Alpha Technology Litecoin (Scrypt) ASIC Miner Order Batch 1 Now!

[retro72]

Going to court is a messy job and will take out a lot of time.

Actually it's pretty easy. You can start the small claims process online in the UK for as little as £25. You can be awarded in absentia, so you don't even have to turn up. Bear in mind most cases are not contested so awards can be pretty swift.

I made a pretty comprehensive post about it here:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=314402.msg7371136#msg7371136.

Everything else you said is pretty much spot on. Document everything, even forum posts (probably one of the reasons Fiaz removed his posts)

You don't have to wait until they fail to deliver, you are entitled to cancel at anytime for a full refund under UK law. If you want to wait until the end of July that's up to you. Good luck

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[retro72]

I think there is some confusion here regarding the shipping schedule.  Actually, the confusion is that there even is a schedule.  July was just an informal thing they stated on the forums here and elsewhere.  The actual contract doesn't stipulate any shipping schedule at all, and so it is impossible for them to be late per the terms of the contract.
At best, the contract says they will HOPE to ship by Q2 or Q3.  I.E, as late as September 30th (obviously they missed Q2 already).  Even then though, it doesn't state they will for sure ship in September, just that they hope to.

I'm afraid brian is right about the due date. They can only really be held accountable to what they have put in their T&Cs and that is "hope to achieve Q2/Q3 delivery". But they gave themselves a massive get out clause when they revised it. This clause was not in their original T&Cs so you need to get a copy of what you signed up to and when. Their later T&C revisions (3 in total) pretty much strip you of all your consumer protections and absolve them of any wrongdoing.

Taking them to court for breach of contract will probably not work, but small claims will. Under UK law you can cancel an internet purchase at anytime, up until 7 working days after you receive the item, so if they do ship you a box of Gridseeds you can send it back for a full refund. Assuming there's a company left to send it back to.

[vesperwillow]

I was following this from day 1, and when they were first trying to attract people, they did send out messages guaranteeing delivery by July. possibly sooner. I don't know if they've been edited/removed since then, but FWIW, those were the original T&C. Not just Q2/Q3, but July as a drop dead timeframe.

[kebabman]

So Fiaz posted some BS reason why he deleted all his posts from here and litecointalk. This is a guy who's job as "customer manager" is customer communication and community relations right?  

I deleted them because I have no interest in having my own account on those forums, we already have an 'Alpha Technology' account should I ever feel the need to use it and my posts on there were old anyway.

The photos were removed a good while ago not recently, this was a technical decision as we are updating the website and changing its layout and at the moment they don't look very good. They will be up again, if we had something to hide they wouldn't have been up in the first place.

A lot of effort to go to deleting all those posts if he just doesn't have any interest in the forums, why not just stop posting? Oh right because the posts were "old anyway". The photos being removed as a "technical decision" is pretty hilarious. I guess they were placing a pretty heavy load on their web server having them there. LOL.

Ref: https://forum.alpha-t.net/index.php?topic=709.msg4487#msg4487

[cozk]

don't feel sorry for anybody who fell for this.

It was so obvious...

[Phorna]

I was following this from day 1, and when they were first trying to attract people, they did send out messages guaranteeing delivery by July. possibly sooner. I don't know if they've been edited/removed since then, but FWIW, those were the original T&C. Not just Q2/Q3, but July as a drop dead timeframe.

I am not sure about T&C but the first declaration I remember was April. The sentence on one of the forums was "call us scammers if we don't deliver by April". I tried to find it few weeks ago but it was deleted apparently.

[vesperwillow]

I was following this from day 1, and when they were first trying to attract people, they did send out messages guaranteeing delivery by July. possibly sooner. I don't know if they've been edited/removed since then, but FWIW, those were the original T&C. Not just Q2/Q3, but July as a drop dead timeframe.

I am not sure about T&C but the first declaration I remember was April. The sentence on one of the forums was "call us scammers if we don't deliver by April". I tried to find it few weeks ago but it was deleted apparently.

I can corroborate that, I remember reading it.

[AnaSardinha]

I think there is some confusion here regarding the shipping schedule.  Actually, the confusion is that there even is a schedule.  July was just an informal thing they stated on the forums here and elsewhere.  The actual contract doesn't stipulate any shipping schedule at all, and so it is impossible for them to be late per the terms of the contract.
At best, the contract says they will HOPE to ship by Q2 or Q3.  I.E, as late as September 30th (obviously they missed Q2 already).  Even then though, it doesn't state they will for sure ship in September, just that they hope to.

