Well I got into this whole light thing after going night hunting.
I’ve had some lights that were LED but nothing awesome.
I knew some great lights were out there and after that night hunt I wanted some of my own lights.
That desire started a whole lot of creative thinking on my part and I came up with a a product to build in the shop and market.
That meant I needed some lights to examine and make a determination on which lights to order in quantity and go to the gun show to sell my new product.
SO I have this extrusion being made and a great new product to reveal soon.
This is where lightmalls.com comes in.
I have no experience with China wholesalers and found their site through Google.
I have seen it mentioned here and on a few other sites but I did not dig as deep as I should have.
I placed an order for several lights chargers batteries and accessories.
The order was around 135$ with 18.50 of that for “EXPRESS SHIPPING” with a “4 –8 day arrival”!!!
Now after 9 days and 13 emails I do not even have a tracking number I can really verify.
I’ve also left out of this so far the HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE of just placing the order!
I used up a good hour of my day just placing the order. As it was repeatedly rejected for various reasons.
Only to find out later that 2 of the rejected orders went through. SO IT WAS FUBAR from the GET GO
Any who I now have no real proof that the order is REALLY SHIPPED.
Ive been told various things. I was told it got DELAYED by FEDEX and is now on ChinaPost
Neither of those “TRACKING” numbers TRACK TO ANYTHING VERIFIABLE!!!
Enough rant for now, I will update this as I learn more and followup on:
The refund for the second rejected order is a “REAL REFUND”
FEDEX claim of delayed is real. (If I can even find that out!)
What the items look like and how the items perform! (If I really get them!)
Just starting to get that sinking feeling like I’m being played!
It sounds like you have a fine & pleasant misery going. I’ve ordered from Light Malls several times. Never had any issues. It’ll take some time to sort out to be sure. Many of the Chinese vendors are slow due to distance, communication issues. Yada Yada Yada… Patience is definately a virtue dealing with them. Good Luck
i wouldn’t worry so much about them… i placed few orders from them, they do deliver their stuffs.
but just don’t expect it’s going to be here in a week.( lightmalls is not one of the fastest light vendor out there )
i’d ordered some lights and paid $40 for FEDEX but they shipped with regular mail, i got it in about 3 weeks later
anyway… just be patient and it will get here eventually, no need to ruffle your feather over something out of your control
as for shipping, use 17track.net to track shipments. Seems to be the most reliable at getting info.
And another +1 for fasttech. I’ve ordered a handful of things from them, and just last night, placed an order for a bike tail light/laser, ecig supplies, and a bunch of other random stuff that came close to 100 bucks
Just had a similar experience with wallbuys. They shipped my order 2 weeks late and only after I complained about not receiving an order confirmation or tracking number several times - but it did finally ship. I hesitate to ever pay for express shipping as customs can delay an order for any number reasons outside the vendors control. I would save the money and just use it to buy more flashlights!
TehSpaz: OK that helps a lot!
I found it.
but they waited until today to ship it.
So it took 9 days just to ship the product……………
And they lied to me telling me that it had already shipped via FEDEX
cellguy: Thanks also for the idea of saving monies on the shipping to buy more lights.
I did not realize that customs could have such a negative effect………………
Sorry to hear about your experience Bert. Lightmalls has always done right by me. I have to admit that I have not purchased anything from them in quite awhile though. You definitely can't count on getting any thing fast from China. Sometimes it moves fast, many times it doesn't. It's reasonable, though, to expect the vendors should ship promptly and be honest.
I have really tried hard to like lightmalls but I have had mixed experience with them. I have always gotten my orders but not always what I ordered. In the end I have always gotten it straightened out. Although like you I have gone back and forth with them for days with e-mails. I probably won’t order from them again unless they have a unique item that I can’t find anyplace else.
It would seem to me that the sheer number of these type of sites would create a competitive environment where they could not survive providing this level of service. I guess our appetite is insatiable at the moment. I wish my shop had that problem!
