Why Tactical Warehouse all of a sudden?

I have never ordered from them before but alot of people on here praise them. I was just shopping around tonight and got the price differences from TW and TTS. Is William not doing a good job or what? Those are his regular prices, with no price matching. Shipping is pretty fast too. Im not flaming, just curious. I havent ordered from TTS either. All my light purchases have came from members on the board or Greg @ Brightguy. (I dont have that many lights)

P61
TTS - $17.60
TW - $22.50

SC1
TTS - $11.20
TW - $14.40

E2e HA
TTS - $66.99
TW - $85.49

G2Z
TTS - $57.99
TW - $75.59

Z2
TTS - $63.99
TW - $80.99

6P
TTS - $59.99
TW - $75.50

C2
TTS - $72.99
TW - $90.89

M2
TTS - $119.99
TW - $151.18

M3
TTS - $179.99
TW - $226.77

M4
TTS - $229.99
TW - $296.97

As mentioned elsewhere, TW being an authorised SF dealer cannot advertise a price 10% below Surefire MSRP.

William at TTS has been, and continues to be, my main "go to guy". A nice person who always gives you good prices and great service.

Having said that, though, I also have the highest respect and admiration for Dan. He works hard at doing a good job for all of his customers, and also gives you great prices. I`ve ordered some Surefire L1`s from Dan, and was impressed with his quick and friendly service.

Basically, we`re pretty fortunate to have both William and Dan (as well as some other great guys, as well) around to order from.

Good people...all of them!

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbsup.gif

There is more here than meets the eye.

Empath, please expound.

I got in with Dan during the Tigerlight frenzy. This week I ordererd a PM6 wed. afternoon and it was here Fri. noon. TTS may be just as good but I don't have any experience with them.

TTS has always been great for me, and my experience with TW was great. I don't think you can go wrong with either one.

TTS stocks some things that TW doesn't and TW has things that TTs doesn't (especially their SureFire selection).

I personally would strongly recommend buying from either, depending on who has what you want for the best price. Both have very good customer service. Two thumbs up for each. I guess I should also add PocketLights.com to my little list here. They also have great personal service ala TTS and TW.

Pat

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DieselDave said:
Empath, please expound.


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Tactical Warehouse, as far as I know is an exceptional dealer, and interested in giving their customers the service they deserve. I haven't heard anything negative about them at all, and don't doubt for a minute that they are good place to purchase lights.

Empath,
Thanks /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

I had a bad experience with TW and won't shop there again.

How is that? I am pretty sure Dan would make it right... Please share.

I've placed several orders a month with Dan at TW this year. Some of the benefits he has are:

1. Good selection of the CPF "favorites", such as the Tigerlight line, SF of course, ARC, Photon, and now the Pelican M6
2. Dan typically has the new SF lights (such as the L1 and A2) in before most other dealers, and has good introductory prices on them
3. Good sales and specials. Picked up a Tigerlight for under $100.
4. Great customer service

The only downsides to TW in my opinion are Dan's relatively high SF prices (I realize his hands are tied by Surefire on this, I guess), and his pricematching policy. I am opposed to any price matching strategy, I have never used any company's price matching policy, and I never intend to. That means some of my SF business goes elsewhere to other dealers with much lower prices. Anyways, I feel competition is good for the industry as a whole (and the consumer) in the long run, and will never limit myself to only one dealer, but Dan probably gets at least 50% or more of my flashlight business.

-Keith

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FC. said:
How is that? I am pretty sure Dan would make it right... Please share.

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Ok, here it is, I'm sure I'll get flamed by all the adoring fans now (kidding /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif ...but ready to get flamed anyway)

I ordered a couple of 11" Tigerlights with pepper spray during the latest big "blowout" sale.

When I got them, both lights had the old, first generation, lamp assemblies (with letters). The pepper spray I received had an expiration date that only had 10 months left of its 3 year duty life.

One of them had a big embedded thumbprint on the reflector, a scratched up lens, and the switch wires got looped and pinched inside during assembly making them too short to easily reach the battery. The other one was ok.

I was not told in advance that I was buying old merchandise, I expected new, fresh merchandise, ie second generation lamps and pepper spray with most of its duty life remaining. The light that was defective right out of the box should have been replaced by Tactical Warehouse immediately, and a call tag sent for the bad one. Instead, I was instructed to contact Tigerlight and deal directly with them. They were out of town at the shot show at the time. It's Tactical Warehouse's job to deal with the manufacturer on the occasional out of the box defective product, not the customer's. This was a hassle I didn't expect or have the time for.

