Surefire free replacement parts no more?

Anyone knows when Surefire ended its rapid replacement parts program?

Original link was here (but is now no more) http://www.surefire.com/rapid-replacement-parts

Very disappointing by this move as there are indeed parts that tend to fail after prolonged use. Have once tried helping a pal get a replacement E2DL clip (reversible type), filled in that form, but have never heard from them since. Did SF actually mess up the said program, or did people exploit that program so that SF had to shut it down?

People were exploiting that program - especially when it came to the 2 way clips used on the e1b and lx2. Not sure if it's why Surefire shut it down though.

Yeah what a bummer. It has been gone a while. I posted about it a few months back. It was a very helpful program for owners.
My guess is, maybe SF doesn't have fat govt contracts like they used to? So they, like many businesses, had to cut expenses.

If you take a look in the WTB section there are a couple response posts where seekers were recently advised to contact Surefire by fellow CPF members and they are (have) sent them replacement clips. Maybe its the luck of the draw who you talk to but I'd hazard a guess that support still exists for SF light owners. But it is too bad the RR parts page disappeared.

Actually the parts request program is still available, but customers will have to manually file for such requests either by email, phone, or both. But this becomes problematic when making such requests internationally (ie. parts to be sent to overseas address) as this would take FOREVER and the reps won't get back to you on the order status updates.

Have requested for some two-way clips a month ago while still in town. Have sent email AND talked to tech support. Order was fulfilled in just one week. Items arrived in one small dusty envelope.

Now that I'm out of the country and my request for another rare part (C2/C3 grip ring) has gone cold. Not sure what I can do now......?

OK so more woes from this Surefire parts request exercise...

The said C2 grip rings request was made around 10-25. Called SF a few times and was told it would take 2-3 weeks to arrive. Have requested parts to be sent to an overseas address (in Asia) since I left town on the 27th..

Tried to follow up three weeks later. Email reply dated Friday 11-18: "We have additional requirements for processing orders shipping to international destinations. International shipping requests do require more time to ship."

A week later, emailed them back and asked them to switch from an international parts order to a domestic one, and asked them to ship the stuff to a neighborhood address some 15-20 mins from their HQ.
Email reply dated Monday 11-28: "We cannot process any further requests for the C2 grip ring component. The original request is still being processed."

Replied and asked them (tech support) how much wait is needed.
Email reply dated Wednesday 11-30: "We have provided all the necessary information. Your parts request is still being processed."

Eventually replied to SF and demanded international sales staff to email back to explain the situation in detail. So far no email replies as we speak.

Can someone explain what's going on here? One month later and the parts request is still being processed!?? What kind of logic is this?

Replacement parts requests sometimes take more than a month, in my experience .... I would suppose that international requests might take even longer ?

Response times in general also seem to be longer recently, compared with those of several years ago ....

archimedes said:

Replacement parts requests sometimes take more than a month, in my experience .... I would suppose that international requests might take even longer ?
Response times in general also seem to be longer recently, compared with those of several years ago ....

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Years ago when the replacement parts online page was still present, response times were fairly short and shipping to overseas addresses were also done via courier service (ETA 2-4 days). Not anymore...

Still, these days US domestic parts requests could take as short as a week to fulfill. Email them, call them to follow up, and the parts will be in your mailbox in about a week (although, NO more shipping confirmation, nor tracking status). YMMV of course.

Case in point: helped a friend nab a few E2DL clips to replace his broken one. As long as I was in US soil, the whole request exercise took just one week. However, when the same request was made from overseas more than a year ago, that NEVER went through, and repeated email follow-ups were futile.

Anyway for the grip rings request I'll give it another 3-4 weeks to see if there's any progress. Will update here then.

Yes, I have had response times vary from less than one week to more than one month.

Yet another clip failure today. Who designed this thing????

For me - free means slow.....

