I just hope you guys that got burned on this can start to see what some of us saw from the beginning.
They may have had an ok reputation for shipping miners (although I've read some bad reports after the fact) but hopefully everyone learns to stay away from cloud mining. All of the reasons for someone to run a legit cloud mining service are reasons for you to not purchase cloud mining. If you really think that they are wrong about the way difficulty is going to move and you can make money from them, at least make sure that the miners exist. Pictures, video, signed addresses, and proof that fresh coins are being paid out are all very easy to do, and there is zero reason for a legitimate business to refuse to do that.
I agree and disagree on this. I agree about any NON-asic manufacturer. The math just doesn't add up.
The one major reason to run a cloud mining service can be seen somewhere like Hashnest. Bitmain sells ASICs, but knows full well that a massive number of people simply won't order when the cost of shipping can add an extra 50% on to the price tag, sometimes more - and there's still a possibility customs can be assholes. If your main business is selling ASICs but folks won't buy them because of shipping concerns, then you're not making any money. Providing a hosting option makes sense to alleviate that concern, and allows you to charge a premium (like they're doing with the S5s). PLUS (if tax works anything like it does in the US) you get to amortize the gear at the end of its lifecycle, which you couldn't do if you were shipping a physical product to the end user.
So I think that it is a totally reasonable business model when certain conditions are met.