BlueSwordM wrote:

Wait, did you send them a design?

I don’t think it’s too good of an idea to send all of the detailed drawing and samples to a company that you may not have trust over of.

They saw the 3D, loved it and were not sure how to make it. No problem, i had thought out the machining process and head attachment details.

I wanted an agreement in place before i would send any details. Nope…they just wanted the detail drawings, machining method AND a sample. Then they will think about it.

Hilarious that they didn’t know how to make it….but they may have an existing design or wait for it….pending patents.

GFY was the only answer i could think of.

My prefered company, Sofirn didn’t respond at all.

So sadly, the BLF Sabre and even more unique and radical designs, really radical, will go nowhere but in my imgination.

If it was 10 years ago and i hadn’t retired….

I agree that ordering from Aliexpress, Banggood, or most Chinese vendors is frustrating but I wish buyers would do a little more research and have some sense of respect of other cultures instead of being so isolated to westernized points of view. There are so many, lets face it cheapskates, on here that both want to buy from China for incredibly cheap prices, but also refuse to accept the simple ideas like “gasp the country shuts down for a few weeks each year for Lunar New Year” or “gasp, a ship takes a long time to get to the US and has to clear customs”. I have seen Youtube videos where Americans both trash a Chinese product for bad manual translations but at the same time the person is too cheap to buy an American made equivalent or there simply isn’t an American company that even makes the product. BLF’s soul (in regards to special edition flashlights) seem to be made exclusively by Chinese manufacturers. It sucks that your orders got delayed or cancelled but you’re going to the lowest bidder and paying sometimes $1-2 for shipping FROM CHINA and you are complaining. If you want it quick, try buying from an American vendor. You can go to eBay and try to find the same product that is shipping from US sellers and just pay more for it.

/\ …. Good post sygyzy, very interesting perspective.
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cheapskate noun

cheap·​skate | \ ˈchēp-ˌskāt \ Definition of cheapskate

a miserly or stingy person

especially : one who tries to avoid paying a fair share of costs or expenses
.
… hmmm….

I don’t agree at all that just because it’s cheaper, then poor service should be expected.

Case in point….Sonfirn.

Their light in Amazon.ca was more then the US, but Sonfirmn would discount it to match. Great.

Then the issue of shipping from China and the lottery of getting it through customs. Again, Sofirn admit it was a problem.

Then she gave me a discount to buy it from Amazon.com. I never used it, but the entire exchange left me with a great impression of their company.

What is common in all of these? COMMUNICATIONS. No one can accuse Sofirn of being a high profit company nor did they deny any issues about shipping. In every step, they tried and communicated possible solutions. At no time was there any exchange with an anterior intent.

So why is it that hard for a company to say…..We are just back from vacation and it will take a while for the supply chain to catch up, please be patient. At this point, it could be 2 months to receive your product.

I wrote that in 15 seconds. Is anybody going to tell me that a honest company can’t do the same?

Last and not least….

In my 40 plus years in manufacturing……quality, service and good pricing are not competitors. What you need is honesty and communications. If a customer knows what to expect, if the supplier/manufacturer is doing what they said they will, then there is very little that goes wrong.

But then….there is greed…..

BREAKING NEWS………..BREAKING NEWS………..BREAKING NEWS
___________________________
WKRAP – High atop K2 / 4 March 2019
by Cemore Butts

Container Ship Grounded…. Literally!!

A container ship filled with long awaited assorted orders from China, shipped after CNY; has run into problems in some disclosed location. See picture below for details. A picture is worth a thousand words you know….
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Maybe…. this is the problem….. . .

teacher wrote:

@cheapskate noun@ *cheap·skate* | \ ˈchēp-ˌskāt \ Definition of cheapskate : a miserly or stingy person especially : one who tries to avoid paying a fair share of costs or expenses . ... hmmm.... ;)

There could possibly be brief moments in time where I would qualify to be that 

klrman wrote:

teacher wrote:

cheapskate noun cheap·skate | \ ˈchēp-ˌskāt \ Definition of cheapskate : a miserly or stingy person especially : one who tries to avoid paying a fair share of costs or expenses . … hmmm….

There could possibly be brief moments in time where I would qualify to be that 

BUT …… the “brief momemts” for me being miserly or stingy (buying lights & knives for myself) are few & far between lately.

I have had to downgrade from canned Black Beans to Ramen Noodles…. .
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teacher wrote:

Tell me about it... I always try to pay my fair share if doing something with a group of my friends or people. _BUT_ ...... the "brief momemts" for me being miserly or stingy _(buying lights & knives for myself)_ are few & far between lately. I have had to downgrade from canned Black Beans to Ramen Noodles.... . . ;)

  quite the downgrade from beans to noodles but I can understand it!  A can of black beans up here cost  $0.97 whereas Ramen Noodles about $0.20 a pop, so I see the logic in it all

klrman wrote:

teacher wrote:

Tell me about it… I always try to pay my fair share if doing something with a group of my friends or people. BUT …… the “brief momemts” for me being miserly or stingy (buying lights & knives for myself) are few & far between lately. I have had to downgrade from canned Black Beans to Ramen Noodles…. . .

  quite the downgrade from beans to noodles but I can understand it!  A can of black beans up here cost  $0.97 whereas Ramen Noodles about $0.20 a pop, so I see the logic in it all

See, that’s where you can the knowledge you’ve acquired on BLF.

1. Try buying canned beans during specials. The lowest price I’ve found in Canada is 0,79$CA.

2. Do not buy canned beans. Buy a bag of canned beans instead, and prep it in water. The price/kg of dry beans is much lower than canned beans, so that is another thing that can be done.

