Topic: [AUCTION] Ballet PURE BITCOIN dual physical bitcoin box set #1 to #21 - page 2. (Read 2232 times)

If there is more demand on option 5 that was mentioned by geophphreigh you can contact me aswell via pm, interested aswell and still mad about the fact, that I missed this auction. >_>
Hope this issue turns well for both sides and Ballet will continue with their products here.

If anyone wants to use option 5, send me a pm 

I would also be interested in purchasing a set of these in the event that that anyone wants to unload theirs. Please PM me.

Sorry for your unfortunate troubles, all

sweeteye

having read all the comments/responses here, I would like to provide my constructive suggestions to resolve the situation. Taking as granted that those sets can not be reproduced again, I can see only 2 viable options here.

1) return the product and get full compensation (in the exact amount paid in BTC). Ballet will also cover all returning shipping fees (+ initial dispatching shipping fees?), for the items to get returned back to Minerjones (both domestic and international shipping fees, depending on the original destination that MJ did the reshipping of the packages).

2) Customers that would prefer to keep their "defective" products, will receive an additional voucher of an $xxx amount (with 1 year validity time), that can be used to acquire current and future items from the ballet site. Customers will keep the limited edition items (with all the possible defects) and get partial compensation (depending on the voucher amount) for their defective products. For example, someone could keep their limited edition silver card (with defects) and use the voucher to purchase another silver card (non limited edition with a random number). Alternatively, they could get any other products of their interest from the site. (each person have different needs, hence someone might get more personal value acquiring the "A" item rather than the "B" item from the site.)

just my 2 satoshis...

Why wouldn't refunding everyone and just letting them keep the product be an option? As an outsider, that seems like the most reasonable option to me. Everyone gets their BTC back and Ballet maintains a good relationship with the forum. Surely the value of the forum and marketing it does for Ballet is worth more than the .224 BTC Ballet would have to refund (excluding Charlie's bid)… if you guys sold that BTC upon receipt then Ballet may even still make a profit USD wise if you had to buy it back now to refund it.

I'll add a 5th option to the list, I would be happy to buy a set from anyone wanting to get rid of theirs since I missed out on the auction. Shoot me a PM.

Bobby, you are being upfront and are making a very genuine effort to correct the issues brought up, which is a lot more than others in the past have done. It's too bad that there are some issues, but at least they are being addressed and not swept under the rug.

I understand that you take teeGUMES and others' comments personally, but it is important that as a community we have high standards to ensure the quality of any items brought here. High quality materials, key generation, shipping, communication, etc. are all important and if someone does not speak up when there are issues then there is no accountability for poor products. I love teeGUMES and I love the BTCC and Ballet products, so I hope it will be water off your back and you will continue to bring new items to this forum and the BTC community in general.

Geophphreigh

Wow I see it's going to "War" here  

Teegumes just put forward a photoshop montage from 2018. (Well it's true that it's not very nice like Photoshop xD)

It's true that we are a pretty purist community, and very hard on the details of BTC collectors, but no need to fight.

But indeed the defects present on the photos that MoparMining shared would have bothered me also for this level of collector.

for such a part, 3 such pronounced faults are indeed complicated to accept, after that I am not saying that it is necessarily Bobby's fault but I think that this kind of product with so many faults should just be withdrawn from sale or if possible replaced. (btw if there is redundant it's better to change the private mint company who make it, proof like finition need to be good, pay little bit more to get more quality)

Hey teeGUMES. 

Very kind and thoughtful of you for sharing your real thoughts about me and BTCC Mint!
You really did a good job with that photoshop. And wow, I gotta say, I'm saddened and disappointed.

And I'll remember to never invite you to any future private steak dinners I organize.

I'd like to take this opportunity to ask the rest of the collectibles forum:
If all of you indeed also share teeGUMES thoughts, please let me know, and I'll happily no longer service this market, and refrain from marketing any future Ballet products to you all. (Yes, we have some new PURE Series products coming out.)

