Never woudl have thought they'd actually take the time to answer, but seems the letter the HK CC sent did make it to BA offices. This is what they sent back:
Quote
Dear Sir/Madam,
We confirm that we have acknowledged your letter on 24/11/2014
For your further reference to the text below, please find attached:
1. The terms and conditions read, approved and signed by our customers
2. The news was made available to our customers on our website at this link: https://www.blackarrowsoftware.com/support/index.php?/News/List
I would like to highlight that we have informed our customers very clearly at the moment of order that:
1. X1, X3 and Rent-A-Minion is a pre-order for an equipment made-to-order
2. No refunds can be issued.
11.3 The Purchaser understands and agrees that we will use his payment in order to purchase the necessary materials or pay workmanship required to fulfil his pre-order which will be non-refundable if cancelled. For this reason, the purchaser hereby gives us the right and agrees with our decision to decline any requests from him or third parties to cancel his pre-order.
3. Delivery date is for informational purposes. The reason was only because delays are possible because, the product is in development and unfortunately, problems sometime appear during this process:
9.1 The Products are delivered to the delivery address specified by the Purchaser, unless otherwise agreed. The delivery date is provided for information purposes only and shall not be binding on Us. The Purchaser is not entitled to refuse acceptance of the Products, withdraw, cancel or revoke the order or make claims for compensation due to any delayed delivery.
The customers have read and agreed with this contract at the moment of placing the order.
We have never made false publicity nor provided false information. The date supplied was based on our best estimation at that time. We have informed the customers very clearly that this is a pre-order, the date is for information purposes only and we will be spending their money to manufacture their order and no refund can be issued after the order is put into production.
The contract was very reasonable and we have merely passed on the contract conditions from our vendors to the customer. Without these conditions it would have been impossible for us to put their order into production because no Silicon Foundry and no ASIC designer would have manufactured the Bitcoin ASIC required for this miner. No Foundry refunds a wafer already started. No engineer or engineering company will refund for the work that they have already done especially if it is up to the specifications. We offered our customers a reasonable interval (15 days) to cancel their pre-order, and we have kept the customers updated all the time with our progress through the website ( http://www.blackarrowsoftware.com/store/index.php?dispatch=news.list ). Due to NDA we cannot quote the exact terms of our suppliers but we assure you that they were harsher than the terms that we have passed onto our customers: Our vendor’s terms stated that if we cancel the contract we would have had to pay fines for wasting their time. Note that all the other vendors (other chips, power supply, heat sinks, case, fans etc) required at least of 50% payment in advance and the rest on deliver and they are non-refundable.
The reason why we stopped shipping in Nov is that it been brought to our attention by few customers that the miners failed during hashing. We have organized the PCB manufacturers, SMT factories, IC suppliers and assembly factories to review and analyse the problem. In early Dec we found out the reason and immediately started with testing. After verifying the improvement, we began to replace the hash boards for the delivered miners. On 08/12/2014, we sent notices to all customers who have not received the Products to push for the confirmation on address, telephone number for shipment purpose. And in the end of Dec, we finished all the productions for pending orders. Considering the freight fee and power fee in different countries, we have proposed 2 options to customer, i.e, shipment or hosting. Now every day we check the replies from the tickets and arrange shipment once if any confirmation from the customer is received.
We believe that most of the customers are looking for a refund because now they see no profit in a miner. However, please note that we have never sold our miners as an investment service. We have sold them as Bitcoin miners which can hash at a certain speed. We have exceeded those specifications therefore we are delivering a better product than promised.
Regarding all complaints, we believe that we have explained above the reason of the delay and why we cannot provide a refund.
Regarding customer’s comments on order 2901:
We sent mail to all the customers who have not received the Products for confirmation on address, telephone number on 08/12/2014, yet no reply has been received up to now. We will continue with the efforts to push for the customer’s reply.
