For the past 12 months I have been studying up on crypto-currencies, especially bitcoin. And once I gained enough knowledge I decided to start mining bitcoin. My plan was to start with a small number of machines, and try to build up from there. So I purchased 16 Antminer S9’s, and built my mine. I have quite a lot of experience in IT networking so setting up a quality network was not an issue, and my business partner has the electrical experience to wire up our power needs. We also studied up on the air requirements, and designed a hot- aisle cold-aisle system, as well as figured out the best make-up air including the appropriate air pressures that would best serve the machines.
In my opinion, we setup an optimal environment for the machines to have a long life span, but the result was something quite different. Within a 2 week period of operations 16 out of 48 hash boards had died, and another 3 a couple of weeks later.
So I went through the warranty process with Bitmain, and the experience was a disaster. Not only did I have to pay for shipping to Hong Kong, but once Bitmain had tested the hash boards and decided that they were indeed faulty, they then sent us 16 used hash boards. I mean these hash boards had serious signs of deterioration, I thought I was being punked for sure, there were burn marks, significant build ups of dust and dirt, and really just awful all over. I sent them near new faulty hash boards, and they sent me years old pieces of trash that I admit did work, but many of which have died since, and not long after going back into operation.
Bitmain is the type of company that will sell you a faulty product to begin with, and replace it with used second hand equipment, from their own mine no doubt. But what’s amazing is that they think there is nothing wrong with that. In most western countries if you return a faulty product, the company will either repair it, or replace it with a new part. This whole experience just highlights the stark difference between the values of the west and east.
So in the end I won’t recoup all of my initial investment let alone make a profit with the machines, but it turns out that I’ve made money trading the mining rewards I have received, plus I’ve moved over into mining Dash instead, they are much better machines, and a much better crypto-currency as well. But a warning to anyone thinking about doing business with Bitmain, don’t! They will take your money gladly, and they'll even send you the machines, but you have no guarantee that the machines aren't faulty in the first place, and an absolute certainty that you'll get given crap in replacement of broken equipment. So just don’t expect them to have any basic sense of western business ethics or values.
I have also realized that many of the companies I have dealt with in China, but Bitmain especially, can be really quite arrogant. So don’t expect to be treated like an actual customer, expect something more along the lines of we’ll take your money, and then treat you like crap afterwards if you have any problems, much like an insurance company.
Oh, and if you happen to ignore my advice and end up speaking to a support person by the name of Quentin down the road somewhere, then I’m afraid you have reached the asshole that insurance companies usually throw at you when you make a claim. So best of luck with your endeavors either way!
That really sucks... I know BITMAIN hasn't been the most consistent in quality. 2\12 S9's have failed on me over the course of 12 months and required repair, each unit required repairs to 1 hashboard so i understand that yeah quality can be improved. However, I am thinking that maybe this is because of initial quality issues back when the S9 was relatively new? The units that have given me trouble are from batch 4-12. All units purchased after that have run perfectly.
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