new account (with the proper email address), and I put in another order.  Put in a second pre-order a few days later.  Sent in a cancellation request on 11/22, Tom responded on 11/23 and I had a refund for one of the pre-orders on 11/24.  Assuming there was just some delays due to Turkey day and some confusion due to the first cancellation/credit, I sent an email to Tom/Dave about the other refund on 11/25, 11/27 and 12/10 and received no response.  Finally had to dispute the CC transaction and received my refund on 12/15.  I hated to go the dispute route, b/c I think Tom/Dave were doing the right thing, but there was some confusion around the original order/cancellation/credit and I think they might just be overloaded.

So, all in all, 6 ASIC orders, cancelled, without too much of a problem (other than the minor hiccups with BTCFPGA).  I've had fun with BTC mining over the past year or two, and wish everyone luck.

[davecoin]

Not to hijack your thread, but now that you are getting out of mining, do you see yourself using bitcoin in the future?

[Meatball]

Not to hijack your thread, but now that you are getting out of mining, do you see yourself using bitcoin in the future?

While I'd love to use BTC, I don't think so.  Mainly due to the fact that I can't really purchase most things I'm interested in with BTC.  If I could use BTC to purchase items from Amazon or Newegg, then, yeah, I would, but I already own 2 pairs of Alpaca socks and there's not much else I want that I can use BTC for.

[meowmeowbrowncow]

*sigh*


We just need one good, big e-tailer to accept btc.  :/

[mrb]

Hum... half a million items are purchasable at https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/BitcoinStore

[Cluster2k]

Hum... half a million items are purchasable at https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/BitcoinStore

Bitcoin comes into its own when it's the superior way of transacting compared to other methods.  Merchants are few, customers are many, the better way to serve customers wins.  Right now Bitcoin is the clear winner when it comes to something like Silk Road or donating money to organisations that are less than government friendly (Wikileaks, etc).

BFL originally stated all preorders can be refunded if nothing ships before 1 January 2013.  A lack of any shipments is now guaranteed, and while I doubt many people are going to ask for their money back I still think BFL must be a bit nervous.  They no doubt don't have enough money to refund everyone as much of the money would have been spent on R&D and hardware.

I am not going to ask for my money back from BFL that I sent them in September.  I also don't expect to receive anything from them for months.  Makes me wonder what they had ready in October when shipping of finished products was apparently just a few weeks away...

[Beans]

Not to hijack your thread, but now that you are getting out of mining, do you see yourself using bitcoin in the future?

While I'd love to use BTC, I don't think so.  Mainly due to the fact that I can't really purchase most things I'm interested in with BTC.  If I could use BTC to purchase items from Amazon or Newegg, then, yeah, I would, but I already own 2 pairs of Alpaca socks and there's not much else I want that I can use BTC for.

btczone.com sells most products listed on amazon, I still have not seen a good newegg version.

[crazyates]

If I'm not buying ASICs or buying stuff from people here on the forums, I'm usually buying cards from http://btcbuy.info/ . It's a simple site, but they're usually very (very) fast, have good rates, and I've never had any problems with them at all.

[Jack1Rip1BurnIt]

If I'm not buying ASICs or buying stuff from people here on the forums, I'm usually buying cards from http://btcbuy.info/ . It's a simple site, but they're usually very (very) fast, have good rates, and I've never had any problems with them at all.

Thanks for that link, I did not know I could turn my bitcoins into Newegg dollars so quickly without hassle. Will be trying this out soon!

[crazyates]

If I'm not buying ASICs or buying stuff from people here on the forums, I'm usually buying cards from http://btcbuy.info/ . It's a simple site, but they're usually very (very) fast, have good rates, and I've never had any problems with them at all.

Thanks for that link, I did not know I could turn my bitcoins into Newegg dollars so quickly without hassle. Will be trying this out soon!

I paid for half my Christmas shopping with Bitcoins using that site. I put everything together, and I got my Amazon GC within 10 minutes, and my Newegg GC within an hour. I love it.

[fcmatt]

If I'm not buying ASICs or buying stuff from people here on the forums, I'm usually buying cards from http://btcbuy.info/ . It's a simple site, but they're usually very (very) fast, have good rates, and I've never had any problems with them at all.

Thanks for that link, I did not know I could turn my bitcoins into Newegg dollars so quickly without hassle. Will be trying this out soon!

I paid for half my Christmas shopping with Bitcoins using that site. I put everything together, and I got my Amazon GC within 10 minutes, and my Newegg GC within an hour. I love it.

what is so great about giving them a 2% cut to get a newegg gift card? the mind boggles how one somehow thinks this is great
or easy to involve a 3rd party for no good reason.

i use a credit card that can give me airline miles, extra year of insurance, a way to dispute problems, etc... and i work directly with
newegg to buy things. those are real advantages.

[Jack1Rip1BurnIt]

If I'm not buying ASICs or buying stuff from people here on the forums, I'm usually buying cards from http://btcbuy.info/ . It's a simple site, but they're usually very (very) fast, have good rates, and I've never had any problems with them at all.

Thanks for that link, I did not know I could turn my bitcoins into Newegg dollars so quickly without hassle. Will be trying this out soon!

