Ordering Arc AAA

Does anyone know if Arc is taking orders? When you go to the AAA page it says....The AAA product is currently back ordered for 4 weeks. Sorry, we are currently not accepting new back orders. When you click on the AAA it says....The AAA/AA product is currently back ordered for 4 weeks. When you click on the Premium AAA it says....The AAA/AA product is currently back ordered for 5 weeks. It will let you add either on to the cart and it says it's in stock. One would think if they are not taking orders they would not let you to add it to the shopping cart.

This is the frustrating thing I have learned about the ARC co, in my short time here. I got a different story when I called them on two occasion's. they took 4-5 days to call back and then i was told ,while the girl laughed,, that i was lucky it didn't take 10 days like many she was calling that day. between the e-mail ph, and site, i could get a 4+ in 3wk's/ "right now" or wait till oct for a revision. the premi AAA and AA could not be ordered, then 5 wk's then,, "got one here if you want it?". sorta strange don't you think?

Maybe the best light's in the world, but until i hear that company is running semi normal I will be looking at micra's and Q-III's SF etc. I know ARC have had a lot of problem's
with production, parts, lawsuit's, but i have delt with similar small co's in the music biz that have too, and I didn't get the 2 or 3 different "story's" senario, and when I do, i simply go elsewhere.

I don't like to rant, but truly if this was nuwai or other far east co, i feel you would hear more grumbling, IMHO.
I see it as thus: the quality and prestige have little to do with the buisiness. I manufacter a guitar effect pedal, and have been through this stuff, but ph message's get answered, and what I e-mail is not different then what's on my web page/phone contact's. VDG

[ QUOTE ]
voodoogreg said:
I don't like to rant, but truly if this was nuwai or other far east co, i feel you would hear more grumbling, IMHO.
I see it as thus: the quality and prestige have little to do with the buisiness.

[/ QUOTE ]

Please don't take response time a measure of customer service. Surefire took a week to return my call and three months to replace a dead bulb on a new light. Reason given was they were backordered.

To Surefire's credit they resolved all issues, just took them a while. I don't think you will find many, if any instance where Arc didn't followup and resolve your problem.

Don't think any far east flashlight company will be any better at customer service than Arc.

If I didn't already own an Arc or know much about them, I'd have written them off as not being worth the risk. The types of problems that some have experienced with Arc would have scared me away.

But here I sit, patiently waiting to buy another AAA and my first AA from them. I can only imagine how frustrated Peter & Co. must be, knowing all the sales they could make - if only they had product available.

It's the classic problem of having something that's so nice that it ramps up demand far past your ability to produce. I guess ARC could outsource the light building to China, but then I think their lights would lack the high quality that they're known for. Maybe they need to get a customer service center over in India?

For me, ARC lights are far too pricey to ever buy. I prefer the cheaper, yet still useful offerings from Inova and Nuwai. But if you've gotta have the expensive stuff, I guess that also means a long wait. It's the same way with luxury cars, yachts and fine champagne, right?

Arc clearly bit off more than it can chew IMO. I've owned two different model Arc flashlights, and BOTH have had serious problems associated with them. Just check the ARC forum and you'll find evidence of that.

For one of the lights I had to go so far as to request a refund because it still didn't work properly even after I had sent it in for repairs. And to their credit they did issue a refund after some initial confusion on their part.

I did find the company very receptive to customer concerns, but the bottom line is their QC simply stinks.

Caveat emptor!

I still have two new ones in the plastic from when County Comm was selling them for a reasonable price. I wish I had bought more as they are an excellent little light. Too bad, the big price increase and then a dearth of supply. I wish someone would give us the official story as to why they are not available. Anyone who asks invariably gets the how dare you question the manuf., when a light is this good you have to be patient and pay whatever they ask for it?!! Jeez, you want to buy them at a competitive price, how dare you?? You'll drive Arc out of business!! I guess we should all line up and genuflect and buy bucketloads of the Arc 5 at 250 clams to keep them in operation. Seriously overpriced goods, high quality but still overpriced.

I put in an order in for 3 in May I think when I _thought_ they where suppose to be available. After a couple of months waiting, I canceled and went with Peak.

