GAW Miners (Scrypt/SHA256 miners and Hashlet cloud) independent feedback thread

[GAW Miners_CEO]

so when is prime coming ? is it going to help with these issues any ?
is there any plans to revert back to hosting Gridseed blades ?

Oh yea, honestly thats the only thing that keeps me going. Prime will shut all this nonsense down. Or at least make it very very hard for things to work the way they do.

[Rakessh]

Week 3 will be delayed until Thursday.

Since we start, nothing has changed when it comes to the manufactures in this industry, we just have gotten better at providing a buffer between them and our customers.

Just about every vendor is involved in this launch failed (miserably) to deliver on their commitments to us. If only people knew how much has happened behind the scenes to make things go as smoothly as they have. I have deployed just about every back up plan I had in place.

Want to know a fact? 90% of the time there is an issue that causes a delay (even hosting issue), is because of a vendor dropping the ball somewhere. It just appears it "kind of" works out, because we find some way of making it work. Obviously, our mistake is in choosing who we work with (among other things). But the pickings are slim.

Honestly, we are not used to this. I have never worked in and industry where someone was contractually obligated to deliver X (and paid for it) and did not deliver in every way imaginable.

Anyways, I am venting. At the end of the day, I know its our fault. And I own the hiccups in the delay. I just wanted to report it here before anyone else did.

So commence the flaming.

I can only imagine the BS your dealing with, My hat goes off to you.

Bad hardware, late hardware, hardware with the wrong specs, hardware without working software, shipments to the wrong locations (despite dozens of confirmations), constant changing in deal structure, constant changing in pricing, companies that have no concern (whatsoever) for customers, pre-payment for gear that never ships (and because its international, we have no real legal recourse), agreements the get changed on a day to day basis, and so on

Thats the tip of the iceberg, and considered "normal"

Let me tell you a story: I was on the phone with the "top" CEOs a few manufactures, that I will not disclose, a few days ago. I was explaining my complete disappointment about the 50th time something was agreed on and did not happen. Do you know what I was told? That I am "too professional" for this industry and expected too much.

When I asked what they meant. I was told that this is the way this industry works, and I should be happy with things happening "close" to what was agreed. That this is an immature industry and everyone does "the best they can".

Ironically, when I responded by telling them that the money I pay them is not immature and looks pretty professional to me. No one had a response.

This is an average day.

This is when you want to say "You know what's not professional? Me grabbing the next flight over there and kicking your ass to a pulp... That's not professional"... but don't, because you're professional

[BBmodBB]

Week 3 will be delayed until Thursday.

Since we start, nothing has changed when it comes to the manufactures in this industry, we just have gotten better at providing a buffer between them and our customers.

Just about every vendor is involved in this launch failed (miserably) to deliver on their commitments to us. If only people knew how much has happened behind the scenes to make things go as smoothly as they have. I have deployed just about every back up plan I had in place.

Want to know a fact? 90% of the time there is an issue that causes a delay (even hosting issue), is because of a vendor dropping the ball somewhere. It just appears it "kind of" works out, because we find some way of making it work. Obviously, our mistake is in choosing who we work with (among other things). But the pickings are slim.

Honestly, we are not used to this. I have never worked in and industry where someone was contractually obligated to deliver X (and paid for it) and did not deliver in every way imaginable.

Anyways, I am venting. At the end of the day, I know its our fault. And I own the hiccups in the delay. I just wanted to report it here before anyone else did.

So commence the flaming.

I can only imagine the BS your dealing with, My hat goes off to you.

Bad hardware, late hardware, hardware with the wrong specs, hardware without working software, shipments to the wrong locations (despite dozens of confirmations), constant changing in deal structure, constant changing in pricing, companies that have no concern (whatsoever) for customers, pre-payment for gear that never ships (and because its international, we have no real legal recourse), agreements the get changed on a day to day basis, and so on

Thats the tip of the iceberg, and considered "normal"

Let me tell you a story: I was on the phone with the "top" CEOs a few manufactures, that I will not disclose, a few days ago. I was explaining my complete disappointment about the 50th time something was agreed on and did not happen. Do you know what I was told? That I am "too professional" for this industry and expected too much.

When I asked what they meant. I was told that this is the way this industry works, and I should be happy with things happening "close" to what was agreed. That this is an immature industry and everyone does "the best they can".

Ironically, when I responded by telling them that the money I pay them is not immature and looks pretty professional to me. No one had a response.

This is an average day.

^that's all good ..but buck stops here bucko!!!   ===> GROW A DICK !!! OR GTFO

[BBmodBB]

Week 3 will be delayed until Thursday.

Since we start, nothing has changed when it comes to the manufactures in this industry, we just have gotten better at providing a buffer between them and our customers.

