Re: **Arc 5 vs. Surefire U2 - which one would u ch
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fluorescent said:
I'd go with the SF U2.
I purchased two Arc 4+ and was upset to find out later that all future improvements are not backwards compatable and that accessories/software for them were abandoned. Other reason has to do with quality/consistancy. The rev1 4+ was almost perfect - rev2 had/still has switch and reflector issues ( even after being sent in for repair ).
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Future improvements are backwards compatible. Accessories and software were not abandoned. This has been posted in the Arc4 forum several times for all to see.
Now about the quality and consistency, I agree. None of my products have had the quality and consistency that I shoot for.
As far as improving our designs, you may want to check out the public beta testing going on with the new switch and software (two items you specifically mentioned above).
For established products, our defect level is similiar to our competitors (typ less than 2 units out a thousand). The difference with Arc is that we encourage people to discuss any issues that come up in a public forum. Having the owner actually post on a regular basis really brings out the most honest discussions. I will tell you that 80-90% of all problems with Arcs are first posted on the CPF before I ever receive a phone call or email. If this happened with our competitors, they would also need their own forum to contain all the tech support issues that you would expect when thousands of items are being made.
As proof, I encourage you to check our public forums for the most current issues. Notice the low rate of defect with products like the Arc-AAA, AA and LSH. Remember, this is an open forum.
Again, that is with, "established products". We also make some cutting edge products. People generally agree that these products are truly out in front from a concept point of view. The downside is they typically are rougher around the edges. But we not only give the option of owning a cutting edge product but we make it easy to find out what the issues are when they pop up.
Why do I continue to post on the CPF and in effect put up a sign saying, "the doctor is in"? If I stayed away from the CPF, more people would either not communicate when there was a problem or they would give us a call since we would be more likely to listen when they called then when they posted to some hobbyist bbs. Yes, doing our tech support in the open does sometimes give people the wrong impression about the quality of our products. But I am actually more concerned about our relationship with the customers we have. And I so I will continue to encourage open discussion about our products. People say we have excellent customer service. Such a company would naturally be more open about discussing any problems.
One competitor has possibly figured out this relationship between open communication and the impression people might get from reading that communication. Maybe that is why they closed down all their online forum presence? Maybe too much communication is a bad thing? I call it the, "chicken little" concept.
One other thing, it is not the same thing when a pro-SF person like Al (bless his heart /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif ) encourages discussion about SF problem here on the CPF compared to what would happen if JM or PK posted here every day providing quick response to every issue. People say different things when they talk to the person who actually can change the product.
Peter