I never pay for expedited shipping. It seems like a scam to me. I’ve seen too many guys in here upset about it. They take your money and ship it standard ground freight.
I’ve made several orders with Lightmalls as well, and everything arrived as expected. I gathered confidence in them as a vendor from all the forum members here who deal with them on a regular basis, and also knew to expect it to take a good while to arrive from China. I also skip the expedited shipping fees, which I suspect only gets it on the slow boat 1 or 2 days earler than it would with free shipping. Waiting for nearly a month, at times, is a tradeoff I’m willing to make to get good deals on quality items. I’ve been married with kids for over 2 decades, so I guess I had to learn patience in order to maintain my sanity.
Fortunately, I’ve yet to have any issues with any of the vendors that have been recommended by forum members here. My Fasttech orders also arrive faster, as well.
Yep although I had one do the exact opposite. Ric at Fancy Flashlights. I didn’t want him sending the light expedited with FED EX because the last time I got an order from Fed Ex I ended up having to fill out paperwork for homeland security (not kidding) and paying duty on the package and then fed ex wanted me to pay them an extra $15 as well for doing the customs paperwork (not on your life). So I asked Ric to just send it HK post and give me a free driver for saving him the cost. He agreed and sent it Fed Ex anyway. Luckily I had no problems with it and got it super fast with an extra driver.
Well after posting this I have learned a lot from you all and the experiences you shared.
Shipping stuff is often slow from China.
It is a waste of money to order expedited shipping of any kind as it is not really honored for the majority of China Shipping. 17track.net is weird and helpful at the same time!
Fasttech has the type of page structure that makes ordering products that have lots of variety so much better.
Fasttech’s page structure is similar too Newegg and I like that.
Yeah, earlier this year my stuff was coming in as early as a week. Right now stuff has been clocking in between two weeks and a month. I wouldn’t worry about it. Just be patient. If these shipping times bug you order through a US vendor.
I can fully understand the shipping and the woes that go with it.
I can not understand or deal with a Vendor that LIEs and tells me something has shipped and I can track it in a day or two, only to find out it is not SHIPPED AT ALL. That is now the case yet again with lightmalls.com.
SO now another email saying it is shipping out. I thought I just tracked it.
Even if the product is good I would have a very hard time dealing with lightmalls.com in the future.
I just don’t deal well with lies.
I see now they are avoiding the subject of refunding the express shipping
So for over a week they have money tied up for two orders when only wanted to make one order.
My items still have not shipped and every email adds a slightly new twist.
WHO DOES BUSINESS THAT WAY
JUST REALLY FUBAR
Well Well still no lights from lightmalls.com
and they REFUSE to refund the cost of express shipping, claiming the new shipping method is also express.
In case they READ this
HEY FOOLS it is not EXPRESS WHEN YOU WAIT OVER A WEEK TO GET IT SHIPPED REGARDLESS OF CARRIER USED
REALLY JUST TIRED OF DEALING WITH THEM
GLAD I LEARNED THIS BEFORE PLACING THE ORDER FOR 500 light batteries and chargers.
That was what this test order was for to evaluate what to buy in quantity before Christmas.
I have also not had a problem with lightmalls orders.
I see in your other post where it looks like they shipped out on 9-9-13. That’s only 6 days in transit. Express delivery might have made it in that time frame, never ordered express. But if they shipped regular post most of my orders from china take 12 days to almost a month.
I think if you read on this forum long enough you will find that all china vendors will lie from time to time. Some more than others. Fasttech use to be considered the most trustworthy fastest shipper here and probably still are. But I have read post of unhappy customers lately from them too. It just seems to be common practice for china. A buck is a buck there.
I would still consider fasttech as the highest with customer satisfaction even though I don’t have the numbers to back that up. Just from my experiences and what others have posted. If they carry what you need you might shot them a email and describe what you need in the time frame you need it. I can not guarantee they will be any better though. Just another source.