Just about every vendor is involved in this launch failed (miserably) to deliver on their commitments to us. If only people knew how much has happened behind the scenes to make things go as smoothly as they have. I have deployed just about every back up plan I had in place.

Want to know a fact? 90% of the time there is an issue that causes a delay (even hosting issue), is because of a vendor dropping the ball somewhere. It just appears it "kind of" works out, because we find some way of making it work. Obviously, our mistake is in choosing who we work with (among other things). But the pickings are slim.

Honestly, we are not used to this. I have never worked in and industry where someone was contractually obligated to deliver X (and paid for it) and did not deliver in every way imaginable.

Anyways, I am venting. At the end of the day, I know its our fault. And I own the hiccups in the delay. I just wanted to report it here before anyone else did.

So commence the flaming.

I can only imagine the BS your dealing with, My hat goes off to you.

Bad hardware, late hardware, hardware with the wrong specs, hardware without working software, shipments to the wrong locations (despite dozens of confirmations), constant changing in deal structure, constant changing in pricing, companies that have no concern (whatsoever) for customers, pre-payment for gear that never ships (and because its international, we have no real legal recourse), agreements the get changed on a day to day basis, and so on

Thats the tip of the iceberg, and considered "normal"

Let me tell you a story: I was on the phone with the "top" CEOs a few manufactures, that I will not disclose, a few days ago. I was explaining my complete disappointment about the 50th time something was agreed on and did not happen. Do you know what I was told? That I am "too professional" for this industry and expected too much.

When I asked what they meant. I was told that this is the way this industry works, and I should be happy with things happening "close" to what was agreed. That this is an immature industry and everyone does "the best they can".

Ironically, when I responded by telling them that the money I pay them is not immature and looks pretty professional to me. No one had a response.

This is an average day.

This is when you want to say "You know what's not professional? Me grabbing the next flight over there and kicking your ass to a pulp... That's not professional"... but don't, because you're professional

+1  ~riiight !!!

[GAW Miners_CEO]

Week 3 will be delayed until Thursday.

Since we start, nothing has changed when it comes to the manufactures in this industry, we just have gotten better at providing a buffer between them and our customers.

Just about every vendor is involved in this launch failed (miserably) to deliver on their commitments to us. If only people knew how much has happened behind the scenes to make things go as smoothly as they have. I have deployed just about every back up plan I had in place.

Want to know a fact? 90% of the time there is an issue that causes a delay (even hosting issue), is because of a vendor dropping the ball somewhere. It just appears it "kind of" works out, because we find some way of making it work. Obviously, our mistake is in choosing who we work with (among other things). But the pickings are slim.

Honestly, we are not used to this. I have never worked in and industry where someone was contractually obligated to deliver X (and paid for it) and did not deliver in every way imaginable.

Anyways, I am venting. At the end of the day, I know its our fault. And I own the hiccups in the delay. I just wanted to report it here before anyone else did.

So commence the flaming.

I can only imagine the BS your dealing with, My hat goes off to you.

Bad hardware, late hardware, hardware with the wrong specs, hardware without working software, shipments to the wrong locations (despite dozens of confirmations), constant changing in deal structure, constant changing in pricing, companies that have no concern (whatsoever) for customers, pre-payment for gear that never ships (and because its international, we have no real legal recourse), agreements the get changed on a day to day basis, and so on

Thats the tip of the iceberg, and considered "normal"

Let me tell you a story: I was on the phone with the "top" CEOs a few manufactures, that I will not disclose, a few days ago. I was explaining my complete disappointment about the 50th time something was agreed on and did not happen. Do you know what I was told? That I am "too professional" for this industry and expected too much.

When I asked what they meant. I was told that this is the way this industry works, and I should be happy with things happening "close" to what was agreed. That this is an immature industry and everyone does "the best they can".

Ironically, when I responded by telling them that the money I pay them is not immature and looks pretty professional to me. No one had a response.

This is an average day.

^that's all good ..but buck stops here bucko!!!   ===> GROW A DICK !!! OR GTFO

Try pissing off or suing the only guys that make hardware in the industry......

[Rakessh]

^that's all good ..but buck stops here bucko!!!   ===> GROW A DICK !!! OR GTFO

Try pissing off or suing the only guys that make hardware in the industry......

Probably not the best idea, but maybe someone better should start to make hardware in the industry instead. If someone with that kind of attitude is doing it, it must be easier than we think

[Billsonl]

[/quote]


^that's all good ..but buck stops here bucko!!!   ===> GROW A DICK !!! OR GTFO
[/quote]

This is uncalled for.

[EvilPanda]

^that's all good ..but buck stops here bucko!!!   ===> GROW A DICK !!! OR GTFO

Try pissing off or suing the only guys that make hardware in the industry......

