Rating: Kaidomain.com

http://kaidomain.com

Pros:

  • Good selection
  • Some unique products at competitive prices
  • Legitimate seller
  • Recent reports of more prompt shipments and better customer service

Cons:

  • Terrible in-stock / back-ordered notification
  • Terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad product descriptions
  • Chaotic website organization and poor search function
  • Turnaround time from order until departure from shipping department can be slow
  • Inconsistent customer service
  • Mythical "Jerry" figure
1 Thank

I like KaiDomain with some caveats, the main one being their claim of lumens and runtime are simply fraudulent. The only thing I bought from them was an Ultrafire S10. They advertised the XR-E R2 LED as capable of 250 lumens on a single AA battery. In reality it was more like 120. I assumed I could use a 14500 li-ion battery like the S10's at DX, but that was a poor assumption on my part, not KD who said it was for AA only.


But they shipped quickly, even though it was December. And I submitted a pretty negative review (2 stars out of 5) and they published it (took a few days). That light is now listed as a 2-star light (primarily because of the exaggerated output claim and a few other issues with the light). I have heard DX will filter out negative reviews and I have written a couple of reviews at DX which were never published (even though they were both positive!). I did not get KD points for the review or pictures, so that feature doesn't seem to work.

I also had a hard time with their ordering process and my order wasn't assigned to an account somehow. It was my first time ordering and setting up an account, so I am sure a lot of it was my fault.

The other bad thing about KD, which isn't their fault, is they don't have nearly as many reviews and comments as DX. About the only way to find out what you are really getting is through the comments because the stats can be wrong or non-existent. So that really hurts them.

I gave KD three stars, they have never made a mistake with one of my orders and the orders arrive in reasonable time. The KD website is not particularly good though, the search facility isn't very efficient, imo.

Rated them good. I have placed a few orders with them now the latest I recieved was a 5 mode Ultrafire 501b R5 for $14. When I ordered it went straight to back order but shipped 3 days later.

There web site SUX though for trying to find anything.

Agreed Flexakamal, their website is awful. And I hate their workflow for order processing. As you said, the product description says "In stock, ships immediately", and as soon as you pay, it goes to "back-ordered." Very, very bad style. And it needlessly angers their customers. They should just say "product ships in 3 to 7 days", and list it as "waiting for supplier" instead of putting "back-ordered." But at least they are legitimate, and sooner or later they do ship stuff.

About 40 orders in the last 2 years, rating - a solid 3 stars.

Hrvoje

Does anyone have much experience with how KD deal with returns? I believe DX will sometimes not even bother to ask you to return the item if they are convinced (I guess) it's defective and you didn't damage it and it probably helps if you've had lots of deals with them (which I don't) and they. Does KD do the same?

And DX also sometimes reimburse return shipping depending on how much it costs, up to 60% for DOA or 35% for 90 days of the item cost or US$40 supposedly (well they always do for the US if you ship according to their terms I believe but I don't live in the US or nearby so their US RMA centre is irrelevant to me) Kaidomain just say (once I actually found the return page) they will pay resonable costs to ship the item back to you. Does KD reimburse shipping much or at all?

It seems DX also allow returns up to 60 more days past the 30 day mark if you pay for shipping both ways whereas KD only do the 30 days.

Actually it seems DX do up to 90 days (conflicting info on the website) they will pay for shipping both ways (albeit a lesser amount if it isn't within 5 days. And 90-150 days they will pay for shipping back to you. KD's returns policy seems a lot less generous in comparison, unless DX don't really obey their policy (but OT here)

I only tried to ask for a refund once with KD on an item that didn't show up. They never responded but the item showed up later so I sent a follow-up that there was no problem. If something fails, hopefully it is within 45 days of the order and you have PayPal as a backup.

KD are watching this Forum I suspect. Their order handling has improved to a point where I would rate them above DX in speed and stock on hand accuracy.

If only they would fix the Descriptions!!!

The first is Smallsun ZY-1200L. The clicky switch on this one failed after a few days. I mailed them about the issue, but I did never get any replay. I have bought a 5-pack of these clickies from DX with my next order there. So not a big trouble. The light is working fine since then and I'm very satisfied with tthis one.

The second one I got is a NF-500, a Q5 flood-to-throw with three modes. It draws 1200mA from a fully charged 18650 batterie. I know that's a bit to much, but I don't care. It's the brightest zooming light I have, and I have a bunch. I think it goes around 180 lm. I own a SmallSun ZY-A4 from DX, that I modded to a R2 (on a 20mm star, from DX). That one drives only at 1000mA. It comes now closed to the output of the NF-500, but just closed.

The shipping time was ok (about like with DX). Yes, the website is quite messy and specially the wishlist is real pain in the a.... The descriptions are often completely wrong. I would say three stars.

The links to the Items above:

http://www.kaidomain.com/ProductDetails.aspx?ProductId=10510

http://www.kaidomain.com/ProductDetails.aspx?ProductId=10046

Welcome Oldinea!

Good to have you here.

I was reading all over this forum for a wile. It's just the first time I felt like posting something. I got involved to LED lights some months ago. Since then I was reading a lot in the DX forum. It was a good thing to do that, because without the knowledge base, I have got from there, I would probably not be able to pick a good light at KD. Or at least, it would be more some what like gambling.

Hello Oldinea, a warm welcome to BLF! Enjoy your time here.

Welcome to BLF. Im sure your are coming to the right friendly place for flashlight discussions.

Aloha and welcome to BLF Oldinea!

I don't know why KD still has listed in "pros" fast communication? I ordered the gold colored hugsby p32, which I guess wasn't in stock, and asked them after a while if they could switch to the black one if they won't get more stock soon. No replies at all.

I had have some trouble with the Shekor charger I got from there (1 bay doesn't really terminate), and also no response.

Now, I would be extremely hesistent to purchase anything remotely expensive there as they can't even respond to simply queries, so you may have to depend on paypal to get your money back.

+1

I ordered some XPG´s in kai that never arrived.I try to contact them in several occasions.They never responded.

When the fullness of time out, recover my money via paypal claim.

Then they erased my order history and my account in Kai.(about seven orders had no problems with them)

Obviously that was my last order, forever.

for the welcome.

@ XRAYBoY

It sounds like business suicide.

By reading this i'm positive that i will not order anything from kaidomain. I suspected the were not up to the job. Chaotic webpage organisation is also a con. Dealextreme was always ok (about 8 orders so far) if anything a bit slow. Lightake seem decent too. 1 order so far and took me 21 full days to get the goods. DX takes usually 14 days from shipping confirmed.

Thanks! Fixed. Although my personal experience was that they communicated better than DX. Must have been a fluke though. Still, I personally think that DX's customer service is absolutely appalling, especially in view of the amount of customers they have.