Deal extreme customer service????

I recently received my 2nd order from DealExtreme. It is a Cree LED digital torch 3W. It is supposed to be an 8 mode light. When I got it, it only worked in one mode. On or Off. No strobe or varying power modes. I try to go through the ridiculous customer service process. It REQUIRES you to upload 4 pictures. Including pictures of the front and back of the envelope. I did not take pictures of the freaking envelopes. Nor can I show pictures of the damage as there is none externally. But I had to put something in the slots for the pics. I sent pictures of my dog. Has anyone had any success dealing with them or am I screwed? Sorry, just needed to vent because their customer seems designed to dissuade people from getting service.

The funny part is they call it "customer love" . Actually I had to take pictures of the envelope too. Pretty ridiculous to expect everybody to have access to a camera. It almost took me 4 weeks from opening the first ticket to get a refund for the missing item they forgot to include with the shipment. Well, after all it worked out - just took an awfull amount of time.

If you just can´t get through to dealextreme using their "customer love" ticket system than file a complaint via paypal before you are past the paypal time limit (40 or 45 days after the initial payment I guess).

Eric

jmt1271 said:

I recently received my 2nd order from DealExtreme. It is a Cree LED digital torch 3W. It is supposed to be an 8 mode light. When I got it, it only worked in one mode. On or Off. No strobe or varying power modes. I try to go through the ridiculous customer service process. It REQUIRES you to upload 4 pictures. Including pictures of the front and back of the envelope. I did not take pictures of the freaking envelopes. Nor can I show pictures of the damage as there is none externally. But I had to put something in the slots for the pics. I sent pictures of my dog. Has anyone had any success dealing with them or am I screwed? Sorry, just needed to vent because their customer seems designed to dissuade people from getting service.

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Huh? You don't HAVE to upload 4 pics? Did they tell you that? I had some issues with an order to (one wrong item, and one item not received), but they didn't demand any pics. I don't know how good their CS is under normal circumstances(when it's not Chinese New Year and snow storm of the century), but it blows ATM. Didn't respond at all at first, and when they did respond on one of the tickets, they wanted a photo of the item. A photo of the item I hadn't received...
The other girl was better (at least she read my ticket), but hasnt answered for a couple of days now.
I thought that the ticket process was very easy, that wait times though...

But by all means, send a photo of your pup. Since all of them seems to be gals, they'll surely appreciate it.

EDIT: WTH, just saw their new "improved" customer service and understand what you're talking about. Seriously, this is riddiculous. And to take a pic of everything you received? What use is that? And if you don't have everything you received, gifts etc. Have to come up with something else to photograph, and I don't have a dog...

Tried to contact them the other day to ask a question. What a pain that was. I have not received a response yet.

Have a pb once. I explained that I cant return a chep light from France as shipping is more as the value and they send me a new on.

Yes, it is REQUIRED to upload a total of 4 pictures in order for the form to be sent. 2 pictures of the damaged items(even though there is no apparent damage to the light, it is internal), 1 picture of the front of the envelope, and 1 picture of the rear of the envelope. I threw away the envelope, probably unwisely, but I did. The light's processor seems to be bad. It will turn on and off, but that is all. It is supposed to have 8 modes. Mine seems to be stuck in one of the middle power levels, as it is not very bright. I cannot change it at all. Just on or off. When I send e-mail it is returned talking about the Lunar new year, which ended last week. I finally got the customer service message (with the 4 dog pics) to go through. We will see what happens.

IMO the whole customer service process is designed to dissuade people from bothering them with customer service issues.

Bolek said:

Have a pb once. I explained that I cant return a chep light from France as shipping is more as the value and they send me a new on.

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That is essentially what I have asked them to do. Just to send me a replacement and I will return this one at their expense once I get the new one. They will likely tell me to go to hell. I have nothing to lose at this point though.

On another note, the light I received has "WWW.Surefire.com" written on the tail cap. I knew these things were typical Chinese copies, but that seems a little brazen, no?

jmt1271 said:

It REQUIRES you to upload 4 pictures.

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Sounds like a good way for DEX to sell more digicams.

jmt1271 said:

Yes, it is REQUIRED to upload a total of 4 pictures in order for the form to be sent. 2 pictures of the damaged items(even though there is no apparent damage to the light, it is internal), 1 picture of the front of the envelope, and 1 picture of the rear of the envelope. I threw away the envelope, probably unwisely, but I did. The light's processor seems to be bad. It will turn on and off, but that is all. It is supposed to have 8 modes. Mine seems to be stuck in one of the middle power levels, as it is not very bright. I cannot change it at all. Just on or off. When I send e-mail it is returned talking about the Lunar new year, which ended last week. I finally got the customer service message (with the 4 dog pics) to go through. We will see what happens.

IMO the whole customer service process is designed to dissuade people from bothering them with customer service issues.

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I have to agree with that. The old system was easy to use, allthough it went VERY slow (I received my first partial shipping over two weeks ago, and got my first answere last friday). Maybe it was slow cause of the chinese new year and snowstorm, I give them some slack for that. But that doesnt excuse the quality of the answeres I got when I finally got an answere.

And this new system doesnt make sense at all. Why do I have to post a picture of all the stuff I allready got? I can understand the envelopes, if there's any code or something, but the stuff? Seems more like it's a way of dissuading people, to make the process as annoying as possible.

Probably my first and last order with DX, not worth all the extra work and waiting. And there's always KD...

i have NEVER had a problem with them or any other chinese dealer!

Why??

because i only buy from dealers here in the USA: battery junction.....fenixstore....lighthound.......tad gear etc.

if you buy from someone stateside who will back up the sale with customer service, you will be covered.

support American merchants.

Bill

jmt1271 said:

That is essentially what I have asked them to do. Just to send me a replacement and I will return this one at their expense once I get the new one. They will likely tell me to go to hell. I have nothing to lose at this point though.

On another note, the light I received has "WWW.Surefire.com" written on the tail cap. I knew these things were typical Chinese copies, but that seems a little brazen, no?

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The only light I know of that has Surefire on it was the U2 clone and it only had 2 modes. Can you point us to the link for the light you got? I'm going to guess this new CS is an experiment of sort they will be fine tuning. I will write to Kyle to let him know it's not working real well and that not everyone has a digital camera.

BillG said:

i have NEVER had a problem with them or any other chinese dealer!

Why??

because i only buy from dealers here in the USA: battery junction.....fenixstore....lighthound.......tad gear etc.

if you buy from someone stateside who will back up the sale with customer service, you will be covered.

support American merchants.

Bill

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Well, I live in Sweden...
And it depends, done business with Fenix-store and Light-hound, great service. Peak, Surefire, never even responded my mails (so DX is actually ahead there). Haven't had any issues with KD either.

And the prices are hard to beat, so I can live with some minor snafus. Allthough I'm getting tired of waiting.

Now it seems the "express" system doesnt work either, I only get errors.

And which actually is the order-nbr? The order nbr at the top of the screen, or the invoice/order nbr? They are different.

Hey, Matrix. Would you mind PMing Kyles mail? I havent got a working mail at DX forever, and the waiting is getting long.
Thanks.

BTW I found the light you got. I see in the reader comments that it does not always work in the 8 modes IF you are using an 18650 (or single RCR battery) but that it worked fine with 2 x CR123 batteries. You might see if that fixes the problem. I've experienced that with a multi-mode 6P drop in before too.

Criticism of dealers belongs in the Jeers sub-forum in the MarketPlace, so I am closing this thread.

Criticism of a specific product may be made in the appropriate forum here, so if you are prepared to confine yourselves strictly to the product rather than the dealer, you may open another thread.