Probably not the best idea, but maybe someone better should start to make hardware in the industry instead. If someone with that kind of attitude is doing it, it must be easier than we think

The problem is not only in suppliers but also in the buyers. Because of frequent scams and delays people became incredibly suspicious, aggressive and hard to reason with.
Only here you will find people calling others thieves and scammers because their package was 1 day late or they didn't get a cable worth $5 with their $500 miner.

[suchmoon]

^that's all good ..but buck stops here bucko!!!   ===> GROW A DICK !!! OR GTFO

Try pissing off or suing the only guys that make hardware in the industry......

Probably not the best idea, but maybe someone better should start to make hardware in the industry instead. If someone with that kind of attitude is doing it, it must be easier than we think

There are companies successfully making high-quality hardware and selling it directly to end users along with great customer service (Spondoolies comes to mind), the problem is that it is probably not the most profitable way of doing business and it is always going to be hard to compete with the promise-gold-deliver-brick crowd, given the enormous greed on both sides (vendors and buyers) and the short lifespan of the product. With all due respect to the CEO for coming here and admitting the issue, GAW is as much part of the problem as anyone else. Remember the pompous announcement that GAW is now "manufacturing" miners and all the dirt being shoveled at Gridseed? I don't know if there was ever an official admission that it was just a switch from one supplier to another, the community kind of figured out on its own that it's Zeus. Hopefully this will lead to a bit more humility and openness next time. Little steps.

[Rakessh]

^that's all good ..but buck stops here bucko!!!   ===> GROW A DICK !!! OR GTFO

Try pissing off or suing the only guys that make hardware in the industry......

Probably not the best idea, but maybe someone better should start to make hardware in the industry instead. If someone with that kind of attitude is doing it, it must be easier than we think

The problem is not only in suppliers but also in the buyers. Because of frequent scams and delays people became incredibly suspicious, aggressive and hard to reason with.
Only here you will find people calling others thieves and scammers because their package was 1 day late or they didn't get a cable worth $5 with their $500 miner.

I think most see that as unreasonable. I've been following the community for almost two years now, and Gaw is the only supplier I know of who are even coming close to the professionalism I'd expect demand from a company that I'm doing business with. Everything else has been completely unacceptable either in terms, lead time, price, conduct or a combination of those. And I can only agree, scams have been running rampant the whole time in various forms. But I'm glad to see there are signs things are improving. There's still a lot of room for improvement though.

[Halofire]

Josh,
after all is said and done, I guess I like my falcon. I am pleased with the performance. I am making my ROI right on my planned schedule minus additional electric. Cost for me is an extra $60/month in electric but I can swallow that. Edit: Money back in store credit helps but Id rather get the money back or paid in crypto to ensure my ROI. You do have a nice pile of coins you mined during testing from what I've seen.

I read in the zeus litecointalk forum that the the voltage regulator chip you used is able to be re-programed (with IEEE something) to use less power in a firmware upgrade. Photo's were taken of this chip. Is this true? I can provide the post's link but I will have to dig.

[anarchyx914]

I tried posting a new message on hashtrader but couldn't figure out how, only how to reply. What a terrible software that is!

Anyways, as a buyer, should I be concerned with all of these QA and Hardware hiccups with these zeus units? I am a bit disappointed that on Sunday I was told my Hosted Miner was going to be up, only to have the date pushed till Thursday again today..

With that being said, I understand that GAW is not to blame completely for this. It appears Zeus is not doing proper QA checks and sending out garbage much like KNC did with the neptunes.

So I guess what I am asking, is what is the type of warranty on these items? I bought a war machine and 3 black widows, and now all of these problems have me super paranoid that before my unit even has a chance to ROI it wont even survive. I haven't received any items yet but I am just overly paranoid that these units are not built to last, rather slapped together as fast as possible and not thoroughly tested... Is there any type of re-assurance that comes with them?

I thought Gridseed QA was bad, I bought 50 units, most of them had missing screws, thermal pads that didnt touch chips, poorly lapped heatsinks, the whole 9 yards (I bought those from zoomhash, but its not their fault either).

[hiddensphinx]

has anyone's hosted Fury gone offline?

Mine has been offline for the last 7 hours 

[happydaze]

I have one Week 1 Fury and it does exceed the advertised hash rate.  
I've had poolside 24hr average hash rate make it to 1378kh/s.

It would take 4 of the unmodified Gridseed 5 chip device to make or exceed that hashrate.  Cheapest price for a Gridseed was $60 for a little while so $240 acquisition cost. Power consumption would be close to 30 watts.  It would have cost over $800 when they first were released!

3 volt modded Gridseeds would exceed the Fury hash rate by 100kh/s but power consumption would be over 60 watts and acquisition cost $180 if you were able to get the $60 pods.

So the Fury at $140 right now and at or just under 50 watts is progress.  The bigger miners $ per mh is probably even better.

Fury tuning and mods topic https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=644921.0  We've only just begun tuning these units   & might as well have fun with them.

