Anyone who thinks BFL is cheating people for doing this looks pretty stupid. The issue is not arguable. The facts are:
1. At the time of ordering (at least on my order in September 2012, and everyone after), the prices were in USD. You had an option TO PAY in bitcoins, but that price was ALWAY in USD. They sold their product in USD.. that is not arguable.
2. As you have the option to pay in bitcoins, that price was never a fixed one. You had to pay the current USD price in bitcoins and it always changed. 3 months ago in January, bitcoins were at the 13$ mark or so. When you ordered, if you paid in bitcoins you had to pay the market price of USD. It means you would have had to pay about 100 bitcoins at the time for a Single. Last month, when bitcoins were at nearing 100$, if you ordered a Single, you would have had to pay about 50. No one denied this or brought it up for debate since the products started selling last year.
3. If the price of bitcoins would have gone down to 4$ a bitcoin, would a person who paid "13$ a bitcoin" price be expected to only get 100 bitcoins back at 4$ a bitcoin? This is what is making so many people look like fools. Turn the scenario around and you actually see a clear picture. It is safe to say EVERYONE would be complaining (and may be suing) about receiving 400$ worth of bitcoins back for something they spent 1300$ worth of bitcoins for
So why was no one bitching at them for charging someone 58 bitcoins one month for a Single, and a couple of weeks later charging someone else 27 bitcoins? It is an easy answer. The people with even half a brain understand this. It is the people with such a hatred for BFL that they go to the ends of the earth finding every little thing to bitch about that they lose their minds. Many of those people seem to be people who have never ordered a product in the first place.
Does it suck that the people who DID order do not have their bitcoins to invest and make more off of? Of course, but THEY chose to do that. Lots of them actually used purchased bitcoins, or paid right from paypal, so they could have had that USD to put in an account, play the stock market, flip a house, or any other type of investments. It's not just people who paid in bitcoins, but people ho paid in general and could have had that money to make more money. It always sucks. If you want to complain, complain about that.
Anyone who thought they would get refunded in bitcoins is a damn fool. Let me play out another scenario assuming they WOULD return in bitcoins...
I pay 260 bitcoins last year for a single. I wait till bitcoins make a MAJOR jump in price and then issue a refund. Hell, I could order 20 devices knowing I would never let them ship, and then issue a refund whenever it is profitable for me.
For all the BFL haters.. it's not like I don't agree, but put your damn thinking caps on though. Go back to complaining that they haven't shipped, or that they STILL could be scam. It's old, tired, but still a legitimate problem. Every time I see one of the typical trolls complaining about not getting paid back in original bitcoins, they look desperate and grasping at straws..
Does it suck that
It is fine that BFL buys out their investors in dollars.
The fact remains: people who invested $30K in BFL back in Oct would instead have $800K now had they simply kept or bought BTC.
They would have an even bigger pile of money if they had chosen Avalon.
Maybe one day BFL will ship something. They could afford to buy and re-brand Avalons and keep the rest of their pile.