Fast shipping, as far as I can tell. Granted, this is based on only two orders. My last one was placed on 12/17, shipped from HK three days later and arrived in the US today (12/27). I am not sure how they managed to do that (my theory is that HKP prioritizes personal mail over bulk/commercial mailings; in any case, I've never seen actual stamps on anything else ordered from HK) but, well, color me impressed.
Pretty good selection. Some budget lights, some of the big names and some of the usual suspects (TF, Smallsun, etc). Prices seem okayish. For the most part, a couple of bucks more expensive than the large players (DX, FP, etc.) but I guess there are some pretty good deals to be had (TR-1200 for $40.84, albeit that's probably the new, ridiculously underdrived version). If they manage to keep it up with the quick shipping, I for one don't mind paying a buck or two more.
Cons:
Really crappy packaging. No bubble wrap, no padded envelopes, no peanuts, no nothing. Some kind soul re-sealed my last package after it was damaged in transit and by the time it got here, it was held together by nothing but Scotch tape. It's probably a good idea to buy a tracking number ($2) if you order anything of value.
[Update] Customer service is a black hole. Completely unresponsive to clear-cut RMA issue until Paypal was involved after numerous attempts at resolving the issue. I would be hesitant to order any high-value items for that reason alone.
I've had stamps on stuff from ITC and KaiDomain lately. You may be right that it is a way to prioritize the mail since I got both of those pretty quickly. I did a conversion and ITC had about $4 in postage on a $13 order with a L2i host. KaiDomain's was just $0.84 on a $13 order (a drop-in)
Aloha Oxy! Were your 1st 2 orders flashlights? If so and since the packaging was so crappy, was anything damaged or scratched up? You'd think that they would at least ship things inside a padded or bubble wrapped envelope.
Being an ex philatelyst i would certainly love to recieve stamps on my order. Unfortunately those will almost never survive the handling and legging of postal services worldwide.
I did the conversion to get US dollars. It's still cheap. I don't think I could send a drop-in within the US for 85 cents, let alone international. What gets me is when they send stuff registered and my post office does all this paperwork to track it. The US post office spends more time processing and tracking the registered mail than it cost for China to send the package. Maybe this is China's plan . . . anyway, the post office lost $8.5 billion and weren't allowed to raise the stamp prices to make up the difference even after eliminating 100,000 jobs, so I guess it is working.
I assumed those were HKD prices, not US$. It says a lot when the postage is 30% of the order price.
I could (just) send a dropin around the EU for that sort of money and our PO is losing money hand over fist too - I think it is losing around a million pounds a day, down from two million a day a few years ago.
But that is what happens when you privatise the profitable bits and keep the rest. Living where I do, I know that many carriers want extra money to deliver to any AB postcode (Even the ones in the city). A lot of extra money. The PO doesn't.
Sorry for the late reply. Between New Years, the weather and work I totally forgot about this thread.
The second package (the one that looked like it went three rounds with the Incredible Hulk and lost... badly) contained a knife and it seems like the sheath protected it pretty well. The first was a C3 that I've since given away. There were some scratches, if I recall correctly but nothing major.
Only a bit of an update: both orders have arrived and it's pretty much the same deal, except this time they did use (lightly) padded envelopes (the old-school button & string type). Shipping was slower but considering the circumstances (New Years, air cargo capacity problems, Walmart jumping on the "healthy food" bandwagon and other natural disasters, etc) still acceptable. That's the good news.
The bad news is that I had to contact their customer service (obvious lack of QC/RMA issue) and I don't know what those guys do all day long but they make JD Salinger look like an attention whore. ;)
I've emailed them four times now, using both the email address listed on their webpage and their form, and I haven't heard a peep from them in over 10 days. No canned reply, na-da. For all I know, they could be sending all email straight to /dev/null. I think I'll give them one last chance before I go and contact Paypal.
Well, after eight emails with no response whatsoever and sending them several pictures, I finally opened a Paypal dispute and explained to them in very certain terms that I wasn't going to go away and that I was prepared to see this through, no matter if it made economic sense or not. Long story short, I received my refund tonight. No apology, reply or acknowledgement to my emails. I don't think I'll be buying from them again.
Damn, Oxy....it's too bad you had to go through that. Thankfully Paypal disputes still get results. Btw, how's that "healthy food' bandwagon holding up? Personally, I've switched from stouts and porters to lagers and have seen great results! Look for my workout video next to Jillian Michaels at Walmart
It's a shame these companies can't be more up-front and communicative. A simple "Sorry, our supplier ran out of aluminum and can't ship until Feb 15" or "Sorry we lost your order slip" would go a long way and many of us would wait patiently. But instead we give them our money and they thank us with stony silence.
What they do understand is a gun placed at their temple... unbelievable.. My ordeals have made me jaded .. i start off by warning them that've basiclly had enough ..i just mark the calander and get ready for a paypal dispute ..a simple clicky .. clicity click and bingo cash back program ..Ill be interested in the one who actually keeps holding out all the way thru to a conclusion settled by paypal yea or nay .. something to look forward to .. .. if 3 % of dealers in a country did this you'd stereotype the entire country as morons ,liars and thieves .. when 25% of all vendors you deal with screw you in some way .it's time to go back and appologize to the japanese for not buying more cars /tv's and for ever shopping at a walmart .
