FAKE KLARUS FLASHLIGHTS WITHOUT WARRANTY

This is exactly why I won’t buy anything from Ali other than Convoy, Maxtoch, Sofirn, Thorfire, and a few others. But with those, you are purchasing direct from factory, and they will take care of you if problem arises.

Aliexpress is full of one man sellers, selling broken or fake items. This complaint board has hundreds of people who have gotten ripped off by Aliexpress sellers. Many just like your story. AliExpress: Reviews, Complaints, Customer Claims | ComplaintsBoard

I bought my Olight S1R in AliExpress and didn’t have any issue. However, some stores don’t seem to be very reliable on what they sell ! It’s really a matter of looking to several reviews of the different products and the store, before buying, to know if it is reliable or not!

BUT, it is not only in AliExpress, also in Gearbest or Bangood, or many other stores.

I hope you can solve that issue, though abartels!!

@klrman

Yes, I got the feeling too that it is not a fake product but an original one. And because of this I am writing this kind of report to avoid others getting same troubles as I am going thru.

I ordered a lot of small cheap flashlights, started with UltraFire low cost flashlights, and after investigation still don’t know for sure which website is the official one, hahaha. Since I am an audiophile and bought a lot of electronic components and devices in China the past 20 years or so, I am some sort of experienced buying in Asia, and know that there are a lot of manufacturers making and selling the same stuff under the same brand. Many brands are non existing and just used to sell goods under a name, not to provide for backup if something goes wrong.

For us, western orientated people, this is kind of strange. If we see a brand, we KNOW there is a company behind it, a company at which we can apply for warranty or help when something goes wrong, that doesn’t count for many Chinese products……
Not forgetting there are many diy people selling products made by themselves, badged with a brandname…. Sometimes a manufacturer is producing pcb’s, printed circuits, selling the boards in badges to whoever wants to buy them. This can result, or better saying, this RESULTS in completely different products, using different brands of components on pcb’s, using completely wrong values etc….
This makes it very difficult to buy those goods.

A very good example is a Chinese integrated amplifier I bought in Germany at a small company. The amplifier was a Korsun V8i, nowadays called Dussun V8i. It was a very heavy amplifier, weighing about 40kg, reviews were very good. A friend of mine bought one at the same time from another seller since my seller didn’t had any left at stock. My amp sounded horrible, uncontrolled bass, very harsh sounding mid and high. My friends one sounded very musical, good controlled bass etc. I never got mine sounding right and had to sell it with loss.
This amplifier btw was the one the Affirmation amplifier from the Red Rose (Mark Levinson) company was based on….

I am an electronics guy, I investigated the inside of this amp, and couldn’t find any differences between my friends one and mine.
A few years later I came to the conclusion that mine probably had FAKE Sanken power transistors in it, since I read an article about those used by many Chinese manufacturers, and that they sounded awful.

Back to flashlights, the UltraFire flashlights I own, they are all very cheap made, quality is not very high. But, I DO have one UltraFire
flashlight which is a real beauty, the UF-T50 which is an XML-T6 U2 flashlight, stepless dimmable, with a magnetic tailcap. This is one of the best quality flashlights I’ve encountered, ever, it’s a beauty. Probably all the other UltraFire flashlights were from different manufacturers, fake ones. The UF-T50 was rather expensive, paid €40 for it.

UPDATE FROM KLARUS:

Mail from Jenifer Liu from Klarus servicedesk:

“Hi Alex,
We well understand your situation, and we are sorry for any inconvenience, here we also thank you very much for your kindly suggestion, we will share it to our company and try to do best to improve it in future.

For your flashlight, after several checking, we still cannot find the series number on our system, so we cannot make sure if it is from our factory. Anyway, we will specially apply to our company to send you a head part as you are Klarus fans and we really understand your situation.

We will you keep you updated once the parcel has shipped out to your following address:”

GOOD NEWS, so I got warranty and getting a head replacement for my Klarus G20!

Also good news that Klarus probably will take notice of my suggestions and edit their website with the specified info.

I usually assume any product I get from China will be an as-is product with no warranty service.

As for the issue you’re having, how old are your cells? Just because they’re fully charged to 4.2 V doesn’t necessarily mean they’re healthy and can handle the high current draw on turbo. Are they protected cells?

Products from China, low cost products, yes, I agree, I wont apply for warranty and accept my loss.
But not for a rather expensive product. This flashlight was $75 which isn’t rather cheap or low cost, at least for me it isn’t.

