After reading mutiple positive reviews on the MF01
I went ahead and bought it from Banggood.
Received a defective set with either the LED, TIR lens or the Circuit board.
Contacted Banggood and the after sales support is really appalling.
Banggood told me to replace the LED myself or that they will refund $5?!
Are you kidding me Banggood
did you pay with paypal, maybe you can ask for refund, this is unacceptable
they don’t know how hard is it to reflow a led on this huge MCPCB
Forgot my pen
You can not reflow one led without unsoldering all other leds temporarily, you will have to heat up the entire MCPCB. This can be done if you are in to that but Banggood can not expect any customer to do that.
Perhaps you can ask for a new ledboard with leds already reflowed? With a hefty solder iron you can solder the ledwires, and you have a chunk of copper with a bunch of nice emitters spare to pay for the trouble you had.
link to djozz tests
“I used to think that top environmental problems were biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse and climate change. I thought that thirty years of good science could address these problems. I was wrong. The top environmental problems are selfishness, greed and apathy, and to deal with these we need a cultural and spiritual transformation. And we scientists don’t know how to do that.” (Gus Speth)
Fortunately, I did but it will take some time for a paypal claim.
Thanks for the reaffirmation, i was starting to think being difficult.
I reported the defect on 17th Nov the date I received the light.
And till date after 6 days and being pushed around to various customer service rep,
the best solution they have was an LED replacement, $5 refund or 350 BG points.
if you are not happy with reflowing a new LED
It is not acceptable BG asks a normal customer to do a reflow on a multi emitter board
Ask them for replacement MCPCB
[Reviews] Miboxer C4-12, C2-4k+6k, C2, C4 / Astrolux K1, MF01, MF02, S42, K01, TI3A / BLF Q8 / Kalrus G35, XT11GT / Nitefox UT20 / Niwalker BK-FA30S / Sofirn SF36, SP35 / Imalent DM21TW / Wuben I333 / Ravemen PR1200 / CL06 lantern / Xanes headlamp
[Mods] Skilhunt H03 short / Klarus XT11GT, XT12GTS / Zebralight SC50+ / Imalent DM21TW / colorful anodisation
[Sale] TA based drivers NarsilM or Bistro OTSM 17-22mm, S42, L6, Q8, MF01, SRK, TN42 / Narsil based buck driver for 20-30mm MF01/02, TN40/42, GT, MT09R / Remote switch tail DD board with FET
tbh i have no knowledge on reflwoing an LED nor do i know how to replace the MCPCB myself.
Astrolux S1 , S2 , S42 were great lights that served well for a good price point.
Then the MF01 came along.
I have a couple of MH10 on the way, keeping my fingers crossed
Did Banggood hire interns for their Customer Service Support?
Look at the reply I got today, they’re asking me to ask someone to solder the LED for me.
Are you kidding me Banggood?!
Extremely unprofessional and irresponsible.
tell them that such an LED on a star cant be soldered with an iron, reflow needs a special oven and solder paste
[Reviews] Miboxer C4-12, C2-4k+6k, C2, C4 / Astrolux K1, MF01, MF02, S42, K01, TI3A / BLF Q8 / Kalrus G35, XT11GT / Nitefox UT20 / Niwalker BK-FA30S / Sofirn SF36, SP35 / Imalent DM21TW / Wuben I333 / Ravemen PR1200 / CL06 lantern / Xanes headlamp
[Mods] Skilhunt H03 short / Klarus XT11GT, XT12GTS / Zebralight SC50+ / Imalent DM21TW / colorful anodisation
[Sale] TA based drivers NarsilM or Bistro OTSM 17-22mm, S42, L6, Q8, MF01, SRK, TN42 / Narsil based buck driver for 20-30mm MF01/02, TN40/42, GT, MT09R / Remote switch tail DD board with FET
Don’t bother, they will not understand what you are telling them. Instead propose them to have it repaired by a specialised electronics engineer and ask them to pay the $150 bill.
link to djozz tests
“I used to think that top environmental problems were biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse and climate change. I thought that thirty years of good science could address these problems. I was wrong. The top environmental problems are selfishness, greed and apathy, and to deal with these we need a cultural and spiritual transformation. And we scientists don’t know how to do that.” (Gus Speth)
I’ve told them so.
Now they’re saying the defective MF01 might be damaged during shipment back.
And offer $16.5 and ask me to keep the defective light
!
!
We are very sorry for the inconvenience of your order 38431455.
For this problem, since return would cost money and time, also the shipping fee for return would be more expensive and this flashlight may be damage during the transport. So could you please keep this flashlight and accept us to refund S$16.5 for you?
Or we could offer you a big coupon if you want to order another flashlight?
Looking forward to your kind reply.
Best regards,
Mandy
djozz , you are absolutely right, I believe they are using google translate to communicate. Either way opening a case with Paypal seems to be the only option
I dont understand how they even can offer that as an option.
The amount of people who can do it or want to do it to a 80-100$ multi emitter light has to be like…. 3 people?
I reflow a few leds, but on a board that size………not gona happen.
Banggood needs to understand that not all flashlight buyers are able or even interested in moding/repairing lights. I would go so far as to guess more than 80% of their customers have no soldering equipment at all, and expect to simply insert batteries and use their lights.
Watching this, as I have a pair of MF-02’s and some other stuff coming from Banggood.
