Negative experience with NealsGadgets

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.

i got my order on tuesday , looks like he sent me the nighwatch ni40 in place of the amutorch which is actually good because i originally only ordered the amutorch one because the nightwatch was supposed to put out of stock. so im glad i finally got my order even if it took 3 weeks to actualy post it (and then only 5 days to arrive because i paid for DHL) but the delay without communications will make me think twice in future which is a bummer because he has a great selection

I am the same situation as CoRDS and Cesconetto. Finally at 7 July I received email confirmation for shipment. From tracking number I saw that my package is sent one week earlier.
But as CoRDS I don’t know what was actually sent is that my original NS43 or NS53A for which I asked for replacement from Neal. I have better communication with him over FB, so if you need to contact with him just try it first there. Neal really need to hire someone which to help him with customer service. He is currently destroying his business with this attitude towards his customers.

I came here specifically to see if there is a widespread issue with Nealsgadgets. Mainly I came to check because if there is BLF is always the place to find out. There have been people over the past 1-2 years or so that I have been reviewing lights that he sent me on my Youtube channel who have commented about a lack of communication from Neil. When I see these things I relay them to Neal in a nice way and try to encourage him to take measures to improve communication (an email notification or back order marker on the site I mentioned specifically).
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Relating my own experience on the subject is probly not valid evidence because its likely that even when I order through regular channels on his website that I may be getting “special treatment”. So all I will say about that is I currently have one order with an excessive delay and not been told when it will ship. All of the others I placed shipped within a reasonable time.
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I don’t want to minimize this at all. If I had an 8 page thread about my shop (Adventure Sport Flashlights) going around BLF you can bet your 5 best lights I would be in it to find out what went wrong and fixing it.
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.I will say this about it. He has never told me so but based on my experience I would bet that Neal is handling in the neighborhood of a million dollars a year in flashlights. Just for one example. When the FW3A was released, before I ever had one in hand something to the effect of 1500pc had sold from his shop. That is just one light over a few days time. Even if he packed and shipped 200 orders per day (and sold no other lights at all during that time) that is 8 days of non stop packing. If you figure he is processing thousands of orders a month that would mean maybe one in a thousand is landing here.
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And right or wrong this is the reality of the situation. Everyone buys from Neal because he gets the very newest, very best lights lights. Marks them at a cheap price and then offers coupon codes on top of that. This is just my opinion, but I think he is probly at the place where his business has taken off but that razor thin margin makes it difficult for him to hire and train more help.
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I have been communicating with him on a semi regular basis about this and I don’t know if hes considering my ideas about the website changes or not. I do know that he told me he planned to have his wife start helping him answer emails.

Sounds like Neil is robbing Peter to pay Paul.

1. Put up a website and collect money from customers (Peter), for lights that are not (yet), in stock.

2. When enough money comes in, pay the Factory (Paul), for a MOQ of 500 lights (of each color)

He does ship… just not when you order
Think of it as a prepaid group buy, and wait patiently
Dont bug him with emails that he can do nothing about.

Your light will ship, when:

1. the group buy is funded,
2. the factory is paid,
3. the lights are built, and
4. Neil receives them, and
5. ships them.

Do not expect his wife to explain that to you by email.

Myself, I dont order from Neil, because of this thread.

never had an issue with him, always shipping my orders within a few days or so and they arrived without any problems.

one thing he should list more clearly is the actual stock of lights so that u dont order something that is not in stock…

I’ve had two orders arrive within 8 calendar days from order to doorstep (Los Angeles). From what I can tell, the item is likely shipped in a bulk container, then received by a local Chinese shipping company where someone slaps a USPS shipping label over the foreign one. USPS delivers the last leg of the trip.

If an order does not ship within 2 working days, I would reach out to ensure it’s in stock.

I think this sounds like from a Charles Dickens novel. and very similar to the businesses ran by Charles P…… and Bernie…. That means you can’t just stop taking new orders and catch up with the old ones because the new funds have been spent on yourself already. That’s why you can’t trust anyone and hire anyone else but your wife.

