I find this situation fascinating from a psychological perspective.
If someone repeatedly lies to you, why would you suddenly think that lie #19, lie #23, or lie #58 might actually be true? What makes you think that this time they are telling the truth, as opposed to the previous 30 or 40 or 50 lies?
This company has proven that they can not be considered honest and trustworthy. At least to anyone who has done more than 30 minutes of research on the forums here.
Fascinating situation...
Broken analog watches tell the correct time twice a day.
Both of these comments are comparing apples to oranges..
This situation is more like "When your meth addicted friends tells you on a monthly basis that he "is clean now" and "I'm never going to touch that stuff again". It may be true at the time... and it may be his/her intention. But after the 4th, 5th, 20th time they do it, you just nod your head and say "Good for you" all the while not really believing that this will be the reality.
..The people who did not order BFL, or cancelled their orders are the people who don't really have a relationship with that person, and say in a very blunt way "whatever, you'll fall off the wagon soon enough", and even at times would rather see them fail so they won't have to deal with seeing them later on. The people who do have orders with BFL are like the friends or family of that person. They don't really believe it will happen, or believe in the timing, but only hope that one day what they say comes true.
I personally think the company doesn't really plan for the setbacks, and when given an expectation by a vendor (say 1-2 weeks), they tell their customer base "1 WEEK!". By now it is at the 7-8 month mark, but they are still going.
The way I figure it is, if the company was a true scam, they would have taken the money already and moved on to a new scam. This is beyond the meaning of "long con". The only thing that will tell is time. I could see a possibility that they take too long, and only a handful of people getting these devices while they are still profitable. That would be my personal opinion of a "worst case scenario". At that point either they can get back several returns until they file bankruptcy, and at that point, everyone looses their money that still have not received their product. Best case scenario is within the next 2 weeks they get anywhere CLOSE to shipping out to their reported amount of 400 per day. I have this sneaking suspicion that the reality will probably somewhere in between.
It could be a more advanced long con. Their CEO or whatever is a convicted con man, and spent time in prison for fraud. It's possible that he has learned from his mistakes, meaning he is now a "better" con artist. The "best" con men tend not to go to jail because they operate inside the law as much as possible.
Here's an example... Let's say Sonny is drawing a huge salary and one day BFL announces that their venture has failed and that they are declaring bankruptcy. It's clear where the money went - right into Sonny's bank account. What did he do illegal? Will they be able to put him in jail?
Laissez Faire City was a long con led by Sonny's Daddy-O. Did they stop taking money after reaching a certain dollar mark? No! For there were many more marks to be had. Hell, James Ray Houston turned his back when all the chips fell on his lap to start operating LFCity as the founders envisioned it, knowing that more moneys would go into his coffers via the way he was doing things, all the while with Sonny Boy at his side.
The day BFL is no longer able to maintain the ruse, thus becoming less profitable FOR THEM, the doors will be closed. I predict that Jody will retire shortly before the announcement, if there is one, and that Josh, a few pounds lighter due to ?, will be stating in no uncertain terms that he was left in the dark the entire time.
Here's the kicker: Josh will probably be the one in charge of liquidating the assets alongside some lawyer handpicked by Sonny's cousin the lawyer.
And I'm sure it's going to happen just prior to their first require corporate reporting to the state/IRS. Can you even imagine what their books look like?