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Topic: Ended CardReaderFactory Lancelot Group Purchase due to Seller Business Practice - page 2. (Read 7673 times)

legendary
Activity: 1596
Merit: 1010
They mailed at first saying they have 50 units in stock, and asking for a fast payment if i wanted shipment this batch.

i asked them about my preorder, to ask if i can change from bitcoin to western union payment because it'ld be a lot faster atm (need to wire transfer for btc)

their reply is : we already ran out of units, don't send payment now.

So in less than 24 hours they actually sold 50 of these?

I smell big BS.
member
Activity: 73
Merit: 10
I'm ending the group purchase due to blackarrow / cardreaderfactory's business practices in this matter. It makes no sense to start collecting payment from members when our order is going to have negative priority in being processed due to desiring escrow services.

Thanks for vigilance man, at least we all still have our coin!  Grin

-J
hero member
Activity: 672
Merit: 500
I'm ending the group purchase due to ...
I agree, Beaflag.

Thank you for your efforts even though they ultimately proved to be fruitless. (Please don't misunderstand, clearly through no fault of yours.)

Seriously. Good look beaflag

Danny
sr. member
Activity: 476
Merit: 250
I'm ending the group purchase due to ...
I agree, Beaflag.

Thank you for your efforts even though they ultimately proved to be fruitless. (Please don't misunderstand, clearly through no fault of yours.)
sr. member
Activity: 247
Merit: 250
that is disappointing. You'd think they'd want our business

Obviously not.

just makes me think it is a scam Smiley
sr. member
Activity: 472
Merit: 250
that is disappointing. You'd think they'd want our business

Obviously not.
sr. member
Activity: 247
Merit: 250
that is disappointing. You'd think they'd want our business
sr. member
Activity: 472
Merit: 250
I'm ending the group purchase due to blackarrow / cardreaderfactory's business practices in this matter. It makes no sense to start collecting payment from members when our order is going to have negative priority in being processed due to desiring escrow services.
newbie
Activity: 35
Merit: 0
Dat Boosheet!

Well, as a manufacturer/retailer myself, I understand the realities of getting parts--especially parts that are not made by mutliple sources (I try to avoid selling products that have this problem).  But at the same time, he should have confirmed that he could get the required parts before offering his product. 

Alternatively, he should have warned us that he had this potential issue in his supply chain.
legendary
Activity: 2800
Merit: 1012
Get Paid Crypto To Walk or Drive
dang that really sucks, I was getting really excited for these.  But that sounds very sketchy to me.  Oh well...
hero member
Activity: 672
Merit: 500
Pretty much man.. Sucks, was looking forward to this group buy..

I guess its back to the BFL waiting game haha

- Danny
sr. member
Activity: 472
Merit: 250
Updates:

https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.2048750
Dear Customers,

We've based our offer on a IC supplier that promised us a certain price for any quantity with immediate supply. When we've placed the order with them (immediately after receiving the first orders), they gave us few FPGAs and asked us to wait 8 weeks if we want more. Since then we have continued to look for the FPGAs.

Today we've only been able to get enough FPGAs for 50 boards (from another supplier) but this is not enough to clear our backorders. We'll put these in production tomorrow and should ship by Friday.

Meanwhile it looks that we've asked every company in Shenzhen for these FPGA. Most of them are indirect re-sellers but they did not told us this upfront. What happened was that they started to ask between themselves and they got the impression that the demand is higher than it actually is. For this reason they've upped the price by 30-45% which makes it impossible for us to sell them with the discounted price of $275/pcs. We are still looking for the parts but it appears that the only certain way to get them is to place an order from Xilinx which will take 8 weeks.

Would anybody be willing to wait 8 weeks if we can sell at $275?

We have now put the Lancelot devices "Out of Stock" on our website and will not take any more orders until we can clear the backlog and find a proper supplier.

If anybody can supply us with the following ICs, we would be very grateful. Please send me a private message if you can get them within few days.

XC6SLX150-3NFGG484C   
XC6SLX150-3NFGG484I   
XC6SLX150-3FGG484C   
XC6SLX150-3FGG484I
XC6SLX150-2FGG484C
XC6SLX150-2FGG484I

Regards!

and,

https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.2050341
Just a quick update. We're sending everybody who've placed orders and have not yet paid this message. We think it is the fairest thing to do right now. We welcome useful suggestions.


We have an update for your order:

We will have in stock 50 x Lancelot devices on Friday but this is not enough to complete all our backlog. For this reason you might not get the order in time.

You can now pay your order but if you do so you agree to the following conditions:

We will ship the orders on first paid, first shipped basis.

If we've sold all the above stock and you have not paid by then, we will put your order status back on "Backordered"
If your payment arrives after we've sold this stock you can ask for a refund immediatelly (you will cover all the refund or exchange fees where aplicable - none for Bitcoin) or you can let us know by next Monday how long you are willing to wait for your order to be shipped. Based on this information we will organize our parts order to ensure that we can fulfill your order.
Once you've commited to a shipping date, and we've accepted it, your refund will be available only after that date if we fail to ship it.
Although we accept escrow payments we will favorize all other payment methods but escrow. This means that if you choose to pay with bitcoin escrow, you will only receive your order once we've cleared our backlog of all other orders paid through different payment methods.
Your order is on hold as we are waiting for the payment.

