Poor show Surefire..

This is my first post so please bear with me. "Long time reader, first time writer".
I am writing this in a fit of anger due to the fact that Surefire have had me waiting 7 weeks for a replacement tailcap for my week old U2 ultra!! Not only that it may still take another two weeks to arrive. The first one stopped working before I could show my friends. How much of a tit did I look trying to justify my hundreds of dollars on a light and it dosen't even work.. Not happy!
They are blaming this on customs at my end here in Australia, which I know to be false as I have had two Arc's and a body ordered and delivered in the last two weeks.
The thing that really gets me, is at the bottom of the correspondence between Surefire and myself, they have the cheek to say "We strive to provide World class customer service to all our customers"
Ahem.. "bullshit"
Under no circumstance should it take a minimum of 8 weeks to replace a faulty part. A part that should not have had failed in the first place.

Has anyone else ever felt really let down by a company that once had all your respect?
Has anyone else been let down by Surefire?
Anyone else's U2 tailcap stop working?

I haven't had a failure with my L2 yet(fingers crossed) but your situation sucks. I can understand you being upset and if I had a brand new U2 which died within a week I would be more than a little bit upset. I hope they pull their finger out and get this resolved for you.

Many thanks for the support mate, it sucks big time. I'm having to buy another light to help me feel better.
I've been reading on the forum that these really long waiting times for parts are the "norm". So be aware that if your expensive Surefire torch needs repair or parts you will be waiting a long time. Not unless you can source them from lighthound etc..
Does anyone know what the part number is for a U2 Tailcap?

I've dealt with Surefire many times and understand how you feel but you also have to look at things from there perspective. In the end, they DO take great care of there customers but sometimes it takes time... especially for our international friends. Surefire is currently very swamped with mililiary orders as they are a huge supplier. I'm not saying this makes the situation right, just a possible reason behind it.

If I had an extra U2 tailcap I would lend it to you but no luck there. Try contacting lighthound here: http://www.lighthound.com/info/formmail.htm. You can always resell the tailcap when your replacement arrives. Sorry to hear about your situation.

-Mike

Thanks for the encouragement Mike, it's people like yourself that remind me that their are good people left in the world.
This was my first big purchase from Surefire, I was ready to place my next order for an Outdoorsman but now I really don't know.
Maybe it was their very good reputation that gave me a too high expectation of service levels? I don't know.. One thing they didn't have to do was lie about customs being an issue, whan I know that really isn't the case. That hurt..
I'll give lighthound a go as you reccomend.
You have a bonza weekend Mike, and thanks for your reply!

In the meantime, you can put a G2 tailcap on it, it works great actually....

Your situation is not ususual. From reading on CPF it appeared than tons of U2 tailcaps failed in various ways, and it frequently took a long time before SF would get anything done about it. Even in the US there were folks waiting for weeks.

Cheers KDOG, if only I had one! I had a look on light hound for a price and they don't list them in their spares..(unless it's interchangable and listed under different name?)
Oh well I'll have to wait the two weeks, and hope it won't take too much longer.. Many thanks KDOG

This dosen't bode well for their "Strive to provide Worldwide Customer Service" does it Abtoman? Why is it when I go to splurge on an expensive once in a lifetime buy, it fails and the customer is literally left in the dark?
I wonder why there was no info on the Surefire web site about a possible flaw in the tailcap?
Thanks for the info Abtoman

I have been using SF U2 since july /august 2005.The tail have made trouble every week.U2 is my first and will be my last Surefire.
I have also used Magcharger every week since march 1988 without any problems .Only blow one bulb when the light was falling down 4meters and it was after falling down 3meter without bulb blowing one week earlier.

While it is no excuse, the U2's have had problems with the tailcaps. I sincerely hope Surefire are doing their best to rectify that situation, but I have to say that I have had great service from them.
Have you called them and explained the situation? E-mail seems to be less effective for some reason.
If your customs are as ours in Denmark (which a friend in Perth says they are) it could well be held up there as well.

I have sent email to the dealer ,but no response.

Brisvegas said:

....Surefire have had me waiting 7 weeks for a replacement tailcap for my week old U2 ultra!! Not only that it may still take another two weeks to arrive. The first one stopped working before I could show my friends....

Click to expand...

Sorry about your problems, many of us had problems with the U2. Difficult to extrapolate from that actual defect rate without knowing other data: total units, likelihood of owner posting report, etc. However it does seem high.

Surefire will always take care of you and fix the problem, it's too bad it takes so long. If it's any consolation, many of us with U2s were ultimately very satisfied with the product after the glitches were fixed.

If problem is tailcap only (not the switch), you might be able to fix it yourself by carfully slightly bending up the small tabs visible inside the tail cap.

However -- if your light fails almost immediately upon receiving it, that's in the category of "defective merchandise" from shipper, not warranty repair from manufacturer. Time limit varies depending on store policy, national laws, etc. The seller will often try to push the responsibility to the mfg, but if failure falls within the time period, it's their job, not the mfg.

