I was not sure if I would have the heart to tell about my dissatisfaction with Fireflies in general or respectively with the E07 model that I have bought at Banggood and received today. In the end, I thought it might be worthwhile to the community to share my impressions.I try to be factual with all my rant about this insolence I have faced today.
The item I bought:
Fireflies E07 XP-L HI V2 5A, 4.000K in gun-metal grey
Date of order: 2019/03/22
Date of receipt: 2019/04/02
On a side note: This E07 was ordered after Banggood's stock was depleted and replenished again, i.e. it is very likely to be from the new, second batch. The cooling fins had no sharp edges.
Table of content according to Banggood:
Now, when I oped the plastic bag, I found the black "gift box" that should contain all of the above mentioned items. Should? Yes, it should. When I opened the box, I found this:
Missin' anything? I guess so! Remember, i.a.w. Banggood I should have found:
- the flashlight: check
- the o-rings: nope
- the stainless steel clip: nope, not in the box, not stuck in the black foam nor attached to the E07
- the manual: nope...and rest assured, I took out the black foam from the box, too.
- the gift box: check
Okay, that's bad, there's nothing to argue about it. But I was still in a good mood to have at least the light in my hands. You might expect what's coming next, right?
Let's have a look onto Fireflies' E07 advertisement picture:
Lookin' good, doesn't it?`The bezel looks shiny, clean and....tightened. The color of the anodization looks evenly distributed all over the entire body, i.e. tailcap, tube and head have the same appearance.
Now, let's go back to my E07...those pictures speak for themselves...
The tail cap feels like it is made of plastic and not of aluminum. Unfortunately, I was stupid enough to run this light at full power until it became real hot with the bezel not tightened. I was wondering about the cracking noise it made when it became hot. That caught my attention and oh well...I managed to tighten the bezel as far as I could with my bare hands. The cracking noise is now reduced to a minimum but still existing. I'm not sure if the flashlight (may have) suffered any damage from running it exteme hot with a loose bezel. Any feedback is welcome, guys.
Now comes the moment when I really scratched my head and started to laugh:
I cleaned my glasses twice and rubbed my eyes because I failed to believe that they actually put a stamp on this piece of sh...oot sayin' "QC PASS". Well I say: "So much for quality control at Fireflies!" :FACEPALM:
If anyone of you was wondering about the big blob on the driver spring, causin' serious dents on the positive terminal of your 21700 batteries, this is how my driver spring bypass looks like:
Before closing, I would like to wind up this report with some good news. The flashlight is at least running and all LEDs (though not well-centered!) and AUX-LEDs run as they should. The center LED however has some dirt below the optic but I don't want to sound "OCD".
I have immediately filed a complaint via Banggood's customer service that only contains the worst issues so far. I will supplement anything else I have been missing to report to them in the first place. I was promised to get a reply from After Sales in 24 hours. We will see...