BFL not responding to a refund request

[troner]

Good news, finally response from BFL:

Hi xxxxx,

Thank you for sending your bitcoin wallet address. We have sent Bit-Pay a request to send you a refund of $xxxxx in bitcoins. The number of bitcoins you receive might be different from the number you paid, due to changes in the exchange rate since you placed your order.

Kind regards,
Alicia
BF Labs, Inc.

Hope it will be done soon...

It seems only emails to office@butterflylabs.com work.

[jspielberg]

Glad to hear you got your refund.

Very interesting update!
When I got my BFL refund... they refunded in USD even though I paid with BTC.

Now it appears they prefer to refund in BTC.
Currency Arbitrage? 
Maybe they have USD trapped at Mt.Gox. with the dwolla and okpay exit points closed?

[firefop]

All the signs of the end of BFL are here. If you haven't gotten a refund yet I strongly suggest you do soon. And if they aren't responding keep at it. Call multiple times a day. Bug them until you are in the clear.

Right, because you know... once a company actually starts shipping product... that's the sign it's about to roll up.

[smoothie]

All the signs of the end of BFL are here. If you haven't gotten a refund yet I strongly suggest you do soon. And if they aren't responding keep at it. Call multiple times a day. Bug them until you are in the clear.

Right, because you know... once a company actually starts shipping product... that's the sign it's about to roll up.

Yes after 10 months they finally got a few units out the door.

Right, that is the best sign to stick around eh?

You ever think how many people ordered since June 2012? Well right now BFL does not have the funds to fulfill all existing preorders in the queue unless more preorder customer monies come in to pay off old investors.

Sounds familiar? ...it's called PONZI.

Any person who ordered in the last few months likely will not get their units for approximately 3-9 months IF, IF, IF....BFL doesn't close up shop because of lack of funds.

Anyone ordering today is only subsidizing the cost to manufacture a unit for an existing preorder customer.

Fuck that shit.

[troner]

Glad to hear you got your refund.

I got no bitcoins yet, only the reply above stating they sent request to BitPay.... :-(

[pikeadz]

All the signs of the end of BFL are here. If you haven't gotten a refund yet I strongly suggest you do soon. And if they aren't responding keep at it. Call multiple times a day. Bug them until you are in the clear.

Right, because you know... once a company actually starts shipping product... that's the sign it's about to roll up.

Yes after 10 months they finally got a few units out the door.

Right, that is the best sign to stick around eh?

You ever think how many people ordered since June 2012? Well right now BFL does not have the funds to fulfill all existing preorders in the queue unless more preorder customer monies come in to pay off old investors.

Sounds familiar? ...it's called PONZI.

Any person who ordered in the last few months likely will not get their units for approximately 3-9 months IF, IF, IF....BFL doesn't close up shop because of lack of funds.

Anyone ordering today is only subsidizing the cost to manufacture a unit for an existing preorder customer.

Fuck that shit.

It's basically a run on the banks.  A race to get a refund at this point.  As the delays begin to stack up, there will come a point when they will stop issuing the refunds entirely.  That is when the bankruptcy proceeding will begin.  Creditors will get paid pennies on the dollar, and those with first dibs will be suppliers with larger amounts owed, not customers.  Anyone who buys a BFL product at this point is probably just naive, but those who have been invested in this for months and NOT requested a refund by now even though they've been able to for quite some time, is a complete fool.

[cpunks]

For me, it was not a race to get a refund.

My logic was simple: I did not dare to place my order before I has ascertained that BFL could *manufacture* ASIC miners. Having that confirmed via LukeJr in the beginning of April, I placed an order... not a big one though.

Next I hoped that Butterfly Labs could start delivering products (including the Little Single, which I happened to order) in appreciable volume before I would exit PayPal's 45-day buyer protection envelope.

Unfortunately, tough luck, that didn't happen... thus on day 43 I notified BFL that unfortunately, I would have to cancel my order, and notified PayPal (by opening a dispute) that I was asking for a refund from the merchant due to non-delivery. Some 4 days later, BFL issued a refund and an additional 5 days later, my bank credited the approximate sum (plus/minus transaction and currency conversion fees) back to my account.

Issue resolved. Unfortunately, this avenue for obtaining ASIC hardware didn't work for me. I keep mining with my GPUs and will explore other options.

[Bicknellski]

For me, it was not a race to get a refund.

My logic was simple: I did not dare to place my order before I has ascertained that BFL could *manufacture* ASIC miners. Having that confirmed via LukeJr in the beginning of April, I placed an order... not a big one though.

