BLF veterans may know me, as Jasmine and I were active here since 2013, until years ago. I've been away (see below) but, I'm now back at FastTech. I want to share with everyone at BLF what happened behind the scenes.
First of all, I reckon there are many issues with us. Please accept my sincere apologies for orders that didn't get shipped on time, for emails and support tickets that ended up in hell, and for everything else.
My goal at FastTech has always been to run the store so that we don't come across as a typical China-based store. Though we are far from success, we worked very hard at this. Being a low-margin store that relies on orders driven by the sheer variety of products available, especially one that serves the world from China, significant micromanagement is at play at pretty much all levels. Many folks here didn't get why we had to chase after goals that weren't revenue-related, and preaching became increasingly difficult. I got frustrated, depressed, and angry, and likewise, the team got a lot of grief from me. I eventually stepped down in early 2017.
In the past three years, the team at FastTech realized how the discrepancy in our goals affected customers' sentiment -- we largely became just another Chinese store.
This brings us to this post. I'm pleased to announce that everyone here is on the same page, and FastTech is here for good.
We would - I would - love to hear from you the grievances and displeasure we may have caused in recent years. We want to right the wrongs.
Cheers,
Kyle Chan
We have recently carried out the following improvements:
Stock status is now accurate
- In-stock products: actual stock number is now available on product pages.
- Vendor-stocked products: putting money where our mouths are, when promises such as "ships in 5 days" are exceeded by 2 days, 5% gift cards are offered for that product, and as always, canceling for refunds is always an available option.
Real free shipping for battery cells, for orders $20+ for almost all countries. No more surprise shipping charges when placing orders.
The BLF exclusive coupon has been upgraded to 8% for $40+ orders, as a token of our appreciation of BLF. All other orders will continue to receive 5% off, as always. This coupon applies to products under the flashlight and battery categories.
US orders now deliver in about 2 weeks by selecting "USA ePacket Routed by FastTech" because we made a switch to a new US shipping carrier. We will make this the default shipping option for US customers when we return to office next week. We are also adding new, faster shipping services for Canada and EU countries. They will become available early next week.
EU VAT can now be paid ahead of time at checkout, avoiding tax surprises at delivery.
Service staff with poor communication skills were pruned. Not all support replies are perfect yet, but we're working on it.
Great to hear from the bosses of any mail order company and will say that although I have not ordered anything in the past 2 years, all other previous orders were handled well and never had a lost or cancelled order from FastTech.
Will definitely give you guys another shot especially with free ship on Batteries.
Thanks and best of luck!
Wow! I always liked FastTech and never actually had any problems with you folks. That was before my flashlight fetish days, so my business with FastTech was specific to vape-related products. I no longer vape but look forward to taking advantage of your fast and free shipping. It is great to hear from you and I love your open recognition of past shortcomings and dedication to better future customer service. Well done.
While being cheap is important, you don’t have to be the cheapest. I’ll usually pay $1-2 more (on cheap stuff) or sometimes up to 10% on larger items to get it from my preferred vendor.
How to be my preferred vendor? Be reliable first and fix your mistakes second. Everyone makes mistakes, but you can’t mess up every time and you have to fix it when you do.
I swore to never shop at FastTech after being lied to, too many times. This all stems from selling items not in stock. Then telling me soon after 2 weeks of not being shipped. Then telling me soon too many times. Then after finally getting a refund continuing to see the same out of stock product as listed in stock. If this practice has truly ended then I may return to your store.
I haven’t considered your store for awhile, but will now for my flashlight needs. It’s always nice to hear from vendors here on BLF. That helps build confidence that the store cares about its customers.
Good on you for the honesty. I’ve been ordering for years, noticed the drop off, had a few hassles with stuff occasionally, but generally always got what I ordered. Importantly, it’s the genuine article and not a copy.
Much appreciating your direct and personal approach, buyers want this.
