I ordered a ss & blue FT03 xhp50.2, using Fin17’s link and coupon (Thanks Fin!) on March 22. The light shipped on March 24th. I came home today and it’s in my mailbox!
So… I’ve noticed Neal and Hank’s shipping times getting quicker recently, and recently had an 11 day turnaround with Neal and 10 day turnaround time with Hank. But 9 days?! From Banggood!?
I thought it was worth mentioning. Especially if anyone is worried about ordering from BG, there are good experiences happening!
I purchased a few lights and supplies from BG yrs ago until I tried to buy a Haikelite MT09R using a discount code from finn17 that evolved into 6 months of haggling, cancelling the order and re-ordering after it was in stock with no luck after waiting 3 months with no shipping, I gave up and never buy anything from BG. The light was in stock at a much higher price and the one I wanted at a slightly lower price on the same BG sight !! Of course you could get the one at full price.
.
But you can get anything in stock if you don’t use a discount code !!
.
I enjoy looking at the Miss-Direction and Dis-Honest pricing techniques they use like a fishing net for the inexperienced buyers.
.
Deception is rampant at BG, just expect it and buy there anyway.
.
Bg shipping to Toronto has always been very fast (as low as 6 days one time if I remember correctly). They did sell me some fake 30Qs but refunded a good chunk of the price when I contacted their support.
I definitely do not deny the pricing game with everything BangGood. I might be a little crazy, but I have a running notes folder dedicated to Banggood pricing- discounts (after taxes, fees and shipping of course) of the lowest current price for about 30 flashlights from either Freeme, fin17, and youtuber’s (MadMax, Flashoholic, Adventure Sport) discount code lists, group buys, etc.
Not being able to order more than one item without messing up a coupon, so you pay way more shipping costs than necessary bugs the Sh*t out of me. The flash sales are only for certain items, which is understandable, but you can’t put a flash sale and a non flash sale item in the cart and use a coupon without messing up the flash sale pricing. Half of any one source’s coupon codes are randomly deemed expired, unfit for the product because it’s the wrong color (etc), or the item is just not the right list price when the coupons do work.
Pretty much every week I sort through dozens of coupons on about 4-5 different websites to find current coupons that work and are the lowest cost. Of course any one product could have 3 or more valid working coupon codes.
It’s just crazy, and it’s intentionally designed chaos. If you are new to all of this and do not realize how it works, you are definitely going to get screwed, or at least pay a higher price than you need to. And never mind trying to change anything after you place that order!
So, all that being said I still order from them. Why? Now that I know all of this information, I get the best prices possible or at least I wait for the best prices possible, and its almost exclusively Astrolux and Lumintop. It is interesting though I will put hours into saving $8 on a ft03, ec03 or ea01, but not ever ask Hank or Simon for any discount whatsoever. I think it stems from trying to dupe BG in a way, because it feels like they are out to dupe us with all of this coupon/pricing nonsense. I don’t get that feeling from Hank or Simon. I feel like if it weren’t for our studious members Like Fin, Freeme, Max, etc… BG wouldn’t offer this forum anything. And I have to imagine this forum accounts for a huge percentage of their US sales.
