I've made several purchases from Lightake in the last 6 months and they all arrived within 3 weeks to LA, CA and seemed genuine...a step up from DX but not as many selections.
I emailed them and asked why the processing was taking so long. They informed me, in a casual “oh yeah” kind of way, that the one driver was out of stock and would not be coming back. They then asked if I stil wanted the other one shipped out and I said “of course I do!”.
How long would they have sat on y order and never said anything about the one being out of stock. If they knew it from the beginning why was it listed as in stock and why didn't they just ship the other one they did have right away? Lousy lousy service and I doubt i will ever order from them again nor recommend them to anyone.
i got my package from lt in 3 weeks but i've heard of their bad service from time to time.. they do have some interesting flashlights i haven't seen elsewhere
Did i mentioned sluggish shippment time? They need about 30% more time than goodluckbuy and goodluckbuy isn't known for their speed either.
I ordered a Skyray 3800 torch from these guys. It arrived (3 weeks delivery), pretty typical - ie slow. But is was only putting out around 100 lumens (or less), whereas is should be around 3000. They have been giving me the run around with slow email reponses, etc. Sandy even had the gall to ask if the output was really that important!
This is Sandy from ligthake .
Can yo pls tell me if you used the flashlight till now ? If that the output is not so important for you .
The flashlight is fit 2*18650 Battery , pls don't use other batteries .
At least they eventually answer. After a week of this, they asked for videos. Just sent that, so will see what happens next week. But I will be opening a Paypal dispute well before the 45 days are up. Pretty poor customer service, in my opinion. It also really makes me wonder why delivery is so slow from China. I am in Australia...it should only be a few days from HongKong. Mainland China should not be that much slower. I can get parcels from the USA in 3 or 4 days. I once ordered something on a Friday, and it was in my hands on the Monday. Still, that is another issue.
Pretty poor customer service though - and the language barrier is awkward.
Just thought I would share my recent experience with lightake:
I ordered an ultrafire c3 stainless steel and recieved it in about 3 weeks - pretty normal delivery time.
The light worked well at first, but soon developed some contact issues. I took it apart, cleaned everything, screwed it all back together and it seemed OK, but still flickered a bit.
Then I tried a 14500 battery (which is said to be fine on the website), and it fried the driver...now only working with 14500.
I contacted lightake via email and told them what happened.
They asked to send pictures, then asked me to send a video.
I did this, and was offered a $4 credit for my next purchase from them.
Told them this wasn't good enough, and recied the following excuses (this is seriously what they said!):
-The light only works with 14500 and is says so on the website, and if you use it with alkaline/nimh it will ruin the light (wrong)
-The light cannot use 14500 lithium batteries, and it was my fault for trying them, because it says this on the website (wrong)
-They cannot give me refund/replacement unless i got it inspected (at my cost) by a qualified electrcian
-That only being able to use 14500 batteries is a good thing, and they do not see a problem
-That the flickering is caused by my using the wrong battery (they didnt specify which battery was wrong here)
I didn't open a paypal dispute (i know - my fault) because I was still talking to them, and it seemed that everything was going to work out...when they offered me the $4 it was already too late.
After about 25 emails back and forth a gave up. each email I sent would take 4 - 7 days to get a response.
I will not be purchasing from lightake again.
It's unfortunate that the QC of a lot of these manufacturers are not very good. The c3 ss I got from them was pretty good (14500/aa all fine), but also became slightly intermitent after taking it apart. At least on mine the pill seemed to have worked itself loose inside once, and was fine again after screwing it in. The combination of some half-assed designs/QC and shipping fees that're a significant portion of purchase price makes these problems inevitable.
[quote=sweefu]
-The light only works with 14500 and is says so on the website, and if you use it with alkaline/nimh it will ruin the light (wrong)
-The light cannot use 14500 lithium batteries, and it was my fault for trying them, because it says this on the website (wrong)
-They cannot give me refund/replacement unless i got it inspected (at my cost) by a qualified electrcian
-That only being able to use 14500 batteries is a good thing, and they do not see a problem
[/quote]
They tried the same with me. I bought a Skyray 3800. I also bought some 18650s on the same order. The first two emails
(days apart, as you know), that kept telling me I had to use 18650 batteries, nothing else would work, etc. Since they sold me the batteries (18650s) and that was all I was using, this was very annoying.
They just seemed to want to blame poor choice of battery (even though I was using the correct batteries - and repeatably told them so. They seem to make reading (mis)comprehension an art form.
