Bad experience with Prometheus Lights

[Crazyeddiethefirst]

You didn't bold anything. Also, the thing I saw about Jason's poor customer service was on the Prometheus Lights facebook page. It has been deleted from the facebook page. Imagine that. [emoji52]

FYI, to see the bold print, select "web view", on my iPhone it was not showing any bold print until I selected "web view". This is a good example of two sides to every story, one person stating they did something(and in fact they had indeed used bold print), yet the person who started this thread stated "you didn't bold anything". A statement of "I don't see any bold print" would have been true and not an accusation. I can only add that even before I bought my first light from Jason, I emailed him and he politely responded very quickly. A lot depends on the tone of emails and how they are perceived.

 

[knife117]

Read my post #30, and notice in the quote of what you said that part is bold.
After the way you've acted here in public, I can only imagine how you acted in private. I would not want to do business with you either.

Good luck.

You're out of your element.

 

[knife117]

FYI, to see the bold print, select "web view", on my iPhone it was not showing any bold print until I selected "web view". This is a good example of two sides to every story, one person stating they did something(and in fact they had indeed used bold print), yet the person who started this thread stated "you didn't bold anything". A statement of "I don't see any bold print" would have been true and not an accusation. I can only add that even before I bought my first light from Jason, I emailed him and he politely responded very quickly. A lot depends on the tone of emails and how they are perceived.

I didn't use any mean tones in any of my emails. I think actions speak louder than words though. Jason's lack of response told me everything. If you're running a business, 5 days to respond (or not respond in Jason's case) to a customer service request is an eternity.

 

[fyrstormer]

Nope. Reflectors are so fragile that they are almost impossible to clean without creating more problems or introducing more dust. I've never done it, and I shouldn't have to attempt it with a light that costs almost $300.

Translated: "I have no idea how fragile reflectors are or whether it's possible to clean them without ruining them, because I've never tried."

"Without seeing it, my advice is thus: I work in a machine shop, not a clean room

"

No "sorry for sending a dirty reflector" or anything.

I'd say his "don't be a jerk" clause is entirely justified in this case. This is a custom-made light by a small vendor who doesn't have a clean-room for assembly purposes, and can't afford to just toss every light with a bit of dust in it into a pile for someone else to rebuild prior to sale. The dust you complained about could've been easily removed by unscrewing the light engine, removing the reflector, and washing it with warm soapy water and your pinky-fingertip. If you're any kind of flashaholic the idea of cleaning the reflector to remove a bit of dust should be no problem for you. You might as well go on a car-enthusiast forum and complain that Jiffy Lube spilled a little oil on the top of your engine during your last oil change.

Perhaps a 2xAA Maglite from Home Depot will suit you better.

- - -

EDIT: Here's a picture of a Ledil Boom reflector (that I bought from Jason, coincidentally), then spent three hours grinding-down to fit in a much smaller light. (just imagine how much dust was on it by the time I finished.) Then I washed it the way I described above.







Tell me more about how fragile reflectors are.

 

[knife117]

I'd say his "don't be a jerk" clause is entirely justified in this case. This is a custom-made light by a small vendor who doesn't have a clean-room for assembly purposes, and can't afford to just toss every light with a bit of dust in it into a pile for someone else to rebuild prior to sale. The dust you complained about could've been easily removed by unscrewing the light engine, removing the reflector, and washing it with warm soapy water and your pinky-fingertip, and if you're any kind of flashaholic the idea of cleaning the reflector to remove a bit of dust should be no problem for you.

Perhaps a 2xAA Maglite from Home Depot will suit you better.

His don't be a jerk clause is entirely what's wrong with his approach to running a business. Have you ever heard the phrase that the customer is always right? I'm not saying I was a jerk (I wasn't). I paid good money for a product, and I refuse to accept a product with damaged internal components.

I didn't claim to be a "flashaholic," and I don't think I want to be one. I wanted to see what the higher-end flashlights were all about. I guess I should try a better flashlight maker.

 

[fyrstormer]

Yes, I have heard "the customer is always right". It's most often used by self-centered jerks who think they're entitled to make endless and unreasonable demands of everyone as long as money is involved. You got the product you paid for; it was never specified it would be perfectly clean and spotless, in fact it was specified that it wouldn't be. The standard of perfection you were expecting existed in your mind and nowhere else.