I'm afraid brian is right about the due date. They can only really be held accountable to what they have put in their T&Cs and that is "hope to achieve Q2/Q3 delivery". But they gave themselves a massive get out clause when they revised it. This clause was not in their original T&Cs so you need to get a copy of what you signed up to and when. Their later T&C revisions (3 in total) pretty much strip you of all your consumer protections and absolve them of any wrongdoing.

Taking them to court for breach of contract will probably not work, but small claims will. Under UK law you can cancel an internet purchase at anytime, up until 7 working days after you receive the item, so if they do ship you a box of Gridseeds you can send it back for a full refund. Assuming there's a company left to send it back to.

Thank you all for your replies, it's been very helpful.
Does anyone here have a copy of the previous T&Cs?
All I have is what was posted in this thread recently from google cache.

[RainMan28]

I didn't buy into the Alpha Tech sales pitch but I would personally encourage anyone who has paid them to start any sort of legal proceeding that you are able to against them. Don't give these guys anymore time. They are not acting in good faith and have shown that they cannot be trusted.

If you keep waiting and thinking "oh, maybe all these issues are temporary" and that this company will deliver, you will be losing precious time to try and punish these bad actors.

Also, STOP BUYING ASICs -- you will never get your money back. Next time you feel like buying an ASIC, send me 50% of the money instead and as strange as it sounds, you will be better off. I'm saying that tongue-in-cheek, but it is in fact true.

[edgar]

i can not loose 10k, if they cant deliver my asic then refund the total in current btc value.i sacrificed starting a company for this and my money is frozen in this asic for half a year...

IF you are the same bumface who banned me a hundred times on BTC-e when your overlords were trying to scam me out of 50,000USD then i can only applaud Alpha for rewarding you in kind.

As you will probably be unaware, it took me a few months and a christmas with 3 kids and NO money until i finally got my 50K back.

As you will also probably be unaware, i got my refund from Alpha Tech back in January when it was OBVIOUS they were lying , scamming, pathetic little children....


Good LUCK to EVERYONE except YOU & Alpha-Tech!!

[Stevenrm87]

Scammed!

[Phorna]

Also, STOP BUYING ASICs -- you will never get your money back. Next time you feel like buying an ASIC, send me 50% of the money instead and as strange as it sounds, you will be better off. I'm saying that tongue-in-cheek, but it is in fact true.

Unfortunately this is prisoner's dilemma game situation. It would be great if only common hardware would be used for mining. But as soon as first asics arrive the game is lost. I do mine - but only the coins that I believe in. I've switched to asics knowing that ROI is not possible. I treat it as a hobby and support for the coin. I have small, energy efficient setup, more an accent than investment compared to my total engagement.

[ph111]

                                                                         !!! SCAMMERS !!!

[Nullu]

Time and time again on these forums, people choose to ignore the signs and instead rely on hope. Burying your head in the sand isn't going to make things any better.

Personally, I don't think Alpha-T set out to scam anyone, I just think they've gotten in way over their heads, and with the refunds, chargebacks, and so on, they can't actually afford to meet the deadlines they've promised. I think they're way behind. But hey, that's just my gut instinct. At best they're behind. At worst they've already given up.

I would be amazed if they started shipping by the end of the month. In fact I fully expect an announcement of some technical blah about delays at some point.

Their T&Cs are horrendous, and I question the legality of a lot of it.

[Phorna]

Personally, I don't think Alpha-T set out to scam anyone, I just think they've gotten in way over their heads, and with the refunds, chargebacks, and so on, they can't actually afford to meet the deadlines they've promised. I think they're way behind. But hey, that's just my gut instinct. At best they're behind. At worst they've already given up.

Exactly my feelings.

I suggested before that they could save the day by buying some OEM chips from other manufacturers and deliver some kind of devices to their customers. The prices are falling so rapidly that they could even end with a good profit. If they would stretch out the delivery window a bit more they could buy KNC mini titans form batch 2 - 200+ MH for 3795 USD, stamp Alpha-T logo on it and deliver to their customers still earning 4000 USD (double!) on each device.

[maardein]

Personally, I don't think Alpha-T set out to scam anyone, I just think they've gotten in way over their heads, and with the refunds, chargebacks, and so on, they can't actually afford to meet the deadlines they've promised. I think they're way behind. But hey, that's just my gut instinct. At best they're behind. At worst they've already given up.

