T
TurboJoker
Guest
Woo.. Didn't mean to start a full scale riot, Gotham fans are on a war path. Just wanted to offer my opinion, I have been buying products from china for years and appreciate not having to deal with a middle man, while I haven't used that company specifically, I intend to outsource my next light purchase.
And granted I have not worked with Gotham Hydro personally as of yet.
My poor experience with American LED vendors goes as follows. Purchased 100w Blackstar from blackstarled.com, account got charged to pcgrowbox.com, both supposedly based out of CA, when it arrived it shipped from lighthousehydro.com, all three locations sell the same light for different prices, although the same company, and it still took over a month to recieve, and customer service was poor at best, it was always on the way, or I should have received this invoice, or tracking number was wrong. The whole experience left a sour taste in my mouth, it did eventually arrive, and I like the light, but not worth the hassle. Never had a legitimate Chinese manufacturer waste my time like that.
From what I have read Gotham Hydro is a sister company to Lighthouse hydro of whom are only "official distributors" further more these companies get their authentic blackstars from, you guessed it, china:
Lighthouse Shangkong LTD.
NO. 105 China South International
Materials City, Pinghu, ShenZhen
CHINA
I just wanted everyone to know what they are really buying, and cut out the deceptive advertising, they aren't made in America, they are good lights, but why pay a bloated American price for the sake of convenience, even with the highest quality components these lights cost the manufacturers a miniscule fraction of their retail price. Those light contain no rare materials, a 100w blackstar consists of about $15 worth of parts when purchased wholesale a 500w maybe $60 worth of parts. Sure factor in assembly, taxes and customs, and you have a somewhat inflated price. Still the stateside distributors need to make money so the price continues to go up and up, and as long as everyone is none the wiser they can still make hundreds of dollars off these lights, simply for reshipping a product.
If one breaks, and they ship you a new one free of charge its because they have 500 of them sitting in a warehouse that they bought for next to nothing, and they have already made enough money off you to cover the cost of replacement without flinching under the guise of quality customer service. I just refuse to fall for it.
I can see the towns folk gathering with pitchforks and torches, to oust my Frankenstein-ish beliefs from their countryside but please don't hate me. Just trying to save everyone a bit of money, sure sometimes its a gamble, sometimes its better to be safe than sorry, I just want to show you my hand of cards and increase your odds of success.
And granted I have not worked with Gotham Hydro personally as of yet.
My poor experience with American LED vendors goes as follows. Purchased 100w Blackstar from blackstarled.com, account got charged to pcgrowbox.com, both supposedly based out of CA, when it arrived it shipped from lighthousehydro.com, all three locations sell the same light for different prices, although the same company, and it still took over a month to recieve, and customer service was poor at best, it was always on the way, or I should have received this invoice, or tracking number was wrong. The whole experience left a sour taste in my mouth, it did eventually arrive, and I like the light, but not worth the hassle. Never had a legitimate Chinese manufacturer waste my time like that.
From what I have read Gotham Hydro is a sister company to Lighthouse hydro of whom are only "official distributors" further more these companies get their authentic blackstars from, you guessed it, china:
Lighthouse Shangkong LTD.
NO. 105 China South International
Materials City, Pinghu, ShenZhen
CHINA
I just wanted everyone to know what they are really buying, and cut out the deceptive advertising, they aren't made in America, they are good lights, but why pay a bloated American price for the sake of convenience, even with the highest quality components these lights cost the manufacturers a miniscule fraction of their retail price. Those light contain no rare materials, a 100w blackstar consists of about $15 worth of parts when purchased wholesale a 500w maybe $60 worth of parts. Sure factor in assembly, taxes and customs, and you have a somewhat inflated price. Still the stateside distributors need to make money so the price continues to go up and up, and as long as everyone is none the wiser they can still make hundreds of dollars off these lights, simply for reshipping a product.
If one breaks, and they ship you a new one free of charge its because they have 500 of them sitting in a warehouse that they bought for next to nothing, and they have already made enough money off you to cover the cost of replacement without flinching under the guise of quality customer service. I just refuse to fall for it.
I can see the towns folk gathering with pitchforks and torches, to oust my Frankenstein-ish beliefs from their countryside but please don't hate me. Just trying to save everyone a bit of money, sure sometimes its a gamble, sometimes its better to be safe than sorry, I just want to show you my hand of cards and increase your odds of success.
