I now have 20 orders from Neal, the few minor problems were dealt with generously on his part so I don’t really care if he is not always very communicative about the details. This is a better result than any other Chinese company I have dealt with.
I am a new customer of Neal’s Gadgets and have just received my first order.
In view of the current crisis and also having read some negative stuff about this vendor, I reconciled myself to a long wait of two to three months.
It was not to be! Twelve days after confirmation of the order, I received a shipment notification from Neal’s. Three days later the goods were airborne and on their way westwards from the Middle Kingdom. No complaints from this customer concerning tardy shipping!
However, no light without shadow. There is a problem with the goods which I will not, at this stage, describe on a public forum without first giving the vendor the chance to reply. Before making the order I sent an enquiry using their published E-Mail address. I received no reply to this. Several contributors to this forum suggested to others in a similar situation that it would be better to contact Neal’s by PM through the forum. So, my questions:
1) How do I contact him/them by PM, as I haven’t seen his user name mentioned anywhere?
2) Can I attach photos to a PM?
Note: I have no account with Facebook or any similar platforms.
Thanks in advance for any replies.
I don’t know if this is the correct thread as I am new to Blf and am still trying to figure out how locate specific threads with the search option, but here it goes…
I have ordered 3 orders from Neal in the last 3 months and have always had great experiences. Neal has responded to me through messages and his products and prices seem great. The shipping to eastern US takes 5-6 weeks like clockwork, even throughout The pandemic months, for me. My most recent order is the fw3c (my first copper light, so excited!).
My question - this last order has been in LAX (common stopping ground for my shipments) since May 19th, this is far longer then any of my previous orders stayed at LAX, so I’m worried maybe it’s lost? Looks like it’s awaiting usps pickup. Anyone else in the states have an experience like this? Do I keep waiting? Obviously I keep waiting, but is there any way to contact anyone in case it is lost? I know Neal can’t do much once it leaves his shop. Anyway, appreciate the help in advance. Thanks. -Art
Nothing but good service from Neal’s. Response to an email question was relatively quick…I think a couple days. All my stuff has arrived pretty quick even during pandemic, except for one flashlight that was temporarily out of stock…he let me know, and when the flashlight came I was pleasantly suprised that it was v2 and brighter than the previous gen.
He sells some nice stuff, I’ll keep ordering from him.
I’ve also had nothing but fantastic service and backup from Neal and Nealsgadgets over my four seperate flashlight purchases that he’s been involved with! He is an assent to the BLF community and an extremely fair businessman! He’s always willing to help and communicates on various platforms to try make it easier on the customer.
Thanks Neal!
I have no complaints at all about Neal. Nothign but great customer service so far.
I have requested orders be cancelled and they have been promptly cancelled. He has upgraded shipping speed due to COVID and swallowed the extra cost. I’ve had 10 lights come in the last 2 months and all have been well packed and all items accounted for from the order. Any delays to the order have been due to local couriers dragging their feet.
I’ve even requested a change of LED and he has cancelled my order and allowed me to re-order with the correct item configuration.
The only thing to be aware of is that you can’t assume everything is in stock. It is most likely but they seem to group orders or something like that, so they don’t get shipped out within the day or anything like that (unless you are lucky, as I have been with the FW21 Pro).
Given the hassle of having to return to Neal for warranty, I don’t buy all my lights from him. I pick and choose based on a comparison to the local price and the expected build quality based on reviews.
Just an update to this -
After doing more research and tracking, the package has been in Los Angeles for almost a month (May 19th until today, June 18th). So this has got to be something with the USPS or third party delivery system. Absolutely no reflection of Neal or his business, I was just looking for some help. I understand this is not the correct forum, just figured i’d update anyone who may be wondering.
I’ve placed 3 orders with Neal, Never had an issue. On the first order, tracking didn’t get updated so I emailed Neal. He took a little longer than I preferred to respond. But I got tracking well before the item was even out of China, so I wasn’t too miffed.
I feel like if you go into an order with Neal expecting a long wait (standard business for ordering from china) for the item, and slow updates/correspondence (note that he was not slow to ship the item, just update/send tracking), then you will get your item just fine.
I admittedly have not had to handle any returns or defects.
how fast does he ship out orders now?
Am I the only one that’s spotted the Lumintop X9L for sale at Neals Gadgets?
No, I got the email from him with the discount code.
Neals shipping is really fast at the moment. Last two orders took about a week to arrive.
Thanks for this news TheAuditor especially since I went ahead and ordered one.
Very pleased to see the X9L alongside the Noctigon small form factor throwers, since I prefer the aesthetics of the FW series by far.
This may be a bit off-topic since it’s about a light instead of about Neal, but I don’t think the specs listed for the X9L are, um… honest. It’s spec’d at 6500 lm, but bare-LED bench tests maxed out at about 5300, so real OTF output is probably 4500 lm or less at start with a freshly-charged good cell and clean contacts, and would drop pretty quickly due to voltage sag and heat. The spec’d throw is ~163.8 kcd, but based on the reflector size and some measurements of other SBT90.2 lights, it should be 105 kcd or less.
For throwers, it’s odd to have such a large LED because it makes the light less throwy. If my math is right, the beam of the X9L should look almost the same as the FW1A (about ~23 cd/lm), despite the light being much bigger… because the LED is also much bigger.
First time Nealer here, shipped promptly, light came in at 2weeks to the US.
hm weird, i bought a fw21 pro and chose standard shipping and it seems now its being sent with DHL ? strange since he asks 25$ to be sent with such shipping… usally it was Postnl before corona if u picked standard….
Neals Gadgets is one of my favorite shops ! Good communication ! 
I appreciate this input, foresight and well… honesty. I want to buy this light bc I thought even if the numbers were over rated by 10-15% I’d still be happy. But the estimations you are predicting show something completely different, and I have no reason to think you aren’t at least close if not very close. I’ll just wait until some peaople
Post some measurements on here at least. Thanks TK.
Just today received my Lumintop X9L from Neal’s Gadgets. Very quick delivery to the UK. I was expecting it to take many days more.
Super happy with the light. Quality is very good. Zero dust specks on the reflector which seems to be something that not all manufacturers can accomplish. It seems to handle the heat well. My new favourite mini powerhouse light!
Thanks to Neal for speedy delivery of this light.
Here’s a positive comment. I just got the prototype for the GT4 in the mail!!!