I just got a reply from BFL:
Peter,
We estimate the bulk of the pre-orders will be shipped by the end of September. We are not granting refunds at this time. That is all I am able to share with you at this time.
Regards,
name (censored)
BF Labs, Inc.
What a bullshit. They spent four months producing two weeks worth of orders. Now they somehow magically do 25-times more orders in just one month, e.g. 1/4th of the time? That would be possible only if the units are already produced, but instead of being shipped, has been hashing secretly for someone else.
Common sense would dictate sheer volume of orders once they opened it up. But unfortunately, common sense is not common on this forum. The hashing argument is one of the old standbys, debunked time and again, yet it still rears it's ugly head. Listen to K9 sometime... BFL is DAMN LUCKY to have 80TH on the network, and counting 150TH of Avalon chips he admits "Right now, all that I am aware of is the chips
supposedly left Yifu's hands but never arrived in the customers". But that 150TH drops BFL down to like 30TH on the network. So by k9's theories alone you are mistaken about BFL hashing with customer rigs.