Exactly my feelings.

I suggested before that they could save the day by buying some OEM chips from other manufacturers and deliver some kind of devices to their customers. The prices are falling so rapidly that they could even end with a good profit. If they would stretch out the delivery window a bit more they could buy KNC mini titans form batch 2 - 200+ MH for 3795 USD, stamp Alpha-T logo on it and deliver to their customers still earning 4000 USD (double!) on each device.

Yeah, I would probably pay the remaining 70% in a heartbeat if they would just deliver A2 based miners at current stated hashrates (considering it seems a genuine deal, and not just some scam attempt)

[retro72]

Thank you all for your replies, it's been very helpful.
Does anyone here have a copy of the previous T&Cs?
All I have is what was posted in this thread recently from google cache.

Hey Ana, I noticed they deleted your post on the Alpha forum asking for a copy of your T&Cs, I guess they really don't want people getting their hands on them. Luckily I have the original and every revision saved to my harddrive.

I saw from that post you have a 29th March order. These would have been the terms they had at the time. This is the first revision not the original so you have that nasty clause in it I'm afraid (under law and liability). I suggest you copy and paste this into a word doc and print it out, for what its worth.

Terms of Order

PRE-ORDER TERMS AND PROCESS

 Introduction

We are Alpha Technology (Int) Limited, a company incorporated and registered in England and Wales with company number 08483921. Our registered office address is 66 Dickenson Road, Manchester, M14 5HF. Our VAT number is 176115022.

We are an innovative technology firm based in the UK. We are currently working with Dexcel Designs to bring the first scrypt-based ASIC hardware to market.

There are currently two products in development: the Viper (Scrypt) Miner (targeting 5 Mh/s) and the Viper (Scrypt) Miner (targeting 25 Mh/s). You can find out more about these products on the relevant product page.

We are currently working hard to ensure that the products will be available for delivery as soon as possible, and hope to have them available for shipping in the second or third quarter of 2014. In the meantime we are offering the opportunity to pre-order the products on payment of a 30% deposit.

These terms and conditions form part of your pre-order for our products to the exclusion of all other terms required by you. Please read them carefully before placing your order.

 

Warranty

We offer a warranty on our products of six months following shipment. If the product fails during that period by reason of a defect in the design or manufacture, you can return it to us and we will repair or replace it at no cost to you.

We guarantee that on delivery and for at least the duration of the warranty period the products will comply with the specification set out on their product page, including (if used properly) achieving at least the specified hashrate (5 Mh/s or 25 Mh/s as appropriate).

After shipment we intend to roll out regular firmware and software updates which we shall make available to you at no charge during the warranty period.

 

Pricing

We charge the same price (and require the same deposit) regardless of where in the world you are ordering from. If you are based in the UK we are required to charge VAT, so that will be charged in addition (note that you do not pay any VAT at the time you pay your deposit; the whole of the VAT is payable at the time of the final payment).

Viper (Scrypt) Miner (5Mh/s): Price excluding VAT = £1,350, (deposit £405).

Viper (Scrypt) Miner (5Mh/s): Price including VAT = £1,620, (deposit £405).

Viper (Scrypt) Miner (25Mh/s): Price excluding VAT = £5,450, (deposit £1,635).

Viper (Scrypt) Miner (25Mh/s): Price including VAT = £6,540, (deposit £1,635).

There will also be a shipping charge which will be payable when you make the final payment. Shipping costs depend on where you would like the product shipped to. Details of shipping costs can be found here.

Customers based in the UK are not liable for any import duty or other taxes (other than VAT as set out above).

Customers based outside the UK should be aware that they will be responsible for paying any local import duty and taxes.

 

Payment

As you are pre-ordering, you only have to pay a 30% deposit at the time you place your order. We accept payment by Paypal, Bank Transfer or in Bitcoins via BitPay. For more details about the order process, see below.

The remaining balance will be required around 8-10 weeks prior to the shipment date. We will contact you and ask you to make payment, which you can pay using the same methods as are available for paying the deposit (you do not have to use the same method as you used to pay the deposit).

You will have 2 weeks to make the payment. If payment is not made within that period, we treat your order as cancelled, and the cancellation provisions set out below will apply. If you are outside of the permitted cancellation period at the point your order is cancelled for non-payment, we will refund 25% of the deposit, less the cancellation fee.

