Bad experience: Neal does not ship lithium ion batteries outside of flashlights

ucant buy vapcell from some shop in usa better?

Maybe they can design a disposable flashlight looking object to ship batteries inside of .

Does the flashlight have to be operational to be legal to ship in ?

Often enough I see C or D size flashlights in dollar stores.
Perhaps they stuff them in something like that for shipping

OOPS ! maybe I should have gotten a patent on my idea

That’s why some companies ask a surcharge when sending batteries. Normally they should fit in a letterbox envelope, but now they are sent inside a (½)dollar light in a parcel.

I bought some Vapcell 26650’s off AliExpress. Directly from the e-store. They were shipped in a nice package. Cost was about $12 canadian each for 2 cells. Shipping included.
Most other sellers wanted more money than that just for the shipping. Maybe check the official store, see if it is still good.

did the same to me, if i did not message him, he would leave my package not sent and keep my money. i had to reach out to get my money, about $150 of batteries. I think OP is overly offended and wants to cry wolf a Neals, i get it, its highly inconvenient but you are being overly dramatic OP.

I suspect tekwyzrd has waited for quite a long period of time before realizing the situation.

I did try to order some bare cells from Neal in 2019, and he refunded me in 3 days but he never state his reason.

If you’re in my country, then almost all foreign stores would not be able to ship bare batteries to my country.

I sometimes have to beg the seller to “find” a way to ship batteries to me, but many stores just would not care.

For instance, Banggood does not ship bare batteries to my country. But since I check their items quite regularly, I chanced upon a time period wherein the product listing indicated they can be shipped to my country. As BG’s price seems reasonable, I ordered a few immediately. I think BG attempted to ship some of the batteries, but only a pair of 14500 batteries successfully arrived (this was the only time that I was able to order bare battery from BG). All my other orders of 18650 batteries had to be cancelled quite some amount of time later (maybe a month or so) after I paid them, due to not being to ship successfully. Ever since then, BG’s product listing now always indicate bare batteries cannot be shipped to my country.

I understand that Neal’s product listing may not specifically state that bare batteries can be shipped - likely because some countries can accept shipping of bare batteries, whereas some countries may not. And probably Neal may not exactly know which countries accept or not. (For instance, it’s always a pain for me to order from Vapcell China too, because sometimes they say they cannot ship bare batteries to me, but when I insist, then they may find some other “obscure” way (at added shipping cost) to ship bare batteries to me).

That’s how a couple of AliExpress stores did to me before. They ship the 26650 batteries I ordered inside some generic zoomable flashlight, and one of the stores even indicated that there will be a free flashlight included (to serve as a “container” for the batteries)… But those AliExpress shops I tried before don’t seem to ship to my country now (or at least I can’t find one)

I think that the title isn’t doing Neal or our hobby any favors. (I say this just as the forum moderator and also as a flashlight enthusiast, I don’t have any advertising or other business dealings with Neal.) I’m not denying that this was a bad experience, but a scam it is not. What do you say I change the title to something a bit less charged with sentiment?

Definitely change it, clearly not a scam and someone with over 1000 posts here should know better

I agree the title should be changed.

Something along the lines of “Caution: Neal does not ship lithium ion batteries outside of flashlights”

Yeah I agree not a scam.

I’m used to vendors not shipping to Canada for lots of items. Instead of taking it out on the vendors maybe it is time to whine to our own customs policy.

On the upside, this thread has served as a valuable notice to us on BLF.

I didn’t know that Neal does not ship cells outside of flashlights. Now I do. :sunglasses: :+1:

In my experience, it’s the shippers that cause the problems more often then customs, (outside of Britain and the EU anyway) and vendors will stop shipping to some countries because of the shipping problems. Logistics companies also seem to be inconsistent in their policies and methods. Customs doesn’t seem to have a problem with batteries here but no vendors (AFAIK) will ship bare batteries. We can get cells in a light but sometimes that is shipped in a convoluted way. I believe some air carriers will not accept batteries as freight although they’re allowed in carry on bags. My last order from Vapcell had shipping problems, took 4 months to arrive from Taiwan which is practically next door, and now they will no longer ship here. Frustrating.

Neil can be unreliable and irritating to deal with so I just don’t order from him. Neal is dead to me.

Looks a bit like: Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

If so it wouldn’t hurt my feelings a bit.

More salt, salt it good, no backsies.

Wow Latin !

I much prefer

Caedite eos. Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius

I think you will find that the revised shipping regulations for lithium ion batteries are to blame. A few years ago I bought batteries from China and they came packaged in bubble wrap inside of a standard tough plastic shipping pouch. That’s no longer possible due to the incidence of battery fires on airplanes. Nobody wants a fire in the hold of a plane. Here in the US if you buy batteries from a US source they have a label on the package requiring ground transportation only. My last set came packed in a cardboard box with foam liner and a plastic case in the foam with two batteries in the case. Who knows what extra regulations are in place for international shipping today. There are separate regulations for batteries inside devices like flashlights and bike lights. It’s way less likely to have an accident with a battery inside a device so the regulations are much less strict. For small capacity batteries like those found in bike lights, there are no special precautions.

the actual problem is that Neal takes orders, and charges for them, before he ships

even if the item is out of stock, or in the case of batteries, cannot be shipped outside a light…

then he just waits until he can ship
unless someone files a dispute, then he gives a prompt refund

he often does not reply to emails, but paypal disputes get refunded quickly

He needs a more sophisticated website. That would eliminate a lot of the complaints.