For reflow of this big star you need a heatplate or a plate you heat with a gas burner
I got myself a regulated heatplate
The good thing about such a controller it can calibrate itself to the heat elements and mass it heats up
To cool the stuff down I use a small can with cold water
[Reviews] Miboxer C4-12, C2-4k+6k, C2, C4 / Astrolux K1, MF01, MF02, S42, K01, TI3A / BLF Q8 / Kalrus G35, XT11GT / Nitefox UT20 / Niwalker BK-FA30S / Sofirn SF36, SP35 / Imalent DM21TW / Wuben I333 / Ravemen PR1200 / CL06 lantern / Xanes headlamp
[Mods] Skilhunt H03 short / Klarus XT11GT, XT12GTS / Zebralight SC50+ / Imalent DM21TW / colorful anodisation
[Sale] TA based drivers NarsilM or Bistro OTSM 17-22mm, S42, L6, Q8, MF01, SRK, TN42 / Narsil based buck driver for 20-30mm MF01/02, TN40/42, GT, MT09R / Remote switch tail DD board with FET
light is defective, do dispute paypal, banggood is a joke these days… u did not buy a DIY flashlight kit, even if 1 led of all those multiple is dead it is dead and nothing else, its a pain in the ass id imagine to do that yourself thats even a joke they even suggest that.. u dont buy a new flashlight to have to solder a new led because u got a defetive one.. they must cover that and send the broken on to the manufacturer..
...where Frugal meets with Flashlight!
After receiving empty box, with double accessories but without Thorfire flashlight inside,it took me almost a month dealing with BG customer service, recording video, taking pictures etc. …
Eventually I give up and raised PayPal dispute, got my money in a week!!
their CS is a joke… file a paypal claim and escalate it to a dispute
you will receive a full refund
This is what i got today! 24/11/2017
It’s starting to become hilarious
Exact quotes
———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-
We are very sorry for the inconvenience of your order 38431455.
For this problem, we are sorry that you want to return this flashlight, but there is one led could not work fine at that time so we really hope you could keep this flashlight. *+For returning this flashlight, we afraid that the others part of this flashlight may broken also due to unknows cause.
So could you please keep this flashlight and we would refund S$35 for you?
And you could order a new flashlight again.
Looking forward to your kind reply.
Best regards,
Mandy
I’ve just filed for a Paypal claim. Will update the progress here for forumers to referrence in the future.
Not too far off
“For returning this flashlight, we afraid that the others part of this flashlight may broken also due to unknows cause.”
LOL
“If we send you 10 meter of 3D print wire, are you able to 3D print the missing flashlight yourself?”
Update Guys.
Escalated the Paypal case and Banggood emailed the next day offering a full refund.
Would be good to pay via Paypal if purchasing from Banggood or Gearbest in the future.
u should always pay with paypal, in case something goes wrong u can file a dispute and they cant send joke replies like that to fix yourself..
...where Frugal meets with Flashlight!
the problem here is you actually read what they sent ..they didn’t bother to do that to you. i think this is all done to weed out the buyers who are actually out to screw them . It would normally go …send us pictures /send us videos send us a letter from your postmaster ,,,can you accept another broken flashlight as a replacement ? how ‘bout a cookie ? 5 weeks later 2% die ….5% forget they bought a light..7% take the free led offer(thinking they can fix it )…..8% stop scamming for a free light … 10% get discouraged and just chalk it up to a bad Chinese experience ..15% are in the hospital because their wives found out they bought another flashlight that cost over $80.00….50% file a claim/dispute and 3% are still trying to figure out how any of this makes any sense ..just write them back every day and don’t make worry sense to be in happiness that light money spending
καὶ τὸ φῶς ἐν τῇ σκοτίᾳ φαίνει καὶ ἡ σκοτία αὐτὸ οὐ κατέλαβεν
CS posts like this really p!ss me off.
I never give anymore then one reply. After that it is sent to paypal.
If you don’t, they will send you around the twist.
CS people want to keep the customers (happy) and also the company.
They are assisted by a lot of scripts, often created to keep customer fraude to a minimum.
At complaints they start with the lowest bid possible.
Which will rise when the customer rejects that bid for a good reason.
Apart from the language barrier, there is another aspect to consider.
I think I am not the only person who prepares himself for a buy by reading as much as possible about it.
Which means I know quite a lot about a few lights and practically nothing about their other lights.
And I don’t care a bit about the rest of the 50,000 items, from E-bikes and garden equipment to clothes and XXX-toys.
This is not an average brick and mortar store with 2,000 items where pop & mom have spent the better half of their lives.
I really doubt if the average CS-person realises that a multi-emitter ledboard is not a DIY-job for the faint harted.
But I do think they will realise that, provided you give them adequate information.
BTW I am not on anyone’s payroll in any way and have rejected several suggestions in that direction with the answer that I only want to be a satisfied customer.
I always think long and hard before I say something really stupid.
I fought GB for about 3 weeks and they did the same thing in the beginning, $5 refund for a near $100 product. And they finally agreed to do a resend but want me to pay a handling fee of $50 or something bigger. Fought them for another week or so they FINALLY agreed to do a free resend… GB and BG these days really dropped their CS standards big time…
I’ve had two faulty lights from banggood with both satisfactory outcomes.
Like Noop i had a faulty MF01 head and they sent me a new head out to replace the defective one.