Banggood contacted me to say astrolux ft03 can't be sent through customs.

As the title says, banggood told me they the flashlight I ordered was sent back to them from customs and couldn’t be sent. They cited regulations regarding the mailing of LED devices.
I have ordered many many flashlights in the past and never had a problem. This flashlight (astrolux ft03 xph 50.2) doesn’t even have a battery in it. I’m in the US if that makes any difference.
Anyone else ever have this problem?

I've never had this problem, nor even heard of this problem for a U.S. address.

Strange.

Well, while the flashlight may not come with a battery, it may have come in contact with a battery, and therefore needs to be quarantined for two weeks before customs will allow it through. You know, just to make sure it doesn’t show any symptoms of having a battery…

Sometimes I believe they lie about it, either they don’t actually have stock, or don’t want to make good on a discount deal.

They had asked me if I wanted them to re ship or get a full refund. I said re ship it. I ordered the green with black bezel a holster for it and an empty battery holder. They emailed me back after they offered to re ship and said they couldn’t given restrictions. :confounded: yeah right. Probably didn’t have stock or didn’t want to honor the price. Who knows. Now the waiting game for a refund I guess

I'm wondering if the problem with the importation of flashlights is dependent on the person doing the inspections.

Rejection or acceptance may be in the hands of individual customs inspectors.

Flashlights I have ordered with batteries arrived from China at the USPS Chicago Il International Distribution Center and quickly cleared customs without any problems.I have not ordered any flashlight from China this year

The USPS say 95% of mail from outside the US is accepted.

makes no sense to reject a light without battery, that should pass inspection at customs… but many have same issues for a while now, it seems something is not working to usa for some reason? or they lie? i dont know… maybe change shipping method? if using the cheapest dont use it…

Maybe I’ll reorder and just pay for expedited shipping.

I work in the shipping industry and there’s not restrictions on led lights.

Lasers over a certain power and lithium metal and lithium ion batteries depending on size and quantity definitely have restrictions in the us.

Even a flashlight with a battery installed in the device meets shipping standards as long as it’s not a large multi cell item.

Received my FT03 50.2 including 26650 a few months back without issue. Shipping took a while, as usual but nothing out of the ordinary.

I received my ft03 last week. It took 2 months to get it. I’m in North Carolina USA

I have not had any problems with Bangood shipping me several FTO3 lights. But some come quicker than others, I believe that Bangood represents many different sellers and it is dependent upon where that particular seller is located as to shipping times even for the same item. I think that it might be some sort of a lottery for the sale of an item. The only seller that I have had problems with is Neals Gadgets having lights get held up in China, at least that is what he told me, I wont order anything from him again.

How about a U. S. retailer to deal with these good lights?? Then this shipping crap could get the deep six.

Yeah banggood just sent an email they are cancelling my order. The message basically said it was out of stock so was the first message about being sent back from customs a lie or the second one?!

They already sent my 26650 that was in the order so I have to figure out where to get the flashlight.

Anyone know of another retailer that sells the ft03?

Lighting Market Store on AE has it but only in 6500K.

I’ve had good luck with them. Ordered a pair of Astrolux MF01 Minis 8Feb and arrived 18Feb.

Banggood cancelled several of my orders last year with that excuse. It’s been commented on by quite a few people here, on BLF.

We really just need a banggood (re)distributor in USA. With so many jobs being lost in US, there could be some creative solution here.