Reprinted under provisions of the Fair Use Act so that Alpha-T customers banned from their forums can read it:
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https://alpha-t.net/news/development-update-28072014/ )
Greetings Miners!
As you know we are nearing the end of July with no shipping date. We have previously said we believe transparency, even in the case of something negative like a delay, is something customers must know and will only help our companys reputation in the long run.
Oh I think they are well beyond helping their reputation any. Banning customers for asking for more transparency, deleting posts on their forum and employee posted information around the internet that may conflict with what they want to change their terms and conditions to. You don't punch someone in the face and then try to help them up because you think that it will improve your friendship with them. As such we must unfortunately announce that we have had technical issues during tape-out which has caused us to have to do some portion of the ASIC layout one more time thus delaying the chip fabrication. Again, in the interest of transparency, we could have not only started this second tape-out sooner but also fast tracked it and corrected this issue if we were allowed funds from PayPal which they have decided to hold until delivery. We have had to rely on other sources of funding for this which we have achieved, so we are fully funded and tape-out is mid-way now there can be no more delay. In parallel to the tape-out process we have already started our fabrication of the PCBs and enclosures, which we will display in our next update.
So they announced tape-out back in May and waited over 2 full months to let customers know that their first tape-out failed!!!! All the while customers are asking for status and Alpha Tech is tight lipped about everything. How very transparent of them. You can't say you are transparent when you are hiding something for 2 freaking months and then finally publish a statement because you are expected to actually ship in 3 days!!!!
What I like is that over the last several months they have been posted how they are fully funded and have not financial problems. So what does this mean. Were they lying these past few months about being fully funded and how MOST of their customers have paid the remaining 70%. That's the thing about talking from both sides of your mouth. Either statement you commit to still makes you a LIAR!!!In the interest of there being no confusion, July while it was our genuine expectation, is not mentioned in our terms.
Sure after editing the internet for all traces where ALpah Tech employees "GUARANTEED" a july ship date and scrubbing the terms and conditions several times. Of course it is not int he terms and conditions. IN 2 months you know what will NOT be in the terms and conditions. That September ship date. As a result of this we have decided to announce shipping to be September as per our terms, this is something we have learnt we should have done from the start so we can avoid expectations and hopefully only announce good news. We know this news is unpleasant for all rest assured this includes ourselves, we have always tried to do right by you but may have perhaps over promised when we should have been more conservative all we can do now is learn from this mistake.
We should have under promised and overdelivered but that would mean that we would not have gotten as many orders as we did. So we apologize for hooking you with the promises we made and failed to keep. Easily said Alpha Tech after most of your customers are out of the refund window. What do you think would have happened if you said this 2 months ago? You'd be in more funding problems than you are now. That is why to waited to the LAST MINUTE to make this statement.
We are pleased to announce the WebGUI is complete and will be available at launch providing an intuitive way to fully remote control your miners. Follow this link for the Viper instruction manual.
Here are instructions on how to use the vaporware miner we are selling you. You have 2 months to train yourselves to use it. LOL. Don't say we didn't give you anything.While we wait for shipping we want to continue providing details of our Viper up until launch. The Viper system will consist of three types of PCBs:
1. Power Distribution board for distributing power from SMPS (power supply) to individual Scrypt boards (CAD images below):
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2. Scrypt ASIC board This is where all the chips will be mounted along with their power supplies. In order to complete the Scrypt ASIC board design we have had to wait for the final ballmap information from the foundry. Here is a signal pin out diagram of the ASIC that we have designed. Scrypt board design uses this information to correctly connect all the signals:
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3. Controller board- This is where the CGMiner software and the Webgui will run (Carrier board CAD images below):
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Here are some pretty pictures to look at so it looks like we have been busy and not sitting around trying to figure out what we are going to do.
We would also like to take this opportunity to clarify a complaint among some customers with regards to our cancellation policy. We have been very clear and open with our terms of order, it was released as a news update, it is easily available on our website and you are urged to view it on the product page before you order.
