_david_

From an accounting standpoint, the situation is very different for a second hand buyer. You're not asking for a refund. You're essentially asking for us to purchase the bag bag from you. It's much more complicated. 
 
For that reason, the warranty is transferable, but a refund on the product is not. 
 
As support laid out, if it ever naturally fails due to the missing second layer, we would be happy to get you taken care of in accordance with our upgraded warranty policy for this product. 
 
Contrary to your post we never said you can't contact support again. We just aren't going to give you a different answer about this specific issue if you aren't able to get in touch with the original purchaser. 
 
For them, we could process a refund, because it would be a refund. You'd have to sort out the money with them from there. 
 
Hope this helps clear things up. 

There won't be a big WAN Show segment about this or anything. Most of what I have to say, I've already said, and I've done so privately.

To Steve, I expressed my disappointment that he didn't go through proper journalistic practices in creating this piece. He has my email and number (along with numerous other members of our team) and could have asked me for context that may have proven to be valuable (like the fact that we didn't 'sell' the monoblock, but rather auctioned it for charity due to a miscommunication... AND the fact that while we haven't sent payment yet, we have already agreed to compensate Billet Labs for the cost of their prototype). There are other issues, but I've told him that I won't be drawn into a public sniping match over this and that I'll be continuing to move forward in good faith as part of 'Team Media'. When/if he's ready to do so again I'll be ready.

To my team (and my CEO's team, but realistically I was at the helm for all of these errors, so I need to own it), I stressed the importance of diligence in our work because there are so many eyes on us. We are going through some growing pains - we've been very public about them in the interest of transparency - and it's clear we have some work to do on internal processes and communication. We have already been doing a lot of work internally to clean up our processes, but these things take time. Rome wasn't built in a day, but that's no excuse for sloppiness.

Now, for my community, all I can say is the same things I always say. We know that we're not perfect. We wear our imperfection on our sleeves in the interest of ensuring that we stay accountable to you. But it's sad and unfortunate when this transparency gets warped into a bad thing. The Labs team is hard at work hard creating processes and tools to generate data that will benefit all consumers - a work in progress that is very much not done and that we've communicated needs to be treated as such. Do we have notes under some videos? Yes. Is it because we are striving for transparency/improvement? Yeah... What we're doing hasn't been in many years, if ever.. and we would make a much larger correction if the circumstances merited it. Listing the wrong amount of cache on a table for a CPU review is sloppy, but given that our conclusions are drawn based on our testing, not the spec sheet, it doesn't materially change the recommendation. That doesn't mean these things don't matter. We've set KPIs for our writing/labs team around accuracy, and we are continually installing new checks and balances to ensure that things continue to get better. If you haven't seen the improvement, frankly I wonder if you're really looking for it... The thoroughness that we managed on our last handful of GPU videos is getting really incredible given the limited time we have for these embargoes. I'm REALLY excited about what the future will hold.
 
With all of that said, I still disagree that the Billet Labs video (not the situation with the return, which I've already addressed above) is an 'accuracy' issue. It's more like I just read the room wrong. We COULD have re-tested it with perfect accuracy, but to do so PROPERLY - accounting for which cases it could be installed in (none) and which radiators it would be plumbed with (again... mystery) would have been impossible... and also didn't affect the conclusion of the video... OR SO I THOUGHT...
 
I wanted to evaluate it as a product, and as a product, IF it could manage to compete with the temperatures of the highest end blocks on the planet, it still wouldn't make sense to buy... so from my point of view, re-testing it and finding out that yes, it did in fact run cooler made no difference to the conclusion, so it didn't really make a difference.
 
Adam and I were talking about this today. He advocated for re-testing it regardless of how non-viable it was as a product at the time and I think he expressed really well today why it mattered. It was like making a video about a supercar. It doesn't mater if no one watching will buy it. They just wanna see it rip.  I missed that, but it wasn't because I didn't care about the consumer.. it was because I was so focused on how this product impacted a potential buyer. Either way, clearly my bad, but my intention was never to harm Billet Labs. I specifically called out their incredible machining skills because I wanted to see them create something with a viable market for it and was hoping others would appreciate the fineness of the craftsmanship even if the product was impractical. I still hope they move forward building something else because they obviously have talent and I've watched countless niche water cooling vendors come and go. It's an astonishingly unforgiving market.
 
Either way, I'm sorry I got the community's priorities mixed-up on this one, and that we didn't show the Billet in the best light. Our intention wasn't to hurt anyone. We wanted no one to buy it (because it's an egregious waste of money no matter what temps it runs at) and we wanted Billet to make something marketable (so they can, y'know, eat).
 
