Negative experience with NealsGadgets

I don’t think you should expect a bad experience with Neal, but your experience is as good as it could have been. I think Hondarider’s approach is probably the best when ordering from Neal as it bypasses the communication issues, and his expectations are in check.

Per this site recommendations, I ordered an FW3A from Neal’s Gadgets. Received my first order, and feeling satisfied with the results, I decided to order 4-Samsung 30Q’s from Neal’s Gadgets, for my BLF SP36 Anduril.

Received tracking info. email as before, on the previous order. Received order a month later, and found I had only received 2 of the 4 batteries I had ordered.

I immediately emailed Neal’s Gadgets at the contact information listed on his web site.
After 5 emails and 2 weeks later, NG finally responds via email to ask if I wanted a refund, or the 2 missing 30Q’s. Again I requested he send the 2 missing 30Q’s, I had been asking for on the previous 5 emails.

4 weeks later, and NO response or acknowledgment of 6 more email replies to NG, to send the remainder of my order, as I had requested in my 5 previous emails to him.
No tracking information, nothing to even indicate that he had received my 6 email replies back to him, to send the remainder of my order, and not refund me the difference.

So I was left with no option but to dispute the amount of the 2 missing 30Q’s, with my CC company.

If you decide to order from Neal’s Gadgets, there is a very good chance something similar will happen to you.

This isn’t baseball. Batting .500 isn’t something to brag about, if you can’t even communicate with your paying customers.

How does that saying go?

“Screw me once, shame on you. Screw me twice, shame on me.”

Sorry Neal, I’m not willing to risk shaming myself, by patronizing your business again.

Hes nice guy i guess… Helps with many things here… But hes not very good seller. Maybe the chinese mentality. They dont understand that we want everything NOW.hm…thats pity. He should change this.

problem is he is doing this all alone, running the shop shipping orders answer email etc etc… and the shop has maybe too much items he is selling so there can be tons of work for him all the time, i dont think he realized how much the shop will grow when he created it, but perhaps doing this alone for profit isnt always such a good thing if u cant keep happy customers by sending them bought items in a proper time and having good communication ? i sure wouldnt want to have such job really…

exactly this is what i self think about him….hes sure no liar…hes responsible person i can see his work here…but i guess,hes alone and hes got not capacity and time to make it properly…

btw is it so hard to run your own eshop in china?why noone replace him or try to make the same business here…? no chinese flashlight fans here or what?

Probably because they have the manufacturers there and if you were doing it here (europe) you’d pay a lot more for the lights / batteries / chargers…that you find to be “budget” when they come from China :person_facepalming:

I will not defend Neal, but my experiences so far have been good with them!
Last week I sent him a PM that wasn’t answered! That’s ok that I didn’t pay any money for anything, but I’m not calling it a bad experiencr just because the man didn’t answer my PM!
He might got sick, injured, may be working with manufacturers to get more deals and our “budget” lights, may be full of e-mails and PMs and Messenger messages to reply! IDK!
I will wait, I will be patient and maybe it will be replied! If not, I will wait again!

We are so “here and now!” that we forget that not all countries have the same conditions and even to run a business like he does, probably few people here know how it works or how difficult it may be!

Again, I’m not defending anyone but try walking ther others’s shoes, even in abstract…

Peace!

EDIT: vresto, this post is not aimed at you nor anyone in particular! Just to clarify!

If you’re buying from China, don’t expect great customer service. Pay 3x the amount and buy locally, if you want that. I don’t find Neal any better or worse than most legit Chinese companies. He’s a lot better than some of the scam stores on Ali and Ebay. I don’t think he’s trying to rip anyone off. He’s just slow because he’s cheap.

Cheap
Good
Fast

Pick any 2.

You guys are saints. I can only hope to have customers like these :money_mouth_face:

yes guys-you are right…i self think hes really not trying rip anyone…no…but some things should change…
mascaratum-i know what you want to say…its ok:)
but cos we live in this capitalistic world,i accept mostly what MUTO said…sadly,we are really not friends,but business partners…and Neal is doing many mistakes with his business…this will be not working……i still hope yes,but he should change it…

Also since he is running the store alone, he not long ago had a baby so he has a family to take care of also now so can mean sometimes things can take a while but doesnt mean he ignore you, just have alot of things to do.

who cares? all the best to his new family,but he should announce it here…people here are patient,if there is a good product and good price…also i for example wanted support him…if you send him money,he has to care about smooth transaction etc…

Remember your grandparents’ big old Whole Earth Catalog? That publication had the unexpected result of destroying a lot of very small family businesses, I recall hearing —- people who had been turning out some small handmade product for years to their neighbors were suddenly exposed to, well, the whole Earth, got buried in mail orders and died from the success.

The Internet works the same way nowadays.

Well said MUTO. I feel the same. Hire more people, stop making excuses, be true to your word, ect,.

I simply do Not deal with dealers like him in the USA. I have not encountered many , if any. Dozens that I have used go out of there way to satisfy their customers. Efficient, reliable,considerate, answering emails ALWAYS and delivering a product in a timely fashion and doing whatever has to be done if there is an issue.That is why I [they] keep coming back.

Example of a Vape company I only used once. The tracking was stuck in the “Pre shipment mode for three days. Supposedly a USPS issue. The Fourth day the sent me 2 more aspire 26650. I go to mail box and Original two are there! The next day my other Two were there! I got 4 batteries for the price of Two.They said just keep the extra Two batteries when technically it was not their fault but the USPS tracking glitch!

We all have options and choices, that is a nice freedom to have.

For the most part, you get what you pay for.

Agree wholeheartedly with post 63 and 64. :exclamation:

What is happening with my last order in NealsGadgets: https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/58807/375

I wonder how much it would take for BLF and Reddit to stop recommending shopping from Neal? The guy is pretty much scamming people at this point, and I don’t care if it’s on purpose or not. nealsgadgets.com should be flagged as non-trustworthy seller so people know what they’re getting into.

What I find most surprising is seemingly total radio silence on Neal’s end, no damage control, no attempts to communicate etc.

Good point. Personally after reading many, many posts and my own experience, think that limit has been reached.

On the other hand money and loyalty, regardless of peoples consequences/complaints can be more influential in their[BLF/Reddit] thought process and decision making.

Certain brands and sellers are “protected” on here :wink: