Negative experience with NealsGadgets

Sounds like Neil is robbing Peter to pay Paul.

1. Put up a website and collect money from customers (Peter), for lights that are not (yet), in stock.

2. When enough money comes in, pay the Factory (Paul), for a MOQ of 500 lights (of each color)

He does ship… just not when you order
Think of it as a prepaid group buy, and wait patiently
Dont bug him with emails that he can do nothing about.

Your light will ship, when:

1. the group buy is funded,
2. the factory is paid,
3. the lights are built, and
4. Neil receives them, and
5. ships them.

Do not expect his wife to explain that to you by email.

Myself, I dont order from Neil, because of this thread.

never had an issue with him, always shipping my orders within a few days or so and they arrived without any problems.

one thing he should list more clearly is the actual stock of lights so that u dont order something that is not in stock…

I’ve had two orders arrive within 8 calendar days from order to doorstep (Los Angeles). From what I can tell, the item is likely shipped in a bulk container, then received by a local Chinese shipping company where someone slaps a USPS shipping label over the foreign one. USPS delivers the last leg of the trip.

If an order does not ship within 2 working days, I would reach out to ensure it’s in stock.

I think this sounds like from a Charles Dickens novel. and very similar to the businesses ran by Charles P…… and Bernie…. That means you can’t just stop taking new orders and catch up with the old ones because the new funds have been spent on yourself already. That’s why you can’t trust anyone and hire anyone else but your wife.

I would simply assume that all 1-man-shops are doing it this way. There is no way a single person could fund several hundred of retail flashlights in a variety of colors, types, and models (let alone other brands and accessories). If a person had that kind of money under the mattress they probably wouldn’t need to work as a flashlight reseller.
Most smaller shops operate like this, ever been to your local, small-scale gun shop? They don’t have 500 different Heckler & Koch in stock because it would require half a million.

Different story for manufacturers like Olight et al, those are actual companies and not a small operation with proper business models, distribution partners and larger commercial agreements.

Hey, so I just received my Lumintop FW21 Pro from Neal, which I ordered on 2 August. I think that’s pretty great, given that it came from China (I think…). He answered some questions for me, kept me updated, sent notices when it shipped, tracking info…

For some reason, the two Imalent lights i ordered from him came earlier this week even though I ordered them at the same time.

Oh and this is off topic but man… This FW21 is gorgeous. I’m sitting here trying to find another Lumintop light to order :slight_smile:

I’ll 100% buy more lights from Neal

I have a pretty positive experience with him. Ordered something but shortly after found it cheaper elsewhere and with free shipping (Neal’s shipping cost $25). Responded within the hour and got my refund no questions asked. The shipping price is a pretty off putting but if I literally can’t find it elsewhere I’m willing to give him a shot.

I had to request a refund on some orders previously, but now it seems that everything is back to normal with Neal … he really liked to buy with him due to the news. And now that everything looks right, I already have a list of three more lights to place the order … Thanks Neal !!!

Hello people!

Does Neal looks at this forum for feedback about how he's doing?

Well, I am here for some bad news. I was taking a look at the Loneoceans' Lume1 driver thread and took a peek at Neal's gadgets website:

I have seen this sort of disturbing, stupid spammy stuff in other sites. In Neal's site you have to eat it whole, it won't go away by clicking close on the pop-ups. Really piss poor stuff. I really can't help to get amazed at this, because if that stuff even remotely works people must be braindeads. It makes me feel like kicking whoever is in charge's ass for turning the shopping experience into a piece of shite. :facepalm:

Usually my installed content blocker prevents these pop ups.

This thead, and I myself still have a tritium optic where one of the tritium vials emits no light. Asymmetrical…

But, the lume1 is exclusive to Neal for now. So what am I to do?

That's fine, scalpel_ninja, but what if your browser can't use a proper content blocker? The above screenshots were taken on a smartphone running Opera browser.

Still, if you are running a web store and people has to use a content blocker in it, it certainly says something bad about it.

If you are familiar with script blocking you can disable it all together on pc.

But if your on say a mobile device at home there is a more “advanced” method which you would use a raspberry pi and run Pi-hole and all network activity would go through the “Pi-hole” rather than to a DNS server managing ads and returns an unspecified address so no ads load at all. Mind you this method only works on your own network and wouldn’t apply if you are not at home/where the “Pi-hole” is connected.

I believe I understand what Barkuti is trying to get at. A good shopping experience should not require content blockers or Pi Holes to get rid of pop ups. However, Neal’s site is what it is. There are plenty of people lining up (myself included) to purchase the products he stocks. Rumor has it he’s a one-man operation and has little time or resources to refine the storefront. If his stock is selling well, I don’t think refining the site will be at the top of his priorities. Neal is not Hank of Emisar. I’m fluent in speaking Mandarin and can type pretty detailed (not perfect) messages in Chinese. The thought had crossed my mind to reach out and find out more about him. However, it would only satisfy a curiosity as I don’t have the ability to help him in any practical way.

I’m not inferring that’s “extra” steps are required for a good shopping experience but you already mentioned running some form of adblock so mentioning “A good shopping experience should not require content blockers” seems moot, I mention this as ads are more invasive than ever on any particular site in general compared to days past and was just giving a solution that could solve the dilemma of souring a shopping experience with “ads”.

Its a personal preference of mine to block ALL ads everywhere unless the ads support a business or content creator then exceptions are made on a case by case basis.

I absolutely agree and do implement similar blocking measures in my browsing practices. I too was trying to offer Barkuti a solution by suggesting an ad blocker to make shopping Neal’s site a bit easier. But I think his point was the presence of such pop ups implies it’s a poorly designed site, and it is.

Thing is that the “ad” that is mentioned is and isnt a “pop up” as runs a script and produces its windowed message in the browser rather than opening a new window to avoid the traditional means most common adblockers use, so from just a standpoint of design its quite good since it avoids regular means of removing them.

Ah, I see! Heh, I learn something new every day.

Is that even pulling any different domains for the pihole to block?

I do run a pihole, it’s pretty fun. I also block and reroute all DNS that isn’t going through the pihole on my network.

I ordered it about 3 months ago and it still hasn’t shipped!
I’ve sent a couple of emails inquiring about it, but no reply.
I suspected it was out of stock and when I looked at the page for the item I ordered, it was in stock!
I’ve emailed them to tell them that if they have something out of stock, to cancel it, but they’ve ignored me.

The paypal protection expires in November, so I’m going to apply for it before then