Responding as to my personal experience, not as a mod here ...
I have had multiple interactions with SF over perhaps 8-10 years.
In general, best results are found with courteous requests by
phone
Response to eMail, in my experience (and many others here) has been more variable
Did you call, eMail, or both?
The first few times I needed CS assistance, parts replacement was very generous, although not particularly speedy (no complaints from me, but just an observation, as I have
plenty of backup flashlights
... )
I did, of course, pay for shipping fees (as expected, and as would be reasonable)
The most recent time, maybe a year or two ago, was a little bit more involved in terms of questions and details, but fully satisfactory to me.
One issue that may have some bearing on this was their (now discontinued, I believe) "rapid replacement parts program"
SureFire had a streamlined process for "no questions asked" replacement of certain parts, notably tailcaps.
After this got widely publicized, many "new-in-package" parts (mostly tailcaps and bezels) started showing up rather regularly on auction sales sites
I am guessing that may be why that no longer exists, and perhaps why these particular parts requests are now scrutinized more carefully ? :thinking: :shrug:
Finally, I know that SF has certain limitations as regards international issues, and I am wondering if any of those may have played a role in your situation.
Given your upset with being questioned by SF, I am hesitant to ask, but if you wouldn't mind sharing relevant details here, it would be useful to know the following ...
• Are you the original purchaser of these new ? Direct from SF, or via distributor ? US, or international ?
• Did you eMail, call, or both ?
• What failed, and how ? Particularly if this happened in multiple similar parts, at the same time, I would imagine that QA / QC would be very interested in those details.
Sorry to hear that you had difficulties with this, as my experiences with them have been reasonably smooth overall.