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?
Yes - I got an order from Hank at IOS being held up since Feb 28th, tracking says it arrived at JFK - no new news on it. Hank said this is normal, please wait.... Believe me, it's not normal for sure.
I’ve only had problems with shipments via China Post, “secury return” or something like that.
Not just with flashlights. I also had problems with a iron.
With the other carriers I have not had any problem.
As an example:
On February 17 I ordered a Nextool XHP50.2 with a 26650 battery inside, at GB.
On 18, shipping mail, shipped via BPost.
On 27, “Item is announced / bpost received the information”.
Today (March 11), it passed through the customs of my country.
If there is nothing strange tomorrow I will be receiving it.
There have been a number of variations of the FT03 and I do recall some reflector complaints with one of the later emitters, though I’ve been away from the forum recently and forgotten the details.
However, the reflector was not a problem with the FT03 SST40 unless something was changed in later production runs. I’m not aware of any reports of this.
The only real “issue” that existed with these lights is that some of the group-buy buyers got some early units that had poor contact between the emitter and base. This kept the light cooler in hand, but surely over-heated the emitter. My lights were acceptable, however, and continue to work well after almost 2 years.
The centering ring and bezel setup on this light can be annoying, so I don’t recommend removing the emitter unless you’re accustomed to this sort of task. Great light if you can get it for $30 bare or $35 with battery. I use my FT03 SST40 almost every night and store it in the Astrolux holster sold on BG.