The Good:
So far I’ve ordered 5 FW3A’s from Neal, several as presents, all ordered separately. All have arrived very quickly, so quickly (and, judging by the USPS label on the box) that perhaps they had been warehoused in the US. On the other hand, maybe not, as, when I received the emails saying orders had shipped, each had a clickable link to 17 track which showed the items leaving China, arriving in LA, etc. So, perhaps they really did come that quickly from China. (For example, arrived at sort facility in Guangzhou 12/25, delivered in Berkeley 12/31).
All, with some fiddling, worked fine. One was dead out of the box, but cleaning all the switch contacts — both ends of the black inner switch tube, the circular traces of both switch and LED circuit boards— with Deoxit gold G5, had it working fine. Apparently thread lube, or some manufacturing grease, can interrupt the contact between the switch tube and the circuit boards.
One of the orders was supposed to come with two batteries, but only came with one. Have emailed Neal about this, so far no response. But it’s still very early.
The Odd:
I ordered a Fireflies E07 7x, and, separately, an XTar charger. Very quick notification by email that items had been shipped, again with a clickable tracking link to 17 track. Over the course of a few days, according to 17 track, the items arrived in the sorting facility in Guangzhou, sat in Guangzhou for several days, and now are listed as having been returned to sender!!
Emailed Neal about this, to which quite reasonably he hasn’t yet had time to respond. (It was just a day or so ago).
So, a lot of moving parts in the process, but certainly the experience of first five orders, considering what they cost, the elegance of the FW3A’s design, and their speedy arrival, were better in total than most experiences I have with Amazon — which are almost always good. As for last two items, well, I’m prepared to wait, and see what happens.