I have said it a few times now: If you have a problem with your purchase make
a dispute through PayPal at once. Contact the vendors socalled "service- or customer department"
afterwards and tell that, and at the same time tell them what you want: refund, replacement
or whatever. If you dont make a dispute they will keep stalling you with meaningless mails
(have you put in a battery) until 45 days have past and no more help from PP is possible.
A dispute will tell them you mean business and they will be more willing to solve the problem.
Remember its not your fault they have sent you a non working item.
That business about not being able to use an alkaline and not being able to use a 14500 (that's what they are saying, right?) and then telling you that you need to get an electrician to diagnose the problem warrants an AVOID in my book. They basically aren't standing behind their product.
I'm sorry so many of these flashlights are crap, but since they continue to sell them to us, they need to get with their suppliers and tell them it is cheaper to make products that work than to keep giving people their money back for products that don't work.
Only problem with PayPal is the seller can ask that you return the defective item at your cost and if you don't do that, you probably won't win the dispute. PayPal is better for items that don't show up since you get 100% of your money back in those cases.
I go to LT to get good prices on the Trustfire Flames with the "retailmenot" discount. They offer the best price on orders 3pcs and above. Don't forget to use "retailmenot" on the coupon box.
I have ordered 3 times. First order took a week to process so that was a negative for them.
Last 2 orders - 10 pairs of 14500 flames and 10 pcs of those lighting pigs(gifts for kid's classmates) were processed in 3 days, I received the items around 11 days after dispatch (total of two weeks). so a plus for them this time.
Flames were all good and had that holograph letters on them.
^Placed an order and it's been three days now it isn't processed yet. Looks like it's a hit and miss thing. It was processed. They didn't send email. I looked at their website tracking and it was processed the next day.
OTOH, my ebay order which was paid at the same time was shipped out the next day. Happy with that one.
From my experience, the customer service always bad, long time no response
Read post # 232
Their customer service have always been bad. Make a dispute through PP at once!
Placed my first order with lightake on Friday 2/10/12 and today (2/14/12) I received notice that my order has shipped already! When I placed the order I didn't get any emails at all (no "order received", "thanks for your order", nothing) but my account did show the order received and in a "packaging" status. This is a small order, so I'm not out much if this turns out to be a negative experience.
-Garry
Bought two Saik SA-125 flashlights, both turned out to be complete crap, made video showing off one of the main fails that switch is not working, LT says - one switch works, other switch 50% problems, we resend you item, WTF?!
Had to open up PayPal discussion, Lightake says SHIP IT BACK TO US, ignore requests to pay for return shipping.
Heres my review to see what Im talking about:
AVOID! AVOID! AVOID!
Now they offer 5$ shipping compensation regardless the fact that it will cost around 10$ to ship both pieces of junk back to them with registered mail.
I told them where Im coming from and that Im surely going to spread the word as much as I can regarding their crappy practices!
EDIT:
After some miscommunication Lightake issued me full refund for faulty items and gave me 5$ coupon code as compensation for troubled items.
Thanks to Lightake.com for taking care of this situation!
My 2 cents.
My first and last order with LighTake was not very good at all. That´s why I decided to not to buy from them anymore.
I received a defective item, and they offered (if I remember well) a 1$ discount coupon on my next +5$ purchase. (I paid about 7 dollar for the defectie item).
No way, man.
Well, guess what?
They havent learned anything, that bunch of scammer!
WILL NEVER AGAIN ORDER FROM THEM UNLESS THEY PROVE THAT THEY HAVE IMPROVED WITH TIME!
Long story short - ordered cheap replacement power brick for laptop, it came dirty with some sort of mud and apparent traces of water at the end of the brick where you plug mains cable in it.
First they say they cant see imageshack images, so I apply them as attachments to email, they then say it looks like dirt, clean it off and use it, its in good condition!
Even tho I told them I tried it for brief and it didnt work, I said I wont be risking my laptop, my house and my property and family and will NOT test it even again!
I requested full refund, they went silent.
Meanwile I had the same case opened on Ebay, the same scenario as in e-mail, couple of days ago they say the magic words again - sorry, cant see images, CANT FIND YOU EMAIL IN OUR MAILBOX! WTF?! So I go to email, look up my conversation with them, forward it again to their CS so they can find it.
Guess what? They respond me the next day telling that once again they cant see pictures and if I could re-send them ONCE-FUC*ING-AGAIN?
I didnt repond to these crooks and escalate my case 1.5 days before my claim would be closed autmatically.
Their BLF rep here wasnt as helpful as he/she was previous time(probably many people using the same BLF account) when I got refund+5$ coupon.
Too bad, they had some items rather cheaper for a true BLF’er :D!
Bad for them, not for us ;)!