How to tell if it's a genuine Olight.

Hello, newbie here.

Im looking for a new torch and really like the look of the olight sr96.

I live in England and I'm struggling with the eye watering price! I notice there are lots of cheaper ones from China on eBay, should I assume that tgey are not genuine as the prices are so much cheaper?
Then there are some over there in the U.S. that seem very reasonable.

The he question I have is how can I be sure that it's a genuine olight? Has anyone ever had any experience with the eBay users in the U.S. who are so much cheaper?

Thanks in advance for any help, it's gratefully received.

:welcome:there is that risk but would say unlikely unless silly cheap. My main concern is support if anything fails.........sending a large light back to china=££ and then the wait time of weeks...........months.

If set on that light, i would be looking here
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?403431-SR96vn-10K-Lumen-Searchlight

Several reasons from 2nd to none customer service, will take 6-10 days to UK. Vinh is a pleasure to deal with and improves lights where manufacturers can cut corners(be it from off centre LED's to thin wires and poor heat sinking). Not saying any or all apply to this specific light, more a general comment

Of course reputable shops in the US seem a plenty ,quick search in here will show you those.

There is very low risk of a "fake" olight. I have bought 4 olights straight from China. In total, I have bought about 40 flashlights from taobao. This includes olight, nitecore, jetbeam, klarus, sunwayman, convoy or even zebralight. You should save 20-40%, depending on promotions.

Like ven said, the risk would be the servicing, shipping cost and waiting time. For me, I do not plan to ship them to China so it is not a problem for me (not cost effective). So far, none of my flashlights have malfunctioned yet.

Pretty much what ven said. For saving a few bucks (euros, pounds) you are risking not just a chance of a knockoff. But risking poor or very slow customer service if there are issues. It's one thing with a 20 dollar light. But lights of that level are different. Buy from a reputable dealer.

Apart from the above comments, you need to remember that if you buy anything from the USA going to the UK, you'll also be liable for Import fees, VAT and possibly also an administration fee from the Royal Mail/Courier. So you'll need to factor that into the cost.

On the flip side, for some reason anything I've ordered from China always gets through Customs without any additional fees.

d88 said:

Apart from the above comments, you need to remember that if you buy anything from the USA going to the UK, you'll also be liable for Import fees, VAT and possibly also an administration fee from the Royal Mail/Courier. So you'll need to factor that into the cost.

On the flip side, for some reason anything I've ordered from China always gets through Customs without any additional fees.

Click to expand...

A good point, only one vinh light of past have i incurred charges and that was a big heavy case with a very heavy light in it. iirc it might have been around £13 .

tk61vn/tk75vn's and other medium to large lights have been issue free.

I have been stung once from China, this time marked at $50 and the charge was £26 ............i refuted the claim at customs and never heard back!

Thanks for the responses everyone.

Opinion on seems to be split as to the risk of getting a copy but I've just had a message that the one I wanted that was being sold in the U.S. Can't be delivered to the UK.

I really can't justify the expense of getting an olight SR96 from the main dealer so I think I'll need to think of an alternative.

Thanks again for for all your help.

As above, whenever I have bought things from US I get clobbered with import duty/vat etc. It's never happened when ordering from China. But it could...
Oh, and pretty unlikely you would get a copy from wherever you buy it from. They are made in China remember.

I bought an Olight s15 from a Chinese ebay dealer. It is a much smaller and cheaper flashlight but still, the flashlight is genuine, it works well and everything is o.k.
I did get suspicious once I got it that the free extender tube I got with it was a fake, so I wrote Olight and the dealer to ask.
A day later Olight answered 'Yes the extender tube is real. Some of our ebay and amazon dealers include them to be nice. You can use it[FONT=Segoe UI, Segoe UI Web Regular, Segoe UI Symbol, Helvetica Neue, BBAlpha Sans, S60 Sans, Arial, sans-serif].'
[/FONT]They seemed to be sure.
The ebay dealer also wrote that he sells Olight items from authorized distributors.
So I'm guessing it's safe.
I'm a frequent ebay buyer, If you stick with high rated sellers and top rated sellers its almost sure to be real.
I never got a fake yet.

Buy a Malkoff hound dog turnkey.

No worries about it being fake or unreliable.

:welcome: Welcome to the forum, ramific.

thank you parnass :thanks:

best way to tell its a real Olight? Buy it from GoingGear.com. Olight just set up their US warranty repair (and US HQ?) in either the same building or office park as GG. GG is more in touch with Olight than possibly any other retailer in the world. I only buy my Olights from GG.