Buy - wait forever roundabout

LED Flashlights – General Info
1

I just bought a Skyray 3800 3xXM-L from Lightake. When I say 'just', I mean in the Budget Light world sense. To the rest of us, over 45 days ago. The thing is, it arrived DOA, and I am in discussion with Lightake about what to do about it. But I have basically written that torch off - mainly because it does not work, and also because I have been attracted to other torches that are even 'better'.

I bought the Skyray 3800 mainly because of the glowing reviews in received on this forum. It was my most expensive torch bought to date by far, especially since it turned out to be a paperweight.

Anyway, just after the Skyray 3800 arrived dead, I noticed that Manafont had the Trustfire 3T6 - a slightly better version of the Skyray (I think). So I ordered that. Here I am, almost a month later, and still the thing has not arrived. It is coming up to 'Open Paypal Dispute' time on that item as well. So, almost 2 months waiting for a working torch...still nothing.

But in the meantime, Manafont have brought out two new replacements for the Skyray and Trustfire. There is the 818 (4000 lumens) and now a 4300 lumen unit as well. What do I do? Write off the Skyray, then write off the Trustfire that has not arrived, and order yet another? Or do I wait another week and get (order) the 5000 lumen unit?

They are bringing out torches faster than they can mail them to you (well, to me anyway). This seems to be the interesting point - why can torches be designed, tooled up for, delivered to suppliers in a week - but sending the purchased item to customers takes a month? I am in Australia. They should get parcels to me from China in about a week - why does it take a month? It does not make sense.

And in all of this - I still do not have a torch!!!

2

According to my calculations, it is because the planes that carry Hong Kong air mail travel at a speed of 14.8mph.

3

Same here: was going to buy a skyray, then i got convinced by the DRY, but now it's out of stock and i should buy it somewhere else, more expensive resulting in double the price i would originally had to give for the skyray. But don't get me wrong, i think the DRY is better in any way :).

4

It is a puzzle to me. And it is not about sheer volume. I buy things via ebay from China all the time. At least one item a week, and most items take 2 weeks. Still slow, but within the time window I can accept. On the other hand, I can get stuff from the USA in 1 week. I live in Australia. It takes me about a week to get most things from within Australia as well. I suspect that there are different levels of priority mail. Slow and very slow. The ebay sellers use ‘slow’, and the standalone websites use ‘very slow’. I would not mind paying a bit more for delivery if it could be a bit faster.

The thing is, at 3-4 weeks, I have lost interest in the purchase. It is too long ago. I have moved onto something else. These torches are a good example. I now want the Manafont 4300 lumen torch. Forget the Trustfire 3T6 that has failed to arrive - I really don't want it any more - 'it is sooo yesterday, daahling!'.

5

I got the same dramas with DX been waiting on order for over 50 days since shipping and I got a feelin it aint comin paypal dispute opened , theres no excuse when it takes over 3 weeks... if it does well then it was shipped latter than they say , or it aint comin ...I buy plenty from US China ect on ebay and always arrive in decent time frame ie within 3 weeks seems feedback helps get it to ya on time and keeps'em honest

good luck and I hope ya orders show soon

6

I ordered a KD C8 on Aug 1, it's still not here...<sigh>

7

Got to love free HK mail .. If you pay the $2 postage fee for reg mail ..

It should arrive much faster ..

My last L2T took about 5 Days . Not sure if Manafont Dealextreme Kaidomain etc offer this option ????

8

I think it depends on time of the year, who you ordered from and what you ordered.

I recently got an order from DX in 3 weeks (fast for them), an order from Manafont in about 2 weeks, and an order from Tmart in less than a week (U.S. warehouse).

Some items some from slow suppliers and other than that I don't know why shipping varies that much.

9

If you wanna sell it, I'd take it. I could use the reflector, emitters, etc.

Rich

10

that sucks ! no wonder why people pay for registered shipment

i would at LEAST contact MF and say WTH but you will probably have it soon anyway . my first order just arrived yesterday after 22 days , guess i was lucky

these guys have mystery shipping down to a science - have to make it part of the fun. but if they can sell me a item for $1.50 SHIPPED VS. $5-8 bucks locally ... if i dont need it now you just roll the dice. little different with expensive items

i think they use stuff from these sellers as "filler " for the plane , if there is left over cargo room they shovel in some packages form these guys . there is your cheap shipping and it will be there in 3 -19weeks : )

11

The reason why I have recently opted for ebay, for my last 4 purchases items arrived in less than 2 weeks and sellers tends to be more cautious in satisfying their customers. Items bought from manafont and alike arrived after 3 weeks.

12

My experience exactly! And these are still purchases from China - could even be the same sellers. So it is not a fact that all Chinese aircraft are prop driven or mail is delivered by donkey or something. Freight times are ok for ebay sellers - so either these sellers are making more of an effort, or there is a multi tier postal system. Perhaps they pay more for freight or something? It certainly does not cost any more for the buyer.

13

took 4 weeks from shipping date for my second registered order from Solarforce sales HK ...

14

Over here to SG it is also hit or miss. 2 XTAR 18650 shipments, non-registered, took 5 working days for both 2 shipments.

Others from even CNQG could be very fast, 7 working days to nearly 30 working days. MF also. Once my non-registered pkg nearly got lost, asked the PO and nothing. It arrived 46 days in my letter box after shipped, like received early July while the shipping time stamp was like May.

One of my 405nm laser arrived DOA from focalprice. Opened up a RMA and i used it to purchase other stuff....i did tell them that i can minus off usd8 since it'd cost that much to ship back. They took the bite immdiately. Sometimes need to use some "intelligence" to do up a win-win solution.... BTW Focalprice is definitely not well loved by BLF guys.

Can you open up the SR3800 drop in? Just wire it direct drive when the trustfire 3T6 comes. But then i did purchase the 3 x 18650 version of 3T6 so i used that for the Sky Ray and swapped the 2 x 18650 to the Trustfire. You need 3 x 18650 or any 3 x Li ion cells for direct drive. (12.6V fully charged, 11.1V nominal). It is not a paperweight, i did just that for my SR3800 but mine is rev 0.

Excellent sites with excellent support which i encountered are HKequipment and CNqualitygoods. Manafont did supply me with a new reflector for my U80, and i purchased a 10-pack 41.5mm glass from DX for my busted glass.

Open a dispute for the trustfire, you have 30 days more to esclate to claim, then you nego with your seller. But if you have a registered mail number then i think you might have just lost, because sellers are not responsible for mails lost. They probably will track things down for you and assist in any way, but are limited in liability unless you purchased insurance. DHL has insurance, and CNqualitygoods do offer that option.

It is very rare to lose a package. It will probably show up 2-3 months later. Hence the unwilligless for the webstore to "send another one out to you in the meantime", unless you are a VIP customer who has purchased $2000 from them, they probably will send another light out to you via DHL 3 days. LOL!

My local pal is still tracking down his lost Zebralight SC600 from a very well known US web store. My sister's 3kg USPS package showed up 4 months late.

15

Solarforce sales i have ordered 8X, all are pretty fast, within 2 weeks. HKG - SIN.

16

I expect to wait 2-3 weeks. I waited 3 months for one order from DX. Most sellers have faster more expensive post options. I think you need to accept the waiting time. You could always buy from a shop and pay 2-3 times the price. Once the parcel arrives in Australia it can take a few days to get to you. After 4 weeks start to get worried.

17

Well, the moment i started to talk about this, i just received the package which DX sent on 28/7! LOL!