Hey fellas,
Figured I'll give the community a heads-up to protect others.
I'll keep the story short. I'm somewhat new to the "mining game" so I thought I start off with a few used miners that are reasonably profitable.
A few years back I lived in Shanghai so (obviously) I talked to some old friends whats reasonable without dropping big money.
Got a recommendation for some "industrial" miners that were "popular" in chinese mining farms, kind of a copy (china - who wouldve thought they copy lol) of big-names.
Approached a few companies on Alibaba and ended up with "BSI Co.", the rep's name was Bella Zhang. Since its a used product they wanted BTC or WU, which seems fishy but I had them send me over their company credentials and a friend of mine in China checked them out for me.
Did the deal, got strung along 2 weeks with BS excuses for delivery, eventually got sent some 10second videos "proving" the miners work and about a month later actually got the 5 miners sent to the farm I used (much cheaper electricity).
Got an email from the farm asking whether I'm serious - the miners were so dirty and dusty, they were almost concerned about a fire hazard LOL. Ok, great... I apologized, explained and thankfully they cleaned them out for me. So far, so "good".
Miners eventually went online, well 4/5 - one was already broken. Fan wasn't spinning, miner wouldn't boot. Farm-tech was kind enough to slap on a new fan and for a few hours I actually got 5 miners up. Well, almost. One of the five kept turning on and off and the log showed all kinds of nonsensical errors. Farm checked it out. 2/3 small fans for PSU weren't spinning, so they thought PSU overheating, shutting (partially) down and hashboard doesn't have enough juice to power up. Ok, disconnect the miner for now, let me do some research...
Next day... next miner down. Overheating. Farm-tech checked and turns out 1/3 PSU fans also broken. Apparently during nighttime, when ambient is cold (this was in Feb), 2/3 is enough... during daytime, not so much.
So 2 days into the "project" and 2/5 miners busted. Two, maybe three days later... next miner down. "Fan error". Tech checked it out, fan is spinning, but I have the error in the software, so miner wont hash. Great. They can't fix it, they need to ship it back (to me) for repair. OK, no other choice. While they were packing up this miner, the next miner goes down. Exactly the same issue. Cool, pack up both, off they go LOL. This was when TX (farm location) shut down for snowstorm - so the miners are sitting there for a week now. Power got shut down to the farm, no employees there, no Fedex pickup.
A week later, they ship. I receive them. Turns out the fan-connector was loose (pin on the mainboard). I re-solder them, fixed. Good! While checking out the miner, I notice that on both miners one of the small fans is vibrating hard - they're missing blades! Great.
I go on ebay to buy replacements to get those miners up. Receive them, change them. Done. Miners go back to farm - they work now. I included some replacement fans to get that other miner back up. Farm-tech slaps them on, all good. All aside the miner with the broken hashboard. Eventually that miner gets shipped to me (its still sitting behind me) ......... and the board is toasted. Turns out not only the small fans were broken, one of the big fans too, BUT somehow there's a short on the board so the 2nd fan reports both fans as spinning, therefore the miner wouldn't shut off to protect itself.
So - that's the back-story. Pretty effed, right? Great quality control.
Here is where I'm getting pissed a bit. I'm 100% aware I'm buying used, but I'm not OK with buying garbage.
Contacted the rep from Best Source International - I'm not asking for much:
I asked for 8 bucks per small replacement fan that I bought (a total of eight) and 31 bucks for the big fan that I had to replace): 95bucks! ... and asked them to find a replacement board.
Mind you, half the miners where down for a MONTH in total and Fedex-shipping alone cost me 150bucks back and forth!
What does the rep say" Go F yourself. No warranty. "You saw the video. All good. Everything works. If anything is damaged it must be transport".
For a brief second I thought we can figure it out, but then the rep said: "Oh if we refund, bank fees are so high" - I replied, "just send me BTC" ... reply "Oh, we don't have BTC" LOL effin liars.
Gave them several chances to make it right. Too much to ask? 95 bucks and find me a hashboard that probably cost them 50!?
Now they can go f themselves. Disputed charge w bank too!
So... there's nothing wrong with buying used and obviously there are risk. But that's just BS - they don't sell "used" they sell garbage.
DONT BUY FROM THEM. Hundreds of other sourced to buy from. AVOID Best Source International.
Feel free to spread the word on other boards!
Just a few of the defective fans (had to cut the connectors off):