I paid for half my Christmas shopping with Bitcoins using that site. I put everything together, and I got my Amazon GC within 10 minutes, and my Newegg GC within an hour. I love it.

what is so great about giving them a 2% cut to get a newegg gift card? the mind boggles how one somehow thinks this is great
or easy to involve a 3rd party for no good reason.

i use a credit card that can give me airline miles, extra year of insurance, a way to dispute problems, etc... and i work directly with
newegg to buy things. those are real advantages.

I don't know if you are paying attention...but the last time I checked Newegg does not accept bitcoins as a method of payment.

[crazyates]

If I'm not buying ASICs or buying stuff from people here on the forums, I'm usually buying cards from http://btcbuy.info/ . It's a simple site, but they're usually very (very) fast, have good rates, and I've never had any problems with them at all.

Thanks for that link, I did not know I could turn my bitcoins into Newegg dollars so quickly without hassle. Will be trying this out soon!

I paid for half my Christmas shopping with Bitcoins using that site. I put everything together, and I got my Amazon GC within 10 minutes, and my Newegg GC within an hour. I love it.

what is so great about giving them a 2% cut to get a newegg gift card? the mind boggles how one somehow thinks this is great
or easy to involve a 3rd party for no good reason.

i use a credit card that can give me airline miles, extra year of insurance, a way to dispute problems, etc... and i work directly with
newegg to buy things. those are real advantages.

I don't know if you are paying attention...but the last time I checked Newegg does not accept bitcoins as a method of payment.

Exactly. Do you have a way of quickly and conveniently getting Newegg GCs without paying a 2% fee?

[fcmatt]

If I'm not buying ASICs or buying stuff from people here on the forums, I'm usually buying cards from http://btcbuy.info/ . It's a simple site, but they're usually very (very) fast, have good rates, and I've never had any problems with them at all.

Thanks for that link, I did not know I could turn my bitcoins into Newegg dollars so quickly without hassle. Will be trying this out soon!

I paid for half my Christmas shopping with Bitcoins using that site. I put everything together, and I got my Amazon GC within 10 minutes, and my Newegg GC within an hour. I love it.

what is so great about giving them a 2% cut to get a newegg gift card? the mind boggles how one somehow thinks this is great
or easy to involve a 3rd party for no good reason.

i use a credit card that can give me airline miles, extra year of insurance, a way to dispute problems, etc... and i work directly with
newegg to buy things. those are real advantages.

I don't know if you are paying attention...but the last time I checked Newegg does not accept bitcoins as a method of payment.

Exactly. Do you have a way of quickly and conveniently getting Newegg GCs without paying a 2% fee?

I meant warranty, not insurance.

And why do you want to use bitcoins to shop with newegg? Jumping through hoops to use bitcoin is nothing to brag about. It just shows how poorly it is accepted by places people want to shop. Just sell the bitcoins for dollars already.

Now if the website sent an email to newegg saying someone bought gift cards with bitcoin to shop there and they pay a 2% fee to do it... And it was sending them 25+ emails a day that woukd be cool. But it dont. Just another lame bitcoin store that ends up costing you more then just using a credit card.

[Jack1Rip1BurnIt]

I meant warranty, not insurance.

And why do you want to use bitcoins to shop with newegg? Jumping through hoops to use bitcoin is nothing to brag about. It just shows how poorly it is accepted by places people want to shop. Just sell the bitcoins for dollars already.

Now if the website sent an email to newegg saying someone bought gift cards with bitcoin to shop there and they pay a 2% fee to do it... And it was sending them 25+ emails a day that woukd be cool. But it dont. Just another lame bitcoin store that ends up costing you more then just using a credit card.

Dude, I don't know what your problem is but it's not my problem. We are just talking about ways we can easily spend our bitcoins and get stuff that we actually want. Never did we say we were going to buy bitcoins with money first and then turn around and buy something that we could have bought with that cash in the first place. We are miners...that's what we do. Guess what? We get paid in bitcoins(go figure). Sometimes we might buy something with those bitcoins(go figure again).

Now as far as bitcoin not being accepted anywhere all I have to say is duh! This is just the way things are right now. There's a million things that need to be done to improve the Bitcoin future, and it's talked about on a daily basis in this same exact forum. I'm sure you can find someone else to bother in another thread. Have a nice day

[crazyates]

And why do you want to use bitcoins to shop with newegg? Jumping through hoops to use bitcoin is nothing to brag about. It just shows how poorly it is accepted by places people want to shop. Just sell the bitcoins for dollars already.

Now if the website sent an email to newegg saying someone bought gift cards with bitcoin to shop there and they pay a 2% fee to do it... And it was sending them 25+ emails a day that woukd be cool. But it dont. Just another lame bitcoin store that ends up costing you more then just using a credit card.

I really don't see what your problem is. I mine Bitcoins. I sell stuff here on the forums for Bitcoins. I want to spend those Bitcoins to buy other stuff. I spend those Bitcoins to buy Gift Cards from a reputable source. I buy stuff with those Gift Cards. What would you have me do? Your solution to sell the Bitcoins for dollars can sometimes be even more confusing and convoluted that what I do.

Then only point I will agree with you on is that if Newegg started accepting Bitcoins as a payment option, I would probably empty my wallet ASAP, as the convenience factor would go up drastically. But in the meantime, I really only spend BTC->GC->Newegg when I really need something.

[Salazarian]

BFL:

You can still get REFUND! GOt mine and can vouche them! Great!!!!

EDIT: BTCFPGA crashed, NO BASICS
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=138663.0