Stop whining and wash the reflector yourself. It takes less than five minutes to wash a reflector with warm soapy water, a clean fingertip, and then blow the water droplets off the reflector surface -- a much shorter time than you've spent complaining here.

 

[knife117]

Yes, I have heard "the customer is always right". It's most often used by self-centered jerks who think they're entitled to make endless and unreasonable demands of everyone as long as money is involved. You got the product you paid for; it was never specified it would be perfectly clean and spotless, in fact it was specified that it probably wouldn't be. The standard of perfection you were looking for existed in your head and nowhere else.

Stop whining and wash the reflector yourself. It takes less than five minutes to wash a reflector with warm soapy water, a clean fingertip, and then blow the water droplets off the reflector surface -- a much shorter time than you've spent complaining here.

Why do you even care? I don't buy flashlights expecting that I'll be taking them apart to wash the reflectors. That's why I sent the first light back; to get a clean one. This decision was made based on the other thread I made in the Prometheus lights subforum. Nobody else had ever seen a reflector that dirty before. I was hoping it was a fluke, and I'd get a clean one sent back to me.

 

[fyrstormer]

I've been waiting to see if he does. Certainly nobody here preventing it. He may not wish to deal with this customer any more but I would be curious what he says.

As for Prometheus, I'm sure that some members here have notified them of the threads posted. Unless there are unseen circumstances, the lack of a response speaks louder than words.

If Jason has any sense (and I'm sure he does), he won't reply to this thread. He would just be inviting an endless argument with people who think he should bend over backwards to make an unreasonable customer happy -- which is impossible at this point, since the customer has already stated he plans to never do business with Jason again:

I don't care if he does. I just wanted to let others know about my experience. Jason needs to improve his customer service. My gut tells me that he intentionally sent the bad reflector back to me. If not, he just doesn't care at all about quality control.

...not to mention he actually thinks Jason sent him a defective product out of spite. I mean really, what does that tell you about his personality?

- - -

And before anyone makes any insinuations: No, I am not Jason's employee, or friend, or relative, or acquaintance of any sort. I have never met him and the only product I've ever bought from him was a few reflectors. My reaction in this thread is based solely on my tendency to call-out a jerk when I see one.

 

[fyrstormer]

Why do you even care? I don't buy flashlights expecting that I'll be taking them apart to wash the reflectors. That's why I sent the first light back; to get a clean one. This decision was made based on the other thread I made in the Prometheus lights subforum. Nobody else had ever seen a reflector that dirty before. I was hoping it was a fluke, and I'd get a clean one sent back to me.

I care because your claim to being cheated and mistreated is spurious at best, and the way you've handled it has been juvenile, and that sort of thing irritates the crap out of me.

You won't find any custom light maker who will bend over backwards to save you the trouble of removing a bit of dust, because they all have small operations, no support staff, and lives outside of work. Custom lights are valuable because they exist at all, not because they are cosmetically perfect. If you want a light that is perfectly assembled with no dust anywhere in it, go buy a Maglite. A custom light is not for you.

 

[1DaveN]

My biggest takeaway from this thread is how happy I am with my Fenix lights, which cost at most 1/4 of the Prometheus and have no quality control issues at all. If I were paying a premium price for a custom built light, I would expect better quality than substantially cheaper, off-the-shelf lights, certainly not worse. And usually, those selling premium, custom-built wares have better customer service than K-Mart, not worse.

 

[5S8Zh5]

 

[fyrstormer]

My biggest takeaway from this thread is how happy I am with my Fenix lights, which cost at most 1/4 of the Prometheus and have no quality control issues at all. If I were paying a premium price for a custom built light, I would expect better quality than substantially cheaper, off-the-shelf lights, certainly not worse. And usually, those selling premium, custom-built wares have better customer service than K-Mart, not worse.

Yes, those are the virtues of mass-production, and to be fair the light that I EDC is mass-produced, though it was a limited production run. The downside to mass-production is that you can't get the light made just the way you want it, very few genuinely new ideas come from factories, and the light was so affordable because it was assembled by someone in a third-world sweatshop who gets paid in sand and lives in a factory-owned dormitory with anti-suicide nets outside the windows. Life is a series of tradeoffs, and then you die.

 

[Bullzeyebill]

OP, you need to follow the advise that some our experienced CPF'ers are giving you. This is your third thread discussing this matter Your posts aee becoming redundant and they are bringing out unkind words relative to those posts. I am closing this thread before it gets out of hand.

Bill