Neal's Gadget silence

From what I’ve read many people received their lights even if there were no communication. Regarding defective/wrong order made right, well here’s the tricky part: I’ve read about (many) people who got really good after sales service, and I’ve read about (many) people completing being ignored, hence were not helped at all.
So you see, unfortunately we have the perfect ingredient for polarisation, which is exactly what is happening here at BLF regarding Neal’s gadgets. So care and caution are definitely required when discussing.

Yes that’s true but given enough time the bad cases will eventually catch up with & may overtake the good ones.
So he needs to step up ,a unhappy customer is not likely going to be a repeat customer.

Giancarlo, your frustration is completely understandable. While Neals’ communication is absolutely lacking, most of those who have issues with him had their problems resolved without ever hearing from him directly. It appears only a small number have had to resort to PayPal to find resolution. Unfortunately that still isn’t an entirely acceptable situation but it does mean things will eventually get squared away.

Also while these issues aren’t new, I’m sure the current situation in China has exacerbated them significantly. Everyone is likely to experience delays on shipping of purchased items. That doesn’t make it any easier if you are the customer, but it is something to keep in mind.

If the time frame is long enough to warrant it and you’ve had no response from Neal, I’d go ahead and open the PayPal dispute. It might be enough to get the ball moving on his end.

For the record, if it sounds like I’m defending Neal. I’m not. I’ve had a couple of (relatively minor) issues with his store also and I’m not inclined to make any more purchases given how many amazing vendors there are out there (Intl-Outdoors, Mountain Electronics, Convoy, Jaxman, Illumn etc).

To help avoid any confusion sb56637 is the owner of the forum and he is the only admin/moderator.

It’s not uncommon for long time members to try and step in and cool down situations because as forsh pointed out this is a great forum and members want to try keep that going.

So while there is a strong community commitment to keeping things pleasant sb56637 is the only official voice for the forum.

FWIW there was a thread started to try and keep issues with Neal’s customer service in a single location…

Negative experience with NealsGadgets

I have ordered 14 times from Neal, twice I have received the wrong flashlight and twice he has ignored every message I have sent him. The first time I just accepted it because only the tint was different. The next time my order was completely incorrect. He replied to me and every follow up message was ignored, I have sent many follow up emails only for them all to be ignored. I had ordered a NIGHTWATCH NSX3 9900lm NS53A and received a NS43 and he ignored every follow up message. People defend him all the time but considering the volume of orders and lack of response people receive I would never buy from him again. I personally thought that after 14 orders he would allow me to return the incorrect model and send me the correct one, to no avail. He has also neglected to send some sapphire lenses I have bought, and was unhelpful there as well. Buyer beware for sure. I have also encountered many people on this forum suggesting that I was somehow at fault for poor customer service. Ignore those people they are petty and must not buy enough from vendors.

So, lumintop is supposed to be back tomorrow? Good. Maybe Leo week get back to me on my warranty problem. FW21 failure.x

I ordered an emitter from Kaidomain the 11th, still hasn’t shipped. Shows in process. I ordered from there Jan 1st and had the order 3 weeks later. We’ll see what happens now. I’m trying bitt ti buy from China, but that’s hard considering that they sell the stuff for cheap!

My orders been processed and sent out , I spoke to victor, AE says it’s shipped

Even before the virus he had issues with lots of negative stuff about how he doesnt respond after weeks, missing orders or wrong items recived etc etc… i would recommend u to buy somewhere else for now until he clears his mess up… he clearly cant manage his own shop since he runs it himself its just too much for one person and add also that he is married and has a kid now it doesnt make that better either…

Sounds like he needs to employ someone

Some questions that occur to me, not being particular connected with Neal's Gadgets...

  • How many claims, complaints, disputes need to arise until a payment service provider like PayPal discontinues business with their partner? Surely, that's a percentage number they will keep secret. I'm not taking any sides here but for now the ratio of disputed orders against properly fulfilled orders at Neal's Gadgets still seems to be on a reasonable level. This vague assumption would support the theory of Henk4U, that there's still a majority of customers who either remain silent and wait it out until their orders arrive or who are simply satisfied with the service.
  • I wonder how payment service providers (like PayPal) will deal with this grave situation in China when customer service is required beyond those 180 days of their purchase protection as a consequence of COVID-19, like delayed shipping and handling of orders. I would expect them to extend their protection period for let's say another 90 days to reflect delays that both buyer and seller cannot be held accountable for but that can be traced back to the chaos caused by COVID-19.

New unhappy customers share their experience here literally every day, and yet people still defend this dude Neal, just because “I got my stuff because I was patient so you shouldn’t whine that much”.
Like yeah most people that go to North Korea come back alive, but you wouldn’t risk it Frank, would you?

It’s a shame he’s getting all this bad press

He’s got a few things I wanted to buy but now I’ll try source them elsewhere

Sapphire glass for Fw1a guys ? When can I get them

Chris

I agree it’s a shame, because his store is nice, has cool stuff at reasonable prices. I also would order a few more lights from him if it wasn’t for 1) my bad experience and 2) hundreds of others that I saw here and on other platforms

Ask local prescription glasses maker.
Mike

Or ask local watchmaker.

Local watchmakers, local glasses maker lol, they don’t exist any more! The UK (for the most part) has had all this type of thing stripped from our towns, they can’t survive - who has watches mended nowadays?? 0.5%?.
There are shops, but they only put batteries in, change straps etc and the glasses shops will do slight adjusting to arms etc, but the rest is ‘sent off’ and it comes back in a week or so fixed.
Thee would be a ‘proper’ watch shop in the county no doubt, but they would charge you an arm and a leg as they do Rolexes etc!

In small town I live in, there are 3 or 4 glass maker shops and 3 watch repair stores afaik.
Mike

Don’t forget the guy that repairs battery packs for hassleblad cameras from scratch

ive a raymond weil i take to get maintance every year

my brother in law has over 10 watches, brietlings,omegas,bell ross etc (yes hes rich) they just love his yearly visits!

Neal has been involved in BLF for at least 5 years now, since the BLF-A6 or possibly even earlier. I’ve seen a lot of that up close, since I was involved in some of those projects too. (though thankfully not the Cometa)

Based on those 5 years, I can’t really say people’s complaints are inaccurate.

I don’t think he deserves to be thrown under a bus, but I also don’t think it’s helpful to downplay complaints about real issues. So when the topic comes up, I generally say nothing. Plenty of other people already say what needs to be said.