Official Thread for COMETA Refunding - Problem solving

I purchased mine within a day of when it was released for sale. Luckily, I had been monitoring this forum and knew to create a washer for the battery and cover the soldered connections under the reflector before trying it. So far it works, but I’m not happy as it is not the light I thought I purchased, and I will not let anyone else use it given all the known issues.

I’d be happy if I could get a new pill (redesigned, with no shorting), with new drivers, new emitters, and the bigger cables… all assembled and tested. I could live with the inferior lens and the rattles in the zoom thread, and my tailcap seems to be fine. I realize that is not a likely outcome.

At a minimum, I think I should receive the repair kit and a lens cap. Then I would consider it overpriced, but usable.

Clearly customer service is not part of BG’s business model (among lots of other shortcomings…)

Thanks to Budda for trying to help out.

Here are some pics of the anodized disc that will show the difference between the Jaxman Z1 & the Cometa. The difference is plainly evident.

The Jaxman Z1 is on the left & the Cometa is on the right.

Yeah, I know; the pictures are pretty crappy…. no, very crappy… but I think/hope they are plain enough to see what I am referring to about the differences… :wink:

Could you please, keep us a bit closely to your movement in this case?
A week later from your post, no new information “from the kitchen”.

Obviously Manker and Cyberscudo dont know about this topic…

Pill and washer arrived

Washer is good size
It needs a little pressure and stays nicely in place when changing cells, good.

Pill
Looked good
A manker ledboard instead of Kronos
All well centered
Driver ring good tight

Put it in, works
Turn it off and on, no light
Really? Yes tail lights but nothing in the front
Is was careful so unscrewed tail
No hot spring
Again same situation
Argh!!!

Get driver out and when pushing the led up via the wires….
A cleanly cut red wire exactly where it goes through the the pill
OH FLIPPING NO!

The holes are too small.
Took some pics and am kind of lost now.
I need to widen the holes, something else then some simple wire soldering.
No time for it now so this is a winter project.
A real bummer this because without this metal work it cannot be used reliable :frowning:

Interesting there was a little plate tiny over the red wire on the driver, looked like a protection against shorts with the pill
Try to make pics of it but very small
Upload them later.

sigh

:person_facepalming:

Hmmmm, imagine that. :expressionless:
:person_facepalming: . :person_facepalming:

Here the pics

the cut

good amount of thermal grease seems arctic silver in how it behaves and looks
.
.
.

Interesting addition to the driver; a little tiny plate on the driver I do not remember on the first one

That doesn’t look right what is it attached too?

i think they are ignoring the case at all i sent a message about this order in their system and since 4 days no response at all. on monday i will open a paypal dispute.

The Cometa I received from Rusty Joe had the same exact cut on the red LED+ wire. I think that was the cause of the ground out on his, not the driver spring. It's just the insulation, but enough to cause a ground out. I believe it's the twisting pressure on the MCPCB of that re-designed black centering piece when tightening it up, that, along with sharp edges in the pill top hole, or the MCPCB. I use a small exacto knife to take the sharp edges off. Works well with aluminum and brass, makes a huge difference.

Bad though the replacement came that way...

Yeah after closer inspection the first driver had the same tiny disc on the same spot

When there is time I’ll dremel the holes a bit bigger and smooth things out.

Got a friend who becomes interested in flashlights and was interested in the Cometa before.
So I got one of those good Opus single cell chargers and thought this set would be a nice present but no way before it is totally fixed up.
But I don’t see it happen before his birthday :frowning:

Hi Banggood, as it has now been 10 days since you posted the above statement & we have heard nothing further, can I politely ask if there has been any progress made on finding this “best solution for you” that you mention ?
Thanks in advance.

The Professional guy never answer my PM :disappointed:

+1

After the latest email from one of their “professional” guys asking for yet more pictures & videos so that they can “Then we will check and give you a solution.” I have given up ever getting a refund or any sort of satisfactory solution.
I have now sourced & ordered the necessary parts myself to repair my Cometa”s to the best of my ablity.
I will make them as close to the spec I was led to believe they were going to be & at least they will be safe.
The only thing that I can”t do anything about is the host not being a Z1 but I will be putting square profile “O” rings on it to firm up the zoom action.
I have ordered 20awg wire to replace the 24awg led wires plus do spring bypasses, genuine Z1 lens & lens caps, another member has sent me butterfly spacers to go between the led & anodised retaining disc (thanks :+1: ), I will see if I can do something about the slop in the driver pocket & I had already made insulating discs for the pill bottom.
I have also learned that when a Chinese seller tells you that they can”t send you a replacement unless you close your paypal dispute as “the system won”t let them” that actually what they mean is close your paypal dispute & that way you can never get a refund from us.
Pretty disappointed to be honest concerning this whole saga.

My Cometa shorted out and melted the spring. I emailed customer service to get the washer kit and now they want videos and pictures. Man, all I asked for a the washer kit to make this light safe. I didn’t ask for a refund or any other replacement parts. I don’t feel like I should have to waste my time with all this crap to just get a washer kit!

No matter what; the build quality of this flashlight is very poor due to the excessive rattle. BG sold this light knowing the poor quality so they committed fraud. I have already asked for refund and at no point will the light be sent back to China. My advice for all BLF members is to keep the disputes open and to cause as much conflict as possible in order to expose BG’s choice to sell a defective product in a bait a switch campaign.

Where can those be found? What size works?

how can you fix the sloppy nature of the zoom adjustment for this light

I suggest the opposite. The more conflict you cause, the more conflict you end up with.
That steals energy away from anyone who has any interest in doing anything about this.
People give up quickly when they’re dealing with people who want to cause conflict.
Why bother, eh?

I followed my own advice — which I learned from longtime members here who’ve been through this before.
I wrote up the problems, emailed them, and posted the same info as a cautionary “review” — twice — on the sale page.
Nothing more. Nothing long, nothing complex, no big words, no conflict, no yelling at the poor customer service kids who don’t read English at all.

They refunded my money without my even asking for a refund, long ago, as I mentioned when it happened.
I don’t like the way they’re handling this. But it does look to me like the more hassle you cause, the longer you stay on the string, the more links get created to their product in search engines, and the more attention they, and you, get.

Ironically, the more you mention this, the higher Google will rank it as a popular search term.

There may be “no such thing as bad publicity” — but publicity may not be what you’re here for.

That’s just, like, my opinion, man. Yours is different, because you’re you and I’m not.