Black Arrow Information Technology (Shenzhen) Limited
Room 03, 5A Floor, Building A, HuangduguangchangYitian Road, Futian District
Shenzhen, Guangdong, P. R. China
Postcode: 518048
We confirm that we have acknowledged your letter on 24/11/2014
For your further reference to the text below, please find attached:
1. The terms and conditions read, approved and signed by our customers
2. The news was made available to our customers on our website at this link: https://www.blackarrowsoftware.com/support/index.php?/News/List
I would like to highlight that we have informed our customers very clearly at the moment of order that:
1. X1, X3 and Rent-A-Minion is a pre-order for an equipment made-to-order
2. No refunds can be issued.
11.3 The Purchaser understands and agrees that we will use his payment in order to purchase the necessary materials or pay workmanship required to fulfil his pre-order which will be non-refundable if cancelled. For this reason, the purchaser hereby gives us the right and agrees with our decision to decline any requests from him or third parties to cancel his pre-order.
3. Delivery date is for informational purposes. The reason was only because delays are possible because, the product is in development and unfortunately, problems sometime appear during this process:
9.1 The Products are delivered to the delivery address specified by the Purchaser, unless otherwise agreed. The delivery date is provided for information purposes only and shall not be binding on Us. The Purchaser is not entitled to refuse acceptance of the Products, withdraw, cancel or revoke the order or make claims for compensation due to any delayed delivery.
The customers have read and agreed with this contract at the moment of placing the order.
We have never made false publicity nor provided false information. The date supplied was based on our best estimation at that time. We have informed the customers very clearly that this is a pre-order, the date is for information purposes only and we will be spending their money to manufacture their order and no refund can be issued after the order is put into production.
The contract was very reasonable and we have merely passed on the contract conditions from our vendors to the customer. Without these conditions it would have been impossible for us to put their order into production because no Silicon Foundry and no ASIC designer would have manufactured the Bitcoin ASIC required for this miner. No Foundry refunds a wafer already started. No engineer or engineering company will refund for the work that they have already done especially if it is up to the specifications. We offered our customers a reasonable interval (15 days) to cancel their pre-order, and we have kept the customers updated all the time with our progress through the website ( http://www.blackarrowsoftware.com/store/index.php?dispatch=news.list ). Due to NDA we cannot quote the exact terms of our suppliers but we assure you that they were harsher than the terms that we have passed onto our customers: Our vendor’s terms stated that if we cancel the contract we would have had to pay fines for wasting their time. Note that all the other vendors (other chips, power supply, heat sinks, case, fans etc) required at least of 50% payment in advance and the rest on deliver and they are non-refundable.
The reason why we stopped shipping in Nov is that it been brought to our attention by few customers that the miners failed during hashing. We have organized the PCB manufacturers, SMT factories, IC suppliers and assembly factories to review and analyse the problem. In early Dec we found out the reason and immediately started with testing. After verifying the improvement, we began to replace the hash boards for the delivered miners. On 08/12/2014, we sent notices to all customers who have not received the Products to push for the confirmation on address, telephone number for shipment purpose. And in the end of Dec, we finished all the productions for pending orders. Considering the freight fee and power fee in different countries, we have proposed 2 options to customer, i.e, shipment or hosting. Now every day we check the replies from the tickets and arrange shipment once if any confirmation from the customer is received.
We believe that most of the customers are looking for a refund because now they see no profit in a miner. However, please note that we have never sold our miners as an investment service. We have sold them as Bitcoin miners which can hash at a certain speed. We have exceeded those specifications therefore we are delivering a better product than promised.
Regarding all complaints, we believe that we have explained above the reason of the delay and why we cannot provide a refund.
Regarding customer’s comments on order 2901:
We sent mail to all the customers who have not received the Products for confirmation on address, telephone number on 08/12/2014, yet no reply has been received up to now. We will continue with the efforts to push for the customer’s reply.
Black Arrow Information Technology (Shenzhen) Limited
Room 03, 5A Floor, Building A, HuangduguangchangYitian Road, Futian District
Shenzhen, Guangdong, P. R. China
Postcode: 518048
I know this will probably turn into a game of walls-of-text pingpong but I'm currently working an answer to send back to the HKCC. If you have any things you'd suggest including, feel free to post or pm them!
Cheers,
J
