Something is not right with banggood and shipping times..

Totally agree about the culture, run fast, break things, ignore the law and cash the checks and it’s game on to the next grift.
Unfortunately they are not alone in this with both people and businesses.
That Kickstarter bunch is known to be haven for these types to get their feet wet in the “The Art of the Grift”

No, I didn’t mean to contradict your info, just wanted to bring the fact that the Chinese did not invent knockoffs, they may have Perfected them however. :slight_smile:

It has long been said that the first automobile race was run the minute the second automobile was finished.
Likewise in the same time period, some other auto manufacturer was gleaning as much tech and inspiration from the first company so they could catch up and build their own brand. And so it goes.
The good part of all this it makes the originator work harder for the newest improvement to stay ahead of the copy cats, it speeds innovation.
Rock And Roll is the biggest borrower/stealer/cloner of music to ever come down the pike but that is also what makes it so great.

Enough from me, thanks for the lively facts and banter.
Light On,

Keith

Great posts TSO & Muto!! Thanks for sharing the interesting reading, I learned a few things & my memory was refreshed on a few more. :+1:

They saw the 3D, loved it and were not sure how to make it. No problem, i had thought out the machining process and head attachment details.

I wanted an agreement in place before i would send any details. Nope…they just wanted the detail drawings, machining method AND a sample. Then they will think about it.

Hilarious that they didn’t know how to make it….but they may have an existing design or wait for it….pending patents.

GFY was the only answer i could think of.

My prefered company, Sofirn didn’t respond at all.

So sadly, the BLF Sabre and even more unique and radical designs, really radical, will go nowhere but in my imgination.

If it was 10 years ago and i hadn’t retired….

I agree that ordering from Aliexpress, Banggood, or most Chinese vendors is frustrating but I wish buyers would do a little more research and have some sense of respect of other cultures instead of being so isolated to westernized points of view. There are so many, lets face it cheapskates, on here that both want to buy from China for incredibly cheap prices, but also refuse to accept the simple ideas like “gasp the country shuts down for a few weeks each year for Lunar New Year” or “gasp, a ship takes a long time to get to the US and has to clear customs”. I have seen Youtube videos where Americans both trash a Chinese product for bad manual translations but at the same time the person is too cheap to buy an American made equivalent or there simply isn’t an American company that even makes the product. BLF’s soul (in regards to special edition flashlights) seem to be made exclusively by Chinese manufacturers. It sucks that your orders got delayed or cancelled but you’re going to the lowest bidder and paying sometimes $1-2 for shipping FROM CHINA and you are complaining. If you want it quick, try buying from an American vendor. You can go to eBay and try to find the same product that is shipping from US sellers and just pay more for it.

/\ …. Good post sygyzy, very interesting perspective. :+1:
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cheapskate noun

cheap·​skate | \ ˈchēp-ˌskāt \ Definition of cheapskate

: a miserly or stingy person

especially : one who tries to avoid paying a fair share of costs or expenses
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:open_mouth: … hmmm…. :wink:

I don’t agree at all that just because it’s cheaper, then poor service should be expected.

Case in point….Sonfirn.

Their light in Amazon.ca was more then the US, but Sonfirmn would discount it to match. Great.

Then the issue of shipping from China and the lottery of getting it through customs. Again, Sofirn admit it was a problem.

Then she gave me a discount to buy it from Amazon.com. I never used it, but the entire exchange left me with a great impression of their company.

What is common in all of these? COMMUNICATIONS. No one can accuse Sofirn of being a high profit company nor did they deny any issues about shipping. In every step, they tried and communicated possible solutions. At no time was there any exchange with an anterior intent.

So why is it that hard for a company to say……We are just back from vacation and it will take a while for the supply chain to catch up, please be patient. At this point, it could be 2 months to receive your product.

I wrote that in 15 seconds. Is anybody going to tell me that a honest company can’t do the same?

Last and not least….

In my 40 plus years in manufacturing……quality, service and good pricing are not competitors. What you need is honesty and communications. If a customer knows what to expect, if the supplier/manufacturer is doing what they said they will, then there is very little that goes wrong.

But then….there is greed……

BREAKING NEWS…………BREAKING NEWS…………BREAKING NEWS
_
WKRAP - High atop K2 / 4 March 2019
by Cemore Butts

Container Ship Grounded…. Literally!!

A container ship filled with long awaited assorted orders from China, shipped after CNY; has run into problems in some disclosed location. See picture below for details. A picture is worth a thousand words you know….
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Maybe…. this is the problem…… :open_mouth: . :smiley: . :smiley:

There could possibly be brief moments in time where I would qualify to be that

Tell me about it… :smiley:
I always try to pay my fair share if doing something with a group of my friends or people.

BUT …… the “brief momemts” for me being miserly or stingy are few & far between lately. :person_facepalming:

I have had to downgrade from canned Black Beans to Ramen Noodles…. :open_mouth: . :person_facepalming:
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:wink:

quite the downgrade from beans to noodles but I can understand it! A can of black beans up here cost $0.97 whereas Ramen Noodles about $0.20 a pop, so I see the logic in it all

Yep… “quite the downgrade” for sure. :person_facepalming: Black Beans here are 54 cents a can, IIRC. Ramen Noodles are 15 cents…. how far I have fallen. :person_facepalming:
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:wink:

See, that’s where you can the knowledge you’ve acquired on BLF.

1. Try buying canned beans during specials. The lowest price I’ve found in Canada is 0,79$CA.

2. Do not buy canned beans. Buy a bag of canned beans instead, and prep it in water. The price/kg of dry beans is much lower than canned beans, so that is another thing that can be done.

3. Combine beans with tofu, and some mackerel/sardines, and veggies. If you have good cooking skills, you can prepare something worthy of a vegetarian god for a low price.

We should all gang up on BLF for pretending to be a "budget" light forum whilst emptying our wallets

Beans and veggies are my revenge against inflation. Food prices could skyrocket and my diet would still cost next to nothing weekly.

At least until everyone else is eating them too. Then your cheap beans are going to skyrocket as well. Unless you grow your own, at which time you will die in the winter. :slight_smile:

/\…… Or…. grow enough & can them to get through the winter. :wink:
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That’s the spirit…

Guys, DO NOT anything you eat from sold from Value Brand. Most if not all sourced from China imported products. You guys will encounter problems.

Good suggestions BSM… I may not starve after all if I get real creative. :+1:
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:wink:

Yeah, a 16oz can labelled “100lbs”…