I have one that I returned to them awaiting replacement, it's now been quite a while as well, I emailed last week and they said 2 weeks. If it's any longer than that I'll just ask for a refund.

It's unfortunate, I can understand supplier problems. I really don't know what happened but they do seem to be losing sales, expecially now to Peak.

Ordering Arc products????............... I've given up, something very strange is up over there. It's a shame too, I love their stuff, if it were only available that is!! Doug /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

[ QUOTE ]
cy said:
[ QUOTE ]
voodoogreg said:
I don't like to rant, but truly if this was nuwai or other far east co, i feel you would hear more grumbling, IMHO.
I see it as thus: the quality and prestige have little to do with the buisiness.

[/ QUOTE ]

Please don't take response time a measure of customer service. Surefire took a week to return my call and three months to replace a dead bulb on a new light. Reason given was they were backordered.

To Surefire's credit they resolved all issues, just took them a while. I don't think you will find many, if any instance where Arc didn't followup and resolve your problem.

Don't think any far east flashlight company will be any better at customer service than Arc.

[/ QUOTE ]

I too think there great light's, maybe the best from what I have read here, but if you read my post, it's the combination of thing's, not just a CS call taking awhile. a 5 wk wait and not taking back orders, then 3 wk's, wait. I understand companies having problem's, but too many different stories for me to feel secure.

It's like DTSOLL said, the vibe just feel's wrong, and conflicting info makes that even more a risk IMHO. VDG

I waited, and waited, but I've too given up on the Arc aaa, it was the only light I would be buying, as the others in the line are too expensive for me to consider. Right now I just ordered a couple Photon Freedoms and extra batteries.

Arc's reputation after sales is super and I believe if it were not, they'd go under. There are a ton of threads praising Arc on replacing bad or problem lights. Why is it though we see so many on Arc versus others, I don't know since I have not been here long enough yet.

[ QUOTE ]
There are a ton of threads praising Arc on replacing bad or problem lights.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah. Very strange, isn't it? It's like watching a bad episode of "The Twilight Zone" or something. Almost cult-like. Scary stuff!

[ QUOTE ]
indenial said:
[ QUOTE ]
There are a ton of threads praising Arc on replacing bad or problem lights.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah. Very strange, isn't it? It's like watching a bad episode of "The Twilight Zone" or something. Almost cult-like. Scary stuff!

[/ QUOTE ]

Hmmm... I wasn't in any cult, the last time I looked.. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/naughty.gif

However, Peter did replace my Arc4+ Rev1 with a brand new Arc4+ Rev2 at my request when I returned my Rev1 for a broken microswitch... This isn't a "story", it's just the facts, plain and simple.. Arc may have some problems with their products, like the current switch on the Arc4, but from my experience, they take really good care of their customers. From the tons of threads praising Arc, you can tell I'm not the only customer that they've treated well.. Nothing cultish or scary about it either.. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinser2.gif

GregW:

You didn't get the point of my post. I was was referring to the absurdity inherent in the quoted statement. Sigh.

Please, just ignore what I said. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif

I guess there taking orderes now. Ordered AAA+P. Says it will take 5 weeks to ship. We'll see. I've never seen one so I hope I'm not disapointed in it when I get it.

[ QUOTE ]
There are a ton of threads praising Arc on replacing bad or problem lights.

[/ QUOTE ]

indenial, I think I was thinking the same thing....

If the product were so good, why would there be "tons of threads" about replacing bad lights... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon3.gif

JB

[ QUOTE ]
jbfla said:
If the product were so good, why would there be "tons of threads" about replacing bad lights...

[/ QUOTE ]

On the other hand, what you may be seeing is the result of a few unlucky customers writing to CPF; the satisfied users are less likely to write in. What these threads do show is that Arc is an open company, responding in a public forum to complaints, and that the service is great.

The comment was about the posted "statement", not about Arc or their products.

...indenial was right, "ignore what I just said" /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon23.gif

JB

You can always go with the Infinity Ultra or Sonic, cheaper, just as good IMO and get it now, I did.

I just wanted to say I received a replacement AAA today for one I sent in a while back. My initial impression is that the quality is the highest so far in the AAA line.

Thank you Peter and Merri.