Next I hoped that Butterfly Labs could start delivering products (including the Little Single, which I happened to order) in appreciable volume before I would exit PayPal's 45-day buyer protection envelope.

Unfortunately, tough luck, that didn't happen... thus on day 43 I notified BFL that unfortunately, I would have to cancel my order, and notified PayPal (by opening a dispute) that I was asking for a refund from the merchant due to non-delivery. Some 4 days later, BFL issued a refund and an additional 5 days later, my bank credited the approximate sum (plus/minus transaction and currency conversion fees) back to my account.

Issue resolved. Unfortunately, this avenue for obtaining ASIC hardware didn't work for me. I keep mining with my GPUs and will explore other options.

There are other options coming soon... glad you got a refund.

[Trongersoll]

I'm not advocating violence, but showing up at their door with a M16 might get their attention.

Actually, i'm wondering what would happen if the FBI started getting a lot of requests that they investigate a multimillion dollar scam / ponzi scheme. We might get some real answers, even if it is just that they are a really badly run business.

[troner]

Ok, I just got the f*****g refund. It took 15 days since my first attempt...

But the only thing that matters to me is the result. So now I feel much better. I saved most of the funds of this faulty investment decision...

[Fiyasko]

I wonder if they can even AFFORD this refund if more of these keep coming, They will be broke in no time flat

Ok, I just got the f*****g refund. It took 15 days since my first attempt...

But the only thing that matters to me is the result. So now I feel much better. I saved most of the funds of this faulty investment decision...

Nice!, Way to stick it to them, Goodjob asking and getting a refund!

[minternj]

I'm not advocating violence, but showing up at their door with a M16 might get their attention.

Wow.

[Bitcoinorama]

I'm not advocating violence, but showing up at their door with a M16 might get their attention.

Wow.

Yeah be careful what you suggest if you're from the US, big brother IS watching...and extremely paranoid/stupid.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2318606/High-School-teen-facing-terror-charges-held-MILLION-dollar-bail-posting-threatening-lyrics-Boston-Marathon.html

[Bicknellski]

Ok, I just got the f*****g refund. It took 15 days since my first attempt...

But the only thing that matters to me is the result. So now I feel much better. I saved most of the funds of this faulty investment decision...

+1

[wrenchmonkey]

Ok, I just got the f*****g refund. It took 15 days since my first attempt...

But the only thing that matters to me is the result. So now I feel much better. I saved most of the funds of this faulty investment decision...

+1

Probably ought to put "[Resolved]" in the title of this thread now...

[hexed]

So the recap to this is..

OP decided to post 9 DAYS after he attempted to use the refund option on the BFL site that it did not work.  Then instead of doing anything different, repeated the exact same process 2 days before he posted this thread and states he could not find an email address or any other way to contact them.  Then doesn't post back into his own thread until 5 days later (which I assume he finally got their email address?  ...or he just waited for the website refund option to be responded to).  He then responds back to them either on the 28th or the 29th and gets his money back on the 29th.
If I wanted my money back "that" bad (who wouldn't) I wouldn't have gone through the process of creating a new thread to complain about it, I would have explored alternative contact options (email, telephone).  That only took less than 10 seconds for me when I just checked their site.  I would not have just repeated the refund process over again  on their website if I suspected as being broken..    I DEFINITELY wouldn't have waited 9 days to find their email or call their number.

didn't Ben Franklin say something about insanity being when you do the same thing and expect different results?

Not that I am saying it should take 2 weeks to get a refund back, but if I did not receive a response back from someone with 100's or 1000's of my money, I would not sit there and basically do nothing.  The telephone number is on their front page and their email contact is plainly available on their FAQ and all over their support forum.  If you searched bitcointalk OR their forums you would easily find out that most people are having troubles getting a response back when cancelling through the website, but are getting back responses pretty quickly via email.  

..it is just lame when someone decides to actually waste more time creating a thread and kind of "misleading" people with the synopsis than it would to search for 1 minute longer.  Then the thread devolves into the typical BFL trolls saying it's a Ponzi scheme, and the BFL fanboys (who somehow can't acknowledge that there are some seriously messed up things going on with that company), arguing back and forth.  Your typical thread derailment.