With all of this in mind, it saddens me how quickly the pitchforks were raised over this. It also comes across a touch hypocritical when some basic due diligence could have helped clarify much of it. I have a LONG history of meeting issues head on and I've never been afraid to answer questions, which lands me in hot water regularly, but helps keep me in tune with my peers and with the community. The only reason I can think of not to ask me is because my honest response might be inconvenient. 
 
We can test that... with this post. Will the "It was a mistake (a bad one, but a mistake) and they're taking care of it" reality manage to have the same reach? Let's see if anyone actually wants to know what happened. I hope so, but it's been disheartening seeing how many people were willing to jump on us here. Believe it or not, I'm a real person and so is the rest of my team. We are trying our best, and if what we were doing was easy, everyone would do it. Today sucks.
 
Thanks for reading this.

slick just said on his stream that linus his wife is going to get rocket now.

In the best mood ever right now and I'm about to go out for dinner, but I want to thank a few others as well as our forum community.
 
Missing Pets in BC has a great Facebook page that I wish more people were aware of. It's great that I have this huge (and awesome) group of people to help support me with something like this, but not everyone does, so I'd love for everyone who reads this to take a couple moments to find out if there's a similar local organiziation or facebook page or something and give them a like. What they do is so important to so many people.
 
https://www.facebook.com/MissingPetsInBc
 
They do more than just post the pets, but they can give advice and support about what information to provide and local animal shelters and the like.
 
I'm just so glad he's coming home... The last time I went out looking for him I didn't knock on doors... I was actually trying to see if I could smell decaying flesh in the woods near my house because I just wanted to know what happened to him...I tried not to but sometimes at night I couldn't help but lie there and think about how much it must have hurt to die from being eaten alive... And that that's what probably happened to my baby... I'm so glad he's safe. Even if whoever found him decided they didn't want to give him back, I would still be so happy to know he's okay... The fact that I'm getting him back is unbelievable.

slick just said on his stream that linus his wife is going to get rocket now.

slick just said on his stream that linus his wife is going to get rocket now.

Saving Private Rocket
 

Actually crying right now. Thanks for your support guys. 
 
I've missed my baby.

slick just said on his stream that linus his wife is going to get rocket now.

slick just said on his stream that linus his wife is going to get rocket now.

i hope that the guy is checking his twitter so that slick can contact him, would be cool for linus if rocket is home when he gets back

The main reason we removed the viewability of other First Blood badge holders is that we didn't want it to turn into an ego measuring contest for "who has one and who doesn't" and it felt like having a centralized list would increase the risk of FB members turning into a clique or something.

If people really want to know how much support we get during the First Blood campaign, I don't mind updating at the end along with a rough outline of our plan for the money whether it's to use it to buy products that we can't get samples of (a big problem for us right now is we have a limited number of manufacturers that seed us with stuff so our content can get unbalanced that way in the long term) or to get some new equipment.

She isnt being 'used' she is doing her job that she choose herself and gets paid for to do.

She isnt being 'used' she is doing her job that she choose herself and gets paid for to do.

She isnt being 'used' she is doing her job that she choose herself and gets paid for to do.

She isnt being 'used' she is doing her job that she choose herself and gets paid for to do.

Im laughing my ass off at this whole argument the biggest sexists here are the ones that think someones job is not valid just because you wear sexy clothes its the ladys choice what she wants to do with her life who are you to demean her by saying that chose is wrong just because she looks sexy

And you keep repeating "it's sexist". Is that really helping your argument or does it solidify the fact that you have yet to make a valid argument?
 
"Never engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed man.”
-Winston Churchill

Did any of you who voted no cover your eyes during the videos in the Computex content where they were in the background?

Oh okay, so you're going Full on Ad Hominem now
welp

Since when are you the speaker for all booth girls in the world? They are there by THEIR CHOICE. End of argument. If your so offended by a girl showing skin then you need to rethink some stuff. If they were being forced I'd agree with you 100% but by not posting the video your actually degrading them because you make their job seem like a joke or something that should be insulting. They are at a show talking to people and displaying product. Sex appeal will ALWAYS be a advertising plan. Grow up.

Neither does a dog at a dog show doing tricks merely for the enjoyment of everyone there. Or dolphins doing tricks.

She isnt being 'used' she is doing her job that she choose herself and gets paid for to do.

And I get paid to make sure no one steals merchandise from my store. A job is a job. I'm still waiting for you to make a valid point.

They chose to be there. The company didn't say "stand around to let people stare at you, or we'll shoot you." They had a choice - and they still do. They can walk away if they wish.