If on the other hand, some/many of you appreciate both my contributions to this market and my time spent here, then I call on you to refute teeGUMES and the negativity he's trying to inspire.

Trolling online is so easy...  Can you all be constructive instead?
Yes, there is free speech here.

If no one wants to call out the ridiculousness of the these bashing and negative comments, then this might as well be my last post.

thanks,
Bobby

Starting to see a common denominator here.
Same bullshit options for replacement too. Bring back the passion Bobby, not the Amazon sales quota.

Just a thought, but these serial numbers are a crucial part of the auction prices paid for these 21 issues. Though I understand and appreciate your stance on no reuse of serials or keys, replacing an early run bar with a general population serial is a serious downgrade and feels...bait n switchy.

I say give the bidders what they purchased - a unique product separate from the general run. For those who wish to have their bars replaced-create new serials as if it were a software upgrade #1.1-#21.1

All owners wether they opt to swap or not maintain their unique status & would actually increase rarity of both variants.

Just a thought.

Thank you minerjones for explaining the 4 options.

We realize that these are not perfect solutions, but we just don't have any other choices. Please let me add some more color by giving you some perspective:

There are 2 types of damages:
A) the gilt that peels/falls off, caused by an imperfect manufacturing process.
B) the scratches on the card, caused by the cards falling out from the packaging during shipment.

As mentioned, we were quite surprised and caught off guard by both of these above issues. On behalf of Ballet, I want to personally apologize to all of you about the above 2 issues.

for (A), we've worked closely with our vendor of the pure silver cards, and just could not come up with a suitable and satisfactory solution for the "gold" gilt on the BTC letter. Our solution is to forgo the gilt completely, and just ship a pure silver product. I know it's a compromise, but that's the best we can think of, other than to cancel the product altogether, and not ship anything.

So for existing customers who've already purchased the sets, we can either offer you a full refund or a replacement (option 2 above), remove the gilt at our facility (option 3), or teach you how to do it yourself (option 4). Of course, you're welcome to just keep it as is, and yours will be unique, and there are only 21 sets out there made like that.

For the replacement, unfortunately, the serial numbers cannot be replicated. We have a strict company policy to never replicate serial numbers for the private key stickers. This policy is to ensure the integrity of the manufacturing process and the overall security of our 2-factor key generation process. For these reasons, and also because of manufacturing complexities, we CANNOT and WILL NOT remake wallets to utilize the SAME serial numbers (either with the same OR different private keys & public addresses). This is a company decision, and we are just not willing to cross that bridge.

for (B), this was also unanticipated and we are regretful that this happened, causing scratches on cards for some of you. We have since improved the packaging for shipment, adding a foam layer inside the box, to prevent the same issue of the wallet cards being shaken out of the acrylic box during shipment.

Regardless of the (A) or (B) issue, our best offer is to give you a full refund. You can ask for a replacement, but do know that it will be without the gilt, and that the serial number will no longer be in the range of #01-21.

Just remember: if you ARE NOT satisfied with what you got, then you are welcome to return the product for a full refund. If you ARE satisfied and DO decide to keep it, then please understand that it's your decision to do so. In other words, we are NOT FORCING any of you to keep and accept a dissatisfactory product.

As a company, we try our best to make GREAT products to satisfy everyone. But the reality is that at times, we fall short, and we are regretful of that. We learn from our mistakes, and try to improve in the future. That's the best I can promise you.

And lastly, I founded Ballet to make crypto easy for everyday people. To be clear, we did NOT create Ballet to solely serve the collectables market. Yes, some of our products are special and limited, which some collectors like. Most of our products were made for mass-market adoption. As a company, it's a fine balance, to serve the mass market audience, and also offer some nicer products for collectors.

I know that some of you have expressed that you'll never want to buy any collectibles from Ballet anymore, and you're certainly entitled to your decision. We will continue to release new products, of which some will certainly interest this collectors audience, so I hope you will continue to stay as our loyal customer. (On the other hand, if one day no one cares to buy our collectibles products, then we will simply stop making them.)

