Again thanks to stenkross for raising the dogie Trustworthiness Guide:
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/guide-dogies-comprehensive-manufacturer-trustworthiness-guide-1st-feb-2016-456691
Dogie kindly looked into VMC again and has independently decided to revise his assessment of VMC. The new advice is as follows:
'VMC Fast Hash One Link Link No (yet) No D Offered and honoured refunds from the start. Products still a long way away, nothing verified.'
I think that is fair and does accurately represent the current state of play. He says he will review this advice as and when necessary.
One thing Dogie did insist on was that prototype chips should be offered to the hardware community for verification at the earliest opportunity. I think that is a good idea and hopefully Ken and the engineering team will also think so and this will be possible. If there is no prototype (straight to first batch) then hopefully a few chips from this first batch could be offered out.