The cells, 5 of them, are half a year old, 4 new ones, one in the Klarus. They are unprotected, and can deliver 20 amps or more

Vappower IMR26650 is one of the best cells available.

Well, they offered to send you the ram. Chances are high the rama lama ding-dong will function again.
(who says only Jay Z can write great lyrics)

“If you’re having flashlight problems I feel bad for you son
I got ninety nine problems but a light ain’t one.“

Classic.

Hahaha, yes :slight_smile:

Maybe you should apply for songwriter? :slight_smile:

Somebody beat me to it, that song is called: “Who put the bomp…”

What did she mean by this? I couldn’t find a list of ‘authorized distributors’ on their website.

And why don’t they allow us to check the flashlight serial code on their website.

And so it goes.

Service and support is worth paying for. If I can’t find it on amazon I buy direct from the manufacturer, or from a factory authorized vendor. Whatever I purchase is going to cost me more than rock-bottom, and I m fine with that. Every now and then (although it’s been years) I have a warranty (or whatever) issue, the resolution of which has never been a problem.

Paying a rock-bottom price and then complaining about lack of manufacturer support seems wrong. We’re all vigilant about the batteries we buy, why shouldn’t that same vigilance apply to everything else we buy?

For whatever it’s worth, I’m sorry you got shafted.

Cheers

It’s no discussion anymore since I wil get a replacement part. But, I got it only because I posted my findings on this forum, which shouldn’t be necessary to do to claim warranty.

I always promote good reliable sellers, reading revieuws and so on. And no, I am not the person who buys at the most expensive store, only if there’s a substantial difference between them. I suppose if you want to buy a pair of Nikes, and you have the option to buy the same shoes for half the price, you buy the full monty?

Gor as far as I know, manufacturer warranty is worldwide, only thing is that you can’t claim at a local dealer if you bought abrought.

Until now I hadn’t troubles claiming warranty if needed in my 52 years. And yes, sometimes it takes a little more effort to claim, this case is an example of very bad aftersales. They could have avoid this since I wasn’t aware of their policies. Hope Klarus will clarify this soon on their website.

Cheers,
Alex

@agent80

I pointed to the fact that there’s no list of authorized dealers on their website, and no MAP pricing, and no warning for fakes etc. I hope they learn feom this case because I am sure many of you now would hesitate to buy their goods.

Hope they learn from this case.

Cheers,
Alex

My first thought too. They see this thread and decide it's better to do some damage control.

Yes, that is how it is

Interesting thread and good warning for everyone to always look for a retailer with authorized status whenever possible.

I got my Klarus P20 a few days ago, and before ordering I went looking for a list of dealers. I found this distributor for the UK & Ireland:

That website says they’re the authorized distributor, and the retailer I purchased from was Tactical-Kit.

Photos and comments on the P20 vs the Olight HCRI will be coming (not sure exactly when as I’ve been ill and have to catch up on other things first) but simple first impression of the P20 is that the spill is really very nice, least perceptible hotspot of any flashlight I’ve used.

I did also notice the whole body of the P20 gets really warm very fast on the high setting, this happened just while spending a few minutes testing the modes worked. I assume I have a genuine copy of the P20, so I wonder if Klarus designs might be prone to generating a lot of heat?

I’m pretty sure your klarus light is genuine and comes from the same factory as other klarus lights…

-Serial number is not something chinese brands normally take into account, yes they have individual serial # but probably they don’t have records of it.
-MAP on a klarus light… cheap excuse. Just like jetbeam and many other brands, there’s a MSRP, but no MAP policy.
-The seller from AE did not buy directly from klarus so they insisted you to contact the manufacturer for warranty. Klarus having no record of its own lights, they denied the authenticity.

The problem here is not what you bought but where you bought it, had it been a larger shop such as GB or BG klarus would’ve handled your warranty nice and easy.

To me it would seem that the fault lies much more with Aliexpress for doing business with a dealer selling counterfeit products. Which, as many have experienced with the Liitokala Factory store and the Liitokala Official store that counterfeits seem rampant on Aliexpress.
Further, Aliexpress does not side with the buyer when a counterfeit product is proven fake with pictures and video.
I see little or no fault here by Klarus. They can not help the fact that some disreputable vendor is selling clones of their products.

I am pretty sure if Klarus gives some pressure on Aliexpress they can get fakes deleted
There are also a few ways to get products safer from being easily copied or at least make it possible to get a fake revealed

also a working serial number check on their website would help tracking down faked products

as well certificate of authenticity stickers with not so easy to copy safety signs like other manufactories have