Follow-up from Billet (Update 4) UPDATE

For full transparency, Linus contacted us this evening saying it’s likely he can get the block back from the buyer.

We have declined this offer, and asked for the previously agreed monetary value instead for the following reasons:

we have already spent a significant percentage of the value of the block in the last few days on replacement parts to build a new block, assuming we’d never see the original one again.

we do not know if the original block is still in good working condition, and how much money will be needed to fix it if it’s not.

we don’t know if any of the bespoke fittings are missing, each of these costs money to replace if they are.

LTT have had our 3090ti without using it for 9 weeks, so we have lost confidence that they will return items quickly.

LTT isn’t currently in possession of the block, they’ve only said that they can get it back. We therefore don’t know when we’d get it back, and time is of the essence.

LTT has confirmed that the block is with a private individual rather than a rival company, so lost IP is much less of an issue.

We wanted to state this publicly just in case anyone has any issues with the fact that the block has potentially been found, and we chose to take the money instead. We hope you understand our reasoning here. We can have our new block that we’re currently making ready in the next couple of weeks, and we are sceptical that we would have the original block back in fully working condition in that amount of time – it would be a gamble at the very least.

Much love

Dean & Felix

Billet Lab’s statement (Update 3)

You, the PC community, are amazing. We’d like to thank you for your support, it means more than you can imagine.

Steve at Gamers Nexus has publicly shown his integrity, at the huge risk of backlash, and we have nothing but respect for him for how he’s handled himself, both publicly and when speaking directly to us.

…

Regarding LTT, we are simply going to state the relevant facts:

On 10th August, we were told by LTT via email that the block had been sold at auction. There was no apology.

We replied on 10th August within 30 minutes, telling LTT that this wasn’t okay, and that this was a £XXXX prototype, and we asked if they planned to reimburse us at all.

We received no reply and no offer of payment until 2 hours after the Gamers Nexus video went live on 14th August, at which point Linus himself emailed us directly.

The exact monetary value of the prototype was offered as reimbursement. We have not received, nor have we asked for any other form of compensation.

…

About the future of Billet Labs: We don’t plan to mourn our missing block, we’re already hard at work making another one to use for PC case development, as well as other media and marketing opportunities. Yes it sucks that the prototype has gone, it’s slowed us but has absolutely not stopped us. We have pre-orders for it, and plan to push ahead with our first production run as soon as we can.

We also have some exciting new products on our website that are available to buy now - we thank everyone who has bought them so far, and we can’t wait to see what you do with them.

We’re happy to answer any questions, but we won’t be commenting on LTT or the specifics of the email exchanges – we’re going to concentrate on making cool stuff, and innovative products (the Monoblock being just one of these).

…

We hope LTT implements the necessary changes to stop a situation like this happening again.

Peace out ✌

Felix and Dean

Billet Labs

I must say, the Billet Labs part nailed me to the floor.

For someone who has to do with prototypes and early development products, such a blunder would have cost me my current job and would have barred me from any other in my field