Many US sellers allow two to four weeks for exchange of defective merchandise. In the U.S. the Federal Trade Commission "mail order rule" states the seller must provide the product within 30 days, notify the customer, or provide a refund. If defective the product must be exchanged, but I don't think the FTC rule specifies a time period or rules about shipping charges (does anybody know?)

Well, that's SF warranty for ya. Sure they take care of you, but the wait times are unreal. I remember when I first got my L5 and it needed warranty repair work, it took 3+ months to get a replacement, only to come back with a huge fingerprint in the reflector. Sure they fixed it, but let's not forget I also had to pay shipping from Canada again. If I recall properly, it took a total of about 5+ months to have it sorted out. There were also quite significant amounts of other warranty repairs I needed to be done and they all took a long time. And no, my repair works are not lousy things like donut holes and what not (a few bad switches, bad bulb, etc).... . I seem to have bad luck with SF products.

Now my latest one, beginning September,my brand spanking new L4 develops a problem. I shuddered not cuz the light broke down, but I knew now it meant more time waiting for a repair. Again another expense to send it in. Again out of a light I just paid for and will have to wait months for its return. I give a call a few days ago and the guy tells me to call back in a few days cuz he's gonna e-mail the repair shop. I call a few days later only to be told the same stuff I already know.

Anyway, I can see how SF CS personnel can't do much, and I do see they take care of warranty repairs in the end, but geez, their wait times makes their warranty repairs insulting. I'd hate to be SF CS.

These threads keep popping up, not warranty threads, but tailcap threads, which is what this one has turned into.

I'll say this all again, for the benefit of those who haven't read it.


SF's tailcaps are cheap and have numerous fundamental design, manufacturing, and assembly flaws.


Disassambly of my various defective tailcaps confirms this as does the myriad of complaints just like yours above.

They are using a cheap switch that binds internally. It also has too much friction between it and the rubber button on the larger diameter (U2) switches.

The metal spring tabs fatigue and fall off.

The tolerances between the tailcap and the shoulder on the light (think A2) are not what they should be. I had a brand-new A2 that would not turn on because the tailcap was too long.


In short, SF's overall design of their tailcap is flawed.


On the redeeming side - on a $100+ light? - the tailcaps seem to work ok if they survive the first month. Apparently they wear in.

Ask yourself why mag/streamlight/pelican/etc can make $20 lights that have virtually no switch problems.

And then ask why surefire cannot.

Surefire's selling a sexy light. Nothing else.

Ask yourself if they would still have their revered status if they cost $19.99 and had 'made in china' stamped on them. Ask yourself why you feel this way.

Just to give you an Idea. Im over here in the middle east right now as we speak. I just ordered a bunch of U2's for our aircraft toolboxes. We got an estimated ship date of 25 November, 2007. So I would say there a little backed up!

Too Much new sales and overwhelmed service dept. I work for a company just like that. Good product but we have some bad parts in our design. Really no excuse in a world class company. I bet their repare tech's are backed up with hundreds of units with that volume of sales... Warranty repairs is a big loss part of a company. Management will not support the techs with enough resources or people.

My U2 cap broke the day after I got it. Surefire email support promptly said that they would send me a new one. That was a few months ago now, and I still haven't received it.

That said, I have since taken my tail cap apart, reassembled it, and it has "magically" worked since. Perhaps it was assembled improperly at first, and I unwittingly reassembled it the the correct way.

Unfortunately I scratched the cap up when I took it apart, and I still look forward to having the spare arrive.

I've heard so many CPFers having problems with the U2 model, that I steer clear of it.

The first time I heard of Surefire's business practices was when, back in 2003, they declared that only dealers who owned a Brick & Mortar store could sell Surefires online. There went the opportunity to own one at a discounted price. On the surface, the policy seemed to help Surefire dealers trying to earn enough money to pay the rent on their physical stores.... until you went on the SF website and realized you could order their lights directly from SF, and pay less money than going to one of their Authorized Dealers' sites. :ironic:

Basically, that policy hurt everyone EXCEPT Surefire. No more discounted Surefires for consumers. No more revenue for online-only stores through the sale of Surefires. And Surefire sells their lights for less money on their site than what you'll find from one of their Dealers.

Surefire took their high-quality line of products, and artificially jacked-up the price across the board; without having to make any improvements to their product line! :thumbsdow

I absolutely love my Surefire C2 and L4. Easily two of the best tactical torches in my collection. Surefire lights are the very definition of quality..... to bad the same can't be said for their business practices.

Surefire never let me down. I was fortunate to know exactly what type of company I'd be dealing with, from the start.

Thanks guys, This certainly has cast some light on the situation.

I'm not too technially advanced, so I'll forego the butchering of my cap and wait for the replacement.
The general concensus seems that Surefire have dropped the ball in a big way on the standard of the U2's that have been leaving the factory.
The after sales customer service has been dire to say the least, matching up to the quality of the tailcaps.

I'll try giving them a call, instead of writing endless e-mails to no avail. I might actually get somewhere!?

Loomy; could you post some pictures on how to strip it down, for a good check?
Many thanks for the information guys!