My Response:

This doesn't seem shady to anyone? Nevermind, what we said before about escrow services, please pay us now to receive your order eventually. When, we can't tell you, but we'll let you know.

As the organizer of a 163 unit order, paying customers would constantly bump our large order to the end of the line because we are requesting escrow service. Receiving inadequate stock of xilinx units as infrequent as 50 at a time with no certain time line for more, guarantees never being able to supply the units in a timely manner. Paying orders would stack up ahead of us faster than they can send them out the door due to inadequate stock of xilinx units. Combine those two factors and we'd end up waiting at absolute minimum a month to receive units and possibly longer.

He also refuses to answer my question about escrow suggesting I should fly to China to pickup and pay for the units:

We will cover the 2% fee. If that is acceptable to you I will place the order upon your response for the units.

Wouldn't it be more convenient if you would fly here to pick them up?  You could pay here in Cash, test them, avoid paying 600-900usd in escrow, customs taxes and DHL fees.

We cannot declare very low value for customs as we will need to insure them for the full value.

Regards!

Let me know how you feel about this. I believe this basically makes our purchase worthless unless they magically get 300+ xilinx units in tomorrow.
sr. member
Activity: 476
Merit: 250
Please ...
Fixed. Pasted from our pm conversation. Waiting on blackarrow's confirmation of stock and John K.
Thank you.
sr. member
Activity: 472
Merit: 250
...
All we are waiting on is for blackarrow to confirm John K. as an acceptable escrow agent and I will place the order for the units.
Not quite. Also still need blackarrow to affirm product availability. (Unless he has already done this in private conversation with you. If so, the statement needs to become public.)

All I've seen recently is that he is still working on procuring sufficient chips to actually build more boards.

Please get some specificity as to blackarrow's actual ability to deliver in xx time frame prior to placing the order.

Fixed. Pasted from our pm conversation. Waiting on blackarrow's confirmation of stock and John K.
sr. member
Activity: 476
Merit: 250
...
All we are waiting on is for blackarrow to confirm John K. as an acceptable escrow agent and I will place the order for the units.
Not quite. Also still need blackarrow to affirm product availability. (Unless he has already done this in private conversation with you. If so, the statement needs to become public.)

All I've seen recently is that he is still working on procuring sufficient chips to actually build more boards.

Please get some specificity as to blackarrow's actual ability to deliver in xx time frame prior to placing the order.
sr. member
Activity: 472
Merit: 250
John K. confirms he will perform the BTC group purchase escrow for 2% of the total. That would increase the price per unit $5.50. If that is unacceptable to you personally please pm me, let me know, and we will discuss it.

Here is a group purchase thread he is currently acting as the escrow agent for: https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/asicminer-usb-group-buy-orders-closed-pay-for-extra-195052

Here is a group purchase thread that he has successly acted as the escrow agent for: https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/group-buy1-avalon-asics-chips-using-johnk-as-escrow-finished-177994

All we are waiting on is for blackarrow to confirm John K. as an acceptable escrow agent, confirm acceptable stock, and I will place the order for the units.

Quote from: blackarrow
Please wait few more days before starting collecting payments. We will let you know as soon as we have confirmation from our FPGA supplier then you can start collecting the payments.
sr. member
Activity: 472
Merit: 250
Group purchase closed. Updating the OP and that is it.

Put me in for 4 of this.

Is there an estimate of delivery time?

Adding you and updating the original post with PMs received. This is officially the last units to be added to the group purchase. From the time they ship 2-3 days until they are at my door.
member
Activity: 65
Merit: 10
Put me in for 4 of this.

Is there an estimate of delivery time?
sr. member
Activity: 472
Merit: 250
The group purchase has officially been closed. If you have previously contacted me and are on the fence about ordering this is your last chance.

Depending on when the order will be place I might be good for 1 atm.

Let me know as soon as possible.

I got a reply from blackbarrow, I had asked him a few questions before I knew about the group purchase, saying

"We do accept Bitcoins as payment, even escrow service.
We aim to ship at the end of this week but we'll know for sure on Monday. We are still waiting for our FPGA suppliers hence we cannot be 100% sure that we'll ship everything at the end of the week."

He responded to my PM and I've just sent him a response. We are attempting to work out the details of the escrow services.
full member
Activity: 122
Merit: 100
I got a reply from blackbarrow, I had asked him a few questions before I knew about the group purchase, saying

"We do accept Bitcoins as payment, even escrow service.
We aim to ship at the end of this week but we'll know for sure on Monday. We are still waiting for our FPGA suppliers hence we cannot be 100% sure that we'll ship everything at the end of the week."
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