Actually, you signed a contract that specifically states you are NOT entitled to compensation for their negligence.
But if it contradicts consumer law, then the contract isn't valid. That's like saying you can commit a criminal act just because a contract says you can. It's erroneous. Their legal team blurb is nonsense. You take their T&Cs to a real lawyer and they'll tear it apart.
I realize that here in the USA contract law tends to be much stricter than in other parts of the world. Even so, I would be very curious what part of UK law you are referring to when you say such a clause is illegal. Do you actually have a law in mind (and if so, which one) or are you just talking out of your ass? Again, I realize this is coming from the USA and not the UK, but virtually every warranty you get here specifically excludes compensation for incidental damages (example, you buy a server and it breaks. They can be made to pay for the server, but not the money you lost from not having a working server). They have been consistently upheld by the courts, and in most cases so have TOSs. Now we do know that UK law makes their clause about no returns illegal, but I would be very surprised if you had a law that makes it illegal to bar incidental damages. I'm always willing to learn though, which law do you speak of?
But see here is the thing, and this is why this sort of shit continues to happen. Now, I will be the first to say these AT guys are a bunch of scumbags. In fact, I HAVE been saying it the whole time. But at the same time, isn't there at least some level of personal responsibility that goes into this? I mean, you read a contract where they write right into the contract that they can purposefully rip you off and they are not responsible, legal or illegal, that didn't give anyone pause before sending them thousands of dollars? The fact that exactly 0 of these preorders have ever gone well for the customer, that didn't give anyone pause? I mean, GAW miners just released yet another one of these preorders about a week ago and I have seen some of the same people who got ripped off here, post over there that they preordered from them. It's like, wtf really?
Well, I don't know about the US law, but in the UK, under the sales & goods act, the product has to be fit for purpose. If it breaks because it's a piece of badly made garbage, then the product does not meet your expectations, and is therefore covered under that condition. If the product specifications do not match what's been advertised, again, same principle applies.
USA laws are tough but currently not being enforced....Butterfly Labs has been 10 months behind on both 65mm and current 28mm products consistently since around nov 2012....w/o out any enforcement ..money talks in usa ....so likely alpha and others looked at hashfast / bfl / etc and figured they had little to lose if it all went 'poof' in the nite..they are likely correct at least in usa
Searing
UK laws seem pretty clear to me, they are obligated to give a full refund, even if by some miracle they deliver a product you'd still have 7-days from delivery to return it and still get a full refund.
http://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/regulation/distance-selling-regulations
For the tenth time, he wasn't looking for a refund, he was looking for compensatory damages above and beyond the full full refund.
