Acebeam X45 defective, 2 months old

LED Flashlights – General Info 18650 Flashlights
1

Hi everyone,

I’m new here and looking to hear about your opinions on my situation with my defective Acebeam X45 flashlight.

I’ll write down the overview of the situation.

-December 8th 2018 I purchased the Acebeam X45 on Amazon (179 EUR)
-February 13th I got in contact with acebeam about my flashlight being defective and showed them a video of the issue

Acebeam requested me to send the head of the flashlight to China.

-February 16th I’ve send as requested the head of the flashlight to Acebeam in China. I’ve used the cheapest post method, without tracking code. (18 EUR)

Time passed by and my light didn’t arrive.

Acebeam requested me to send the head of the light. So if it would get lost. Is that my risk? Or their risk?

I just wanted to have back a working X45. So I asked Acebeam what they could do for me. Since I already showed them that my X45 was defective. I thought that even if my light went missing in post, they could replace my light.

They said the best they could do is give me a discount. So, I had to buy a new light again. This time directly from Acebeam. The price would be 115.90 USD. I requested them to use the Amazon system to avoid extra import duties. They refused and said that they would write down a low value on the box, so that I don’t have to pay import duties. I don’t think the offer was correct. Asking me to pay again for the flashlight. But I didn’t see any other option. So I paid the 115.90 USD.

Then, my new light was send. And guess what. Now I got a message about import duties. I’m requested to pay another 47.16 EUR.

Now I’ve send Acebeam an e-mail that I don’t agree with this.

–179 EUR for the initial purchase
–18 EUR for sending the defective head of the light to china
–115.90 USD for buying a new light again
–47.16 USD import duties

This is not the kind of service I expect on an high quality flashlight.

I’m awaiting the answer of Acebeam on my last email, to see what they do about the import duties.

Please, could you guys share your opinion on this situation?

2

It all sounds very familiar.
The problem is that probably they will/want not understand the position that you are in. And that they have your money, twice. They did a clumsy job on the customer service (and you accepted it maybe too easy) but they are not able to admit it and make it right.

I have no proper advice for you how to fix this. I could tell you how you could have acted perhaps more effectively, but that does not help at the moment.

3

It is interesting the dichotomy between those of us who read this site as a “budget” light forum and those who want to buy the “best, brightest, and latest” without regard to cost. My own interest is in budget bike lights and in having converted my home to all LED lighting. I do both with budget in mind so have avoided buying any of the expensive bike lights or LED fixtures. I also sourced all of my LED supplies directly from China. In spite of that nearly everything I received from China was satisfactory and the few problems were resolved easily. I only buy on eBay, not Amazon or Alibaba.

I did the conversion into US$ and by now you have spent $382 and still have only one working flashlight. Every seller I used has a disclaimer that they have no control over import duties so that is the responsibility of the buyer. Luckily here in the US, the limit for duty free is $800 so even your flashlight, if ordered from overseas, would be duty free.

Are you sure you can’t take up the issue with Amazon instead of the manufacturer? December 8 to February 16 is just a tad over 60 days so you may have been able to contact Amazon over having received a defective product rather than go to the manufacturer. It is a little bit late though as you bought a second flashlight. It might still be possible to get the first transaction voided and get your money back for the defective light.

I probably would have been suspicious of any product claiming 18,000 lumens. I went to the specifications and read that the XHP50-2 LED can put out a maximum of 4292 lumens at 29W. So four LEDs can put out 17168 lumens. However, what flashlight could withstand the heat produced by four LEDs running at maximum power and what battery can support that power drain? I’m not surprised you had a problem with the light.

4

Welcome RonNL,

I hope they'll help you solve this!

Import fees shouldn't be part of the cost especially since you bought it from Amazon.de (within the EU zone).

What Vegas LED Fan said.. if they don't want to listen, have a talk with Amazon.

5

When my light was defective, the first thing I did was contact the seller on Amazon. The seller instructed me to contact Acebeam directly. So I did.

My mistake was to pay for the replacement light. I should not have agreed on that.

Acebeam instructed me to send the head of the light to China. Their instruction, their risk in case it gets lost. But alright, I agreed to pay for the replacement light. So I can’t complain about that anymore.

And I asked them to send me the new light with the Amazon system, simply from their EU stock. Then there wouldn’t be any import taxes. But they had the solution by noting down a lower value on the package. That didn’t work out.

I’ll update the forum here once Acebeam replies me about what they do with the import taxes.

6

I think you may be at a loss here sorry to say Its a shame its a lot of money! They may have very well received the head and it could be sitting in there warehouse?

If Acebeam have a EU or Dutch store (Amazon) you may be able to get a government body to step in a mediate a solution? Here in Australia we have consumer affairs and fair tradings that can help in situations like this. Say purchased an item from Banggood in China they couldn’t help me its not regulated but if Banggood has an AU website or i bought from Banggood Amazon AU they have to comply to local trading rules and regulation.

Last but not least you could try a credit card charge back. Give the bank all your evidence and start a claim with your credit card bank.

