Black Arrow X-1 and X-3 (not modded by Black Arrow) Thread

[ducmami]

i've got my second x1. order 3xx
is there any x3 shipped?

[alfabitcoin]

My post was just deleted from the Black Arrow self-moderated thread. Posting it here:

Mate, just read what is under the links above. It seems like he has been chased by Romanian authorities for large scale fraud!

I'm glad that I've stopped at the last moment from ordering from Black Arrow. Sorry for everyone who fell victims to these serial scammers:

GOVERNMENT OF ROMANIA
On 01/14/2003, workers in DGCCOA-Brigade Bucharest, based on the information held, and a search warrant issued by the Public Prosecutor at the Court of Appeal, proceeded to carry out house searches in homes following: Sovu Alexandru Ion, 24 years old from Bucharest, sector 2; Sovu Mircea Dan, the brother mentioned above, 23 years, Bucuresti, Sector 2, both associated to a company in Bucharest; and STOENESCU LILIANA bridegroom, 32 years old from Bucharest, sector 6.

Those concerned together with RADUT Mircea, 32 years, Bucuresti, Sector 4 and Ixari Iulia Cristina 26 years old from Bucharest, sector 2, were part of a network that deals with committing computer fraud via the Internet community.

In fact, in the period 2000 - 2002, the brothers launched Sovu more orders on the Internet at online stores abroad (in particular the United States, Australia and Canada) for the purchase of goods using fraudulent card numbers Credit is not theirs, without the knowledge or authorization of the true owners. After orders have arrived in Romania about 100 parcels names and addresses accomplices, STOENESCU LILIANA bridegroom and Mircea RADUT which to raise their courier and postal offices in exchange from the brothers amounts between 300,000 and 1,000 .000 USD, depending on the contents of the package.

I seen this last year in May or July from some lancelot gb organizer with a lancelot purchase went south. BA did not want to use escrow and gb organizer was not willing to do it without regatding it was a big amount of money. Ba even post that alex sovu were their reseller in uk and hes changed man. Full story can be found in archive forum.

Then I decided that BA is a shady and can not be trusted with big amount of money. Also when they announced making own asic with preorder I voiced my concerns but they deleted it. Think ba is one guy company, outsourcing all and thus have a good chance of fuck up - that happened.

Also due statue of limitation authority can not do much about it today.

[BitCoin Operated Boy]

Consumer Legal Action Fund. Helping consumers to file and defend their claim.

http://www.consumer.org.hk/website/ws_en/legal_protection/consumer_legal_actions_fund/CLAFBriefPDF.pdf

How to report a fraud in UK:

http://fraudaid.com/How-To-Deal-With-Having-Been-Conned/Fraud_Report/Jurisdictions/International/ScotlandYard.htm

Hong Kong's Consumer Complaint Form (in english):

https://www.consumer.org.hk/cc-complaint/index.php?lang=en

[DonRavy]

Deleted Post
« Sent to: DonRavy on: Today at 07:36:48 PM »
   Reply with quoteReply with quote Remove this messageDelete
A reply of yours, quoted below, was deleted by the starter of a self-moderated topic. There are no rules of self-moderation, so this deletion cannot be appealed. Do not continue posting in this topic if the topic-starter has requested that you leave.

You can create a new topic if you are unsatisfied with this one. If the topic-starter is scamming, post about it in Scam Accusations.

Quote

You're a bunch of filthy liars. Once my deadline for the refund is over tomorrow evening, I'll open up all the details I have from my private conversations with David here (in the unmoderated thread since you're oh so honest and transparent), you can bet you'll have a shitstorm flying at you after that, with all the crap I got on you.

You can also tell Mr. Sovu that I've talked to my legal council about the possibility of contacting interpol based on his hands in this as directory of BA, respectively Merlion Holding Ltd. I'm sure those guys will be interested to question him about his shenannigans in Romania as well.

[BitCoin Operated Boy]

Deleted Post
« Sent to: DonRavy on: Today at 07:36:48 PM »
   Reply with quoteReply with quote Remove this messageDelete
A reply of yours, quoted below, was deleted by the starter of a self-moderated topic. There are no rules of self-moderation, so this deletion cannot be appealed. Do not continue posting in this topic if the topic-starter has requested that you leave.

You can create a new topic if you are unsatisfied with this one. If the topic-starter is scamming, post about it in Scam Accusations.

Quote

You're a bunch of filthy liars. Once my deadline for the refund is over tomorrow evening, I'll open up all the details I have from my private conversations with David here (in the unmoderated thread since you're oh so honest and transparent), you can bet you'll have a shitstorm flying at you after that, with all the crap I got on you.