I have a few pairs of Keen shoes - 3 of them steel toe safety shoes which have the stretchy laces that cinch with a lock. I finally broke a pair and went on the Keen website to order another pair. I found I could not buy them - their "elves" ship them free of charge to you. I certainly appreciated it, but now I know when they start to fray I need to take preemptive action and order replacements. They took about 4 to 6 weeks, but hey they were free.

Surefire has sent me a replacement clip or two. Just trying to keep a little on topic...

Hudson456 said:

Yet another clip failure today. Who designed this thing????

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I reinforced my LX2 with a 10x4mm wide, 2mm thick blob of steel epoxy right under the "break line" similar to where yours broke.
Been using it for years.
I live in the Philippines and getting a new clip would take long.

I emailed SF twice in the last few years and got a new E1B clip, a LX2 tailcap(guts fell out) and a KX4 head(LED burned, brown spot in the middle).

FWIW I needed a new bezel for my 10+ y/o 6P due to a crack in the acrylic lens. Surefire CS was outstanding on the phone and a replacement arrived in a week.

For you guy's who are overseas and need Surefire E1 and E2 clip there's a vendor on Ebay that sells the short and long version of the single sided clip. How good are they? Don't have a clue but if Surefire will not help you there appears to be some you can buy. Search for SportSprite.

m4a1usr said:

For you guy's who are overseas and need Surefire E1 and E2 clip there's a vendor on Ebay that sells the short and long version of the single sided clip. How good are they? Don't have a clue but if Surefire will not help you there appears to be some you can buy. Search for SportSprite.

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I can't seem to find this item among 388 pages on ebay. Hahaha

m4a1usr- I found your vendor by typing "Surefire pocket clip" into the ebay search bar...

OK folks so here's some updates. Some two months after making the original request for the C2/C3/M2 grip rings I sent SF an email but again to no avail -- absolutely NO response whatsoever.

I managed to talk to the boss of my local SF dealer during News Years Eve and learned what's going on. Turns out some 2+ years ago there's been mass restructuring at SF (possibility due to declined sales) and that some 200+ staff have been laid off. And the staff count at the intl sales department has been reduced to just 2-3, as opposed to a full team before. Unfortunately the remaining staff seem to have failed to fulfill any intl sales especially in replacement parts orders/requests without any remedy.

I've also been told that at some point the local dealer has received some 60+ product repair requests, all left in limbo. Even complaints and follow-ups from such dealers (from a worldwide perspective) have gone unanswered. In other words, there' nothing even a reputed dealer could do to face its SF customers.

Not sure how many international orders/services/parts requests SF has to follow up as we speak, but shame on them. Whether SF can resume its excellent CS and parts requests remains to be seen.

@RobertMM
"In the past few years" means you've had luck with the parts requests until the company restructuring. I've had luck too requesting parts for some pal before the change.

@Hudson456
Is that the two-way clip? That's how it broke on my pal's E2DL. Took a year to request those clips and not after I've followed up with the matter while in US soil. Pal has the clips now, but he's not happy -- he's put his light out of active service for some extended periods already.

yazkaz said:

@Hudson456
Is that the two-way clip? That's how it broke on my pal's E2DL. Took a year to request those clips and not after I've followed up with the matter while in US soil. Pal has the clips now, but he's not happy -- he's put his light out of active service for some extended periods already.

Click to expand...

Yes


That is the stock 2-way. It is horrible - I've broken a bunch of them over the years. The older bezel-up one was better, but now I run Streamlight 1L clips on all my E-series. They are amazing. I also have experimented with larger Streamlight clips on my 6Ps and they seem to work well too.


Surefire makes an awesome light if you get the high end range (no 6PX/G2X's). But the clips not so much.

I wonder how you guys manage to break the 2way clips? Do you pull the light away from the pocket or whatever it is clipped to instead of just pulling it up? So far I never had problems with mine.

Eric

Oh well... some 3.5 months later and still not one single response or update. Maybe the folks were all out for trade shows but I've been told the CS and other people were all in-house.

What the heck is happening? Are they being lazy or what......??