7

next time ask me for replacement driver

not working head can be also a cold solder point on carrier or a defective PCB of a battery

soon available X45 3x Buck 15A driver with BLF firmware

8

This gets even more interesting if you read the specification sheet at the company website Acebeam High Lumen Flashlight X45|AceBeam® Official Store | Flashlights, Tactical Lights

It does come with four 3300 mAh high discharge 18650 Li-ion batteries so the 29W draw for each LED is possible ……… but with some very short run times - 3 minutes at 16500 lumens (Turbo Max) and 10 minutes at 9000 lumens (Turbo). It automatically cuts back to 4000 lumens when the heat sink reaches 65 degrees C (~150 degrees F). It weighs a hefty 535 grams (1.18 lb). Four of my Panasonic 3300 mAh batteries weigh 182 grams so it must have a pretty good heat sink built into the front of the light to deal with the heat generated by the four LEDs. In comparison, the inexpensive 900 lumen tactical flashlight I use weighs 168 grams with the single 18650 battery and will run for hours at the maximum setting.

Approximate runtimes in each mode:
Firefly : 3 lumens 310hours; _ (allow the seller to quote a ridiculous long run time)_
Low : 500 lumens 10hours;
Mid : 1500 lumens 3.5hours;
High: 4000lumens 1.4hours;
Turbo:9000lumens-4000lumens, 10minutes+1.2hours
Turbo Max:16500lumens-4000lumens, 3minutes+1.1hours
Strobe 4000 lumens 3 hours

Lots of bells and whistles but doesn’t seem very practical for ordinary use. I have a 5 XML-T6 bike light that theoretically can put out over 4000 lumens. It doubles as a camper’s headlamp but if you happen to accidentally look directly at any of the people I camp with they get rather irate. It also comes with a hefty battery pack that is a PIA to deal with when used as a camper’s headlight. It only got used a couple of times before being permanently parked on a shelf. Not a big loss as it cost me $32 at Banggood.

9

Ouch, yes, always send packages registered so it can be tracked!
But the CS of acebeam could have been more supportive in your case.

10

Hello RonNL, welcome to BLF.

IMHO this is a combination of beginners (bad)luck and a bit too much good fait on your side.
I’m afraid I cannot offer you a handy solution for your situation.
The only thing I can offer is a set of rules I work with (so far, so good).

a/ there are two parties involved in a sale. The buyer (you) and the seller.
Do not agree on hints of the seller to take things up with a third party, like an importer or a manufacturer.
b/ keep polite, but don’t let go. If they stop answering your mails, continue on the review page of the seller.
c/ whatever the conditions of the seller, keep referring to national or EU law. That is (almost) always prevailing.
d/ try to pull the PayPal card (or the Visa card). At first as a (implicit) threat. If things go bad, for real.
e/ the sender is always responsible for the parcel until it reaches its destination (not: he/she asked me to do).
f/ that’s why I send my parcels (from a certain value up) with T&T. In NL sometimes insurance is included.
g/ when buying something, go for the cheapest shipping solution. Seller is sender, so he/she is responsible.
h/ ask for a low value on the package. If it is lost, you don’t want to receive that lower amount but a new item.
Or a refund of the actual amount you have payed for it.
i/ avoid insurance, because the (higher) amount of the insurance alerts customs (maybe that has happened).

Good luck!

11

“This is not the kind of service I expect on an high quality flashlight.”

High quality, that is relative. I personally don’t spend much money at all on a Chinese made light just for those reasons. (Quality, and if I have a problem, sending it back).

Unless it is an Olight. They have USA customer service in Georgia and I have used it once. I got a tailcap for my X7 sent to me in 2 days with stickers and a morale patch. I did not have to pay a cent.

That is the exact service I got from Surefire for their replacement tailcap.

I am sorry you are out a decent amount of money, I hope it gets resolved.

12

Thanks for all the replies, I see some good lessons in them.

For now no update from Acebeam yet, I’ll let you guys know when I have news.

13

shame… rule nr.1 never send untracked stuff to china, its really hopeless atleast with a tracking number u have something to track otherwise yea u never know where package went or who stole it… its shame acebeam couldnt help u better :frowning:

14

Yeah, the postal services don’t work well in China at all unless you have tracking or live in China.

15

Another day and still no reply from Acebeam. Being left in the dark here really.

16

thats really sad, i thought acebeam had better customer service… after all they dont have exactly cheap lights in the higher lumens range… not ok :person_facepalming:

17

Sad but next time buy from an authorized seller and you get support for sure

18

If you still have your postal receipt, you could go to the post office and check if they can help you.

19

he bought it from amazon, isnt that authorized enough ? he shouldnt have to send a light defective back to china, only to amazon since he bought it from there…

20

All I want at this point is that Acebeam will cover the import duties for the replacement light, the 47.16 EUR.

I don’t think I’m asking too much. If my contact still hasn’t replied by tomorrow I’ll contact someone else at Acebeam.