I would simply assume that all 1-man-shops are doing it this way. There is no way a single person could fund several hundred of retail flashlights in a variety of colors, types, and models (let alone other brands and accessories). If a person had that kind of money under the mattress they probably wouldn’t need to work as a flashlight reseller.
Most smaller shops operate like this, ever been to your local, small-scale gun shop? They don’t have 500 different Heckler & Koch in stock because it would require half a million.

Different story for manufacturers like Olight et al, those are actual companies and not a small operation with proper business models, distribution partners and larger commercial agreements.

Hey, so I just received my Lumintop FW21 Pro from Neal, which I ordered on 2 August. I think that’s pretty great, given that it came from China (I think…). He answered some questions for me, kept me updated, sent notices when it shipped, tracking info…

For some reason, the two Imalent lights i ordered from him came earlier this week even though I ordered them at the same time.

Oh and this is off topic but man… This FW21 is gorgeous. I’m sitting here trying to find another Lumintop light to order :slight_smile:

I’ll 100% buy more lights from Neal

I have a pretty positive experience with him. Ordered something but shortly after found it cheaper elsewhere and with free shipping (Neal’s shipping cost $25). Responded within the hour and got my refund no questions asked. The shipping price is a pretty off putting but if I literally can’t find it elsewhere I’m willing to give him a shot.

I had to request a refund on some orders previously, but now it seems that everything is back to normal with Neal … he really liked to buy with him due to the news. And now that everything looks right, I already have a list of three more lights to place the order … Thanks Neal !!!

Hello people!

Does Neal looks at this forum for feedback about how he's doing?

Well, I am here for some bad news. I was taking a look at the Loneoceans' Lume1 driver thread and took a peek at Neal's gadgets website:

I have seen this sort of disturbing, stupid spammy stuff in other sites. In Neal's site you have to eat it whole, it won't go away by clicking close on the pop-ups. Really piss poor stuff. I really can't help to get amazed at this, because if that stuff even remotely works people must be braindeads. It makes me feel like kicking whoever is in charge's ass for turning the shopping experience into a piece of shite. :facepalm:

Usually my installed content blocker prevents these pop ups.

This thead, and I myself still have a tritium optic where one of the tritium vials emits no light. Asymmetrical…

But, the lume1 is exclusive to Neal for now. So what am I to do?

That's fine, scalpel_ninja, but what if your browser can't use a proper content blocker? The above screenshots were taken on a smartphone running Opera browser.

Still, if you are running a web store and people has to use a content blocker in it, it certainly says something bad about it.

If you are familiar with script blocking you can disable it all together on pc.

But if your on say a mobile device at home there is a more “advanced” method which you would use a raspberry pi and run Pi-hole and all network activity would go through the “Pi-hole” rather than to a DNS server managing ads and returns an unspecified address so no ads load at all. Mind you this method only works on your own network and wouldn’t apply if you are not at home/where the “Pi-hole” is connected.

I believe I understand what Barkuti is trying to get at. A good shopping experience should not require content blockers or Pi Holes to get rid of pop ups. However, Neal’s site is what it is. There are plenty of people lining up (myself included) to purchase the products he stocks. Rumor has it he’s a one-man operation and has little time or resources to refine the storefront. If his stock is selling well, I don’t think refining the site will be at the top of his priorities. Neal is not Hank of Emisar. I’m fluent in speaking Mandarin and can type pretty detailed (not perfect) messages in Chinese. The thought had crossed my mind to reach out and find out more about him. However, it would only satisfy a curiosity as I don’t have the ability to help him in any practical way.

I’m not inferring that’s “extra” steps are required for a good shopping experience but you already mentioned running some form of adblock so mentioning “A good shopping experience should not require content blockers” seems moot, I mention this as ads are more invasive than ever on any particular site in general compared to days past and was just giving a solution that could solve the dilemma of souring a shopping experience with “ads”.

Its a personal preference of mine to block ALL ads everywhere unless the ads support a business or content creator then exceptions are made on a case by case basis.

I absolutely agree and do implement similar blocking measures in my browsing practices. I too was trying to offer Barkuti a solution by suggesting an ad blocker to make shopping Neal’s site a bit easier. But I think his point was the presence of such pop ups implies it’s a poorly designed site, and it is.