Since it’s a nice copper light, I’m not inclined to return it.
219C yellowish vs SST20 greenish. Think the 219C is ok to keep.
My order of the MS18 from November 24th never shipped. Neal isn’t responding to my emails. I’m about to file a dispute.
Here is the way i see it,
As long as you are a new customer he will respond and help you out, once there is a problem with your acquired item, first of all you must make sure not to hold your breath while you wait for his response, and if you were born on a blue moon night you might get lucky enough to get a response, however if your luck is as bad as mine he will ignore your inquiries and treat you like yesterday`s news and never respond….
I for one will never deal with him again, he has my money and I got a dead charger…
Yes I am pissed off, because normal people do not do this to others……
Serenity now….
Only problem with that is……. Seems ‘normal people’ are less and less normal nowadays. 
So I filed my paypal dispute on Thursday. Friday I got a shipment notification. Monday the flashlight got delivered. Really fast delivery from Hong Kong. Only problem is that he shipped me the cool white MS18 instead of the neutral white. I’m guessing he didn’t have the neutral white and was waiting for it. But guessing is all I can do because he never responded to my emails.
I’m a patient person and would have waited longer for the neutral white if that was the issue, but with no email response what choice did I have but to file the dispute?
So I’ll change my rating of nealsgadgets from negative to a low neutral. I would still order from him if he was the last person on earth and I really really needed a flashlight. Or if he had something cheaper than everyone else.
I’ve had similar experiences with Neal. Ordered black Friday, no further communication for a few weeks. I pestered him on messenger. Was told the LED choice I wanted was out of stock. He gave me a choice. Shipping soon after and received the light in the usual time frame, maybe a touch faster. If I didn’t get a hold of him I don’t think he would have told me he was out of stock. Not a scammer but a very poor communicator. This has happened the before (not every time). It was a good sale and ultimately I’m happy but it’s not a smooth experience and I do not enjoy the buying experience.
I ordered a E05C and three batteries at Christmas from Neal. My order was shipped and arrived much faster than I was expecting which was good.
But the order was missing 2 batteries. Contacted by email and waited a week then tried messenger but got no response. Opened a case on paypal and still didn’t get a response. Escalated the case to paypal before the cutoff date (28 Jan) and awaiting their verdict.
Came here to find the thread to contact Neal as he won’t respond to my emails. I see I’m not alone, his customer service seems to be lacking. Lesson learned.
Bought once, got a dead Fw1A, no help at all from Neal, never again.
I would start a thread on here with some details, I’m sure someone may be able to help.
Never ordered from Neil but I can tell you Gear Best is Pretty BAD. I ordered 3 x S21’s three months ago. Still nothing. I opened case with them, they said it will take longer.
I didn’t plan to order from either one again. I ordered 3 times from GB and had problems with each order. GB now has some ridiculously high prices. Despite that I don’t hate GB, I kind of respect them for providing jobs for the mentally handicapped. I swore I’d never order from Neal again but just signed up for the FW3A group buy as I wanted one with the raw finish. I’ll see how it goes.
Wow, Neal’s store made it on to Trustpilot can’t be a good thing………100% bad 
I am at a loss why he seems to treat a good portion of his customers so badly, it literally makes no sense to me.
I got one thing from him, it arrived so I won’t judge him on that, however one cannot simply ignore the carnage he causes for many customers.
Hard earned reputation.
Mike
There’s an odd dichotomy of interactions with Neal. According to the positive things about Neal, either he does things right and ensures customers are satisfied or he just ignores you outright. Usually people are consistently one or the other, not both.
Just read those reviews on “Trustpilot” seems like they were all written by the same disgruntled individual. Majority of the “reviews” are from users with less than 5 reviews seems very sus.
That may be the case of course, I generally only go on there if I have something very good, or very bad to say. Seems a lot of hassle to go to, but hey, some would do it obviously - we’ll never know for sure.
The distinction:
- If the ordered items are all in stock they will be sent within a week - Good Service.
- If there are no issues with the items when received - Good Service.
- If the ordered items are not in stock or just one item out of stock despite the site showing in stock your order with sit and dwell with no communication until the item/s are in stock and will then be sent. This can take a few weeks to months to half a year, all with no communication, you will be lucky to get a response. Very Poor Service.
- If there is an issue with the order when received such as faulty items, factory damaged goods, used items being sold as new or items missing (all examples well documented) prepare to be ignored and receive no response from Neal no matter which channel of communication used. Very Poor Service.
- The other scenario, items are never sent, no communication is established, your funds are gone unless you have chargeback or PP which leads to the next point -
If you still want to risk using Neal, always use PayPal, Neal also tends to ignore PayPal disputes as was the case with me, this does however make getting your money back a little faster.
I just left a review on TP. I only have 2 reviews so far - didn’t even remember the first one, apparently it’s from when I booked a car in Mexico just before the pandemic.
I can assure you I’m not “the same disgruntled individual” as the others.