Topic: Request to point out legitimate supplier (Read 780 times)

Good Morning,

A friend of mine just got two 5 GHs devices from Butterfly labs. He paid around $500 for them and had to wait 1 year, he said he Pre-ordered them. I know that as time lapses, the Ghs requirement increases, so that was a good deal 1 year ago, now it less than moderate and soon will not be worth the while on this machine. This is understood and it is not the point.

I went to Butterfly labs website and say they still have these devices for the same price as he bought them, but now the pre-orders are for new machines in the 100s of GHs. To be specific:
600 GHs machine for $4680, or $7.8/GHs. Compared with the 5 GHs machine at $274, at $54.8/GHs, the new machine is much faster, 7 times cheaper and maybe more economical to run.

Perfect, one would think.

Now some due diligence before buying, comes Black Arrow Software, with their Prospero X-1 100 GHs at $290.50, which means $2.9/GHz, that's less than half the price of Butterfly Labs.

Black Arrow Software is even more appealing because even though it is pre-order, they do mention that shipping will be end of Feb, 3 months from now, unlike Butterfly Labs who say that the waiting period is unknown and possibly a year.

As both machines have not yet hit the market, I was expecting the prices at Butterfly labs to drop, but they haven't, so I decided to pre-oder from Black Arrow Software.

I registered on their website, added the product to my cart and went to checkout; there is the first shock: the only methods of payment are non trackable. I had to fight with the Western Union guy to send the money but he still refused, he told me the information on the website is only a first name, a last name, and a fking province with 1 billion people in it. There are a million questions to fill in the WU form, the guy barely provides information to get a code so he can pick up the money. He said, the WU guy, he doesn't want me to lose my money. I came to my senses and believed him. I mean, for payment methods, the easiest thing on planet earth is Paypal. You just go on paypal and register as a merchant and they send you a link to put on your website and there goes your cart. You don't have to worry about credit cards processing and all that sort of stuff, you get paid that's it. But Paypal knows you and can track you, WU will not fight for customers.

I am not saying Black Arrow are a scam, they could be, the could also be a pyramid scheme: now they sell to x people, x talk to x becomes x^2, they pre-sell the next gen to x^2 and never deliver, or they could be legit.

The bottom line is if I pay now or I pay in February, i will not get the device before then, so why pre-order? why not wait until the product is on the market? it stinks as an operation and it stinks that such stuff is out there.

I wish there were resellers that are well established and have known offices and accept payment by credit card!

Thanks.