I am a small-farm owner ( <100KW - about 30 Machines altogether) and I was enticed by an AsicMinerValue trusted seller’s listing of a “Bitmain Antminer S21Pro”. I also host a discord server with a bunch of friends from my childhood/college/other mining friends.
Vipera LLC offered a product for pre-order, the Bitmain Antminer S21 Pro (250TH/S). As Vipera is a "trusted" vendor on the ASICMinerValue site - and I have actually read about individuals purchasing from them, successfully, I thought pre-ordering from them was a safe bet. I initially ordered 2 S21's, but after a few friends STRONGLY SUGGESTED I don't order any as nothing else reflected that the miner actually existed, I asked for the order to be changed from 2 to 1.
The saleswoman, Sabrina Monte, was frankly RUDE throughout the entire process - but I overlooked this and assumed maybe english was a secondary language.
About a month ago - I was informed by several discord members that Vipera had pulled the miner from their website - hadn't changed it to sold out, or "production delayed/cancelled" - just straight up REMOVED the page. So - I had a look and I noticed that the news articles about "Vipera securing 1500 units" had all disappeared, with the exception of 1 medium article that, in fact, was posted BY VIPERA.
I had started to email the sales rep, Sabrina Monte, about 6 weeks ago to no avail, and about a month ago - started receiving notifications saying "undeliverable". So - I reached out to the general sales email address and received an explanation to the tune of "Bitmain cancelled the S21 Pro 2 weeks ago, but we can send you an S21 200T".
What's the old expression - to little too late? I am, frankly, disappointed. I recommended this company to followers for this specific miner as they were a "trusted ASICMinerValue" vendor. I reached out to them for a LONG TIME over the phone, and never actually got someone to answer (their answering machine says they aren't available, then makes you listen to music for a few minutes before it actually lets you record a message". Because I have never encountered an answering machine that makes you listen to hold music - I figured it was a farse. I initiated a chargeback with Goldman Sachs after trying to get in touch with a HUMAN at Vipera for over 14 days.
Lots of my friends told me I was crazy for walking away from a career to pursue a bitcoin venture full time - and all of those individuals, today, ask me how and where to invest in Bitcoin. I am very passionate about Bitcoin and want, very much, for it to have a stellar reputation/ecosystem - ASIC Vendors exhibiting this type of behavior, are hindering that.
What if I was a first-time ASIC buyer? What if the $4500 (give or take) was make/break money for me? This would be a huge problem....
Had I not reached out to them, what would've happened? Would they have kept my money and I never would've received a miner until it was WELL OUTSIDE of the chargeback time period?
We need HONEST VENDORS IN THE CRYPTO SPACE. I would've loved to give Vipera the benefit of the doubt... but the fact that they, allegedly, knew the miner wouldn't be produced and I actually had to initiate a chargeback to get in contact with them - not a good look.
I am posting this for several reasons.... First and foremost, mining community protection. Second - so all of my discord members can see this and understand that I was NOT trying to push a fake miner on them for ANY SORT OF MONETARY GAIN OF MY OWN.
I asked Vipera to edit the Medium article, chalking it up to a misunderstanding - and all they kept doing was ridiculing me, and asking me to see my YouTube channel (so what - if I happen to be someone with a youtube following THEN they will treat me right?). No. This is SO WRONG ON SO MANY LEVELS.
Maybe they had an employee who was dishonest and alleged that they could secure this order - maybe they were short on cash and needed the preorder capital to stay afloat - I have no idea. But this is THE WORST experience I have ever had - ANYWHERE - trying to purchase an ASIC.
The Vipera Team had so many chances to make this right - and they just didn't.
I was ridiculed by the live chat agent (as this is the ONLY person I was actually able to start a dialogue with as they blocked my email address *general sales emails were returned after they replied to the first one offering to replace the more expensive S21 "Pro" with a regular one*). I pre-order machines for a reason... like most of you I'm sure do as well... Why on earth would I want a machine I have NEVER paid that much for, after being conned out of a superior machine that ceases to exist? And a 1 line email? Then ridiculing me for initiating a chargeback?
Sorry for ranting - but this is just not right.
Images of the email stonewall (blocking my address...) can be seen here. I left several voicemails which were never returned - and when speaking with them in the LiveChat (unfortunately they blocked me from that as well, so I was unable to screenshot them ridiculing me for only ordering 1 machine...). Regardless, you can sort of get the picture here. See the article the published about the machine - my order - and them, admittedly, being informed "2 weeks" prior to my reaching out for an explanation after they made the machine disappear from their website and not having informed anyone who pre-ordered said machines.
https://imgur.com/a/YCPHYxiJust sad.