You can also tell Mr. Sovu that I've talked to my legal council about the possibility of contacting interpol based on his hands in this as directory of BA, respectively Merlion Holding Ltd. I'm sure those guys will be interested to question him about his shenannigans in Romania as well.

So is your deadline over? Have you followed any actions?

[DonRavy]

Of course, there hasn't been a single deadline BA hasn't missed in this whole endeavour.

Check https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=681965.20 for the legal proceedings in the near future, so far I've done the preliminary paperwork and sorted most of the financial stuff (legal insurance etc), next week I'll continue to meet with my legal council to discuss various aspects like joining up with Pentax and others to form a class action lawsuit against BA. Depending on how that goes I'll continue to confer with Pentax and see where that gets us, the planned course of action would be to hire a lawyer in HK together, to file the preliminary court papers and go from there. I'm still not 100% sure on jurisdiction, with the 1 country 2 systems policy, but that's one of the first points that I'll clear up next week. There might be a remote possibility that we'll be able to file in HK (place of registration/incorporation) as well as mainland PRC (place of business). Due to the fact that Merlion Holdings Ltd. with it's seat on the British Virgin Islands is the main controlling body of Black Arrow, there could even be a slight possibility to try our luck in front of european, respectively UK courts.

Other points include filing for personal liability of BA's management due to gross negligence and possibly having my legal council contact Interpol with details on the whole Mr. Sovu issue, both in this matter and the past shenannigans in Romania, as mentioned earlier. I'll keep people posted, albeit in the thread I linked above.

[BitCoin Operated Boy]

Of course, there hasn't been a single deadline BA hasn't missed in this whole endeavour.

Check https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=681965.20 for the legal proceedings in the near future, so far I've done the preliminary paperwork and sorted most of the financial stuff (legal insurance etc), next week I'll continue to meet with my legal council to discuss various aspects like joining up with Pentax and others to form a class action lawsuit against BA. Depending on how that goes I'll continue to confer with Pentax and see where that gets us, the planned course of action would be to hire a lawyer in HK together, to file the preliminary court papers and go from there. I'm still not 100% sure on jurisdiction, with the 1 country 2 systems policy, but that's one of the first points that I'll clear up next week. There might be a remote possibility that we'll be able to file in HK (place of registration/incorporation) as well as mainland PRC (place of business). Due to the fact that Merlion Holdings Ltd. with it's seat on the British Virgin Islands is the main controlling body of Black Arrow, there could even be a slight possibility to try our luck in front of european, respectively UK courts.

Other points include filing for personal liability of BA's management due to gross negligence and possibly having my legal council contact Interpol with details on the whole Mr. Sovu issue, both in this matter and the past shenannigans in Romania, as mentioned earlier. I'll keep people posted, albeit in the thread I linked above.

That sounds great. Please keep us posted

[eXOBeX]

Has anyone else just got email spam about an XBTec PACIFIC V2 machine to an email address they've only used at blackarrow? I'm wondering if they've sold/passed-on their customer/victim database to someone else, or had it exploited?

Yep, same here. Email address used only for the Black Arrow order, nowhere else. The bulk mailing has been sent via MailChimp, there's an abuse report address in the email header.

Whois search indicates it's owned by Artem Solodkiy. First registered 16th May 2014, yet the About page reckons they were founded in 2012.

The Pacific 1250 even uses the same PSU as the Prospero X3.
Rear of Pacific 1250


Rear of Prospero X3


X3 PSU (model AP188)


Looks to me like Black Arrow is getting ready to jump ship and start scamming under a new name (seeing as the BA name will be forever mud it's the logical thing to do). In any case XBTec have obtained email addresses without permission, which gives you some idea of how trustworthy they are. Scammer or spammer, you decide.

PACIFIC V2
The Best Miner Available Today
XBTec* unveils a 1.57TH/s compact bitcoin miner with the fastest ROI for a period of less than 3 months, for the price $1399! The power consumption is only 0.8W per GH, which is the most effective solution available today.
 
In development of this miner many shortcomings of previous miners were taken into consideration. In order to achieve such performance with such sizes and power consumption, we had to overcome multiple complex technical problems. Here are some photos of our first model PACIFIC 1250 which is available in stock:
 
XBTec PACIFIC V2 is a joint product of Chinese and Russian engineers. Today it is the most competitive bitcoin miner in terms of price, power consumption and size. Our engineers have optimized the architecture of the PCB board. While developing the miner, we took into account how important it is for the users that the hardware does not emit excessive noise. Indeed, many people use these devices at home, where unnecessary noise is undesirable.

The PCB boards and aluminum cases are ready now! The miners will be shipped on August 31st. We have a special offer on the pre-orders: just use this promotion code kdie8-rjdy2-274jf-3lroe and get $100 extra discount (valid for the first 100 orders only).
 
