Negative experience with NealsGadgets

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.

Keep posting the bad experiences. The Neal appreciation thread is gathering steam

I once bought 2 Jetbeam Mini one from Neil which should be made of titanium. I was really looking forward to it, lamps made of stainless steel were delivered. To my complaint came the succinct answer that titanium would be more expensive. That’s ridiculous and that’s how he annoys his customers.

I’ve had all GREAT Experiences with Neil until this one. I ordered a fire flies E07 on February 22. I was very excited to get one it was my first ff. I got a acknowledgment order email but the item never shipped. I figured it was Chinese new year so it may be longer but I asked other people and they had to order shipped in the same timeframe. I also ordered a second different light on March 2nd and that shipped. But my feb 22 order still didn’t, still no word or response from Neal. I emailed Neil five or six times saying I would pay more for upgraded auxiliary lights if the one I ordered was out of stock and that was the actual hold up. I got no response. I had to reach out to contacts he hasOn here to reach out to him and I think that’s the only reason I have any resolution. Last night I got a refund to my PayPal saying that it was my request. I never requested a refund but at least after 3 weeks I got my $75 back… I went on neals site To order a different variation of the EO7 bc I still wanted it and thought it was just the version I ordered that was the problem. Well every single combination of LED, auxiliary LED , and body color was out of stock. It was not like that two hours before, because I had been checking almost every day.

This is more of a warning that you can order something that is not in stock and he may or may not get a hold of you for weeks, holding up your money and keeping you in anticipation if you’ll ever even get a refund. Although he did refund my money so there is that. I don’t know, just really bad experience I feel compelled to share. And wierd because I had a dozen other perfect transactions with him. On the other hand the competition (Hank) emails me back everyday I email him. Every time.

Apparently I have fallen from the great responses from Neal to the completely ghosting the customer , from Neal.

Why does it take a PayPal dispute to get an answer out of Neal :person_facepalming:

I got a light that doesn’t work. I was told I’d be sent a replacement. It has been over a week and I haven’t received a shipping number and have been ignored. I open up a dispute and get messaged within a few hours that they’ll ship it tomorrow.

If I cancel the dispute, I won’t be able to start another one and if I don’t get a working replacement, I’ll lose the ability to get my money back and a light.

So keep it open ’til you get the working light?

Because money talks and BS walks.

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DO NOT CANCEL THE DISPUTE !!
ALWAYS use PayPal !!
Shop elsewhere.
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Never cancel dispute.

GT Mini Pro came yesterday, after 11 days from ordering, Connecticut, US. 11 days. So, my last experience with Neal before this sucked, and now the guy sends out my light, working perfectly, with exactly all of the correct extra stuff i ordered, to me in a week and a half from China. He wouldn’t even email me back about my other order, but on this one he is the quickest shipping out of anyone in the game. I guess if the consistency were better Neal would be great.

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Your experience is encouraging. Strange how quickly it can turn positive.
Neal has lights and accessories I would love to order. But our bad experience with Neal goes unresolved.
So no orders will ever be placed with him.
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Nobody ever said 100% of Neal’s business is bad.
We are only saying that the percentage of unhappy customers is significantly higher than literally any other Chinese vendor.
The strange thing for me is that the guy is being promoted by a good amount of very well respected BLF members.
I advice all Neal’s customers to leave a review on TrustPilot, that’s the only reliable way to know if we, the unhappy customers, are exaggerating, or we’re just being annoying and spoiled. His rating currently sits at 2.2/5, but only 8 reviews.

i agree, if i had an unresolved issue with anyone in this arena i wouldn’t take the chance ordering again either. I was lucky with my one bad experience that he refunded me after 3 weeks or so.

I feel like if he has the item in stock, and it is in good working order, then you will be ok. but if either of those things are not the case, all bets are off, because he is not going to go out of his way to help.

I had a botched interaction with hank once, and he sent me something like 3 pocket clips and a led and mcpcb express mail, 5 days to Connecticut. I didn’t ask for quick shipment either. Why deal with bad customer service when there are sellers out there who will make it right. I just wish there were more of them…

Well, i feel that is exactly the problem the people that have been burned by Neal are experiencing. 3/10 (that may be low, but is probably really high) are being left out to dry by Neal and with how passionate people are in any hobby like this, it causes outrage. With the amount of product Neal probably moves (Just think Lumintop, Mateminco, and Olight- im sure he sells twice as much as hank and simon) the percentage of people who have been shafted by him is probably really low. I know this thread is large, but still. It is probably something like 5. Its enough for people to create a thread, but not enough to stop him from having bad communication with the orders that are really messed up. I mean i have had terrible purchasing experiences with Certain Sellers on AliX, but whats the recourse? Start a thread? No. get 30 of my money back and keep the crap light. With Neal people feel empowered to start this thread to change his handling of SH*T transactions because of his correlation to good standing blf members, but i have to imagine he is a small distributor getting around 1000 orders a month, and not staffed appropriately or doesn’t care enough to take care all the issues. He does take care of some of them though. He refunded my money finally. I just read that someone said he is sending out a new light because of a PP dispute. So, really how many people are absolutely burned by Neal? Also, i would consider getting absolutely burned a “bad experience”, because if you have some resolution to a problem, then that is a vendor at least trying. “Unhappy” customers is a very vague statement. Ive read reviews about people being unhappy for very unrealistic things, Not saying that is going on in this thread, but i’ve read reviews that are mind blowing. Also, Neal, unlike Simon and Hank, doesn’t make anything (actually, i dont know if simon makes anything. but anyway). So yes he should check every light, but its not like he assembled the light either. I dont know, i feel like i’m making excuses for him now, but i’m just saying i have been in business a while and i know how some things fall through the cracks even if you have the best intentions. I also know when you get 100 emails a week from angry people, and 75% of them are because their order is taking longer then 3 days to ship or 3 weeks to arrive, you eventually stop giving credence to all those emails. And in some of those emails are probably the very valid complaints. But to agree with you, bad customer service is inexcusable, and so is bad communication.

Also NONE of the prizes for this year Old Lumen competition, sponsored by Neals were delivered :frowning: