How to vet a seller in this market

Why buyers need a way to check sellers

This market has earned its trust problem. Enough sellers have taken money and disappeared that suspicion is the reasonable default for a new buyer, and that default is correct. The trouble is that suspicion without a method does not protect you, because it just makes you pick whichever site looks most expensive, and that is not a real signal. What follows is a method. It names no one, because naming competitors is itself a warning sign, and it applies to Lethal Solutions as well.

What to check before you pay a seller

Run these checks before you pay. You can verify each one yourself in a browser in a few minutes, without asking the seller anything.

• A public status board exists, is linked from the front of the site, and is not behind a login
• That board shows bad rows, such as down, updating or unsupported, and not only green ones
• The board's rows carry dates that change over time, rather than a static page somebody wrote once
• A written refund policy is on the site before you pay, and it says what it does not cover
• Support is ticketed and leaves a record you can refer back to, rather than happening only in direct messages
• The domain has history: check its registration age and whether the site existed a year ago
• Reviews are spread over months, not clustered into one week
• Reviews describe specific problems and how they were handled, not just praise
• Nowhere on the site does anything claim to be undetectable, ban-proof or guaranteed safe
• Hardware compatibility is stated by exact board revision, not just by FPGA class
• There is a stated way to reach a human, and a stated response expectation
• Prices, delivery method and what is actually included are all written down before checkout

Green flags and red flags

The green-flag column describes a seller behaving like a business, and the red-flag column describes a seller who has not yet had to answer for anything. Nothing in the red-flag column proves fraud, but each row is a reason to slow down.

What does a useful status board look like?

This is the most informative single check, and it takes thirty seconds. A status board is only evidence if it can report bad news. A board where every game has been green since the site launched is not a status board but a graphic. Look for rows that say down, updating or unsupported, with dates, because those dates show that the board is connected to reality and that somebody maintains it. A seller willing to publish that its build for a popular title is currently down expects you to come back, and that expectation is what you are really buying.

What should a refund policy tell you?

You are not looking for a generous policy but for a written one that states its own limits. In this market, a refund policy that promises everything is less credible than one that says clearly what it will not cover. Bans are an example: no seller can reasonably refund a ban, because no seller controls how you play. The test has three parts. Did the policy exist before you asked, is it on the site rather than in a chat message, and is it specific enough to hold the seller to? A policy you have to request is not a policy.

Why ticketed support matters

Support that happens only in direct messages leaves no record, which suits only one of the two parties. Ticketed support means your problem has an identifier, a history and a thread that someone else in the company can read. It also means the seller has accepted that support is a job rather than a favour. A chat server can be a good community, but on its own it is not a support system. Ask yourself what you would need to show someone if this went wrong, and then check whether this seller's support produces it.

How to check a domain's age and review history

These two cheap checks catch a specific pattern. First, look up when the domain was registered and whether an archive service has snapshots going back in time. A site that appeared weeks ago is not automatically bad, but it has no record, and in this market having no record is a real cost that you carry. Then look at how the reviews are spread over time. Genuine feedback builds up unevenly over months, including during bad weeks. Forty positive reviews inside one week, all worded in a similar way, form a pattern with one obvious explanation.

How to check Lethal Solutions against this list

Advice on vetting sellers is worthless if it exempts the store giving it, so this advice does not exempt us. Hold Lethal Solutions to every row in the table above. Check whether our status board shows detected, updating or no-status rows, not just green ones. Check that a refund policy is written and findable before you pay, and read what it excludes. Check that support is ticketed and produces a record, check the domain's age, and check whether reviews of us are spread over time rather than clustered. Finally, check that we never claim to be undetectable anywhere on this site, because we cannot be and we do not. If we fail a row, that is a reason not to buy from us, and we would rather you applied the standard than took our word for it.

What no seller can promise

Knowing these limits helps you tell an honest limitation from an evasion. No seller can promise that you will not be detected or banned, or that a build will survive the next major game patch. No seller can promise a specific turnaround on a fix either, because the work depends on what the patch changed. And no seller can promise that your hardware is compatible without knowing your exact board revision. A seller who tells you these things directly is not hedging but describing the real shape of the product.

Questions about vetting a seller