Negative experience with NealsGadgets

Buy / Sell Budget Dealer Experiences
108

The Good:
So far I’ve ordered 5 FW3A’s from Neal, several as presents, all ordered separately. All have arrived very quickly, so quickly (and, judging by the USPS label on the box) that perhaps they had been warehoused in the US. On the other hand, maybe not, as, when I received the emails saying orders had shipped, each had a clickable link to 17 track which showed the items leaving China, arriving in LA, etc. So, perhaps they really did come that quickly from China. (For example, arrived at sort facility in Guangzhou 12/25, delivered in Berkeley 12/31).
All, with some fiddling, worked fine. One was dead out of the box, but cleaning all the switch contacts — both ends of the black inner switch tube, the circular traces of both switch and LED circuit boards— with Deoxit gold G5, had it working fine. Apparently thread lube, or some manufacturing grease, can interrupt the contact between the switch tube and the circuit boards.
One of the orders was supposed to come with two batteries, but only came with one. Have emailed Neal about this, so far no response. But it’s still very early.

The Odd:
I ordered a Fireflies E07 7x, and, separately, an XTar charger. Very quick notification by email that items had been shipped, again with a clickable tracking link to 17 track. Over the course of a few days, according to 17 track, the items arrived in the sorting facility in Guangzhou, sat in Guangzhou for several days, and now are listed as having been returned to sender!!

Emailed Neal about this, to which quite reasonably he hasn’t yet had time to respond. (It was just a day or so ago).

So, a lot of moving parts in the process, but certainly the experience of first five orders, considering what they cost, the elegance of the FW3A’s design, and their speedy arrival, were better in total than most experiences I have with Amazon — which are almost always good. As for last two items, well, I’m prepared to wait, and see what happens.

109

I think this post is disgusting.
I have ordered from Neal several times with NO issues at all.
The most recent order was only a couple of weeks ago and it arrived at my door in SEVEN (7) days. Sometimes it takes things from New Jersey longer to get here.

110

Maybe when you get an order that’s faulty or parts of order missing and you try try & try for weeks to communicate & get no response, you might not think it’s so disgusting.

111

I’ve had success with NG, but I never had to deal with any problems. This is where the Chinese model breaks down. They’re going for low price, not high service. If you want good after-sales service, you’re going to have to pay a lot more and deal with a retailer in your hemisphere. I’m willing to put up with the occasional hassle. My backstop is a Paypal dispute, if I get really annoyed. I haven’t had to do that very often, though.

112

Stuff happens.
That does not mean he is a criminal.

113

The word ventsi used was non trustworthy.

114

Trustworthy is defined as

deserving of trust or confidence; dependable; reliable

So, perhaps he does fit into that category. However, I don’t think he’s any less trustworthy than all the other Chinese sellers that we frequent here. We’re buying from there for cheap stuff, not dependable and reliable after-sales service. Chinese sellers prioritize new orders, not fixing up ones that have issues. Don’t we all understand that?

I’m not sure where “criminal” came from. Has anyone asserted Neal is a criminal? I certainly don’t think his is. Well, maybe he jaywalks or something.

115

He accused him of being a scammer.

116

YOU SAID
The guy is pretty much scamming people at this point.
That means you are calling him a criminal. He is NOT.

117

Has anyone had Black Friday items ship yet? I’m used to long ship times but not processing the order at all in over a month seems like a problem.
None of the items appear out of stock on the site.

118

I don’t think he fits the profile of a scammer. Most people (probably the vast majority) get the stuff they order from him. Scammers don’t do that. Scammers either never ship to most or all customers, or they ship fake goods.

To me, it sounds like Neal has too much work to do for one person, or is over-extending his business. It will likely sort itself out, now that we’re into a more quiet part of the year. Or, he’ll get fed up and leave. I hope it’s the former.

Or, maybe the problems are being over-blown. Perhaps 99% of people are happy, and we’re only hearing from the angry 1% ?