Moreover, XBTec is preparing to bring a cloud mining solution into the market. The capacity of the data center will be 1 Petahash.
 
*The company’s headquarters is located in Hong Kong. Its developers are based in Moscow and Shenzhen. Factory is located in Shenzhen.

[BitCoin Operated Boy]

If it is true then that's just bloody great...

[BitCoin Operated Boy]

Black Arrow removed my message about Hong Kong's Consumer Council sending me an e-mail and letter with confirmation of opening up the case against Black Arrow.

Now Black Arrow has just tried to blackmail me in private message. Here is teh conversation. I've got print screens which I will upload online later.

Black Arrow:
 Sent to: BitCoin Operated Boy on: Today at 04:01:25 PM

Dear Customer,

What is your order number?

Regards!
Black Arrow
  
Me:

I will not provide you with my order details as you threatened forum members with consequences.

If you want t know my order number then you shall see it on the letter from Consumer Council regarding my complaint.

Black Arrow:

How can we ship your order first if you do not let us know what order you want to be shipped?
What kind of consequences can we threaten with?

Me:

I requested a refund two and a half months ago. I do not want the miner to be shipped now. It was supposed to be shipped in February. I'd like to receive my refund. The order number is stated in the letter and you can refer it to my refund request tickets submitted on https://www.blackarrowsoftware.com/support/index.php?

How can we refund if we do not know what order to refund?

Me:

Are you willing to refund it if I give you my order details. And if so when will you process the refund?

Black Arrow:

I need to look into your your order to answer to this question.

Me:

Sorry but that obviously means that you are not willing to process the refund. Sorry but I'm not stupid.
Once you confirm you will refund my order and when then I will give you the order number. I only ordered one X3 worth $6,028.15.
If you don't confirm then please refer yourself to the order on the letter from the council.

Regards,

Black Arrow:

If you do not wish to receive a refund that is up to you. We will ship your order then.

Me:

I've got a print screen of this conversation. I'm going to keep sharing it on the forum as long as it is required.
You have gone to far again. I won't tolerate your childish threats of refusing to refund my order. If you try to ignore my refund request by sending the miner you will ger your miner back and I will do the best I can for you to take consequences of this.
I will use the content of this conversation to support my claims against your comapany.

[terrapinflyer]

Posting this here because Im sure I will get deleted again.

Now BA is posting my personal info in my trust setting?
Do you think I have something to hide BA?
Fucking scamming lying pieces of shit.

I have absolutely nothing to hide BA. You can post my personal info here since you have already violated my privacy by selling my email address I suppose the only last thing to do is publicly share my name and shipping address for the whole world to see.
Unlike you I have worked hard over the last year and some months to build a strong positive reputation here that will not be smeared by your pitiful attempt. 

I will absolutely not remove my neg feedback now. In fact I will be posting neg feedback every day until you remove my name and address. I urge all other customers to post your experience neg or otherwise in their profile.   

[Specialkey]

Hit them  Ba posers with metal.

[bigredbutton]

I have all my information together including all converstaions and lies from BA. My refund window and come and gone and nothing from BA but Lies. I am ready to spend double what I spent on miners pursuing legal action aganist these fuckers.

I would love to submit all the information I have if someone already has a case going aganist them. Several months ago I read about some class action thing through the HK government, with links to the case file. Anyone know anything about this? Is there a larger case aganist these guys or is just a bunch of small fries like us all pursing some deadend legal battle?

I found this...

Just pasting this in here, as I imagine BA will delete it from the self moderated thread.




The company is registered in Hong Kong, so the proper agency from what I have been able to find out so far is the Hong Kong Consumer Council.

They request some documents and need to establish that this is a Hong Kong registered company  before they will agree to pick it up, therefore:

Send the annual report http://www.kiwi.nz/blackarrow/PS300015776549_01.pdf

along with the documents they have requested.  Those documents are:

1.  The invoice showing you paid
2   your bank or payment records showing the payment
3.  any e-mail or support discussions  you've had
4.  The annual report referenced above.

Here's the link to file a complaint if you decide you want to do that.

https://www.consumer.org.hk/cc-complaint/index.php?lang=en

Also indicate that their TOS indicates Hong Kong law and paste that in to your message.

http://www.blackarrowsoftware.com/store/terms-and-conditions-en.html#purchase

15.2 Applicable law and dispute resolution
16.2 1 This Agreement shall be interpreted and applied in accordance with the law of Hong Kong S.A.R. of PRC.

This is all the information they will need to pick this up.  They have been very helpful and responsive.  If that goes nowhere, Shenzhen Consumer Group, with which I have also been talking and then the lawyers will be next.