3. Combine beans with tofu, and some mackerel/sardines, and veggies. If you have good cooking skills, you can prepare something worthy of a vegetarian god for a low price.

teacher wrote:

klrman wrote:

  quite the downgrade from beans to noodles but I can understand it!  A can of black beans up here cost  $0.97 whereas Ramen Noodles about $0.20 a pop, so I see the logic in it all

Yep... "quite the downgrade" for sure. Black Beans here _(WalMart Great Value brand)_ are 54 cents a can, IIRC. Ramen Noodles are 15 cents.... how far I have fallen. . ;)

We should all gang up on BLF for pretending to be a "budget" light forum whilst emptying our wallets   

BlueSwordM wrote:

See, that's where you can the knowledge you've acquired on BLF. 1. Try buying canned beans during specials. The lowest price I've found in Canada is 0,79$CA. 2. Do not buy canned beans. Buy a bag of canned beans instead, and prep it in water. The price/kg of dry beans is much lower than canned beans, so that is another thing that can be done. 3. Combine beans with tofu, and some mackerel/sardines, and veggies. If you have good cooking skills, you can prepare something worthy of a vegetarian god for a low price.

Beans and veggies are my revenge against inflation.  Food prices could skyrocket and my diet would still cost next to nothing weekly.

klrman wrote:

Beans and veggies are my revenge against inflation.  Food prices could skyrocket and my diet would still cost next to nothing weekly.

At least until everyone else is eating them too. Then your cheap beans are going to skyrocket as well. Unless you grow your own, at which time you will die in the winter.

/\….. Or…. grow enough & can them to get through the winter.
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That’s the spirit..

Guys, DO NOT anything you eat from sold from Value Brand. Most if not all sourced from China imported products. You guys will encounter problems.

BlueSwordM wrote:

See, that’s where you can the knowledge you’ve acquired on BLF.

1. Try buying canned beans during specials. The lowest price I’ve found in Canada is 0,79$CA.

2. Do not buy canned beans. Buy a bag of canned beans instead, and prep it in water. The price/kg of dry beans is much lower than canned beans, so that is another thing that can be done.

3. Combine beans with tofu, and some mackerel/sardines, and veggies. If you have good cooking skills, you can prepare something worthy of a vegetarian god for a low price.

mmalive wrote:

Guys, DO NOT anything you eat from sold from Value Brand. Most if not all sourced from China imported products. You guys will encounter problems.

Yeah, a 16oz can labelled “100lbs”…

mmalive wrote:

Guys, DO NOT anything you eat from sold from Value Brand. Most if not all sourced from China imported products. You guys will encounter problems.

Yes, but without the waiting…

mmalive wrote:

Guys, DO NOT anything you eat from sold from Value Brand. Most if not all sourced from China imported products. You guys will encounter problems.

mmalive wrote:

Guys, DO NOT anything you eat from sold from Value Brand. Most if not all sourced from China imported products. You guys will encounter problems.

I will eat anything. At this point in my life I need a little excitement. If it kills me, then so be it. I will cook my Chinese Value Brand with my Chinese flashlight and then type on my Chinese keyboard that I got a case of the runs. Then I will make an appointment with my Chinese doctor who will prescribe for me a diet high in MSG and questionable meat products. Repeat.

Back on-topic. Still waiting for the replacement emitter for the L6 I ordered from banggood to ship. It’s bad enough to receive a defective item and worse to jump through hoops to get them to agree to remedy, but to wait even longer while ‘customer service’ responds with empty promises… I’m done being ‘reasonable’. I’ll be filing a paypal complaint in the morning.

Meanwhile – orders got split out (oddly) while things were out of stock. Latest split was Convoy S2+ Nichia UV, and Astrolux A01. Sometime in there, the Convoy was in stock, but A01 still waiting.

A01 got cancelled this morning so I’ve sent an email asking when refund will be processed, but in the meantime, the S2+ is out of stock again! So hopefully they put one aside while it was in stock (I’ll believe it when I see it), or that’ll get cancelled on me too.

Note to self, don’t order more than one item at a time.

toddcshoe wrote:

klrman wrote:

Beans and veggies are my revenge against inflation.  Food prices could skyrocket and my diet would still cost next to nothing weekly.

At least until everyone else is eating them too. Then your cheap beans are going to skyrocket as well. Unless you grow your own, at which time you will die in the winter. :-)

If mayhem breaks out I'll go to plan B... potatoes.  Easy to grow, just toss a potato in the ground and it never stops giving

...back to the topic, I ordered from BG as well and they still haven't shipped my order.  Seems they need more financing to get going lately.

Spartan wrote:

So sadly, the BLF Sabre and even more unique and radical designs, really radical, will go nowhere but in my imgination.

klrman wrote:

Easy to grow, just toss a potato in the ground and it never stops giving

Ok…that pretty much muzzled my dark humor.

On topic…

Is there, or is there not a problem? I’m a bit confused if we are now talking about post holiday shipping delays or outright failure.

Is it safe to order from them?

mortuus wrote:

Spartan wrote:

Ok…that pretty much muzzled my dark humor.

On topic…

Is there, or is there not a problem? I’m a bit confused if we are now talking about post holiday shipping delays or outright failure.

Is it safe to order from them?

well i asked them to remove my flashlight that just keeps changing date few times now and the other item shipped out today so imgood for now, but weird they never contacted me since feb 19 that the item is out of stock if i wanna keep wait or whatever, its safe to use them but dont order stuff that are not in stock ready to ship unless u wanna wait..

So the problem is that they do not communicate if…

A…if it’s in stock. (Is that when you order or after you order and there is nothing there?)

B…shipping date.

C…shipped.

Correct on all?

(And that is why I like Amazon prime)