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FrozenGate by Avery

aHappyDeal dot-com Journey - Guinea pig for "200mW" cheap greens.

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A $17 XM-L flashlight?! Thats dirt cheap...even if it does have a low power driver.
 





Lotus - maybe once CanadaPost gets back up and running next week I'll take you up on that, and slip a few bucks in your direction to pay for it. I'm not in a super rush here.

Matt - I'd just go for it if you like the laser. They've actually been pretty good so far in standing behind the one that didn't measure up. They've offered a credit to spend on something else. I'm not sure the dollar amount - waiting to hear back from them. If they give me a credit for the difference between the one I purchased, and the equivalent 150mW version, I'll be happy. I don't get the sense that they were trying to pull anything by me here.

For a 100mW $30 laser, I'm not sure I'd bother hassling to try and get someone else to meter it. You should sort of be able to tell if it's in the right neighbourhood power-wise.
 
Helios - don't forget that this site charges shipping though. Not much, but they do charge.
 
rhd said:
Helios - don't forget that this site charges shipping though. Not much, but they do charge.
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oooooooooooooohhhhhhhhh that makes more sense. I was going to say that all of the flashlights are consistently a few dollars under any other site ive seen.

EDIT: still seems a bit cheaper than most even after shipping so it could be a good source for flashlights.
 
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rhd said:
Lotus - maybe once CanadaPost gets back up and running next week I'll take you up on that, and slip a few bucks in your direction to pay for it. I'm not in a super rush here.
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I sent a slightly similar-sized filter to Helios that has the same characteristics as the small ir filter in the first picture. He's going to test it out and let me know how it works out. If it works for him, he's going to paypal me the shipping price and I'll call it good (which in his case was 1.72 but I'll call it 2.00 since it does hold a little realistic value).

We will wait for his opinion on how it works out and if everything is OK, I'll do the same for you (shipping cost rounded up to the nearest whole dollar). That small filter is 6mmx6mm, by the way.
 
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Just ordered one of the silver pens... hope it lives up to the claim. I will also test it for IR:D


UGH!!! Not sure why, but total came out to be $72.61. If it's ~200mW+/1 10% I'm fine with that though.
 
Lotus_Darkrose said:
I sent a slightly similar-sized filter to Helios that has the same characteristics as the small ir filter in the first picture. He's going to test it out and let me know how it works out. If it works for him, he's going to paypal me the shipping price and I'll call it good (which in his case was 1.72 but I'll call it 2.00 since it does hold a little realistic value).

We will wait for his opinion on how it works out and if everything is OK, I'll do the same for you (shipping cost rounded up to the nearest whole dollar). That small filter is 6mmx6mm, by the way.
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Hey now that was not part of the deal! Haha just kidding. At $2 its a no brainer purchase. I will run some tests on it with my meter and see what kind of green pass/reflect it has. :beer:
 
Good stuff. If it checks out all right, and I send the 6mmx6mm one to rhd, I will still have a 5mmx5mm filter left.

I also had to originally buy the cell phone, digital camera, and webcam that these came out of too, long ago :p
 
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From this limited sample size I could see ahappydeal becoming the #1 laser pointer seller. The first Chinese site to LPM all of their lasers -- a big step forward in the laser pointer industry.
 
What do you think about their 500mW red? True Power Guaranteed 500mW 650nm Red Laser Pointer Pen BGP-0019 (Battery included)

I noticed that it's very rare to see reds over 300mW in the forum. I had asked O-Like about a red over 300mW and Susie told me they're not stable and die easily. I really would like a red laser with a beam as visible as a 50mW green, and found it in aHappyDeal with a reasonable price for the power.

Anyway, since 500mW red is so rare, I'm not confident enough on aHappyDeal to place an order.
 
Not impressed with their offer so far. I asked how much $ they were offering to remedy the under-spec.

They offered $4

- I explained to them that the difference between the 200mW I paid for, and the same pointer in a 150mW version on their site (what mine ended up measuring at) was $22

- They said they couldn't do that, because they already paid their supplier for the 200mW version, and that $22 was more than their profit, and offered me $5.