For those of you who seem to think that we are putting profit above customer service, it's really not so simple. As a company, we are still loss-making, and not profitable. Our decision above is not for profit reasons, and I've already explained why we will not remake duplicate serial numbers. (So far, we are not even close to making a profit in selling these 21 sets of PURE Bitcoin.)

Now that you have a better understanding of my perspective, I welcome your feedback and would like to hear further constructive suggestions from all of you. Please let me know.

Thank you all for your time and understanding.

cheers,
Bobby

well this sux big time, not only did we get a damaged product without a like for lkike replacement we also get milk spotting added to the mix jsut as insult to injury. most companies would be compensating valued customers, its not like there are more than 21 of us. a real shame on ballet and devaluation of the brand, not sure i will be buying another ballet product after this debacle, expected better from a known and respected maker who has put profit over customer service.

Yea - Bobby was explaining this to me at the conference (hence why they only had the gold plated PURE and not the silver PURE at the conference)

He did tell me that future releases would not have the gold gilt and that only the 21 box sets would.  While they will not be making the gold gilt again - I dont see why they cannot re-create at least the same serial number with a different key and address of course but still the same SN.

in looking at mine - the gold B does have one spot where the gold has come off:



there are some minor scratches and almost a milky look on the edges:




That being said, I dont think I want to have it returned just to get one that doesn't have the gold gilt - 1 of 21 sets or 1 of 500 sets --- not really equal value in my opinion. In my opinion when stuff like this happens, the company in question should find a way to accommodate or compensate the buyer not have them accept less. Maybe send a silver PURE to all 21 set owners?

unfortunately i have to agree with Mitchell that if he wants to replace his product, he would not get the same one (with the same special features)...
for a great company like Ballet, it should be possible to start a new production of these great pure bitcoin box sets, if the customer returns his damaged set.

just my 2 cents sats

To be frank, I'm a bit disappointed right now, as all of these options don't resolve my actual issue. I have scratches on my, very delicate, silver card and the only viable option would be to return everything and get a non-gilted version with a different serial in return. Seeing how I paid a premium for the serial, and the product, that is not something I want to do.

I'm forced to keep the damaged product, which wouldn't have been damaged if the case was closed and the wallets properly secured in the box. The box itself is in pristine condition as MJ shipped it well packaged.

---

I understand that this, probably, isn't a big deal to some people, but I find it sad, since it's such a nice product.

UPDATE:

After shipping out the box sets to people, some users had found their cards to have production issues.
Working with Ballet and Bobby Lee, they have come up with some options for any of the customers who have an issue with their cards. (Only these 21 sets)
There was a delay in response due to getting new production set-up and evaluated.

There will be 4 options that can be chosen from:

1) Keep the cards. These 21 box sets will be the only ones that have gilted "B" on the silver card. Further production of PURE series silver cards will only be silver, no gilt.
So the 21 cards will be unique.

2) Return the box set to either get a refund in bitcoin or a new box set. The new set will have the non-gilt silver card (1 btc) + all gold card (0.1 btc) and serial number will be random. (Limit of 500 sets)
     This can apply for gilting issues, scratches, or (milk) spotting

3) The silver/gilt card can be sent to Ballet and they have a safe process to remove the gilt and then return the card.

4) Alternatively, they can instruct the user to a DIY process to remove the gilt as in Option 3. This way the cards do not need to be shipped.


If there are any questions, comments, or concerns, please PM me.

Thank you.

Orders have shipped. Domestic packages should be there mid-week hopefully


And a message from Bobby:

For people receiving the PURE Series, you can remind them to upgrade the Ballet Crypto app to version 1.15.3 (or later) in order to scan and add the PURE Series cards.

All lots closed

winners: https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.56760030

Thank you for all the bids

lot 2: 0.0165BTC
lot 8: 0.0165BTC

Lot 2: 0.016BTC
Lot 8: 0.016BTC
Lot 9: 0.016BTC