[PART 1] Official BLF GT Group Buy thread. Group buy officially closed! Lights shipping.

koyotee · February 2, 2018, 12:17pm

DENGOH:

Van:

LloydV:

If you really want the “flashlight you paid for”, in the mean time please shut up and keep waiting. TA, Neal and Lumintop are trying to find a solution. Yapping about where things went wrong isn’t gonna get you your flashlight any sooner.

…

Lastly, I hope those still waiting continue to have the patience and, more importantly, that you eventually get your hands on your BLF GT. When you do, you will forget all about this sordid debacle and just… giggle.

I find it insulting calling ones opinion “yapping”, just because those opinions differs from yours. There were many similar instances, I only quote yours since it was the latest. What some of you guys need to understand is that there are people that don’t share your opinions. Telling those that don’t agree with you to stop voicing their own opinion, and call that “yapping”, is simply rude.

Furthermore, this is not about patience. Not anymore. Now it is about whether we will get the GT light at all.

I don’t mind the waiting. I never complained about waiting. What I (and most of the people here) complain is getting 36% price increase almost 5 months after the final payment.

So please don’t tell us to stop voicing our disagreement for something we deem very unfair, and stop calling it “yapping”.

Keisari:

I’m not made of money myself, but I never second guessed a deal I made. I would rather default. This is probably different in Chinese culture and someone’s going to call me names like “racist” because of this, as evident in the last couple of pages. It’s easy to say you felt shame for telling the truth and it’s part of culture and anyone protesting is “racist” because most customers are of the pre-made “racist” category. It’s all been decided for us, we are.

…That’s outright criminal. Despicable. I understand my order can be cancelled or sabotaged because of this. I just could not do without posting this. I would be a liar and scum of the world if I cancelled this post now.

Yes, it is a common practice today, to call someone “racist” because of stating the reality about different cultures (or peoples). Never mind that it IS the reality.

Thing is, most people never bother to understand other cultures. Most never experience them, and even those that visit those countries, they mostly stay in tourist resorts and never experience the local culture. I have seen the same products sold to several different people for prices ranging from 1x to 20x, all in time interval of 15 minutes. It’s one price for tourist, other price for tourist that haggles, price for locals, and many variations in between. That is not good or bad, it simply is. That’s just part of the culture. It really is not exclusive to China. In fact it’s pretty much similar on most places outside western countries. Ever visited a turkish bazaar? No? It’s the same, you know the price and you haggle and you talk with other sellers, or you get ripped off. It’s simply like that.

So calling some “racist” just because of stating the obvious, that’s just ludicrous.

On the bright side, I can offer this clip from Monty Python’s Life Of Brian, to try to somewhat successfully illustrate what we are talking about here. Please do watch it, it’s both funny and educational (even if some might call it “racist”).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xpzyk8Uo3E

Keisari:

A really bad idea would be to divert these costs to those who live in “countries who prevent commerce” (as in countries that collect VAT) or as it’s trending, “s* countries”. Kinda racist.

Well that “racist” trump card doesn’t seem to be intended to work both ways.

**You can always ask for refund, stop your haggling. Now it looks like you are haggling with seller while everyone is waiting for final decision.

**

So people should either ask for a refund or stfu? Please, keep such silly ideas for yourself next time.

teacher · February 2, 2018, 12:22pm

Could we ALL just give it a rest & keep our opinions to ourselves & not post them as we wait on an update from TA which will hopefully come in a bit??

Can we please?? This is accomplishing exactly nothing…….

DENGOH · February 2, 2018, 12:27pm

koyotee:

DENGOH:

Van:

LloydV:

If you really want the “flashlight you paid for”, in the mean time please shut up and keep waiting. TA, Neal and Lumintop are trying to find a solution. Yapping about where things went wrong isn’t gonna get you your flashlight any sooner.

…

Lastly, I hope those still waiting continue to have the patience and, more importantly, that you eventually get your hands on your BLF GT. When you do, you will forget all about this sordid debacle and just… giggle.

I find it insulting calling ones opinion “yapping”, just because those opinions differs from yours. There were many similar instances, I only quote yours since it was the latest. What some of you guys need to understand is that there are people that don’t share your opinions. Telling those that don’t agree with you to stop voicing their own opinion, and call that “yapping”, is simply rude.