 

Cancellation & Refund Policy

 You may cancel your order at any point within the five month period following the date on which we received payment of your deposit (provided that your product has not yet shipped). The amount of the deposit you will be refunded will depend on when we receive your cancellation:

Up to 1 month after receipt of payment: Full deposit, less the cancellation fee, will be refunded.

More than 1 month and up to 3 months after receipt of payment: 75% of the deposit, less the cancellation fee, will be refunded.

More than 3 months and up to 5 months after receipt of payment : 50% of the deposit, less the cancellation fee, will be refunded.

On cancellation you will also be required to pay a cancellation fee of £70 towards handling charges. We will deduct the cancellation fee from the amount due to be refunded to you in accordance with the terms above before we process the refund.

 

Using our products

We have developed our products to be standalone with an easy to configure WebGui. However, they do require some basic technical skills to set up and operate, and you should not order unless you are comfortable with this type of technology.

As you are probably aware, the value of Scrypt based cryptocurrencies is subject to significant fluctuation and to difficulty changes, which are entirely outside our control. We do not give any guarantee as to the level of return you will receive from using our products, and you should not place an order unless you are confident that you understand the way Scrypt based cryptocurrencies work and the risks involved.

 

Updates

As we go through the engineering process we will keep our customers regularly updated on our progress via Live Updates. We suggest that you subscribe to all the updates including twitter/web/newsletter etc which may contain information related to shipping date, hashing performance etc. We may also arrange for an open door invitation for our customers to witness the development and meet the team at a later point in time.

 

Registration and Wishlist

We will open registration for customers before we open our pre-order books. During registration you can set up your shipping and billing address in preparation to launch. You will be able to register here: https://alpha-t.net/login-register/

We advise customers to add their desired item at the correct quantity.

 

Order process

 You can view the status of your order anytime at My Account > View Order.

When you place your order, you will be given an order number. Please note that once you place the order you must then pay the deposit following the process set out below.

Paying by Paypal: Once you have placed your order, you will be redirected to Paypal to make payment. If at any point your session expires or you exit the webpage your order will remain “pending” – in this case go to the order page to re-commence the payment process. If your order gets cancelled, please create a new order.

Paying by bank transfer: Once the order is placed you will be sent an email with our bank details. Your account will be set on “on-hold” status. You will need to make full payment as advised in your proforma invoice (including any transfer charges) directly into our bank account. For international payments (IBAN & BIC), and for local payments using our Account Number and short code. Once we receive payment we will automatically notify you via email and your My Account > Order Status will be set to “processing”.

Paying by Bitcoin: You will be redirected to the BitPay processing site. You will then have a 15 minute session to pay via Bitcoins. Upon success your order status will change to ‘processing’ and you will receive an email confirmation. If at any point your session expires or page cancels, your order will remain “on-hold”: in this case just create a new order.

Once you pay the deposit will your order be added to the queue for shipping. You can tell whether your order has been added to the queue for shipping as your order status will change to “processing”.

Whichever method you choose to pay by, on receipt of your payment we will provide you with a pro-forma invoice.

 

Wholesale & Special Requests

Due to the high demand of our product and limited availability we unfortunately cannot retail the products on a wholesale basis or fulfil any special requests at this stage. We have made a significant amount of information regarding the products publicly available, which can be viewed on our website at alpha-t.net. We may offer wholesale and custom options at a later time.

 

Contact

If you would like to contact us for any reason, the best option is to email us.

If your email is about an existing order, please email [email protected] Emails will be checked on a regular basis during the pre-ordering phase, and you can expect a response within one working day. Please always include your order number in the subject line of any emails.

Any other questions can be emailed at [email protected], but before emailing us check out the information available on our website at www.alpha-t.net.

Alternatively you can phone our office on +44(0) 161 871 8643. Phone lines will be open between the hours of 12:00 and 17:00 local UK time.

 

Law and liability

The rights set out in this these terms and conditions represent the full extent of your rights in respect of the product and all warranties, representations (except fraudulent misrepresentations), conditions and all other terms of any kind whatsoever implied by statute or common law are excluded from your pre-order to the maximum extent permitted by law. We shall not be liable to you for any loss of profit or for indirect or consequential loss suffered by you whether as a result of any breach of these terms by us or as a result of our negligence. These limitations and exclusions of liability shall not apply to our liability: (a) for death or personal injury caused by negligence; (b) under Part 1 of the Consumer Protection Act 1987; (c) due to any breach by us of the conditions and terms as to title or warranty as to quiet possession; or (d) for fraud and fraudulent misrepresentation.

