Sorry Dinodirect, Fail.

Alright, so I know dinodirect has been murky water.. Good deal came up on the Ultrafire WF502Bs so I figured I would give them a run..

Ratings:

-General Website, Placing the order: Good - No complaints. Website worked well and I got a nearly instant order/payment confirmation

-Shipment Confirmation E-Mail: Bad - Had me worried right from the get-go. Order was for a total of three torches and two 18650 chargers and yet this was the "Photo Confirmation" e-mail that dino sends:

Shipment Time: Eh Average. Pretty normal china-usa via Registered.. Nothing horrible, Nothing special.

Goods upon arrival: Bad. Three identical torches, three completely different drop-ins. Two work, one doesn't. Took it apart and discovered that the driver wasn't even attached/soldered to the pill. I mean, seriously? Not a DROP of solder on the pill or on the driver board - it was never attached. So much for the happy dino sticker "I inspected this product and guarantee it to be free from defects!" Once I got it soldered up, I ran them all next to each other. Three very different tints (two very very cool and one almost "Warm" - Say 4000K ish) and three very different lumen outputs. They even have physically different reflectors. Other than the lack of solder - none of the drop-ins are horrible, but really - three torches shipped in the same package with three different pills? Complete lack of consistency and quality control.

Overall, first and last order for Dino from me..

PPtk

I like DD but you can't argue with those bad results.

They sell "seconds". That's why they can do it so cheap.

Ah, I see. I guess that explains that shoddy (non-existent) quality-control and the photo that's missing 4 of the 5 items that I ordered as well.

They can keep their "seconds".

To each their own, however.. I'm sure the dino has a place for some people - just not worth it to me. I tried them, and in my eyes, they failed miserably...

PPtk

Never trust a smiling dino. Those are fake or something. Thanks for the info. Highly appreciated.

They would almost have to expend extra effort to get you three such different lights. Amazing. So much for testing. I think the QC, if it is anything, it to make sure you are getting what you ordered rather than actually putting in a battery and seeing if the light works. Unfortunately, 501B and 502B lights are about the bottom of the barrel. I really like 502B's but anything ridiculously cheap usually comes in one of those two hosts.

Yea I know the feeling. They sent me a alternate flashlight to the one I ordered.

Here's my advice to Dino-Direct.

Either ship people what they order the first time and make sure you get it right, or prepare yourself for your doors to close very soon. People aren't going to tolerate repeat after repeat screwed up orders. Hell I could be a millionaire if I had a nickel for every order they screwed up. You can almost bet that very few orders will be trouble free.

I ordered once from DD, some batteries, and they did not appear to be 'seconds'. They had the best price on THAT product, but were usually higher. However, I have since seen the fake reviews people talk about... they have not been taken down. I thought they had sworn stuff like that off. When I made my purchase (a couple years ago), they also had multiple prices on exactly the same item (kind of like DX, only worse).

And, in fairness, I've never heard of any generosity from Manafont's customer service. Not even willing to send a replacement driver, even to a member of this group who did a review on their product (although, it would appear the buyer did not leverage his position by telling them that). So, as far as I'm concerned, they're no better than anyone else. DX is getting worse and worse (thought they couldn't get any worse) with actually SHIPPING their items, but... strangely enough, most of the examples of generous/reasonable customer service come from there, along with Ebay actually (due to buyer protection) and Meritline can be okay if you can actually get them to address your situation directly and without brush-off. Never had to deal with Kaidomain service, but their website is just horrible now trying to do a search for anything, and they make no effort to list needed information. I would like an alternative to DX (for more than just flashlights), but there is no clear alternative to me, except Ebay, where I know I will find just about anything sold at DX, and will actually ship. Plus, Ebay points ;) . All these guys have a kind of shady feel to them, but then, we're probably buying Chinese schlock made by unethically produced labor and environmental practices, so in the end, WE may be the shadiest ones. An unpleasant thought. And yet, how else are you gonna get your big squirty tube of thermal grease?

BAN SUMMER!

I don't think they sell seconds that just sounds like a hypothetical .i've bought lots of first rate stuff from dino direct ..clearly 90% of all uf-501 502b 504b hosts are from a multitude of factories (clones ) but it's a safe bet most people have never seen a real one .Manafont sold me more bad clones than dino ..obviously they sought out a flashlight deal and then passed it on to the consumer . Dino sent ME a few REAL 501's and a few other uf-602c's that I'd never seen with such nice quality before .(they also sent me a fake/clone in the lot as well) side by side the differences were hugely apparent .Given the low price and the discounts over the holiday it wasn't worth barking about it . If they had sent me all clones I wouldn't have thought anything except these lights are cheap .As is I'm grateful for the opprotunity to have some real ultra-fire lights .The manafont ones were certainly clones too .

I think the p-60 lights and c-8 style lights are ones that people commonly clone .I'd say expect a clone or buy solarforce

Where is Summer!!! |(

Dino Direct sucks cold horse dong.

watchingmredFoy

With the exception of the UF-H3 the other 2 lights (504B and C1) I got from DD required extensive soldering work to even turn on.

D.I.C.K.

I just noticed this "dong" is different to "dung" but I agree it should be "dong".lol