Furthermore, this is not about patience. Not anymore. Now it is about whether we will get the GT light at all.

I don’t mind the waiting. I never complained about waiting. What I (and most of the people here) complain is getting 36% price increase almost 5 months after the final payment.

So please don’t tell us to stop voicing our disagreement for something we deem very unfair, and stop calling it “yapping”.

Keisari:

I’m not made of money myself, but I never second guessed a deal I made. I would rather default. This is probably different in Chinese culture and someone’s going to call me names like “racist” because of this, as evident in the last couple of pages. It’s easy to say you felt shame for telling the truth and it’s part of culture and anyone protesting is “racist” because most customers are of the pre-made “racist” category. It’s all been decided for us, we are.

…That’s outright criminal. Despicable. I understand my order can be cancelled or sabotaged because of this. I just could not do without posting this. I would be a liar and scum of the world if I cancelled this post now.

Yes, it is a common practice today, to call someone “racist” because of stating the reality about different cultures (or peoples). Never mind that it IS the reality.

Thing is, most people never bother to understand other cultures. Most never experience them, and even those that visit those countries, they mostly stay in tourist resorts and never experience the local culture. I have seen the same products sold to several different people for prices ranging from 1x to 20x, all in time interval of 15 minutes. It’s one price for tourist, other price for tourist that haggles, price for locals, and many variations in between. That is not good or bad, it simply is. That’s just part of the culture. It really is not exclusive to China. In fact it’s pretty much similar on most places outside western countries. Ever visited a turkish bazaar? No? It’s the same, you know the price and you haggle and you talk with other sellers, or you get ripped off. It’s simply like that.

So calling some “racist” just because of stating the obvious, that’s just ludicrous.

On the bright side, I can offer this clip from Monty Python’s Life Of Brian, to try to somewhat successfully illustrate what we are talking about here. Please do watch it, it’s both funny and educational (even if some might call it “racist”).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xpzyk8Uo3E

Keisari:

A really bad idea would be to divert these costs to those who live in “countries who prevent commerce” (as in countries that collect VAT) or as it’s trending, “s* countries”. Kinda racist.

Well that “racist” trump card doesn’t seem to be intended to work both ways.

**You can always ask for refund, stop your haggling. Now it looks like you are haggling with seller while everyone is waiting for final decision.

**

So people should either ask for a refund or stfu? Please, keep such silly ideas for yourself next time.

I was responding to his post about haggling culture that he thinks it is culture outside western countries that he thinks people think it is racist to say that. Well, it is not racist at all. And he is determined to get his GT and justify he and some loud members has right to make noise while now haggle against potential price increase. So i think he is haggling.

No, i didn’t tell anyone to shut up. I will shut up now though. Too bad now is my BLF time after work. I wish i am asleep now.

Jerommel · February 2, 2018, 12:28pm

It was about culture, not race. There’s a difference.

Jerommel · February 2, 2018, 12:29pm

I thought the chipping in for additional costs was a good idea.
Worth pursuing i.m.o.

teacher · February 2, 2018, 12:32pm

+1 …… :+1:

pommie · February 2, 2018, 12:37pm

For the first time I am in complete agreement with teacher, lets leave some space for ‘normal’ off topic while we wait for a team member to let us know the facts as they know them.

Cheers David

NikolaS · February 2, 2018, 12:56pm

A

I just hope that Neal will stay behind his words!

Bozlight29 · February 2, 2018, 12:58pm

Well this thread has multiple functions probably. Some need to react out of disappointment. The feeling being fooled or whatever. And somebody (or the whole Chinese culture) has to be blamed for that. But at the end you have the choice of a refund or a reasonable deal to get the GT. If you’re in for the last option, wait for TA with more info. And let’s hope the reflector man has recovered from the flu :)

teacher · February 2, 2018, 1:11pm

Let’s hope he has & is not like several from my area that have died from it.
Otherwise health people too… they got it & it killed them dead as a door nail. It is some bad ‘stuff’ this year it seems……

Van · February 2, 2018, 1:22pm

But Jason, the following is stated in the first sentence, in the first post of this GB:

That part "will need to pay extra" sounds very definite to me. That is what I refer to, I am not assuming anything here. I am stating the obvious. If the stated is not true, why is it posted in the very first sentence of this discussion?