[Jcga]

Thx guyz for sharing for those precious links.

After 6 months I just can't handle it no more, this is too much depressin and my moral went down and i'm also unemployed now, i have been silly too much patient.
I did ask last night for an Refund and feel better now.

I have this question plz : what is BA address, their office please.
there is one in their website and another one in their "Annual Report".

TIA

[klintay]

They have a registered hk company (Company Registration. 1520309).
If you do a hk company search (it is free) you will find more info:

https://www.icris.cr.gov.hk

I believe their address is:

90 jaffe road
wanchai
hong kong

It is actually really easy to sue people in HK. You don't have to be a HK citizen but you do need to hire someone to represent you in Small Claims Courts (it can't be a lawyer so it is actually cheap to do).

Small Claims Court
If what you are claiming against a business is less than $50,000 HKD then you are eligible to sue them in Small Claims Court.

Why is small claims court good?
-lawyers are not allowed in small claims court
-The person you are suing cannot counter sue you in small claims court.
-You do not have to be a Hong Kong Resident to file a motion with the small claims court
-If black arrow fail to show then you will win the claim by default
-only transport costs can be claimed in small claims court.
-no they can't hire someone from Jamaica and claim the flight as a cost (a Philippine company tried this with my fd and it got thrown out of small claims court)
-Once you win, you are given a legal document (Writ of Fieri Facias) saying BA owe you this much in HKD$
-Then you can hire a HK government bailiff to come and collect anything from BA office that is in the value of the amount they owe you

Imagine turning up to Black Arrow office in Wan Chai and walking off with a bunch of their PCs and some bitcoin wallets while being protected by the bailiffs and the HK police.

How to file a claim for your money back in HK Small Claims Court:
http://www.judiciary.gov.hk/en/crt_services/pphlt/html/sc.htm

Online Forms:
http://www.judiciary.gov.hk/en/crt_services/forms/sc.htm


Or maybe just make a formal complaint to this organisation:

HK Consumer Complaints Council
They recommend you file a complaint against the a local company if as a consumer you come across unfair trade practices, e.g .

-goods or services not correspond to description;
-delay in delivery;
-dissatisfaction to service,

http://www.consumer.org.hk/website/ws_en/complaints_and_advices/how_to_complain/howtocomplain.html

[Jcga]

Thx you guys, very helping, great work.

[mazedk]

Anyone who can tell me how to hard reset an x-1 ?

I'v moved my miners to an offsite location and suddenly one wont take DHCP.

[Gleb Gamow]

So, what's the story with Black Arrow...? It doesn't look like they ever shipped, what's the latest info on them?

It's weird suddenly seeing this because I stepped out of the mining scene when Black Arrow was an amazing company. Now I come back and read all this... it seems like no company can keep it's reputation up anymore.

When the hell was Black Arrow an amazing company when I figured them a scam within minutes of visiting their thread?

[nosferatujeff]

Well you were right, PG, you were right. And man was I wrong.

Any idea on where we can go from here? You seem to have unique insight.

If the HK CC was effective, everyone would be doing it. If legal avenues worked, this would have blossomed to a class action. (Not a lawyer just my observations). BFL is doing the same thing in reality, and is a US based company, and is still for all intents and purposes untouched.

My guess is company realizes if they deliver anything at any time they are off the hook because of location.

Frustrated here and company is non-responsive to an extreme, at least Josh would poke his head out from time to time.

Perhaps this can be written off as an investment loss.

[Gleb Gamow]

Well you were right, PG, you were right. And man was I wrong.

Any idea on where we can go from here? You seem to have unique insight.

If the HK CC was effective, everyone would be doing it. If legal avenues worked, this would have blossomed to a class action. (Not a lawyer just my observations). BFL is doing the same thing in reality, and is a US based company, and is still for all intents and purposes untouched.

My guess is company realizes if they deliver anything at any time they are off the hook because of location.

Frustrated here and company is non-responsive to an extreme, at least Josh would poke his head out from time to time.

Perhaps this can be written off as an investment loss.

I also figured AMT out the first time I visited their thread, albeit months late to the party and most the leg work I did had for the most part already been done, but did bring further insight to the table on a continuous basis. Today, I get to go the Sandwich Police Dept. and fill out a complain and possible warrant for Joshua Zipkin for publicly threatening to kill six people (and a dog). Seriously!

The very person who claimed that I am unstable has run amok and proven to be himself highly unstable.

BTW, Joshua Zipkin has teamed up Alex Sovu in hopes of bringing Jewish-Bulgarian-Gypsy miners to the market. He's already in bed with Dragon.

~Bruno Kucinskas