- I explained that it wasn't my fault their supplier hadn't provided them with an on-spec laser, and reminded them that they guaranteed the output power. I then explained that if they wouldn't cover the difference between the 200mW and 150mW version, that I wanted a refund.

I don't think they intended to send me an under spec laser. My bet is that there's a supplier in China that sells these "power guaranteed" pointers. Probably the same supplier Dino uses, who knows. At any rate, like any other laser, the output power isn't perfectly mathematical, and the only real way to offer a guarantee is if you test each laser - which is what they SHOULD be doing if they want to provide a power guarantee.

If refunding me the $22 difference truly does cause them to loose money, then I feel semi-bad for them. Presumably $22 in China is a heck of a lot more to loose than in North America.

At the same time, I also don't feel bad. 99% of their buyers aren't going to have LPMs to use in verifying outputs. If they are gaining sales by offering a power guarantee, they need to be called on it when their product doesn't live up.

- At this stage, I haven't heard back (it has only been 24 hours) from my latest comment that if they wouldn't provide the $22 difference, I wanted a refund. What do you guys think I should do? My thinking is that I would send them another follow-up saying something along the lines of "Further to my email of DATE, I have not heard back regarding whether you would like to provide the $22 difference in price between what I paid and what I got, or refund my purchase and accept a return of the laser. If I don't hear from you in the next 24 hours, I have to open a dispute through Paypal so that my 45 day window does not expire" Thoughts?

- One other wrinkle. If they need the laser to be returned to them before providing me with a refund, I have no way to do that. Post here in Canada is shut down, and FedEx/UPS to China would be astronomical. This could work in my favour if I insisted that they needed to pay for the return shipping. This could also be a challenge if postal shipping was my responsibility, because waiting out the strike would likely push me past the 45 day Paypal window.
 
...Hope my laser comes in on spec, I had 8 long islands yesterday after work, and this was definitely an impulse purchase:undecided:

@rhd - Don't feel bad for them regarding not making a profit, they sell a product that they "guarantee" - whatever other situations are going on, you as the buyer have no legal or moral obligation. They should take up the issue with their supplier. Besides as you yourself already wrote, how many buyers actually have an LPM? They should still be making a decent profit overall.

I would also simplify the email... these are chinese native speakers, "Further to my Email of DATE" may sound good to me, but will confuse them.

"Follow up to my last email. I have not heard back if you will provide the $22 difference in price? What I paid was ___ the laser you sent me is 150mW not the 200mW you advertised. The 150mW version is ___. Please refund me the $22 difference to correct this error.

If you would prefer I will send the laser back to you, in exchange for a full refund, but you will pay the return shipping.

If you do not respond within 2 business days I will have no choice but to file a dispute."

Find out how much the shipping options are through other carriers. Also if it's acceptable to you maybe offer them instead to give you the difference in credit on a future purchase.

Hope it works out.
 
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Good call - I always forget about the language barrier.

I'll simplify it. That said, the $5 offer WAS a credit already, not a straight refund.

I'll keep everyone posted.
 
Update.

So I got an email saying they are out of stock. Which is interesting since it still shows as in stock on their website.

When I asked for a refund, I got a response asking to wait 5 days. I responded saying to cancel and refund.

Just got another email now saying they are refunding me. Hopefully the refund will go through quickly.

All that said, I'm quite disappointed. It looks like my lousy luck with chinese dropshipper crapware sites is holding steady:yabbmad:


Edit/Update: Got a message asking me to wait for the refund. My reply was that if I don't receive refund within 2 business days I would dispute. As of this morning funds have been refunded to paypal.
 
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Update:

I finally got the difference between my 200mW (paid for) and 150mW (received) refunded to my paypal account.

It was exactly an "easy" process, in the sense that I had to go back and forth, and ultimately threaten to just file a Paypal dispute (which honestly, I didn't want to have to do anyway - not crazy about the idea of getting into specifics with paypal about laser power measurement).

At any rate, I would still hands-down recommend the silver pen-style 200mW green to anyone. But better yet - I'm pretty sure these guys are just drop-shippers, so let's figure out where they get their lasers from. I'm also fairly certain that they don't own an LPM. Though note that my silver pen-style host was perfectly on spec.
 
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