This is a duplicate of a review posted on BBB…read more
I have amended this review to correct some previously misstated facts. I got my order date wrong in the initial review and received a "cease and desist" order (neither an actual legal document nor enforceable) threatening to sue me that was obviously designed to scare anyone posting negative reviews (research SLAPP suits). At the time, I also thought that BLT was holding my money when it was their re-seller. I do not want to put inaccurate information out there, so here is my amended review.
TLDR; I would not recommend doing business with BLT.
In summary: Shady AF
- Misleading information (intentional or not, doesn't make a difference on my end)
- False hopes of delivery (look at the footer on their website, it explicitly states that the prices, descriptions, delivery dates, pictures, and specifications of products should not be relied on)
- Security risks when shopping on their site
- Threats of legal action (intimidation tactics) used against negative reviews
In early March, I ordered a GPU from BLT through a reseller (not going to use their name, but it's run by a bald guy who is basically a household name) because the reseller said it was in stock (not my fault if BLT does not update their inventory levels with their re-sellers). I paid for it and paid for 2-day shipping. Now it's April and I just got my third email giving yet another date that it would be in their warehouse.
Here's how my timeline went:
Ordered product, surprised to find someone who had it in stock, paid for expedited delivery (Yay! I love these guys).
Waited a few days and got an email stating that there is a product backlog, but they have more coming and they'll be in their warehouse soon. (I thought it was in stock - that's what their re-seller's page said - too late now, my money's spent).
Waited until the date given to me that they said they would have it and got an email stating that there is a product backlog, but they have more coming and they'll be in their warehouse soon (What's going on here, have I been scammed?).
Waited until the date given to me that they said they would have it and got an email stating that there is a product backlog, but they have more coming and they'll be in their warehouse soon (Now I really feel like I've been scammed, but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt, after all the GPU market is in turmoil).
Repeated step 4 and decided to cancel my order (I felt like a dupe, thank god it was just the re-seller holding my money).
It appears to me that this company does not update their resellers about what they have in stock (to me omission is the same as falsification and I have a hard time believing that it wasn't intentional given the financial incentive). Once you've placed your order they string you along with repeated changing promises of delivery dates in the hopes that you will still buy from them (for examples read reviews from previous customers).
Additionally, though they claim "safe shopping", the site is served over HTTP which is an unsecured protocol and highly vulnerable to many forms of attacks including:
- Injection
- Broken Authentication
- Sensitive Data Exposure
- Security Misconfiguration
- Cross-Site Scripting
- Privilege Escalation Attacks
- ...and much more (for more info, check out https://blog.radware.com/security/2017/11/http-attacks/)
"If a website uses HTTP instead of HTTPS, all requests and responses can be read by anyone who is monitoring the session. Essentially, a malicious actor can just read the text in the request or the response and know exactly what information someone is asking for, sending, or receiving." -Â https://www.cloudflare.com/learning/ssl/why-is-http-not-secure/
I decided to find out just how shady this company is. Man, I had no idea how far that rabbit-hole went. From the involvement of two out of three of their original principals in the 2002 WorldCom scandal, the largest accounting fraud in US history at the time for which WorldCom CEO and President of BLT David Ebbers was sentenced to 25 years in federal prison (WorldCom CFO and BLT Secretary Scott Sullivan only got 5 years), to their current head honcho's lawsuits which include copyright and patent infringement (David Durel, google him). This company will not change, it will not get better, and it will keep being shady AF as long as it's profitable. Fraud and deception are their deeply ingrained values. It is a company founded, and run, by white collar criminals.