After reading all the posts in here... jesus christ my head. Bitcoinorama and a few others seems to be the only ones with the most common sense in this thread.
The refund offer, is the oldest trick in the book. Seriously. Offer one guy a refund. Give it to him if he asks for it. And then that guy will confirm with everyone else, "oh yeah they gave me back my money. They're legit guys". And now hundreds more start placing their orders, thinking they can also just get a refund anytime.
They've already gotten at least $150K. Scarifying a few hundreds to lure in potentially thousands more is just a smart move on their part. This move works even better if the customer is a hi-rep bitcointalk member.
My advice to everyone: WAIT FOR SOLID PROOF before ordering. You lose little to nothing by waiting.
But probably my words and others will have little to no effect on those who really want to order. Greed, stupidity and fear is just
that powerful.
Three great forces rule the world: stupidity, fear and greed. --Albert Einstein
Even better for them than refunds would be to send a couple of beta, working ASICs out, then reap in the orders that follow without ever delivering them...oh wait, that's already been done.