119

Hmmm, where have I seen this before?

120

PLEASE read the entire thread. I am not calling him a scammer, someone else claimed they did not call him a criminal and I replied that they called him a scammer: That would make him a criminal, he is NOT.

121

I feel obligated to post my experience. I guess I am in the 1% although I am not ‘angry’. Ive ordered two lights (D4 & D1s)from Neal…… both were defective. I tried for a couple of months to contact NG with no luck. Ended up filing a paypal dispute and ‘eventually’ got a refund. I think walkingintothelight said it best……“Chinese sellers prioritize new orders, not fixing up ones that have issues” ……… much could be improved with better QC and by prioritizing issues before new orders, but I doubt that will happen unless they find a way to do it that will ‘add to’ their bottom line. Just my .02 :beer:

122

While I don’t agree with you in thinking that this post is disgusting, I do believe your post has been placed into the wrong thread.

Maybe you, or the Moderator could relocate it to the proper thread , where you can post Positive Neals Gadgets comments, here:Positive NG Comments

He could sure use your support.

123

I’m also wary of ordering from Nealsgadgets. He’s a one-man shop vs big companies like Banggood and Fasttech, sure, so no customer service. But he also isn’t passing the savings onto you. It’s not like lights from him are cheaper. Thus, what you’re getting is a complete lack of support for purchasing lights of the same price. All of my MF01s, MF01minis, 8 different FF lights were all purchased from Banggood because it’s cheaper. Hell, it’s not like he has a large warehouse he has to manage with active inventory. He probably just drop-ships all of the lights from various OEM manufacturers.
It’s like going to your podunk stick-in-the-wall single-pump gas station in the middle of nowhere that’s cash-only, and end up paying the same price for gas as the Conoco down the street.

He definitely doesn’t do customer-support or even QC cheks. Basically had an issue with 2/2 orders with him now. Will never purchase from again.

And for those who hasn’t been burnt by Neals, oh don’t worry, I guarantee it’ll happen.

124

His website doesn’t work very well on my phone, so I never have even looked at the site cuz I couldn’t get past the messaging window that pops up

125

I’ve had three or four orders from Neal. Only one problem that really, shouldn’t have been a problem. Selling out of stock merchandise. Or as I was told, merchandise that couldn’t get out of Hong Kong because of the unrest. I have no control over that kind of thing and neither does Neal. BUT! Those products maybe should have been pulled off the site as “in stock”. No orders should have been taken for them and no money collected for them.

I got shipped a different light and all is good in Lumenville again. I would have been happier with the light I originally ordered. It was not to be I guess.

It probably won’t keep from ordering again. I would most likely send an email asking if it was actually going to be shipped before I did order.

Still not as bad as lights I have gotten from “made in the usa” big name manufacturers with 10 times the price tag. That’s a different thread though.

126

If you don’t receive an order, just file a Paypal dispute. You’ll win the dispute. No hassle involved.

The times that something becomes a hassle, is when you receive a defective product or something that differs from what you ordered. Then, you’ll still win a Paypal dispute, but you might have to ship the product back to China. This may, or may not, be worth it to you.

I’m not sure how many people fall into the latter category, but what did NG do (or didn’t do) to help? I’m guessing, not much in some cases. Did you file a Paypal dispute? What happened with that?

I’ve heard that NG does sometimes provide a good resolution to problems. I guess it’s hit & miss, depending how busy he is.

127

I haven’t had any issues with Neal to date. Whenever I purchase a product from any Chinese seller, whether it be from NG or AE or BG (etc) I always accept the risk that I may not be able to get any customer support if I have a problem with the order or the item. If I am purchasing something that is vital to my needs, I’ll pay five time the price to a local retailer that I am confident I will receive support from.

If I buy a $30 light from China and it catastrophically fails and I have to buy a whole new light, I’m out $30. Still beats paying $200 for a Surefire (unless of course you really need or want a SF :stuck_out_tongue: ).