Testing the Trustfire Warranty Process

Other Types of Lights LED Headlamps
1

Bought two $24 MC18 headlamps last year.

Right from the getgo, one of them was problematic. As time has gone by, the switch has become less reliable until complete failing.

I emailed Trustfire and they wanted a video of me “proving” I’ve got a fully charged Trustfire 18650 in the tube, that the tailcap is tight, and that the switch is in fact dead.

We’ll see how it goes. I’m not looking forward to sending the dead headlamp back to China. Hoping they’ll just give me a good discount or free unit. Or at the very least, have somewhere in the USA where it can go.

2

Good luck.

You think that they’re going to pay for shipping back from commie-land?

Write them off and buy from somebody like Battery Junction, who will take care of you.

Chris

3

I can hear the Chinese clerk laughing when you emailed them asking for any service.

4

That is pretty standard practice. Fireflies comes to mind. I never bothered going through with their return process. You could send it back and possibly wait months for a return. worst case it will get lost or they’ll just ignore you. it is a big hassle. If they will not ship a replacement or replacement parts, try for a refund. Then fix it yourself or get someone locally to fix it for you.

Convoy, Sofirn, Emisar and some sellers on Amazon are much more lenient towards replacements and getting parts even though it’s a loss for them.

5

Working with smaller brands like that is a gamble. Sometimes you win, but mostly you lose. Dealing with overseas stuff is tough due to the communication barrier and distance involved with shipping. Plus low cost items are less likely to be warrantied since the cost of shipping is more than the item value. Good luck, bit you might win here.

6

So far at least, it’s looking promising.

I sent them a bunch of videos and they’ve agreed to send me a new headlamp.

However, they want to do it through the AliExpress chat, and so far, it’s not obvious that they can reach me, or I, them.

I’ll keep the community apprised.

7

I sent the head from my Imalent DX80 back to china on warranty. I had to pay shipping to china but not back. After waiting so long I forgot all about it, I got a replacement head in the mail one day. It didn’t work either.

8

The main problem with returns to China is that China’s non-corporate shipping import infrastructure is ass without tracking.

You need to pay through the nose if you don’t want to lose packages in China.

So much less reliable than other countries like Canada, the US, and many countries in Europe.

9

So they issued me a special SKU in AliExpress to order a “free” MC18 as a replacement.

Not too bad, in the grand scheme of things.

10

WOW… That seems fair enough.

11

Aliexpress has a pretty good return policy

if you send pix or video, they usually will refund you and not ask for the broken thing back

then later they wrangle their money back from the real seller

wle

12

Welp I got a new headlamp and decided my first was fluke so I order another, making my told 3 working units and one broken.

Now I’ve got two working units and two broken.

These things are pretty fragile.

13

Contacted Trustfire again - their response was “sorry, we already issued one warranty.”

Guess I’ll be tearing into this light to see what repairs can be made.

14

thanks for sharing your warranty experience.

i have not had occasion to test zebra light's warranty, but consider them for your next headlamp. i've purchased well over 10 of their lights. no problems yet.