Announcement

[Marc_E]

@MascaratumB

@Marc E

@MascaratumB

Are you sure?
Low Price for a Lumintop Tool 2.0 Ti?

Cause these kind of things may happen…Oh and it involved LT and FT “names”

Both of you imply this is a recurring thing but i’ve not seen reference to any other incident of this nature on this forum, have either of you? Can you link to them please if so?
Is there any evidence that shows this is anything other than a genuine mistake, any that shows someone didn’t press the ‘1’ instead of the ‘4’ on a numeric keypad by mistake?

Nop, I was not implying that it is a regular thing.
I was just illustrating that it happened as a reply, even, as you stated below, it was not sold because it was a mistake!

@Marc E

@MascaratumB

That thing with the LT AA Ti sold at 1/5 of the market value may be the tip of the iceberg.

Except it wasn’t sold, it was advertised and when people tried to buy it was cited as a mistake.

I will correct my post so that people are not induced in mistake. :+1:

Ah, fair enough, i think i misinterpreted the tone of your posts. I can see what you were saying now.

[roostre]

@MascaratumB

Some brands have ways to verify if the products are legit or not, and even to register them on the brands official websites.

...

I am not sure if LT has that policy as I never checked for serial numbers on their boxes, lights or other materials...

I have two "Lumintop EDC18" and four "Lumintop Tool AA 2.0" lights purchased from "Amazon US" at different times on different orders that were all "Sold by LUMINTOP DIRECT and Fulfilled by Amazon".

All six lights have what appear to be serial numbers on the light's head but the serial numbers are all the same for the same type of light, so either they are not actual serial numbers or if they are supposed to be unique serial numbers then the lights are counterfeit or an error occurred at the Lumintop factory when the serial numbers were applied.

The two "EDC18" light heads are each labeled: "SN:A0037901H"

The four "Tool AA 2.0" light heads are each labeled: "SN:A0046001G"

I appreciate all my Lumintop lights (and hope they are not fake) and wish Lumintop well but this Lumintop announcement was baffling and the issue should have been resolved between Lumintop and Fasttech (unless Fasttech is really selling fakes) as there was enough forum drama in the recent "LUMINTOP 10 years Anniversary Giveaway" thread.

[MascaratumB]

@Marc E

Ah, fair enough, i think i misinterpreted the tone of your posts. I can see what you were saying now.

No problem :+1:

@roostre

I have two “Lumintop EDC18” and four “Lumintop Tool AA 2.0” lights purchased from “Amazon US” at different times on different orders that were all “Sold by LUMINTOP DIRECT and Fulfilled by Amazon”.

All six lights have what appear to be serial numbers on the light’s head but the serial numbers are all the same for the same type of light, so either they are not actual serial numbers or ;if they are supposed to be unique serial numbers then the lights are counterfeit or an error occurred at the Lumintop factory when the serial numbers were applied.

Thanks for your report on this! I went to check the LT lights I have (apart from the FW3A).
Neither the Tool AA (bought on BG), nor the Tool AA V2.0 and the Tool 25 (bought at AliExpress Lumintop Store) have serial numbers engraved in any part, and the Tool25 box has no serial number too. The other boxes or materials, I don’t have them to confirm.

Are the SN outside or inside? I tried to check some web photos of the EDC18 to search for the SN, but I couldn’t find one :zipper_mouth_face:

Thanks for the report!

EDIT: I searched the LT store on AliExpress and they also have some photos with that “serial number” engraved below the “Lumintop” below the button ! One of that photos has the same number as yours (A0037901H) :+1:

[Lightbringer]

@Henk4U2

Sorry, but the manufacturer is not (always) to blame.

Here’s the issue. Any item that’s sold should have at least some minimum warranty from the seller. In this case, FT. And indeed, if you get something that’s DOA or goes wonky in a short amount of time, you’re covered.

I had pretty good experiences from FT. Got a pricey laser-pointer that was apparently DOA (long after, I got to thinking it was one of those weirdo lasers that requires the cell be put in “backwards” vs the usual way). Returned the “DOA” one to a US address (Florida, I think) and got reimbursed for postage as well as the purchase price pretty much immediately. No complaints whatsoever.

Now, once the honeymoon warranty is over, that’s it. You can’t expect a 3rd-party seller to honor a 2yr warranty or 5yr warranty or “lifetime warranty”, can you? No, logically, you need to take it up with the mfr, because it’s the mfr who issues or at least claims the warranty (to spur sales).

So how can the mfr handle legit warranty claims on their own products, vs counterfeits? Simple. Any product that comes with a warranty (ie, assume paperwork, tracking, etc., from the mfr) should have serial numbers on their products. Xeno does it (even on their 14500/AA lights), some other flashlight-mfrs also do it, so there really is no excuse to not do so as well.

Headaches? Well, too bad. Otherwise don’t make any warranty/support claims if you’re not prepared to just service them all.

If FT, GB, BG, others, all sell LT lights, where do they get them from??? Unless there’s a Lemontop selling clones/fakes/counterfeits, they must be coming from Lumintop, no?

Hell, even a crappy little holographic sticker with a serial number, even just inserted in the package or rolled-up and stuck into the light, can work.

Some mfrs have a one-time-check, ie, you can query the mfr’s database once, then all other queries are void. If the packages are sealed, then the seller would be on the hook if one comes back as fake.

In other words, there are pretty good ways to make it work.

If the issue is some MAP-crap and discount sellers “undercutting” MAPs (ie, mfrs wanting to maintain high prices / profit), well, don’t sell to discount sellers anymore.

[Lightbringer]

@mortuus

But lumintop must provide a way for a user to tell if a lumintop flashlight is genuine or not regardless where its bought from ?

Maybe the driver says “Manker”? :smiling_imp:

[Boaz]

People with long memories on this forum know that FASTTECH was one of the best vendors BLF had ever seen . For almost two years they acted like they were US based dealers . they spoke perfect English they had an amazing amount of product , accepted returns without question and made every other vendor on the planet look like retards . Working with Convoy they offered 5 different driver choices ...in 9 different hosts ...and had about a dozen different tints available ..all for about 15$ . This combination is probably what broke the back of the "Brand name lights " and contributed to what we now know as a budget light .

Their prices were supreme, their shipping and customer service unequalled . NO one ever had a complaint about Fasttech ...and then one day the vaping craze hit and probably new management...and fasttech turned on a dime . It went from epic to horrid ....Sadly this is in my estimation the way of all vendors...They court the forum and it seems like all is great ...and then they flip . Some worse than others .

Dino direct ? Lighttake ,Manafont ,DX ,Wallbuys ..Anybody bought a thing from Gearbest lately ? Aurora buy .bestinone? focalprice ? CNqualitygoods .

People who sell fakes don't have this many different models .I'd put money on a map issue and lumi trying to push former dealers around . I doubt it will result in any deals though as only us vendors /western vendors dump when they have problems with an agreement .Chinese vendors rarely dump .

[xevious (Gary)]

^ Interesting to hear about this FastTech history. Kind of makes sense to me now, as my first 3 orders from them years ago were great. VERY fast shipping, esp. considering CHINA. Products as stated. Competitive pricing. Then later, had a couple problems.

FastTech is good for basic stuff. But for flashlight gear (lights, batteries) & knives… it can be hit or miss. I had like 5 orders from them. One was the wrong item. I couldn’t return it because they’d issue no RMA. Mailing back would be on my $. Another had a damaged item that also looked “off”… wasn’t entirely sure if it was authentic. The other 3 were ok, but they were small accessories like cables, battery wraps, etc.