Negative experience with NealsGadgets

So no info on website which items it is in stock, or when it will be restock. If you order different items and wait to restock all of them it is possible to wait one month for sending a package. I made order on 13 June and still waiting to be proceed my order. On Bangood it happened to me when I ordered something that it was not available after my order but they always sent me what was available with priority with different packages. I know that Neal’s buisness is not big like BG or GB but there need to be any time margin for sending packages.

My experience with Nealsgadgets has been much better than my ongoing experience with ff-light.com.

I ordered a E07 from Fireflies on May23rd and then ordered a FW21a Pro from NealsGadgets 2 days later. Fast forward and today, I’ve had my FW21a Pro for 2 weeks now and still waiting for my E07….

I messaged Neal via facebook messenger with a question and he replied to me within 24 hours. FireFlies took much longer AFTER I sent about 6 emails.

I’ve also bought 2 Convoys via Banggood and they were decent but not quite as fast as Neal as far as shipping time to my door. Banggood’s customer service is mostly a bot on messenger.

The one thing I learned that always works is to be persistent. It takes all of 30 secs to send an email/message

Since the way Neal runs his business is making you UnHappy since June 13…

Cancel your order.

order i placed on jun12 is still pending, he finally replied last week to tell me that one of the two items i ordered that was in stock when i hit order was actually out of stock and that he could replace it with a similar item , which was ok with me, this was a week ago and yet my order is still unfulfilled. issue i have is i chose expedited shipping and paid the $25 us(works out to be more like 45AUD) extra shipping costs, and yet i still have no order, these were ordered for a birthday present for a family member which looks like i now have to try to find something esle to get them.

i think im just going to contact paypal and get my money back.

Hi I have same problem as you. Do you have any progress over your case. I still waiting and think to finally open dispute on Paypal. I message Neal five days ago for any info about my order and so far I didn’t received any answer from him. He doesn’t offer me any replacement of out of stock Nightwatch NS43, or to send me one second ordered Nitecore flashlight. This will be my first and last order from him :rage: .

Poor guy, barely anyone defends this guy. I had a decent experience with Neal, order got delivered with snail mail but got delivered. Typical communication, of a busy guy, probably almost none. but I understood it, I am no VIP.

This was a while ago. I thought he was a small flashlight store, I had no idea he is running such a large drop shipping operation. Things change, Sounds like he is today a totally different person. So maybe it is ok to warn people and to be cautious.

Just remember he is not a major corporation. I don’t know if he is a shark or how much money is in it but seems like he is making a small cut from the sale and maybe he is sharing that with other affiliates and BLF members. I am not one of them. If you think he is ripping you off, try to cancel the order before you do anything really mean to him,
If you and other people start a Paypal dispute he will get wiped out by Paypal fees. Try to cancel if you can, I think those fees are not as bad as disputes. If you can’t cancel then obviously you do what is in the best interest for you

Well there are two feedback threads on Neal.

One for him and one against him.

This is the thread that is against Neal.

(When it comes to vendor feedback threads, I prefer the ones that have both positive and negative experiences together, but that's generally not what we have here.)

I see , the search is reveling
the positive comments are in the minority, maybe I should shut up.

I think it's okay to share your experiences in either thread.

I don't think you should shut up, but that's just my opinion.

Not being actually affected by these problems I feel somehow torn regarding the situation about Neal. I don't mean to judge about it but this is what I have observed:

  • A considerable number of people here report about problems with Neal, him not responding, him not shipping, ...
  • Then there's a new thread here that warns BLF members of sellers that have catched a lot of negative attention. Neal is not (yet) on that list.
  • Then we get to see regular updates or even new threads about new flashlights and promotions that are exclusively available by Neal. So, in someway there must be some kind of communication between him and others.

I wonder if there's any way to get all these ongoing issues straightened out. I'm sure that everyone wants Neal to remain here as a valuable member and seller and most people do understand all these challenges that have come up with Covid-19, his newborn baby and him working all alone as a "one man show". But anyway, at least I would expect some kind of an official statement from him how things can become better in the future, especially since he is frequently offering new products on his shop. Total lack of communication cannot be good.

I had a question about order i made 2 days ago and he replied within a few hours on facebook messenger… he has always responded and shipped out orders quickly for me so far. corona will now make shipping a bit slow then usual but thats not his fault.

I see a pattern

people that order stuff that is out of stock, dont get prompt replies to questions Neal cannot answer, like:
“when is my out of stock item going to ship”

people that order stuff that is out of stock, plus something In Stock, do not get anything shipped until the order is complete, and they dont get replies to emails, asking when the order combined with out of stock items will ship.

my advice

  1. if something is out of stock and you are tired of waiting, cancel that order. From what Ive read, Neal is very fast at refunding unshipped orders.

2. If something is In Stock, order it, but do NOT combine the order with things that are Out of Stock, unless you understand that your order will not ship until it is complete. and dont waste your time asking when your your order will ship, since there is no way to predict when out of stock will change to in stock.

3. Whatever your reason for emailing, if you dont get an answer after two tries… rethink your expectations… and take unilateral action to put an end to your frustrating experience.

He must know of this thread so it would be nice for some communication and feedback from him on the issues instead of just ignoring it.

How it is possible to know which items is out of stock when in listing there is no evidence for that. So in practise you make a order and after payment when after 2-3 days whitout shipping you figured out that the item is out of stock. You do not receive any notice or apology from Neal for that. You selling something you don’t have it and think a people for fools.

I’m quite happy with Neal’s service. And based on my purchases over the last year, he is now my favorite flashlight vendor. :sunglasses:

That said it probably wouldn’t hurt for him to update his website.

It would help a lot if the site told us if an item is in stock and how many are left. And if an item is on backorder, it would be helpful to have an ETA on when it is expected to be back in stock.

I agree it is frustrating that the website does not reveal out of stock items.
I agree it is frustrating that Neil does not answer emails about out of stock items.

put an end to frustrating relationships

I would then ask Neil for a refund.
If he does not reply, I would use Paypal dispute.

> it would be nice for some communication

Accept that is not happening.

End your Unhappy relationship with Neal.

So far I think there are more customers with negative experince compared to that with positive. Maybe if I make a oder for one thousand dollars I will receive better CS. In my country that is normal to be seen :money_mouth_face:

I am so surprised that there are so many customers having negative experience with Neal. We are both partnering with Lumintop, and I know that he has been in this business for a while and doing pretty well. I will definitively let him know the issues here and try to resolve them.

Thank you all for your patience and understanding.

i never did get another reply, but my order has shipped now. i wont know if it has the Amutorch XT45 sbt90.2 or the NIGHTWATCH NI40 sbt90.2 that he said he would swap the amutorch for.

Ive also had issues with other online stores based in china/hongkong in June so im wondering if there are other thing (other than covid/protests) going on that could be causing issues with these small stores

I will share my experience here too, I am not against Neal but someone needs to do something … he has updated products and in years ago I never had a problem with my purchases on his website, and it was always okay with his deliveries to Brazil. But currently I have faced many problems with purchases and deliveries, I am being forced to ask for a refund constantly for simply not sending my order. I have been trying to get some response from Neal by email but it is useless, he does not answer or explain why he does not send, my requests for May 27, June 4 and June 11 were not sent and I had to request a refund. The strange thing is that I don’t even need to ask Paypal, when I request a refund by email, I am answered the same day. But when I request shipping information, I am simply ignored. On the 21st of June I placed another order, and I have already sent 2 emails to get information about the shipment, and once again I am being ignored. Is Neal really receiving emails? does he know what’s really going on? Or are you just not caring? Too bad that happens …
Sorry for my bad English.