Group Buy: TERMINATED by Niwalker

Crelant and Fenix also kind of belong on that list. Lucky for them, they have more niche products. (Although Solarstorm is taking a great crack and Fenix :))

Solarforceflashlight-sales.com is still selling the S2200 at the DISCOUNTED price of $135.99, marked down from $239.99. 2200 lumens that can easily be bumped to 2700+ with 5 simple 1ohm resistors. $2 shipping. As little as 6 day delivery. Any day. All day. No secret decoder ring necessary.

So, to Niwalker, I salute you for making the choice easy! :stuck_out_tongue:

I'm now kicking myself for not picking one up for $115.

Yikes. Another company to stay away from I guess.

What a joke this is,Niwalker really screwed themselves this time.It's a shame because these seem like great lights but I will never know that because they chose to have none rather than some.It makes no sense to me to mess this up and sell these to flashlight enthusiasts who will buy them, good luck selling these to Joe homeowner.Cellguy-thanks for your efforts to get this buy together.

You know, all these MFYell (you know I mean Manufacturing Companies right?Sealed), companies with their MAP CRAPYell can go directly to Hell, do not pass go and do not give them any money for any reason... Ever.

What a load of... just wait a week or two and the clone will come out and probably be as good as the original.

Niwalker can stick it where the sun doesn't shine as far as I'm concerned. Never had one, never want one, never will need one. Buh-buy.

you know.

I’d happily take an ultrafire clone over most of these “big brand” lights, their all as bad as each other, and when you get down to it, even these need to be modded to impress, whats the point?

better to just get a cheapish host and just build your own, lets be honest, there are precious few outside these forums that will even look at these lights, sooner these manufacturers realise this, the better.

That's the part I don't get. You would think that reputation, and protecting the brand image, would be everything to these manufacturer companies.

Yet time and again I see them shoot themselves in the foot, and at the same time I have to wonder... is there really that big of a market, where they can just not worry about other competitors that offer very similar products?

How many people outside this BLF/CPF flashlight fanatic world actually buy the lights?... Can it really be so many that you can blatantly alienate a large group of potential buyers and not care about it?

So, they suck, you say! Well, I never liked them anyway.
I am sure that Supbeam is listening and already planning K40-G2 (with MT-G2) :wink:

Yup, I hope Alice reads this, and passes the thread along :D

I'm not sure how much future MTG2 lights have in the flashlight world though, in single LED lights.

I expect a multi xml light is much cheaper to make, and by the numbers, they do beat out any single mtg2 light. We've yet to see a multi mtg2 light though.

i prefer customized my light right now,its cheaper and i can chose how much current and tint i want + its educational :stuck_out_tongue:

+5 brazilian

Bad form = dropping f-bombs on a family friendly forum…regardless of how you feel about MAP.

+1

I really don't think we (forum members) are overestimating our importance when we claim to represent a relatively large group of potential buyers.

The flashlights we deal with in places like BLF/CPF are hardly mainstream items that the regular person would find in the local hardware store. Most of my friends and family would never even know these kinds of lights existed if it weren't for my strange (to them) hobby.

It seems Niwalker is taking a very short-sighted approach to this issue. Rather than having the brains to work with a dealer who could help them get more of their products out into the world, it appears they prefer to present artificial barriers and hide behind unspecified "policies" to protect either their "perceived quality" or the interests of the few dealers they actually have, or both.

From the information presented here it would seem they certainly haven't made any effort to work with the seller in question, preferring instead to adopt a "No soup for you" approach.

We've seen this kind of crap before and we will see it again.

As many have said - there are plenty of other companies to purchase from. For all they/we know, Ric is working on an updated version of the BTU shocker as we speak.

These idiots have clearly done themselves a great disservice and as a result, anyone I am likely to run into down here will continue to respond with Ni..who??? if their name is ever mentioned.

Yeah I’m not saying that you’ve done anything wrong, I just think that the backlash against Niwalker has been OTT when it could be down to a misunderstanding somewhere. I’d much rather give them a chance to explain themselves better and/or make it right before resorting to insults.

Interesting you should mention that as Niwalker have a couple of very interesting products in the pipeline.

We are very sorry for all the troubles here. As we said, we don`t mind GB but that has to go through an authorized dealer. We were willing to fulfill this GB with mods for US$180, with more additional discount(our cost) offered but he refused to do so.

We would like to make things more clearly here, the reason for two GB activities have fallen.

Mr. Bill called one of our sales rep one day and asking for dealer prices, so we gave him the usual prices we offer to dealers(over the phone). That`s it! There was no discussion about being a Niwalker dealer. Some days later, he started a thread here for GB.

Mr. Cellguy sent a few emails to us wanted to order some samples and he did provide his website to us for reference, we were very interested in working with him too. Again, there was no discussion about being a Niwalker dealer. We did told him all dealers must stock our products. As a relatively new brand in the market we are seeking for more business opportunities, so we offered him one of each Vostro lights for evaluation per his requested. Some days later, GB started again.

We were not aware about these two GBs as we were not informed and have no details, GBs should be properly organized. We are very sad to see the insults on one of the most friendly forum. We have made copies of Fxxx words for our record.

Hopefully we have explained well to you guys. Please let us know if you have any other questions.

sounds like a miscommunication

i was agitated before but…

i am over it

So, if cellguy (e2fieldgear) commits to becoming an authorized Niwalker dealer then you would be happy to let the group buy proceed?

By ‘with mods’ do you mean $180 including the after-sales work conducted by vinhnguyen, for which he would be paid $65 of the sales price himself?

I wasn’t happy to see the insults either, as were a couple of other members who made that clear. I do understand some of the posters’ frustrations, as the MAP issue has built up now over a number of cases, but I feel you were harshly treated before being given a fair chance to explain your position. I don’t believe that the insults represent the attitute of the majority of BLF members, even if most of us don’t like MAP.

Nothing personal against Niwalker, but they are now on my short-list of MAP-obsessed, enthusiast-averse branders of flashlights. Like other intelligent consumers here, I will not pay MAP for a flashlight.

As long as enthusiasts and consumers continue to research and share information on the better value lights from the more consumer-friendly choices out there, we win. The premium-branders that wish to remain relevant in the enthusiast market will have to offer some flexibility, since the market is largely driven by enthusiasts. They do not have a monopoly on flashlights, so it will be consumers who determine what their product is worth - not the ‘branders’. With so many choices being available in this arena, those who attempt to operate according to yesterday’s rules will likely go the way of the dinosaur.

Among forums across the web, from deal sites to the other various forums where consumers learn to get the most bang for their buck, the MAP-obsessed branders should receive less and less recommendation to buy.