Negative experience with NealsGadgets

You are right that many local sellers on Amazon are no different than small China sellers. However, each time I have an issue where I can’t contact the seller or seller refuses to refund, I just chat with Amazon. Given my super good buying history on Amazon since 1999, they always side with me. My experience with Aliexpress is also the same, they usually side with the customer over the sellers so you get more protection buying from them in-lieu of buying from small sellers in China. With that said, I never failed to receive anything from Neal and I made so many orders. Also it was easy to ask him to send me replacement parts when I had issues. Maybe recently his communications went south since he has a newborn to take care of and he is a one man shop.

What is the address for mailing a wrong item back to Neilsgadgets, anyone know?

Apologies for replying too late, didn’t get notifications for some reason.

I see this user was disgusted by my post, because he ordered from Neal several times with NO issues at all.
I got to say that’s a fairly good point which turns my opinion at 180 degrees.
Surely if that user had NO issues at all, this MUST mean that no people have any issues with NG at all, correct?
By the same logic I had 3 meals today, therefore world hunger doesn’t exist.
Just opened the window and it’s about 0 degrees outside, which means global warming doesn’t exist either.
Good job, solved half the world problems with one post.

Now, about me calling him a scammer - I didn’t, if you read properly. I said “the guy is pretty much scamming people at this point”, which is based on multiple complaints I’ve read on BLF and Reddit about Neal not responding to emails, messenger and whatever type of communication you try. Multiple complaints from people that did not get their stuff for 2 months (this is too long even for the slow boat), and multiple users that had to dispute their transaction with either their bank or PayPal in order to get their money back.
But again, I did not call him a scammer. I called Neal “non-trustworthy” and I stand by my words. Because I don’t trust him and neither should anyone else.
I shopped from many Chinese stores before - BG, GB, FT, KD, DX, SF and a dozen others, some of which don’t exist anymore, and they were all treating me nicely. I got a lost package with DX, they refunded me without problem. I got a water damaged Klarus, BG gave me half the money back - not ideal, but whatever, flashlight was old anyway. I never had to dispute a transaction in all my ~15 years of online shopping and probably a thousand items bought. I never got my messages ignored as well. Well, until I bought the FW3A from Neal.

Whoever is excusing this type of behavior with babies and being busy is, how do I say it… a bit naive.

This post belong in the other thread.

I guess sour grapes DO make a good whine

Still waiting on a light from BG that I ordered on 11/11 :frowning:

Very fair complaint, but in addition to being a red herring, it’s also in the wrong complaint thread.

This one’s reserved for Neal and his (apparently shoddy) gadget enterprise.

Contacted Neal for a faulty order…

12th Dec BLF Message - no reply
12th Dec Facebook messenger - no reply
21st Dec Email - no reply

Oh, okay. Yeah, that’s a huge distinction. He’s not a scammer; he just scams people. Got it.

Taking payment for items you can’t/wont ship is a scam. NG needs to be banned.

That IS a huge distinction.
A scammer is somebody whose original idea is to scam you out of your money and nothing else. These people scam 100% of their customers. Maybe they even behaved nicely in the beginning in order to gain trust and then started their scams, but it was all planned.
A person whose original idea is to honestly sell you stuff, but then fulfills some orders and ignores others, is scamming people, present continuous tense means something that’s ongoing, if I remember my English classes correctly. Although the scammed people are not 100% of the customers, the scam is still going on. People are looking for help from their banks or from PayPal, how would you call this, pal?

I’d call it standard business practice for asian sellers. When you compete on price, you don’t spend much on service. If you want good service, buy locally and pay twice as much. Your choice.

Interesting point. I wonder why I don’t see any threads with dozens of complaints against other Asian sellers. Maybe a lot of people have something personal against Neal?

What’s the local US source for the FW series lights, please?

Anyone here have the Wish app? Ever buy anything from it? You’re looking at 2+ months from order to delivery. With much of that with no tracking info/updates. Unfortunately this is how many Chinese businesses operate. Think about just how far that package is traveling for the small delivery fee you are paying.

As much as I prefer to buy American, I’m not paying $199 for a Surefire 1000 lumen light when I can buy an Astrolux c8 for $18 that is made just as good.

Customer service from China is sub par. It is what it is.

If someone received a wrong item, or after a few months nothing at all, that is a valid complaint.

If you placed an order a few weeks ago and haven’t heard anything, I hate to say it but that’s normal in dealing with China.

There isn’t one. You would have to find an American company and literally pay 5-10x the price.

https://www.illumn.com/brand/index/view/brand/432/?brandname=Lumintop

They might not have them all but they’re in San Jose,CA. I try to get from them since I can get it almost in 2-3 days. Price is only a few dollars more due to tax and shipping.

Ahh yes forgot about illumn. Some lumintop items can also be found on Amazon and are Prime with 2 day shipping. But many Chinese brands do not have a US seller that I am aware of.

Huh? Are you serious? There’s plenty of threads bashing Asian sellers like 192led, Aliexpress, Liitokalla, gearbest, bangood, etc. You can probably find just as many praising them, including people defending Neal. I’ve had both good and bad experiences with most overseas sellers. It mostly seems to depend on what side of the bed the service chatbot got up.

The good thing about the bigger Chinese marketplace sites and ebay is that they maintain seller ratings and reviews, and most sellers fight to be over 90% positive. Now imagine if NG was on one of these platforms instead of being an independent site. What %positive do you think Neal would have as an ebay rating?