Once I got in touch with Tigerlight, they offered to arrange shipping and replace the switch. I haven't gotten around to dealing with it yet, don't know if I'll even bother now, I'll probably just wait for the new reflectors and deal with the switch wires when the battery gets replaced.

The point is, TW should have taken care of it right away, and not put the onus on me, the customer. They should stand behind every product they sell.

Yes, the price was very good, but if I had known this was a "clearance sale of old inventory" instead of a "blowout sale to make room for new product lines" I might not have bought them.

I have nothing at all against Dan personally, in fact I found him to be very friendly and personable, but I will shop elsewhere to avoid these kinds of hassles and disappointments in the future.

Rant over /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon23.gif

I really think it is a bad case of misunderstanding.

I got an E1e from TW, and it had a bad tailcap. To save me the hassle, TW opened a new E1e, took the tailcap, and Priority-mailed it to me. I stand behind the statement that TW has the best customer service.

I don't mean to offend you, but why did you not return everything for a full refund? I am sure Dan would refund shipping also. And then you could go and buy the TigerLight elsewhere.

How do you expect him to replace the light with a newer version, if he don't have any? I bet that is the reason of referring you to Tigerlight directly.

I was the first customer of TW, and got plenty of flashlights there, and never had anything but positive(or better) experience.

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FC. said:
I really think it is a bad case of misunderstanding.

I got an E1e from TW, and it had a bad tailcap. To save me the hassle, TW opened a new E1e, took the tailcap, and Priority-mailed it to me. I stand behind the statement that TW has the best customer service.

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FC...you asked me to share my experience and why I won't shop there anymore...so I did...I'm not challenging your statement about their customer service in general...just reporting what happened to me and how I think it should have been handled...like you asked me to.

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FC. said:
I don't mean to offend you, but why did you not return everything for a full refund? I am sure Dan would refund shipping also. And then you could go and buy the TigerLight elsewhere.

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No offense taken, a refund was never offered in the numerous e-mail exchanges, although I'm not saying it wouldn't have been given had I asked for one. Returning for a full refund and ordering elsewhere would have been more time consuming than resolving it on my own with Tigerlight and waiting for new lamps. I chose the latter. Besides, I had already given one to my sister, with much fanfare.

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FC. said:
How do you expect him to replace the light with a newer version, if he don't have any? I bet that is the reason of referring you to Tigerlight directly.

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I expected him to replace the light with the defective switch with a new light from his inventory, regardless of lamp version. Lamp version had nothing to do with the defective switch.

BTW...how do you know he didn't have any lights with new lamps in inventory also (I'm not saying he did or didn't, I have no idea)? Many people said they bought Tigerlights with second generation lamps in them way earlier than I bought mine.

Stingray - I had the same experience as you.

Ordered 2 tigerlights and one had a bad charger, bad wallwart, and the flashlight would not make contact in the good lights charger so all three parts were bad - new product so I called for a return/exchange and Dan was very nice but bottom line was I ended up sending the bad light to Tiger for a replacement.

Dan gives great phone and shipping though.

I have not tried TW but TTS went the extra mile to deliver a flashlight to my hotel room when I went to Houston on a business trip, It was not a big order and I offered to go and pick up the merchandise, but William knowing that I wasn´t very familiar with the city personally delivered to my hotel doorstep.

How´s that for customer service?! I know I will buy from him again, outstanding service!/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbsup.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Alex

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springnr said:
Dan gives great phone

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/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/naughty.gif

That might explain why he's so popular

Dan is the FIRST dealer to treat me like a person, that is saying alot. There many other dealers that are very good, but I have found a single dealer in a hay stack of them that has solid customer service ideals. Thats why TW gets my orders. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/bowdown.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/buttrock.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/buttrock.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/buttrock.gif

TTS has given me great service even when there was a problem. In one instance when A US Post office priority mail shipment was three weeks late (no fault of TTS), he offered to ship a replacment order via overnight Saturday delivery at no extra expense so I could still deliver the gift in time for Christmas. I declined the generous offer but bottom line if William offers the flashlight I want to purchase, I purchase it from him.

The web prices for Tactical Warehouse are not all that great. If I have to email or make other arrangements to get a "special price" then I'm not interested.

Onyx

But I am an authorized Sure Fire Dealer.