When I look at the synopsis in the last post, I would have taken it as "BFL didn't respond to this guy for 15 FREAKIN DAYS!!!  WATCH OUT PEOPLE!!  BFL IS TAKING 2 WEEKS OR LONGER TO REFUND MONEY"  

..when it should reflect "It took 15 days for BFL to refund my money because I assumed the original request went through fine, and instead of calling them or emailing them after a couple of days, I waited 7 days and only tried to submit the same form ONCE AGAIN, and wait another 2 to complain about it on a forum instead of calling or emailing.  Then didn't respond to my thread for 5 days.. only to say they contacted me back and within that day they refunded the money."  

[wrenchmonkey]

So the recap to this is..

OP decided to post 9 DAYS after he attempted to use the refund option on the BFL site that it did not work.  Then instead of doing anything different, repeated the exact same process 2 days before he posted this thread and states he could not find an email address or any other way to contact them.  Then doesn't post back into his own thread until 5 days later (which I assume he finally got their email address?  ...or he just waited for the website refund option to be responded to).  He then responds back to them either on the 28th or the 29th and gets his money back on the 29th.
If I wanted my money back "that" bad (who wouldn't) I wouldn't have gone through the process of creating a new thread to complain about it, I would have explored alternative contact options (email, telephone).  That only took less than 10 seconds for me when I just checked their site.  I would not have just repeated the refund process over again  on their website if I suspected as being broken..    I DEFINITELY wouldn't have waited 9 days to find their email or call their number.

didn't Ben Franklin say something about insanity being when you do the same thing and expect different results?

Not that I am saying it should take 2 weeks to get a refund back, but if I did not receive a response back from someone with 100's or 1000's of my money, I would not sit there and basically do nothing.  The telephone number is on their front page and their email contact is plainly available on their FAQ and all over their support forum.  If you searched bitcointalk OR their forums you would easily find out that most people are having troubles getting a response back when cancelling through the website, but are getting back responses pretty quickly via email.  

..it is just lame when someone decides to actually waste more time creating a thread and kind of "misleading" people with the synopsis than it would to search for 1 minute longer.  Then the thread devolves into the typical BFL trolls saying it's a Ponzi scheme, and the BFL fanboys (who somehow can't acknowledge that there are some seriously messed up things going on with that company), arguing back and forth.  Your typical thread derailment.

When I look at the synopsis in the last post, I would have taken it as "BFL didn't respond to this guy for 15 FREAKIN DAYS!!!  WATCH OUT PEOPLE!!  BFL IS TAKING 2 WEEKS OR LONGER TO REFUND MONEY"  

..when it should reflect "It took 15 days for BFL to refund my money because I assumed the original request went through fine, and instead of calling them or emailing them after a couple of days, I waited 7 days and only tried to submit the same form ONCE AGAIN, and wait another 2 to complain about it on a forum instead of calling or emailing.  Then didn't respond to my thread for 5 days.. only to say they contacted me back and within that day they refunded the money."  

Careful with that common sense... You're liable to be labeled a "BFL Shill" if you keep that up! 

[hexed]

So the recap to this is..

OP decided to post 9 DAYS after he attempted to use the refund option on the BFL site that it did not work.  Then instead of doing anything different, repeated the exact same process 2 days before he posted this thread and states he could not find an email address or any other way to contact them.  Then doesn't post back into his own thread until 5 days later (which I assume he finally got their email address?  ...or he just waited for the website refund option to be responded to).  He then responds back to them either on the 28th or the 29th and gets his money back on the 29th.
If I wanted my money back "that" bad (who wouldn't) I wouldn't have gone through the process of creating a new thread to complain about it, I would have explored alternative contact options (email, telephone).  That only took less than 10 seconds for me when I just checked their site.  I would not have just repeated the refund process over again  on their website if I suspected as being broken..    I DEFINITELY wouldn't have waited 9 days to find their email or call their number.

didn't Ben Franklin say something about insanity being when you do the same thing and expect different results?

Not that I am saying it should take 2 weeks to get a refund back, but if I did not receive a response back from someone with 100's or 1000's of my money, I would not sit there and basically do nothing.  The telephone number is on their front page and their email contact is plainly available on their FAQ and all over their support forum.  If you searched bitcointalk OR their forums you would easily find out that most people are having troubles getting a response back when cancelling through the website, but are getting back responses pretty quickly via email.  

..it is just lame when someone decides to actually waste more time creating a thread and kind of "misleading" people with the synopsis than it would to search for 1 minute longer.  Then the thread devolves into the typical BFL trolls saying it's a Ponzi scheme, and the BFL fanboys (who somehow can't acknowledge that there are some seriously messed up things going on with that company), arguing back and forth.  Your typical thread derailment.

