Wicked Lasers positive experiences?

hakzaw1 said:

When I saw the title of this OP I heard silence only interupted by the faint sounds of crickets..... lol

Just how many chances are we supposed to give WL to become a great outfit to buy from and deal with- ??

The copy in the first listing of the Arctics was one of the worst thing to ever be printed for our 'hobby' it was picked up by the mainsteam news and it was apparent that WL cared nothing about us and only about getting lots of orders and making tons of profits- the hosts are a POS and I was told by someone who knows(in china) that WL paid around $7.50 per host.

The phrase 'out of stock' must be beyond Steve/Chris (et al names) comprehension as rather than dissapoint the many buyers they gladly took the $$ and just made many wait a very very long time. Thier forum is run with only one way to think or post about WL and they have sent people here to say good things about them which in most cases was not entirely true.

So even tho at one time WL a good place to do biz and maybe now its better than when things really sucked, it is still avoided by many vets here. if you do biz with them and are unhappy dont come back here whining about it- you did not do your homework or ignored all the warnings/

mi dos centavos solo--hak

Click to expand...

Fair enough, I acknowledge what you're saying, but I'm not from WL, I'm a 16 year old from the UK. -.-
Secondly, I was simply wondering if anybody had ever had any positive experiences with WL.

Ciaran said:

Fair enough, I acknowledge what you're saying, but I'm not from WL, I'm a 16 year old from the UK. -.-
Secondly, I was simply wondering if anybody had ever had any positive experiences with WL.

Click to expand...

I never thought you are a shill from WL and that fact that you are young makes no diff to me. Some of the mosy savvy dudes here are just as young and I would hope that you would not hold it against me that I am 65 yrs old.
AND.. for sure, there have been some with good experiences with WL but the odds may not be in your favor.. why not just deal with a company that has feweror no unhappy campers. Look up Odicforce- they are in the UK and sell some quality hosts which are very easy to finnish. They have a great rep and you will be happy that you had a hand in the building- when somebody admires your laser they will for sure ask you where you got it and 'from ebay' is lame compared to 'I built it myself from a kit'.

good luck my best wishes for 2013... hak

Ciaran said:

Hey! I'm not looking to start a flame war here, I'm just asking out of curiosity, but what made you spend so much on a 100mW laser?

Click to expand...

its 100mW+, its minimum output is 100mW. mine DEFINETELY outputs at least 150mW. plus, the laser has a much higher quality build inside and out than the warnlaser mars i have. and also, for all of thoes who say WL is over priced, i cant imagine what you have to say about laser glow.$ 989 for a 1W 447nm laser? gimme a break! :crackup:

Hakzaw: I now see where you're coming from, I'm sorry for jumping to such conclusions. You're right, age has nothing to do with it. I'm sorry for being a bit of a biggot there.

Zazman: Okay, fair enough, I was just wondering! ^.^

Ciaran said:

So hey, everybody knows that WL is basically a ripoff, but have you ever received any majorly overspec lasers from WL?

Click to expand...

My experience with WL.

buyed a 500mW krypton back in the day's from WL when it first came out (like 7 months ago now?) (shipping was fast!)

It only did 250mW (*i mad*.... gave it to RHD and went to Lazeerer in the end.

ordered a WL core 5mW (was on spec, and shipped fast)

buyed a couple of lasersabers for my secondhand buyed krypton 1W and arctic (bought true buy and sell section)
lasersabers had problems with customs and had to pay them for releasing my package.
WL refunded me those costs.

Arctic buyed here on LPF died with my mistake (donated it to Offroadfreak for his awesome SKYlasers GB work)
Krypton still going strong, also buyed here.

Tailcap died on krypton (contacted WL, they sended a new one free of charge)

Today i ordered a arctic 1.25W from them with $75 discount and free fast shipping for my troubles i had with my 500mW krypton. (pending results)
*just want one for my collection, and they seem to have learned from there 2009 ? mistake.

So yeah, i guess my best tip is to stay away from any company that just released a new product, untill they iron out the kinks. (it sure took a long time for them)

But i must say WL has bin very helpfull for me, when i was in trouble with no charges or anything.

Chat support and e-mail was fast and enjoyable!
just my 2 cents / experience.

p.s. anyone checked out the WL Lunar spyder III speculation ?
It could be a white laser!

Let me jump in here with some thought I have.

Seems like many only look at the makers claim of output- judging a handheld by that alone is not smart thinking- for instance I have a 5 mW pro green pen pointer it makes exactly 4.98 mW it cost well over 100$ WHY? because of how its built and by whom- just like comparing a Benz with some cheaper car based solely on it being an 8 cylindar - there is a lot more to it than just hp or engine sizes.

Kaidy from Lasersman put up some nicely discounted pointers recently and a few could just not understand why the 200 mW was cheaper than the 150mW-- they were not made by the same company nor in the same way. Looking at the big picture is needed. What if the 150 mW is really 150 while the 200 is maybe really only 100mW and if the cheaper one dies first then there is that. The beam specs, the lack of IR flitration, the type of switch, the battery needed and much more needs to be looked at before you judge. the Jetlaser PL-E 532/600 costs $549usd and I would not trade one for two or three so called 500s from CrapCompany Lasers Inc. While you don't always get what you pay for in some cases that is entirely true. After-the -sale support- who pays shipping for returns-the warranty and will the company still be in biz a year from now all come into play.

Glad I have this now off my chest a its been bothering me for some time-

The pics and specs in a store listing may be the last thing one should go by.

hak

dmacrae said:

Damn jerry ya got me, it hits a max of 1240, I've been waiting for Joe to email me because the guaranteed power graph for my laser is "unavailable" that being said along with the fact that its pricy, its still a favorite for me and its held up so far. I am quite eager to see what WL has to say about my lpm results...

- D.

Click to expand...

Just an update for anyone that gives a hoot
After letting my thermopile sensor settle for as long as it took to get a full charge on the battery I lpm'd it at 1254mW. So they threw in +4 put it this way, for the s3 your getting 3.1 mW or so per dollar. For a user build your in the ballpark of 10mW+- per dollar. (depending on power/wavelength)