Amazon actually banned me from doing reviews a few weeks ago
I don’t leave 5 star reviews on everything, and I actually attempt to help future costumers with their purchase decision…
I don’t try silly jokes and sexy pictures, so I’m not a popular reviewer! lol…
I guess they just don’t want objective viewpoints about their products. In fact most of the reviews I did were only to counter “Vine Reviews of Free Products” that were glowing 5 star reviews of always “MEH” products!
Anyway, saves me some time and energy.
I suggest not reviewing any items you buy with coupons, as I suspect that is what got me flagged. That is, if you care about reviewing to begin with. I suspect not many do, considering how many “vine reviews” that I’ve seen forced upon the masses…
Rofis MR50 — the crazy part is I have a MR30 (came with XHP35 HD) I modded it to a 4000K 50.2 12v — It’s one of my favorite to grab lights for out in the yard —hoping this light is close to the same or better
Amazon’s blatant underhanded business practices have become almost as oppressive as what drove everyone away from CPF. Some of the similarities are startling. Like many others these days, I usually purchase through Amazons competitors by requesting price matches.
I’ve sent them an e-mail and I’m waiting to hear back. If they don’t unlift the ban then I guess I will save some time writing reviews, but still a bit annoying to see. I remember hearing about them cracking down on fake reviews… I guess they’re still working on the algorithms.
Based on some of the reviews here, parasitic drain is 25 mA - that’s crazy high. A fully charged 5000 mAh cell will drain in just a week or so. That’s nuts.
With all my electronic switch lights I manually lock out with a 1/4 turn — habit — I even do it with tail switch lights that are packed in bags and holsters not in use —I’ve had them turn on before — luckily when it’s happened the lights started on low
Mine finally showed up today… what an odd little light!
Yeah, it’s like 9000K Persnickety Purple, but what got me was… where’s the mf’n switch?!?
Was pressing on all sides in case there was a “stealth switch” (eg, rubber panel), no joy. Had to (horrors!) actually look at the insert to find the thing that looks like a deliberately inaccessible “reset-switch”, which is the actual on/off/mode switch.
On the bright side, I doubt it’d accidentally turn on in a pocket. Hard to turn it on deliberately, let alone accidentally.
I’m thinking it’s more of a powerbank that can be used as a flashlight, than a flashlight that can be used as a powerbank.
Yeah, typical sucky UI, too, mode-changes within the first N seconds of turning it on, else it just turns off, chock full of blinkies, other annoyances.
That out of the way, meh, guess I’ll keep it. Definitely not a granma light, though.
A little hesitation but I went ahead and ordered the MR50…fully expect it to be a mod project although I don’t have a plan yet, but the price was too good to pass up and I like that smooth old school host design. I hope the driver can be replaced with something standard-size, hard to tell from pics I’ve seen. I think Rofis is done and gone for good, which is a shame because they had some good stuff going on and if they’d just been able to improve the shortcomings/defects I think they could have been a strong contender for the long haul. Looks like Skyben Trade might be finished as well? This is the one and only product they show for sale on amazon now…had some Olight models not that long ago. On their ebay store they only show a few Olights and nothing else. Whoever they are, they were a good seller with great communication and service.
I know nothing about this light but the Anker Boulder lights seem to have been well thought of. An oddball 380nm UV emitter, 18650 but with a supposedly non-removable cell and tailcap usb charging. $10 coupon brings it down to around $16. Might make a fun exploratory mod project.
I haven’t tried measuring parastic drain on my MR50, but it appears to be fine.
I’ve left it on my desk with cell installed and not locked out for over 6 months without recharging and it still turns on brightly. It’s definitely not draining the battery after a week.
Same here, the on and off is almost hidden at the tail end. Took me a minute to figure out. Crappy UI low, med, high, quick flashy, SOS, then off. Off being the sixth mode just plain sucks. You have to go thru all the modes to turn it off. Low is not low enough for me. Like you said more of a storage light or back up when the power goes out with it being more of a power bank with a led in one end. Oh well, if you where looking for a cheap power bank it would fit the bill with a led flashlight built in for a bonus.
Yeah they really are hit & miss with their packaging, I have to return books all the time because they are too lazy or dumb to put bubble wrap in the box or they put them in bubble mailer and postman crams into mailbox and damages.
But I get a pair of sneakers the other day and the sneaker box is in a bigger box and air pillows stuffed in to keep it from moving, honestly how do they think my sneakers are an item that can get damaged, but my books are to be tossed about with nada to protect, I don’t get it, even when you complain they just say send it back, nothing ever changes or gets from csr to warehouse, mostly they are so big it doesnt matter.
I saw a news article several years ago that described how their process works. Apparently Amazon outsourced analysis of returns to some other company. That company then checked to see how many returns everyone makes.
The people with too many returns, regardless of reason, were then banned from Amazon. They lost the ability to purchase anything from Amazon except entirely digital content like Kindle books.
I recall the news article focused on a purchaser who over a few years purchased over $30,000 worth of stuff from Amazon. He returned two items that were each worth $15 and subsequently was banned from buying anything that needed delivery from Amazon. It was a permanent lifetime ban and there was no way to appeal.
I do not know if Amazon still does it the same way. However, the fact that Northernharrier actually got a request for explanation seems new. The person in that news article received no warning or request for explanation before being banned.
Amazon’s purpose is to facilitate the transfer of wealth from one group of people to another group of people.
On the surface that sounds fine: it’s just what merchants do.
But with Amazon we’re talking about a much vaster scale. If you really think about what the end result of that situation will be, and what it will mean for many if not most of Amazon’s customers, it’s the opposite of fine.
However, I would guess we’re still many years away from most people realizing how and why this particular financial game is being played.
Over the next few years, you will find it increasingly hard to find reputable name-brand goods, those you do find will increasingly be of gradually-inferior quality, and everything will generally be at higher prices. Carhartt, 3M, and far too many others for me to list here, are examples of this.
Look for ‘winter gloves’ right now on Amazon Prime without filters and you will find page after page of OEM, cheap, low-quality junk gloves from 1000 no-name faux-brands. The Burton’s (another brand whose quality has taken a sudden dive) and the North Face’s have quietly become very few and far between.
Bad times are almost always interesting from a historical perspective. All that suffering. All that chaos. All those people, so identical to us.
We live in interesting times, and are in for far more interesting times.
