Ok ...let me ramble here a bit to see if I have all this alpha drama straight...
Really long rant... /ignore me if you hate such rants....
As I see this and how it progressed with alpha from last jan 2014 to now (more or less)
1) Alpha takes paypal and cc on 1st 30% of orders in order to 'prop up' your bona fides as a new business...(hey we take
paypal and credit cards we are legit)
2) Wait till paypal 45 day period wanes and then the 60 day for most cc companies wanes....
3) Announce that you will NOT ask for $$$ till a prototype is shown and 2 weeks before shipping (I think I remember this right?)
continue the stall tactics .this works in alpha's favor on the long term
4) The usual you have 5 months till we won't refund ANY of your $$ but we ARE working within the next week or so
on getting credit card option back (took 2 or more months) (yech payza ...er not in usa ooops) so you can be protected on the last 70% paid
trust us we will come thru...
5) Wait until for the majority of folks with a 5 month timeline has passed THEN miraculously...get your bank to offer a cc
option...turn it on for a week or so to suck 70% of the to be paid $$ to alpha (those doing so thinking they have cc
protection) then when cc companies come a calling to this new cc merchant account for refunds..contact bank and
shut it down...you are still golden with the bank..they have no clue..they just think you closed your mind or ran out
of product...and to stay legit with the bank those who paid in full for a 'new product' or those with cold feet after
getting on this thread on bitcointalk panic and ask for 70% refunded..give those folks a refund ..BUT continue to deny
refunds to those previous customers..bank thinks you are legit.....users who punt back in this timeframe have
no complaints...you sucked up a lot of funds that w/o the miracle of cc option would have stayed lost! Brilliant!
6) Dexel the Indian chip maker drops alpha off their web page etc...er sometime around here I think...
7) In my case (others have this story also I'm sure) I filled dispute #1 on all the above with American Express..
Amex tries to contact alpha 45 days I think it was....on my allegations....Alpha sends amex a form saying I
paid for my alpha product (on 44th day) and amex closes dispute...I contact amex point out alpha neglected to show on the
form (unlike the forms for your remaining 70% you need to pay) that it looks like I paid in full for a product...I point out to amex
that no product (vaporware) and not paid in full and it is 30% down under paypal and cc protection in jan 2014
(amex rep is incredulous reading my dispute notes on this) and I can only get my 30% back if I pay the 'supposed' previous
amex merchant (ALPHA) the last 70% in an unsecured manner ie wire xfer bank xfer etc ..All amex reps are like wow
what a scam...as a response more or less.....Put in 2nd dispute (this time it is set for 30 days to reply not 45 days
not sure what amex rep did this.or if due to they got a reply no need for 45 days wait anymore) anyway moving on
I am still unclear on if I will get an amex refund or not..but they are actively keeping track of this as I inform them
of the
www.coindesk.com article ...and just now alpha's switch from product to stock ..amex continues to be amazed
or at least I'm dazzling the amex reps on this..supposedly they are fowarding this all to the amex fraud dept as fast as
I get them no info....we will see
8 Alpha stops communicating at all from like if I remember right 6/2014 till past? July 15th more or less ...dead silence.
9) Announces unbanning of forums users (customers) to set them up as a way to pay in full again pending this next
announcement..eureka I be alive on alpha forums again (I'm confused mightily... by this briefly) till... (see below)
10) Announcement by alpha that if you PAY IN FULL we will give 30% of company to customers/ it is paypal's fault and dexel
the chip makers fault....(adding the chip test feature they say to the chip I seem to remember BFL using this line once
on why their chips were late on 65mm in spring 2013..can't verify this but sounds familiar)....we plan on getting you
ROI via hashing if we have to...equipment...shares..etc
So to sum all this up...alpha via incompetence (likely they are not too bright) vs scam (unlikely this is too brilliant for them as
a deliberate scam imho..they just can't smart enough) on a 'chance' thought they could maybe??? make a scrypt asic miner
so they get all the funds they can for chip fab etc ahead of time via cc and paypal option....they then cancel such with their
(in my view) illegal TOS that they can keep the $$$ all of it after 5 months..the 30% down payment ..then thru the manipulations
as I've stated above come to this point in time where as..the manufacturing of the product (the chance they took with our $$$)
did not work out.have their latest scam.....
That is alpha now with the 30% of dollars (never to be refunded) and the people that paid in full (also unlikely to be refunded) will
build us a cloud hashing farm and hopefully still scrypt manufacturing business for NO COST to us and in the worst case
in alpha's point of view... we as the company will keep 70% of the profits etc vs the 30% we give out to those folks in shares who originally
paid 30% down for equip (lost if all that you gave them) and the last 70% or those I should say paid in full on the CHANCE
they may get some $$ back..in the best case from alpha's point of view we not only can 'cloud host' and pay off customers with
this scam ...we can further survive as an scrypt asic manufacturer.in the shadow of KNC and make enough miners to be a large
data farm .......all w/o using any funds of our own and all risk to the silly batch 1 customers...win/win/win alpha!
It is frigging almost at the level of brillance as an asic manufacturer version of bitcoin ..all the angles are covered in alpha's
favor..ALL THE CUSTOMERS no matter what the end game for alpha ...cloud mining.....equipment manufacturing..chip
development...all of it was paid IN FULL by 30% cash down payment they don't have to pay and 100% payment they can't
or won't pay back ..all used for development/building/making of alpha tech w/o use of the original founders of alpha's
hard earned $$$ to use as startup....and in the end if they are really really lucky..they will have the machines to sell or
cloud mine with or whatever and 70% of all profit goes to them and 30% goes to the folks who have no choice and paid
in full and the 30% who did not pay the last 70% .well that is just free money now..
.it was that pure profit off of customer's money that alpha threatens to keep and/or NOT refund
that got this whole ugly albatross off the ground...the mind boggles at the sheer scope of such a scam/fraud man
the ego of these guys is epic!
as I ponder the above with my jaw slack..
naw I take it back....its a scam...has to be 'evil geniuses' NOBODY could screw up this bad by being inept with this outcome
what a clust*rf*c*
anyway I leave you with....are you really really gonna pay that last 70% to these clowns even if they do pull off what they plan?
even with somehow a success on the above..they will find a way to get that last 30% of the company back...no way will you
be able to look at their 'real account books' they still will be completely private company...and they probably with more $$
will wind this all up into an even bigger scam with this new found lease on life as alpha corp!
anyway how I see this whole alpha tapestry of shame since jan 2014 till present
Searing