Neals gadgets issues?

I placed an order from Neil’s gadgets on November 28th I got to order confirmation email and then nothing. I’ve sent a few emails inquiring about the order as I know everything shipping wise is crazy right now and I’ve got no email replies has anyone else had any issues?

Join the club.

Well then. Sounds like he is just swamped… I hope. My order is small so I’ll just leave it and wait. Hopefully it shows up some day.

I guess it depends on if he has the item on the shelf. Three days ago I ordered his LEP flashlight and it was shipped within two hours (but now stuck in Gangzou, you must have luck with the mail too).

How I assume it looks like, Neal has no warehouse, maybe his business is in his appartment (and his family is there too), he has a computer, a corner with flashlight stock (but not many thousands of dollars worth of items, that is too risky for a one-person business), and one or two times a day he brings orders to the post office.

If an order comes in that he has in stock, it is sent surprisingly fast. His current shipper Yun Express has also been pretty fast I noticed a couple of times. If he does not have the stock, the items must come from the manufacturers before they can be sent out, and although he has good contacts, that can take time, some items (like GT versions) even must be produced still.

It would be nice if he was open on how modest he runs his business so that people can manage their expectations, but he is not that guy (not many chinese are). Maybe he is afraid that he looses customers if he is transparent, but I think it is not even that, he is just not very communicative, which is a pity.

Apart from the low level of communication, he may not have a better option on how to run his small flashlight business. I guess he is doing rather well because he knows what is going on in the flashlight world and sells some very desirable things.

Interestingly enough until not long ago almost all small businesses around here were in apartments, no kids no bedrooms and anything like that, just the business in the apartment.
With time, lots of EU money were pumped in and actual warehouses started becoming more common than apartment warehouses and also lots of small business became engulfed by the big western corporations anyway.
This era of apartment warehouses can’t really be fully witnessed anymore, but it existed.

Let’s not forget Neal does not live in Ro, or in NL, but in CN. Behind the bamboo firewall.
I’m pretty convinced that the last affects small businesses more than the likes of AE, BG, GB, or KD.
If I need anything, my first search is on his webshop. Because in the end he has never let me down.

but i read on FB sometimes ppl wait weeks if not longer and dead silence from him… how is this ok ?

He’ll quietly ship lights with another LED if he is unable to procure the correct model from supplier. I think this is more than just “swamped”.

How is shipping Nichia, when customers ordered SST20, acceptable?

It’s nice and well to assume that these are “one-off” cases, however he did the same thing to 2 people.

I’m now into week 9 of being ignored by Neal following the receiving of a shoddy condition E07.

I’m also into week 7 of waiting on a replacement E07 with no shipping notice. Fireflies contacted me after making this public and have continued to lie about shipping a replacement.

I have been treated terribly as a customer by Neal the seller and Fireflies the manufacturer.

I am no longer a customer of either and now taking action via PayPal, to be quite frank F$&@ them. Bloody scammers.

yes this is what i mean, waiting weeks just for an answer is not ok, just do paypal… sadly we must not show that we accept this behaviour.