Hello,
I just joined the forum to recount my experience with Surefire. I don't do much on forums so probably won't be much of a presence around here other than to submit my report.
Some background because it's relevant: My experience with the company stems from the military starting in the mid 2000's. As an Infantryman I was issued a 6P handheld, 6 and 9 volt weaponlights I believe from the millennium series, and the helmet lights when they became available. Later on we upgraded to m600 scout lights. We also had huge crew served weapon lights called the "hellfire" or "hellfighter" or some such thing. As far as the military was concerned Surefire was it. Out of all those lights we never had major issues other than the extremely short run times especially the 9v weaponlights as they only had a run time of 20 minutes. Obviously everyone carried spare batteries and those were a significant portion of individual loadouts. Throughout my career it's been surefire or streamlights that you were issued for your duties. They were tough and took a helluva beating.
Fast forward:
I recently purchased a fury intellibeam as I liked the intellibeam function, going from administrative use of a light to more urgent uses is annoying having to fumble with UI's no matter how intuitive. I also wanted a light that runs 18650's. Upon receiving the light it would not go into high output mode, like an over voltage cut off or something. I sent it in. 2 odd weeks later I get back a light that looks like it's endured roughly 3 months or so of duty use, and the attached invoice stated that the lens was broken so it had been replaced. I sent in a light in pristine condition and got back a well used looking one that apparently had a broken lens. I wondered how the hell they had managed to smear the lens on the inside and when I read the invoice I found out. They replaced the lens and did a sloppy job. So I called CS, this guy was actually squared away and tried to track down what had gone wrong. He concluded that perhaps one of the receiving clerks had gotten the lights mixed up. He said that they would send me a brand new one regardless of what the issue was. So now I suppose I get to wait another few weeks, and I'm feeling dubious about what I'll get in the mail from them this time. When I add up all the details, I'm going to look for another company to spend my personal money on gear augmentation with. The whole thing has felt like a circus so far, not like a squared away company that has been a go to for decades. It was my mistake not recording the S/N of the light I sent them, I'm curious to know whether they sent me a different customers light or just threw mine down the stairs a few dozen times.
So take this information for what you will, I just wanted to share it with the light community and also ask…is this the norm for them now? Seems they've gone downhill as a company, resting on their laurels perhaps….
I just joined the forum to recount my experience with Surefire. I don't do much on forums so probably won't be much of a presence around here other than to submit my report.
Some background because it's relevant: My experience with the company stems from the military starting in the mid 2000's. As an Infantryman I was issued a 6P handheld, 6 and 9 volt weaponlights I believe from the millennium series, and the helmet lights when they became available. Later on we upgraded to m600 scout lights. We also had huge crew served weapon lights called the "hellfire" or "hellfighter" or some such thing. As far as the military was concerned Surefire was it. Out of all those lights we never had major issues other than the extremely short run times especially the 9v weaponlights as they only had a run time of 20 minutes. Obviously everyone carried spare batteries and those were a significant portion of individual loadouts. Throughout my career it's been surefire or streamlights that you were issued for your duties. They were tough and took a helluva beating.
Fast forward:
I recently purchased a fury intellibeam as I liked the intellibeam function, going from administrative use of a light to more urgent uses is annoying having to fumble with UI's no matter how intuitive. I also wanted a light that runs 18650's. Upon receiving the light it would not go into high output mode, like an over voltage cut off or something. I sent it in. 2 odd weeks later I get back a light that looks like it's endured roughly 3 months or so of duty use, and the attached invoice stated that the lens was broken so it had been replaced. I sent in a light in pristine condition and got back a well used looking one that apparently had a broken lens. I wondered how the hell they had managed to smear the lens on the inside and when I read the invoice I found out. They replaced the lens and did a sloppy job. So I called CS, this guy was actually squared away and tried to track down what had gone wrong. He concluded that perhaps one of the receiving clerks had gotten the lights mixed up. He said that they would send me a brand new one regardless of what the issue was. So now I suppose I get to wait another few weeks, and I'm feeling dubious about what I'll get in the mail from them this time. When I add up all the details, I'm going to look for another company to spend my personal money on gear augmentation with. The whole thing has felt like a circus so far, not like a squared away company that has been a go to for decades. It was my mistake not recording the S/N of the light I sent them, I'm curious to know whether they sent me a different customers light or just threw mine down the stairs a few dozen times.
So take this information for what you will, I just wanted to share it with the light community and also ask…is this the norm for them now? Seems they've gone downhill as a company, resting on their laurels perhaps….