If you knew back in May that the guarantees that Fiaz and the Alpha Tech employees were posting about shipping in July were worthless and they would not have been able to make it, would you have asked for a refund then? But they wait until 3 days before the end of July before telling you that they will not ship in July, but they still want you to adhere to their refund policy. Basically the rules to not apply to Alpha Technology but if you are a customer you better get in line or you get banned, deleted, or screwed.As far as if it contradicts with consumer laws; this is not possible as such regulations only apply to consumer products. We can assure you that our legal matters are dealt with by a leading law firm in the UK and our terms of order are completely legal;
And yet they never tell you that "leading law firm"'s name. If all my rights and protections hinged on a single law firm's "opinion" in a brand new industry with few precedence as a customer, wouldn't you want to hear it all from the horse's mouth? All this crap Alpha Tech keeps spouting is hearsay. They keep saying that it is completely legal, but say trust us, its what someone else told us. Well get that someone else to tell us. From all the lies Alpha Tech as been posting all these months why should we believe them about the "leading law firm"?Statement breakdown incoming they were typed up by solicitors who specialize in this area of law. All sales are legally classed as business purchases for many reasons,
MANY REASONS but we have only told you about one and only one. If Alpha Tech had many reasons they would have been rattling all of them off but they keep hitchign their wagon to the one MHRC guideline. They have never deviated from that. They have put all their eggs in that one basket. I call bull#$%t on the MANY reasons as they have never provided any other reason. one being that the hardware we are selling can only be used for mining cryptocurrencies
Agreed the hardware being sold only mines cryptocurrencies. Or solves algorithmic mathematical problems because fundamentally that is what these products do. It just so happens that the scrypt coin networks use that algorithm as a proof of work for building a ledger.Statement FAIL in 3... 2... 1...I love grammar. This is what lawyers thrive on. Notice the word A. which is legally A business practice and taxable activity. A business practice. They did not add the word ONLY in front of that A. They just said A. They just left that statement hanging. IF you read that statement as all inclusive you would have been left with believing that HMRC says that mining is a business taxable activity. But its all about what Alpha Technology LEFT OUT OF THE STATEMENT. Let me show you...the hardware we are selling can only be used for mining cryptocurrencies, [PAUSE] which is legally A business practice AND an individual practice and a taxable activity according to HMRC.You see HMRC made the following statement for those that can't be bothers to ready the HMRC guidelineGains and losses incurred on Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies are chargeable or allowable for Capital Gains Tax if they accrue to an individual or, for Corporation Tax on chargeable gains if they accrue to a company.Notice who they identify first in that statement. Individuals. Notice what it is followed up by the word... OR. So the law is for individuals first or if you happen to be a company yet you count too.
Alpha Technology is hoping that you do NOT fight them on this. Do you know why. If you don't they then you accept that they have labelled you a corporation. You are complicit because you did not say hey, I'm NOT a corporation and this is NOT for business use. Because then you are a consumer and protected by consumer law. If you let Alpha Technology decide you are a company then you are screwed because you let them decide. But if you say you are not then now the burden of proof is on Alpha Technology. Now they have to prove that your are a company. That they have your business id on file. Your company name and all the documents validating you as a business. If they don't have that then it doesn't count.
Everyone that thinks they have lost their 30% down payment of full payment, that is simply not true. If you say you are a consumer you are a consumer and you get 100% of your money back if you are not happy. Distance Selling Regulations.
The rest of this letter is just blah blah blah we have been so kind to you our customer and we having given you everything and you shouldn't be asking for more you ungrateful... ehem. We told you minimum 25MH/s That is all your getting. I bet if they found that they could edit the terms some more they would drop the hashrates back down to the first guarantee.We also want to remind you we have increased the hash rate of these devices from what we were obligated to deliver by 10 fold at our expense, our terms only state minimum 25 Mh/s. We saw we had the capability do it and made a decision to put customers first in order to gain their loyalty for future batches. We must also remind you of the benefits of being a batch 1 customer, you will receive free shipping for batch 2 and a 10% discount off any future batch of your choice (we hope to avoid pre-orders for future batches).
Kind Regards,
Mohammed Akram
Managing Director
