People don't realize that they stopped shipping batch 1 because they had this issue with two types of machines (4.86 and 4.66) even in batch 1 as per their email that went to some people. Also, I think that they had a disclaimer for batch 1 that it could be shipped up to 10 days after Sept 30 (or was it 25?). Many people would be upset, though, if they don't ship today or tomorrow.
I hope that what happened is that they noticed that some machines are performing at 4.66, stopped shipping of these machines (and the rest of batch 1), produced more machines, replaced those machines in initial batch 1 that were underperforming with newly produced 4.86 machines, hence some delay in shipping. the underperforming machines from batch 1 might have been renamed "batch 2". the bottom line is that a few days delay in batch shipping 1 might result in those orders having a better chance to be on spec (4.86). This is just my theory.
I hope that what happened is that they noticed that some machines are performing at 4.66, stopped shipping of these machines (and the rest of batch 1), produced more machines, replaced those machines in initial batch 1 that were underperforming with newly produced 4.86 machines, hence some delay in shipping. the underperforming machines from batch 1 might have been renamed "batch 2". the bottom line is that a few days delay in batch shipping 1 might result in those orders having a better chance to be on spec (4.86). This is just my theory.
This may be well and true, however I find it difficult to believe they did not know some of these machines were only hashing at 4.66.
I'd think this was noticed during the "Testing" QA phase. If it was unnoticed than QA failed.
What I'm really not happy about is the releasing of batch 2/3 and the huge reduction in price. It sounds like there are a great number of folks with unshipped units.
I'm in that group with 17 unshipped units myself. That's $2890 less for the 4.86 versions and $4046 less on the 4.66 versions. You kidding me? That's what pre-paying early adopters are awarded?
Technically we are supposed to get our units shipped out 5 days prior to batch 2 shipping (before they can be considered late - and what happens if they are late?), but 5 days of mining doesn't even cover half of the savings you'd get by simply sitting out of batch 1. I really think Bitmain shouldn't be selling new batches before they have even shipped out the first. Priorities, let's take care of the customers that have already paid before raking in new moneys... Then you also wouldn't be in the predicament of having paid customers overly upset about having no product while seeing the stuff they have paid for already but not received (hell not even shipped out) at lower prices.