I am sorry if I am perceived as negative. I do fell for the situation you guys are in, but please do understand our standpoint also. We were patient for so long time, and I for one (and most of us here) are very thankful for your efforts and your work. But it's kind of insulting having that information visible in the first post, in the first sentence in that first post, and saying that people are impatient and jumping the gun with assumptions. As it is insulting some other people calling these legitimate complaints as "yapping".

And than there is this post from NikolaS, just 2 posts above this. So it seems that the "assumptions" were quite real:

[quote=NikolaS] !https://s19.postimg.org/qjqqhwg03/Screenshot_2018-02-02-13-49-42.png! A I just hope that Neal will stay behind his words! [/quote]

Eh mate, you can't haggle AFTER the deal is done. That is a fact. But than again, you seem like somebody who never haggled in his life. :-)

edit: Sorry for posting after the thread was closed, I opened the reply window before that and I missed it. :-/

sb56637 · February 2, 2018, 1:27pm

Thread closed until tempers cool down. Please do NOT start a new thread elsewhere to continue the discussion.

Texas_Ace · February 4, 2018, 5:31pm

Thanks for the lock SB, it was a much needed break.

During the downtime I found a Solution to shipping charges that should work for everyone. As I kept trying to tell everyone, Just give me some time to work through all the details, get the facts and then negate a viable solution. Don’t fly off the handle over rumors. These things take time.

After some back and forth talking to Lumintop over the last few days I think we came to a workable agreement. In an effort to once again show how much they stand behind their products and BLF they will be paying the extra costs for shipping out of their own pocket. So it goes to show just how much of a stand up company they are and why I do not want to jeopardize our relationship with them.

Now like any good business deal there is some give and take. In order to reduce their losses they will be shipping the affected orders with some alternative shipping services, these will most likely be slower then the methods they planned to use.

If your order is affected you should of already or will still get a message requesting extra payment for shipping. You are welcome to pay the extra fee and work out the faster shipping method with Neal if you prefer this. Otherwise everything will proceed as planned, it just might take longer for it to show up.

The other change on our end will be that for the next batch of orders those in the affected countries will need to pay the extra shipping cost up front with their order. This was the only way they would agree to eating these costs. Which I completely understand.

There is a big difference between taking a known loss and leaving yourself open to unknown levels of losses in future orders. These countries would cause them to loose money even on the $157 lights.

So you see, everyone got all upset over nothing. In the end, no one has to pay extra for shipping unless they want to for faster service.

I want to publicly thank Lumintop for being so great to work with and really going the extra mile for us with this project. I look forward to a long fruitful relationship with them.

Mr.Scott · February 4, 2018, 5:32pm

Thank you Texas Ace and Thank you Lumintop!

qandeel · February 4, 2018, 5:30pm

Thanks for bringing back this historical thread and great appreciations to TA for all his patience and remarkable efforts.

sb56637 · February 4, 2018, 5:32pm

Big +1 for this. Let’s give credit where it’s due. Also huge thanks to Texas Ace for devoting so much time to working out these snafus.

MortyDuck · February 4, 2018, 5:33pm

Bravo!!

kaybi · February 4, 2018, 5:33pm

Thanks TA for all of your work.

Could we all please agree not to start talking BS before we known what the final situation will be? PAGES of people just raging and gnawing about how they would have to pay some insane amount of money, how they would not get their lights, and how the people at Lumintop where a curly hair away from taking their money and giving nothing in return.

Whenever someone else starts complaining about some hitch on this project, or a future one, I’m just going to link them to TA’s post above.

Buzzing_Bulb · February 4, 2018, 5:37pm

WooHoo!! :partying_face:

BobbyMK · February 4, 2018, 5:41pm

Thank you Texas_Ace for your efforts.

Anyways i do accept any alternative shipping method if the light is shipped in one parcel. I already messaged Neal and asked if it is possible to send my light via EMS Post. It should be cheaper than DHL.

Registered mail might cause me some serious troubles with customs, since i only have one invoice of ~100$. They will not accept the 15$ one because it is kinda low for the item of that size.