Calling KnC out on several fronts, from KnC's discussion board:
In another thread, Kurt of KnC posted:
"Hi Everyone,
It is our highest priority that our customer's are satisfied with the outcome of their Neptune purchases, if our customers are not satisfied, we do not have repeat business. We are currently the most respected and trustworthy ASIC company on the market, we aim to keep our reputation as this is what makes us unique in this business.
As we come closer to the end of the production period, we will start having more frequent updates to share, but for now we are on track and continuing as planned."
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With the difficulty rising so much so quickly recently, satisfying Neptune customers for their purchases in my view would require this:
... for each Neptune purchased, the customer will receive two - a 2 for 1 deal - and a bit more, detailed below.
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KnC building a data center to house 28nm technology in order to provide the idea floated as "plan B" in my view may or may not be a good idea, but it's not proven to be a good idea yet. What has been noticed by customers and written about on this board and on bitcointalk is a massive amount of hashing power added to the network at regular intervals. If this is attributable to KnC bringing online row after row of this new data center's 28nm technology hasn't been proven one way or the other, but to many this new data center is the most likely suspect. Why? The pattern does not fit hundreds to thousands of purchasers of other manufacturer's equipment bringing online their mining equipment as it's received, but it does fit nicely according to reasonable calculations with another row in this new data center (in "Nodpole" not far from where facebook has a facility) being brought online.
Now about "plan B". My problem with "plan B" are the words "free" and "conversion" in the sentence "In the addition to this commitment, as part of Plan B, for all Neptune customers, we will be offering a free conversion to a hosted hashing package where we will simply fill your wallets directly and you won’t have to worry about anything else." from KnC's February 4, 2014 News Letter (
https://www.kncminer.com/news/news-75 ). First of all, it's NOT FREE, as Neptune customers we've all paid well over $10,000 in USD or equivalent BTC for each Neptune. To me that's **not** "free". Second is the word "conversion" that I'm taking to mean I would have to convert my paid for purchase of a physically delivered piece of equipment to a hosted contract, and one that's of limited term at that (6 months). If you purchased an early "customer appreciation" batch Neptune and a later "batch 1" Neptune, it makes your "free" hosted mining contract cost over **$3,000 per month**. THAT'S NOT FREE KnC... not free at all. An additional problem with the proposed "plan B" is that Neptune purchasers would it seems receive no benefit of performance increases due do design improvements resulting in increased hashing power of the miners, i.e. the 11% power reduction and designer's decision to pack in more cores per asic chip as a benefit.
If KnC were to offer a hosted mining contract for each Neptune purchased **at no charge** while Neptune customers wait for physical delivery at the first offered 3TH/s rate of the Neptune, as advertised, and that free hosting mining contract expired upon receipt by the customer of their Neptune, as each is received, that would I imagine very much satisfy KnC Neptune purchase customers and result in additional future purchases. That hashing power from the hosted mining contract should not then be added back in to the network for a period of time, so as to not compete with the Neptune purchasers which would further reduce their return on investment, minimum 6 months non-compete period suggested.
If Neptune purchasers have to surrender all prospect of getting physical delivery and performance increases from design improvements for a hosted mining contract that lasts only 6 months, at a time where 3TH/s because of the difficulty will not produce anywhere near what's required for the purchaser to even earn back their purchase cost, then count this customer OUT, as I'll get a refund and spend my money elsewhere. Others have already made that decision and gotten refunds. I'm waiting for KnC to do the right thing by its customers and make sure they do get satisfaction for their money and invested time in KnC's products. There is after all a time value to money and opportunity costs to consider.
So that's it KnC, protect your customer's investment in your business capabilities by delivering enough hashing power for our purchases to protect our investment in your products and your reputation. Protect our investment in you, the people that make up KnC, by compensating us for delays in production with hashing power provided by this new data center and SET A DATE by which we can determine when this will start. Asking your customers to blindly sit by for month after month with no possibility to plan for their own requirements to house and operate the equipment they've purchased and paid for isn't respectful of your customers, who still have to purchase power supplies and possibly electrical work in their planned installations.
You want future customers? Then respect the ones you have now. Otherwise you're likely to not have any in the future. That by the way includes purchasers of Saturn and Jupiter equipment that were promised upgrade modules then were told it won't happen. That's just not the way to respect your customers, period.