OK so here it goes.
A month or two ago I was contacted by a member of the SVT performance community who had purchased a Lightning Boost overlay from Lightning Force Performance. He naturally thought it was one of mine. As most of you know I am the originator of the Boost Overlay for ‘03/’04 Cobras and Lightnings and have been selling them for years. Unfortunately this gentleman thought LFP was an authorized vendor of mine. I assured him they are not! He proceeded to explain that it was not functioning properly. After his explanation as to what was wrong with the overlay I suspected that LFP had copied (but not very well obviously) my Boost Overlay design. I pm’ed LFP to inquire but got no response.
Some time after that I went to the LFP site and saw that they had copied pictures of my overlays directly from my site and were representing and selling them as their own. You can go to their site and see the pictures are of my products “lifted” from my site.
I decided to order one of the LFP Cobra boost overlays just to see what they were doing. Come to find out they are charging their customers a $13 shipping fee just to send them the overlay. This brings the total cost of their overlay to over $38 dollars. Mine are still being sold for $29.95, which includes the mailing cost.
Well, it arrived today. They have a completely inferior product that is mass-produced and the thing that really stood out to me (I’m a professional graphic designer) is the font (type style) used in the numerals doesn't even match the font in the rest of the Ford gauges. Mine are hand silk screened individually and hand cut before shipping. I physically craft every single one before I mail it. I took great pains to match the correct font when I designed and developed the original Hilton Boost Overlay over 6 years ago. LFP’s looks like a grade school project.
LFP has also taken my printed instructions and just copied the installation and calibration pictures and put in their own text and slapped a LFP logo on it and are calling it theirs. One of the pictures even features my own thumb and fingers in it.
LFP has totally misrepresented their product particularly when you look at their site and see pictures of my Hilton Boost Overlays and then receive theirs instead. This is not only very unethical but the customers (you guys) who are fooled into buying this inferior product think you are getting the genuine article as is implied by my pictures that they have copied without my permission and are using on their site.
The majority of the people getting suckered are no doubt SVT Performance members thinking that LFP is carrying my Hilton Overlays and that they will be getting the original Hilton Boost Overlay. But they are instead getting an inferior product and actually paying a lot more for it than the genuine article. That really sucks in so many ways!
It’s unfortunate that I have to bring this to your attention but I thought you guys would want to know what’s been going on.
There are at least a couple thousand of you out there with my product installed on your Lightnings and Cobras. This is as much an insult to you as it is a rip off to me!
I do have a few select authorized vendors proudly selling my product with my retail packaging and they are:
American Tool (Billetflow)
Detroit Speed
Late Model Mustang Restoration Supply
And the newest authorized vendor Lethal Performance
Thanks for letting me vent a little. When someone steals your baby you tend get a bit pissed off.
Ray Hilton
Hilton Graphics
The original Boost Overlay inventor and producer
A month or two ago I was contacted by a member of the SVT performance community who had purchased a Lightning Boost overlay from Lightning Force Performance. He naturally thought it was one of mine. As most of you know I am the originator of the Boost Overlay for ‘03/’04 Cobras and Lightnings and have been selling them for years. Unfortunately this gentleman thought LFP was an authorized vendor of mine. I assured him they are not! He proceeded to explain that it was not functioning properly. After his explanation as to what was wrong with the overlay I suspected that LFP had copied (but not very well obviously) my Boost Overlay design. I pm’ed LFP to inquire but got no response.
Some time after that I went to the LFP site and saw that they had copied pictures of my overlays directly from my site and were representing and selling them as their own. You can go to their site and see the pictures are of my products “lifted” from my site.
I decided to order one of the LFP Cobra boost overlays just to see what they were doing. Come to find out they are charging their customers a $13 shipping fee just to send them the overlay. This brings the total cost of their overlay to over $38 dollars. Mine are still being sold for $29.95, which includes the mailing cost.
Well, it arrived today. They have a completely inferior product that is mass-produced and the thing that really stood out to me (I’m a professional graphic designer) is the font (type style) used in the numerals doesn't even match the font in the rest of the Ford gauges. Mine are hand silk screened individually and hand cut before shipping. I physically craft every single one before I mail it. I took great pains to match the correct font when I designed and developed the original Hilton Boost Overlay over 6 years ago. LFP’s looks like a grade school project.
LFP has also taken my printed instructions and just copied the installation and calibration pictures and put in their own text and slapped a LFP logo on it and are calling it theirs. One of the pictures even features my own thumb and fingers in it.
LFP has totally misrepresented their product particularly when you look at their site and see pictures of my Hilton Boost Overlays and then receive theirs instead. This is not only very unethical but the customers (you guys) who are fooled into buying this inferior product think you are getting the genuine article as is implied by my pictures that they have copied without my permission and are using on their site.
The majority of the people getting suckered are no doubt SVT Performance members thinking that LFP is carrying my Hilton Overlays and that they will be getting the original Hilton Boost Overlay. But they are instead getting an inferior product and actually paying a lot more for it than the genuine article. That really sucks in so many ways!
It’s unfortunate that I have to bring this to your attention but I thought you guys would want to know what’s been going on.
There are at least a couple thousand of you out there with my product installed on your Lightnings and Cobras. This is as much an insult to you as it is a rip off to me!
I do have a few select authorized vendors proudly selling my product with my retail packaging and they are:
American Tool (Billetflow)
Detroit Speed
Late Model Mustang Restoration Supply
And the newest authorized vendor Lethal Performance
Thanks for letting me vent a little. When someone steals your baby you tend get a bit pissed off.
Ray Hilton
Hilton Graphics
The original Boost Overlay inventor and producer