[suchmoon]

So the Fury at $140 right now and at or just under 50 watts is progress.

It's not as good if you compare four Blizzards/Furies to one Gridseed Blade, which outperforms them at half the power consumption and costs roughly the same. On the other hand, for the price of two Blades you can get the next-one-forgot-its-name Zeus clone, which is 13-14 MH/s. So I guess they're somewhat competitively priced now, depending on which price point you're looking at.

[Bitice]

has anyone's hosted Fury gone offline?

Mine has been offline for the last 7 hours  

7 hours? My week 2 Fury, which initially went online June 2nd, has been offline probably 80-90% since then and at the moment is STILL down.

[🏰 TradeFortress 🏰]

The design of the fury looks nice

[EvilPanda]

I tried posting a new message on hashtrader but couldn't figure out how, only how to reply. What a terrible software that is!

There is a big link on the bottom "Why not create a topic?"

Anyways, as a buyer, should I be concerned with all of these QA and Hardware hiccups with these zeus units? I am a bit disappointed that on Sunday I was told my Hosted Miner was going to be up, only to have the date pushed till Thursday again today..

With that being said, I understand that GAW is not to blame completely for this. It appears Zeus is not doing proper QA checks and sending out garbage much like KNC did with the neptunes.

So I guess what I am asking, is what is the type of warranty on these items? I bought a war machine and 3 black widows, and now all of these problems have me super paranoid that before my unit even has a chance to ROI it wont even survive. I haven't received any items yet but I am just overly paranoid that these units are not built to last, rather slapped together as fast as possible and not thoroughly tested... Is there any type of re-assurance that comes with them?

If the hardware arrives damaged you will of course get refunded, but as far as I know no hardware supplier offers a complete warranty like 1 year.
Big hardware companies have teams that assess refund claims and check if the hardware was used properly. Imagine someone spills water on the miner, writes to the supplier that it stopped working and requests RMA.

I thought Gridseed QA was bad, I bought 50 units, most of them had missing screws, thermal pads that didnt touch chips, poorly lapped heatsinks, the whole 9 yards (I bought those from zoomhash, but its not their fault either).

Thankfully GAW's units don't have this problem.

[arthur jones]

So the Fury at $140 right now and at or just under 50 watts is progress.

It's not as good if you compare four Blizzards/Furies to one Gridseed Blade, which outperforms them at half the power consumption and costs roughly the same. On the other hand, for the price of two Blades you can get the next-one-forgot-its-name Zeus clone, which is 13-14 MH/s. So I guess they're somewhat competitively priced now, depending on which price point you're looking at.

Yes, but the power use much worse for hardware Zeus. Gridseed equipment uses much less energy. Innosilicon consume less energy. More hash but more power all around.

Page hashmaster not send me a confirmation e-mail, so instead I write here.

[blueminerneedsfoodbadly]

Since I haven't seen anyone else post their experiences with returns, I'm going to add mine.

First, let me say that I still believe that GAW has gone above and beyond in most cases and will probably come out of this as one of the most reputable mining hardware dealers. Pre-sale customer service was terrific and hardware was delivered very close to when it was promised.

But... post-sale care has some issues to work out. From what I can tell, returns and exchanges need to get Josh's direct approval and since he is tied up with so many other things, the back-and-forth communications take days between responses.

I won't fill this up with the details of the email exchanges. All of them have been very cordial, and there have many, but there are some things that I would caution others about:

1. I never was able to get an actual RMA, except for the email note from Amanda saying that it was okay, which I got after I notified GAW that I had already shipped them out.

2. GAW has had the returned Falcons for almost a week, and I have neither replacement equipment, store credit, nor full refund.
I have been trying to figure out some equitable exchange or return, since I am no longer interested in Zeus-produced equipment. Originally, I requested credit towards the purchase of an A2, but they have since disappeared from the site, the Gridseed delivery dates keep getting pushed back, and the S2 is there for show I guess, since there's no link to either order or pre-order.

3. I do believe that they will make good on their warranty/guarantee, but as it stands today, they have my pre-payment in full for Week One miners and I've got nothing.

IMO, this is mainly a result of delays in communication resulting from needing approval from the top, and could probably be solved by giving the customer service folks the authority to accept returns and issue refunds or exchanges. I appreciate that Josh has been offering to let people email him directly in order to solve problems, but as a business owner, I'm sure he understands that empowering his employees to solve the problems directly is a more scalable solution and leads to better, faster customer service.

Last, there needs to be a better process for RMA. Immediate issuing of RMA numbers, mailing details, and instructions. And when the units arrive at GAW, the customer needs to be notified that they have been received, when they've been accepted, and when they can expect a refund.

Update (07/12/14): Sometime overnight, a credit was posted to my account. (Which I hope to apply to some non-Zeus hardware in the near future.)