Your pre-order is made under English law and under these terms to the exclusion of all other terms you may seek to impose.  You and we hereby agree to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts in relation to the resolution of any dispute or difference under your pre-order but we may commence proceedings in any jurisdiction in order to enforce our rights under the pre-order and these terms.

[vesperwillow]

Just a few hours away until midnight in the UK, that's usually when they post updates. They're supposed to  have a 'large' update and the CC processor by today. I would presume by normal business hours, but they seem to operate "at midnight".

Guess we'll see what happens. Any betters?

[bumface]

i can not loose 10k, if they cant deliver my asic then refund the total in current btc value.i sacrificed starting a company for this and my money is frozen in this asic for half a year...

IF you are the same bumface who banned me a hundred times on BTC-e when your overlords were trying to scam me out of 50,000USD then i can only applaud Alpha for rewarding you in kind.

As you will probably be unaware, it took me a few months and a christmas with 3 kids and NO money until i finally got my 50K back.

As you will also probably be unaware, i got my refund from Alpha Tech back in January when it was OBVIOUS they were lying , scamming, pathetic little children....


Good LUCK to EVERYONE except YOU & Alpha-Tech!!

If you are the same edgar who said this and got banned:

"davidor, u get wood? u cry? u offer ur mouth as a cum depositry?"

http://trollboxarchive.com/quote/17817754

You are actually surprised this will get you banned?

and now you come whining on a totally unrelated forum 9 months later......and as i remember it, it was my assistance that got your money released,and now you wish i loose my money, after you just disclosed the hardship you got from not having money...

You did not learn anything in 9 months.
And there is also the rule of only investing what you can afford to loose,so why you would have a 100% of your money on an exchange and dont have money for christmas is  your own fault....


my advice to you is take responsibility for your own actions, dont blame others, and dont hold grudges.

You will live a much happyer life this way.

[edgar]

i can not loose 10k, if they cant deliver my asic then refund the total in current btc value.i sacrificed starting a company for this and my money is frozen in this asic for half a year...

IF you are the same bumface who banned me a hundred times on BTC-e when your overlords were trying to scam me out of 50,000USD then i can only applaud Alpha for rewarding you in kind.

As you will probably be unaware, it took me a few months and a christmas with 3 kids and NO money until i finally got my 50K back.

As you will also probably be unaware, i got my refund from Alpha Tech back in January when it was OBVIOUS they were lying , scamming, pathetic little children....


Good LUCK to EVERYONE except YOU & Alpha-Tech!!

If you are the same edgar who said this and got banned:

"davidor, u get wood? u cry? u offer ur mouth as a cum depositry?"

http://trollboxarchive.com/quote/17817754

You are actually surprised this will get you banned?

and now you come whining on a totally unrelated forum 9 months later......and as i remember it, it was my assistance that got your money released,and now you wish i loose my money, after you just disclosed the hardship you got from not having money...

You did not learn anything in 9 months.
And there is also the rule of only investing what you can afford to loose,so why you would have a 100% of your money on an exchange and dont have money for christmas is  your own fault....


my advice to you is take responsibility for your own actions, dont blame others, and dont hold grudges.

You will live a much happyer life this way.

nice to see you still twist irrelevant crap to suit your agenda - NO, i was refetring to the posts where i begged you and your cohorts to release my coins around november - december..

but i suppose ignoring that and pointing out some stupid RETALIATORY posts MONTHS prior to the attempted theft makes you feel immune from any responsibility...

and NO, you did not help me retrieve funds at all - my continued and escalating 72 point RED FONT attacks on all BTC-e sites eventually led to the coins being magically available after almost 3 months being locked.

my advice to you is not be a worthless douche, dont try and confuse honest people with the ilk & scum that you are so proud to surround yourself with & try reading the posts of people who were here and HELPING OTHERS before you threw your money at a family of scammers.

i doubt you will be any happier as the greedy & repugnant are rarely happy - even when theyre abusing their positions of limited power they still hate themselves deep down.

seems you didnt learn much either over the past months but i can say i learnt not to leave my money lying around thieves like you and your crew - thanks for your non-role in that life lesson.

as for your pathetic 'invest what you can afford to lose' so you CAN actually afford to lose that ten grand? or are you still a confused and finnicky liar who will say anything to try and justify your continual ignorance and preference for blaming victims.

So glad its actually you!

shame about your ten grand, but at least you can afford to lose it.