When I look at the synopsis in the last post, I would have taken it as "BFL didn't respond to this guy for 15 FREAKIN DAYS!!!  WATCH OUT PEOPLE!!  BFL IS TAKING 2 WEEKS OR LONGER TO REFUND MONEY"  

..when it should reflect "It took 15 days for BFL to refund my money because I assumed the original request went through fine, and instead of calling them or emailing them after a couple of days, I waited 7 days and only tried to submit the same form ONCE AGAIN, and wait another 2 to complain about it on a forum instead of calling or emailing.  Then didn't respond to my thread for 5 days.. only to say they contacted me back and within that day they refunded the money."  

Careful with that common sense... You're liable to be labeled a "BFL Shill" if you keep that up! 

Oh lord.. you're the last person (or maybe 2nd or 3rd to last person) that I would want to defend me.  You have the same problem as "those" people, it's just on the opposite end of the spectrum.

[wrenchmonkey]

So the recap to this is..

OP decided to post 9 DAYS after he attempted to use the refund option on the BFL site that it did not work.  Then instead of doing anything different, repeated the exact same process 2 days before he posted this thread and states he could not find an email address or any other way to contact them.  Then doesn't post back into his own thread until 5 days later (which I assume he finally got their email address?  ...or he just waited for the website refund option to be responded to).  He then responds back to them either on the 28th or the 29th and gets his money back on the 29th.
If I wanted my money back "that" bad (who wouldn't) I wouldn't have gone through the process of creating a new thread to complain about it, I would have explored alternative contact options (email, telephone).  That only took less than 10 seconds for me when I just checked their site.  I would not have just repeated the refund process over again  on their website if I suspected as being broken..    I DEFINITELY wouldn't have waited 9 days to find their email or call their number.

didn't Ben Franklin say something about insanity being when you do the same thing and expect different results?

Not that I am saying it should take 2 weeks to get a refund back, but if I did not receive a response back from someone with 100's or 1000's of my money, I would not sit there and basically do nothing.  The telephone number is on their front page and their email contact is plainly available on their FAQ and all over their support forum.  If you searched bitcointalk OR their forums you would easily find out that most people are having troubles getting a response back when cancelling through the website, but are getting back responses pretty quickly via email.  

..it is just lame when someone decides to actually waste more time creating a thread and kind of "misleading" people with the synopsis than it would to search for 1 minute longer.  Then the thread devolves into the typical BFL trolls saying it's a Ponzi scheme, and the BFL fanboys (who somehow can't acknowledge that there are some seriously messed up things going on with that company), arguing back and forth.  Your typical thread derailment.

When I look at the synopsis in the last post, I would have taken it as "BFL didn't respond to this guy for 15 FREAKIN DAYS!!!  WATCH OUT PEOPLE!!  BFL IS TAKING 2 WEEKS OR LONGER TO REFUND MONEY"  

..when it should reflect "It took 15 days for BFL to refund my money because I assumed the original request went through fine, and instead of calling them or emailing them after a couple of days, I waited 7 days and only tried to submit the same form ONCE AGAIN, and wait another 2 to complain about it on a forum instead of calling or emailing.  Then didn't respond to my thread for 5 days.. only to say they contacted me back and within that day they refunded the money."  

Careful with that common sense... You're liable to be labeled a "BFL Shill" if you keep that up! 

Oh lord.. you're the last person (or maybe 2nd or 3rd to last person) that I would want to defend me.  You have the same problem as "those" people, it's just on the opposite end of the spectrum.

Hardly. I just get painted with broad brush strokes, because I like to beat up on trolls.

[k9quaint]

..it is just lame when someone decides to actually waste more time creating a thread and kind of "misleading" people with the synopsis than it would to search for 1 minute longer.  Then the thread devolves into the typical BFL trolls saying it's a Ponzi scheme, and the BFL fanboys (who somehow can't acknowledge that there are some seriously messed up things going on with that company), arguing back and forth.  Your typical thread derailment.

On the other hand. Now people know how the process was resolved. Anyone who can't get a response to a refund request can come to this thread and find out exactly which process elicited the correct result for the OP. There have been several complaints about BFL responding to customer inquiries and having at least one thread on the forums that contains a method to obtain the correct response to a BFL inquiry will probably save time in the long run.

We can link directly to the message that contains the relevant information and people need not wade through pages of back and forth.