Topic: Butterfly Labs - Bitforce Single and Mini Rig Box - page 67. (Read 186946 times)

So Anyway.. back on topic.

He did use the word "try". As to whether they have, no, no they have not achieved perfection. Not even close.

LOL. No. They are the best at the illusion of perfection.

i'm sorry, are you saying apple either achieves or approaches perfection?

If you tally the "shipped" numbers in this thread https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=67887.0;all you wind up with 17, unless I miscounted.

The good news is, they have now caught up to shipping singles that were ordered in mid-December. 
The bad news is, someone (gigavps) said that the first batch is sold out. 

So, my guess is they order a second batch now and will receive it in 4 to 6 weeks, then ship it out as fast as they can ship it out, which seems to be one or two per day. 

I have received one with four more arriving tomorrow and another 6 arriving by the weekend.

How many people on here have actually received singles?

Last I heard, the first batch of rig boxes was sold out.

If you took the time to talk with BFL instead of hacking away on your keyboard, you too would realized that the only company that can try to pull of perfection is Apple.

The rest of us just try to muddle through it.

Edited: Sorry, meant to say rig boxes.

I doubt anyone would fork over the 30K to get a Rig Box at this uncertain moment.

They may have delivered for the Singles but people are still complaining about them being very slow with this.

Might still be a long con so stay cautious I would say.

Myself, I eagerly await the moment gigavps got his Single but this time with the Rig Box if possible.

I was describing Apple, actually.

Aaaaaand, finally, we have a succinct summary of BFL's business practices.

Nope, over promise, under deliver, then jack up the price massively for the second gen product while all the people with the first gen products masturbate on their blogs with it

LESSONS LEARNED:

Under promise, over deliver - NOT the other way around. Someone send a note to all those new startups now please.

-BFL lesson: keep fake delivery time online to keep orders/money pouring in.
-buyers lesson: order rigbox asap as their delivery is fucked - it will already take months to get it.

in my opinion announcing is fine, accepting full payment and missing delivery by months then potentially doing the same thing with a second product, while in the same vein, elevates from over-zealous to dishonest.

in short, it comes down to how far behind you fall before you deliver.  bfl's not delivering in quantity their first product, and asking for full payment of a $30k second product still 2months from delivery, is really pushing the line into the dishonest/unethical business practices area.

its one thing to have customers money fund manufacturing ramp up, its another to string them along and have them pay for prototyping, testing and waiting months for the "privilege".

I honestly haven't followed -every- detail. Did they hide their information? (I seem to remember some idiot asking for a bounty for a photo of their ID or something)

I am not sure if you have previous experience with publishing a magazine (not just editing or writing a story or two). If you had, you'd probably added a bit of buffer here and there, or would have vaguely stated "coming in 2012" with the option of releasing it much earlier. Or having no competition at all, you may even have opted to not announce it until you were sure things are properly in place and only a few weeks away.

Lets stick with your business as example to draw parallels to the "matter on hand". If you would have competition, I could see why you would want to claim it's coming in a few weeks. If you wouldn't have money to finance printing and editorial staff, I could also see why you would want your customers to send you money in believe it's coming in a few weeks. If you would have to convince a printing company or other supplier in the background that you are a trustworthy company and hence print or deliver with payment terms (or deliver at all), I would also understand why you would create a web site with "imaginative" products and claim to have a lot of experience and customers in the "scientific" field. And if you would see this all as big stunt that may or may not work out, I can also see why you would hide your identity from the public and not take a personal risk. I'd definitely not want to send you more than a few Bitcoins (as I did, as a matter of fact).

ok, but you don't charge 30k$ for your magazine, that hasn't been printed :-)

On that note, I announced the Bitcoin Magazine before we even had the flatplan figured out. Is that dishonest or just over-zealous?

I'm actually asking. I personally think Butterfly Labs was over-zealous and they've already learned their lesson (as have we btw).