@kreisler Thanks for your inputs and for teaching on how to approach Dinodirect.
Business ethics is one thing and trust is another and they all go hand in hand when you sell goods. It is as simple as, You pay for X and you expect X. Anything other than this is a "cheap" trick in the book. I don't hate EMS but It is not my cup of tea, having experienced it earlier. If you don't have the service of FedEx, why the hell, do you advertise it?. In my book, FedEx is NOT equal to EMS. I have clearly told Dinodirect not to ship apart from FedEx. They may continue to "fix" each of their customers' issue/issues but if you look at the bigger picture, they all have issue/issues in first place. I may not excuse them for being a budget shop. I believe in truth and their rating in BLF stand by it.
You can change your vote anytime by cancelling your vote and then voting again. The question is still exactly the same, but I added clarification to the choices because it was a little confusing the way it was worded. The basic choices are the same. "Yes" means they should keep the AVOID label (and always did). "No" means the AVOID should be lifted (and always did). I added a third option to change to RECOMMENDED, but that was just for Kreisler/DinoBoy
If you've been around these forums for long, you know that any user can post a poll, and the choices have been known to change, especially after getting some feedback. This poll is non-binding, it's just your opinion.
I'm not shilling for anyone. It just seems like a lot of people are buying from Dino now and I haven't heard too many horror stories lately. There are caveats with any budget dealer and there are still some reasons to be careful with Dino. But if they were perfect, they should be RECOMMENDED.
I agree, I dont think DD is magnitudes of order better/worse than anyone else, but they do seem to try hard, and with PP or Chat or BLF Customer Rep one way or another it will probably work out.
I just think its serious to label a store Rec/Avoid, even this thread will get 1000s of reads. Its already nearly 700 reads in less than 24hrs.
Obviously an Avoid rating didn't stop members from spending thousands and thousands of dollars with them . give them good pricing ......and ratings be damned .
just proves no one really cared what the rating said .
people who did missed out on some of the best deals of the year .
I agree with esrevenge ...They are neither better or worse than your average vendor ,,Actually I think they are somewhat better than kai or DX ..neither of which i've seen a pulse from in the last 6 months .
I'm a true BLF'r. I go where the deals are. Me = dispicable, I know.
I'm sure if DD was an Ebay seller, their rating would probably be in the 98 to 99% range. It only takes a few buyers with a bad experience with a supplier to make them look really bad on a forum. However I don't agree with a supplier selling products that don't match the listing on the description. (ie. listing 5 modes and getting 3mode flashlight & drop-ins) That is just not forgivable.
IMAO - I say remove the "AVOID" and replace it with "CAUTION" at the very most.
From my experience they should still have an avoid label. I've ordered three times from DD and every time there have been some issues.
Order #1: an UF-504b. Bezel was nicked, looked like it had been dropped on something sharp, it was 3-mode although the product description stated 5-mode. Gave DD the benefit of the doubt this time.
Order #2: $50 flashlight. Bezel anodization sloppy, uneven greyish-black colored while rest of flashlight was black. Contacted CS with live chat, supplied picture of defect, had to wait 40+ mins before an otta clone told me there is nothing wrong with it and kept on insisting that I could not choose color(?). Not sure if they didn't understand or pretended not to understand the issue even if I explained it several times and I had supplied a picture. No offer of partial refund, gift card or anything else.
Order #3: never received the order. Was told by DD to wait for the package beyond the 45 day period you can open a dispute with Paypal. I opened a dispute with Paypal before day 45 and was told by DD to close the dispute and open a case in my DD account (which I already had done). I kept the dispute open and still no sign of my package by the date DD originally told me to wait. I asked for a refund and got refunded one day before the date when I would have had to escalate the dispute to a claim.
I used them for the first time for some batteries and charger. They arrived in typical 2 week fasion. A novel idea about sending pics of your products as they prep. Besides, I got a ton of flower seeds to toss since I was a valued new customer, lol. Got a few coupons too from them.
And I would add one more thing to take into account when shopping at dino's:
Price fluctuation can be annoying, BUT it can be dangerous too. I left some items to my shopping cart on Saturday (because my $5 GC didn't work). So I contacted the CS and got a new GC, good!
But when I came back to retry check out, the price of one item was changed (up by $10). While being busy trying to get the GC working and all additional shipping options unchecked, I didn't notice the price difference (Ouch! Silly me!!) => lost $5 (compared to price on Sat, without GC).
Just imagine this happening with a price fluctuation of $100.. Buyer beware!
They get free loan from poor buyers. They take your money and in worst case scenario never deliver the item. Like they never delivered my Nitecore EX 11. They claim that Nitecore EZ AA and EX 11 are the same.
They sent me a 1 mode romisen rc-29 instead of the 3 mode I ordered. DD chat gave me a lot of trouble but thankfully they sorted it out and gave me a gift card. But by that time the price was already a lot higher so I just ordered another light the tank e09 which I like.
I agree the avoid tag should be removed replaced by caution.
I'm too for remove the hypocrite avoid changing with caution or something like that
they wrong often but the CS usually fix it and at worst paypal is ever on your side, they can't lose the partnership
I had fun and made good deals with them, that tnx to the forum feedback about DD group buy, that made me avoid the avoid label and jump in the DD's roulette xD
Ok, I removed the AVOID label because of the majority vote. I personally do not like them and have never bought from them, and I don't plan on changing my stance any time soon.
