FT has been one the first Chinese online stores that has been consistently performing above-average to my hobby, usually catering to my non-flashlight needs and wants.
You might ask non-flashlights? Because FT never joined the group buy craze started by Doingoutdoor, Wallbuys, Gearbest, and the still surviving Banggood, among other smaller stores.
If I have to constructively comment on FT’s service and website, lately I ordered Lightning 8-pin charging cables (aside from the 20A switching PSU) that were are clearly stated as “on stock” in their website, only to be informed otherwise.
Kindly update your product list and delete ALL items no longer available for sale.
I like having the page still there for future reference when i need to look up specifications but removing the ability to order items out of stock should be the norm.
Yes…yes!! Please do keep the product listings/pages available even for out of stock or long discontinued items. If nobody minds and if you have room in the system, having those old product pages available is extremely convenient for those of us who build, mod, or repair lights!!! Or sometimes just looking to see what an older model may have looked like. Once in awhile the FT site seems to be the only available source for some of those tidbits of info and details.
It’s been quite some time since I’ve ordered from FT but I had good experiences, no issues at all. I’m encouraged to see their input here - frank and direct and professionally polite without sounds like they’re pandering or blowing anybody off. Avoiding mistakes is probably the most important - it’s what buyers expect, especially when ordering from overseas where errors and returns often mean losing money and/or time - but backing everything up with good customer service (for real) is worth its weight in lithium.
I can’t imagine the logistics of running a site with so very many products, keeping all of them entered and updated and corrected…and taking your own photos of most items, too. If anything can be done to keep the stock status correct, that’s top of the list, and then keeping product photos/information accurate as to the current items for sale would be equally so. Simply so that what-you-see is, in fact, what you get. People are quick to scream “fraud” or “cheat” otherwise, and they’ll scream it loudly these days all over the internet. I think you guys do a really good job (my observation and experience, both admittedly limited) but improve where you can and knock away the low hanging fruit…sounds like you’re doing it and committed, which is great!
Thanks for making this thread to begin with and for all the time spent in replies…time spent behind the scenes, too, no doubt.
tatasal, thank you for putting your trust and continued patronage into our website. We are so glad that we have met your expectations.
Sorry for the inconveniences we caused due to the inaccurate stock status of the products. We try hard to make every experience positive, but sometimes we miss the mark. It’s challenging to maintain an accurate stock status for every product because of the large number of them.
I appreciate you making us aware of the unpleasant experiences. It’s undeniable that we still have plenty of room for improvement on this. We will be taking every necessary measure to enhance the accuracy of stock status.
Thank you once again for being such a valued customer.
We have also received feedback from other customers about the idea of keeping product listings/pages available for nonstock or discontinued items. And yes, we will try our best to have them remain on our website.
Thank you for your recognition of our work. I was delighted to see you have had a positive experience with us.
Your feedback is valuable to us as we are constantly looking for ways to improve our services or products. I will be sharing your honest inputs and valuable opinions with our team, and we will discuss further to make corresponding improvements while providing products and services in the future.
We sincerely appreciate the time and efforts you have taken towards helping us to be better. Your continued suggestions and support are a crucial part of our growth.
It was our privilege to have you all as our valued customers. Thank you all for being such awesome customers.
The batteries came a few days ago, but you sent me first generation cells manufactured in February 2020 instead of the third generation cells i waited several months for
Here is a picture of what i received:
Oddly enough there are tiny magnets on the positive terminals, but they are easily removed.
Aw, sheesh. See this is really important! Customer has to receive what they order, exactly. That was a lot of time and trouble that Bort and you guys went through to communicate what was being ordered/what was available/what would ship. And then a different product arrives.
Nothing wrong with first gen or mfr date as far as the quality or usability of the cells, but this is something that will send customers elsewhere and I’m sure Bort was really disappointed when he opened the package.
Oh…wait…yes, you’re right. But this is a GOOD mistake then! lol. Seriously!
They’ll have to chime in on reasons or commentary, but the 50G is a better cell all around than the 50E. I would love to buy some 50G here in the US but have not seen them available anywhere. I thought they all had green/teal wrappers, though, not white/grey. I’ve only seen pics, though. Basically the 50G is the evolutionary improvement that both holds voltage higher under current and also can handle much higher current. Double-win. If you don’t want them, send ’em down here to me.
Neither of those matter at all, though. If they sat that long and were at nominal voltage then all should be well as long as it wasn’t extra high heat, or rust from high humidity which would be a good indicator of very poor storage conditions in typical unconditioned warehouses. Otherwise, charge ’em up, maybe let ’em sit to observe voltage stability, and know that it’s a better cell than the 50E. Still didn’t get what you specified and ordered, I know…
The magnets don’t ultimately matter but something is going on here.
They sent the wrong batteries after months of having no stock and what they sent is years old assuming its legit.
Bort, I’m deeply sorry for the mistake and the inconvenience caused to you. And I feel terrible about causing you such an unpleasant experience because it was ultimately my responsibility.
When I promised you that the stock would be available after Chinese New Year, I didn’t realize that the supplier would fail to fulfill the promise. But it turned out they couldn’t give the stock when the time was nearly up. You’ve been expecting these batteries for so long, I didn’t want to disappoint you with the back and forth stock date again, so I decided to look for other resources from Alibaba. Then I found another resource with 6 years of store authentication that supplies these 3rd ones. Therefore, after double-checking the authenticity of the stock, I asked our purchasing team to get the stock from this supplier. But I never thought this led to an even worse result in supplying incorrect stock.
Generally, each of our products goes through several quality check procedures before the final delivery to the customer. It seems this battery might have slipped through due to the large number backlog of orders after the holiday. I’m sorry for not taking care of this because I should have also reminded them to pay more attention to the new stock and check them in person.
We regret we are unable to offer you a replacement right now because both the original supplier and this new Alibaba supplier confirmed that the 3rd generation of the 50E one is no longer available in the market. And it might last for a very long time. In this case, I’m sorry to say that it seems we have no choice but to issue you a full refund for your order.
I am grateful that you have brought this to my attention. It helped us avoid any future losses and inconvenience to other customers. This mistake caused a certain loss to our company. I’m taking full responsibility for this by coving the losses with my salary. I will learn from this and take any necessary steps to prevent it from happening again in the future.
Thank you for being a valued and supportive customer of our company for years. I would like again to apologize for the hassle you have to go through.
If you have any further questions regarding this order, please do not hesitate to let me know. Thank you.
After some PMs back and forth Fasttech and Bort have come up with a solution, summarized below (posted with the agreement of Fasttech as i would normally not make PMs public):
As mentioned in the post above they are unable to source 3rd generation cells. They offered me a refund but i asked about second generation cells instead. They said they can get these, then i asked how they confirm authenticity. They said they test them internally and are buying them from a supplier that they have worked with for a decade.
Below is the image of the test they did (they say knockoffs usually don’t have the same discharge characteristics compared to genuine)
Samsumg INR21700-50E 21700 battery:
Now i don’t know how this test compares to an authentic cell but i will assume its accurate.
aoeu, sorry to say that we don’t have the equipment to test this product. But after confirming with the supplier, the actual capacity of this battery is only 1800-2000mAh which is substandard. We’ve updated the product description and will pay more attention to this to avoid the same problem happening again.
We apologize for the inaccurate description and thank you for the heads-up.
Avoiding mistakes is probably the most important - it’s what buyers expect, especially when ordering from overseas where errors and returns often mean losing money and/or time - but backing everything up with good customer service (for real) is worth its weight in lithium.