Kyle, it's great to see you back! Not only did we work closely on projects many years back but I used to buy all I could from Fasttech. I don't like to think how money I would spend back then but the prices were among the best, the selection, and best of all the shipping was insanely fast.
I got away from the hobby for a while and a couple years ago needed flashlight parts and wanted to give you a try again after hearing bad things about FT while I was away. Anyway, it took about 5 months to get some reflectors. It was painful. I, for one, look forward to giving you folks another shot. This announcement of your warms my heart. Here's to a return of the FT of old!
you should improve shipping methods, when i try to order knives with shipping to France, it used to be free and it’s still marked like it is, but in fact it’s not and it’s quite expensive, which is a shame.
I used to order lots of knives from you, with free shipping, you had the best prices, can’t you offer free shipping again ?
Anyway, i always had good customer service from your site.
Hi everyone, I hope you are all doing well. My name is Jasmine, from the Customer Care Team of FastTech. My apologies for not keeping in touch in years. I am back here and wanted to do what I could to resolve every unpleasant issue that might occur to you with your purchases.
I am feeling very complicated to read the comments. It’s glad to see most of you have a good experience with us but ashamed to see the troubles we made. Customer satisfaction is always at the core of what we do. Every suggestion you give is valuable to us. We would listen, learn and act to ensure our team is providing proper direction and change our approach to better suit your needs if necessary.
Thank you all for putting your trust and continued patronage on our website. It has always been a great pleasure serving you all. We are truly grateful to you for choosing us and allowing us to grow with all of you.
Please feel free to drop us a comment with your suggestions or complaints. You can also send me a message at any time. I will personally take care of them and get the issues resolved.
Thank you for your kind words like always. It has been a long time, but I still remember your passion for helping others and being extremely helpful to us. I was encouraged and very grateful to you.
I’m sorry to hear about the unpleasant experience of your purchase. It must be very frustrating through all these troubles. I’m glad to let you know that we have also improved the order fulfillment and the delivery time monitoring. I believe that this will not happen again. You can send me a message anytime if you are experiencing any inconveniences from us.
We appreciate your kindness and understanding.
Sorry about the bad experience you had with your purchase. We worked hard in recent months on the accurate stock status and had the improvements Kyle listed above.
Please be assured that we will strictly track and continue to improve on these.
Thank you for your kindly understanding and trust in us.
There is an exclusive 5% off coupon (code: BLF) to members here, and it has been upgraded to 8% for $40+ orders, as a token of our appreciation of BLF. All other orders will continue to receive 5% off, as always. This coupon applies to products under the flashlight and battery categories.
Sorry to say that batteries only can be sent to US and EU countries for now. But we will keep looking for other logistics providers and keep you posted. Thank you.
It’s already on the schedule as we achieved free shipping to battery cells. We will discuss this further the following week and make it happen as soon as possible.
Good to know you had a pleasant experience with our customer service. Thank you for sharing with us.
I used to shop frequently at FT, but lately no more. Because of new VAT rules.
Thank you for addressing the VAT issue. Many people think: little chance customs is gonna pick my parcel out of the stack, but that is something of the past. Now every parcel has to undergo a VAT check. And when the seller does not collect VAT, customs is gong to do so. And when in doubt of the value of the item(s) or the shipping cost, they make an estimate that always exceeds the bitter truth. Then some company steps in to take care of the paperwork, and charges a handling fee of €4 to €15 per parcel.
So again, I’m happy you take care of the VAT problems. I’ll definitely shop again at FT.
You have always been amazing with every order I have ever placed. I would advise making sure product descriptions and lumen/ beam distance claims are accurate.
Hi. Respect for your post, wise man.
My experience with FT is very positive and all my disputes ended happily. Having around 70 orders completed, it’s a good score.
What I’m personally missing at FT, are novelties in Diy flaslights section. You just seem to lag behind if it comes to newly developed products. But that can be made up.
And your shopping made a great progress recently.
Thank you for being with us
