Anyone know of an alternate to Ray?

[Shubb]

I guess the honeymoon is over.

The first few orders went without a hitch, fast shipping and quick responses to e-mails and questions.

The next few went Ok, took longer to ship but received in a reasonable timeline.

Unfortunately I now have lost faith in Ray. I always send him a copy of the order for pricing and shipping and ask for and ETA before I order. He answered with 5 days to ship.

It has been 4 weeks and 5 e-mails later I am still getting "I need 4 more days" and "I will ship by Friday".

I know he can't be the only seller in China, so I'm wondering who else others are using?

Scott

[Tim Fischer]

Can I ask what you're ordering? It's possible he is having some supplier issues with a particular product. Some 3-core weatherproof cable supposedly held up my order about a week longer than he originally expected.

As for alternatives - I'm told that the folks in the DIY forums tried numerous vendors and Ray was by far the best.

[digdeepfundraising]

Ive had the same issues Scott i think he is taking more orders than he can cope with and the quality is not as good now my 5 day order took 4 weeks ive had problems with the order but ray has promised to sort it straight away in 5 days

with Halloween around the corner im not to happy with him right now i hope he doesn't let me down

but as tim says he is highly rated by alot of people and by myself until my latest order

Edited September 17, 2012 by digdeepfundraising

[Crazydave]

I've had a similar experiences with ray..... but in the end things eventually came as ordered. I was able to stay in constant communication with him, which helped easy my fears.

I will most likely do business with him again.... but I will always allow for extra time.

[Tim Fischer]

I will most likely do business with him again.... but I will always allow for extra time.

He actually shipped an incorrect SKU to me and I"m waiting for that to get sorted out as we speak. He said he's ship it on Saturday - I checked again today and got the usual "very sorry, need 2 more days" spiel. I'll be contacting him again in 2 days to keep him honest (and told him as much )

I don't think he's trying to rip anyone off, just think all of us are suddenly ordering at the same time Next year I"ll place my orders much sooner in the year...

[Crazydave]

Do you get to keep the other sku??

and is it anything worth while?

[Shubb]

I ordered a mix of items. 15 pixel strings, 6 more DMX flood lights, a few more power supplies and 20 RGB strings.

I can understand if he was short on an item, but I did send him the order to confirm prior to sending payment. I would rather get most of the order than waste 3 extra weeks for one thing he didn't have in stock.

[viennaxmas]

I have used Rita led lighting - it kind of seems like Rita and Ray are Somehow connected, they have largely the same products.

In general I had good luck there - it takes a few days to get things shipped so I do plan for the lead time..

I also try to keep in mind that most of those companies are in the business of selling rgb strips by the container - not the 3 pieces I order :-)

[edvas69]

I have dealt with Ray since his online shop was 1 month old, I have never had any issues myself with any of my orders and ive been more than happy with the quality vs the price.

What i have seen happen is that Rays online store has grown dramatically with each year and now is the busy part of the season where most will order and so there is supply issues, it seems to be the same thing around the same time each year.

The reason so many use Ray is because Ray has learnt what our expectations are, when you compare this to other vendors from China that may not understand the communities requirements. I have seen this plenty of times in the past. There are plenty of vendors on aliexpress that sell similar products, but you must expect that the deal may not go the way you expect like one member who bought through a different vendor thinking he could save some money, he payed and then later was aked to pay further shipping costs which ended up making the deal more expensive than if he went to Ray. Or another member not getting what he wanted or payed for.

There is always a risk when dealing with Chinese vendors but the reasons most of us do it is because the price is so cheap, but people also must remember culture differences when dealing with vendors from China.

Also people who havent orderd what they want yet will be delayed even further as China basically shuts down for a week holiday to celebrate National day which starts on October 1 and traditionally the lead up to this holiday is very busy as people try to beat this holiday break.

Now if you dealt with Rita then you are basically still dealing with Ray, but i presume if you use escrow payment instead which would give you some buyer feedback and protections and i would tend to think you may actually get a faster service using the escrow payment method instead of the paypal method.

In the end there are plenty of vendors both on aliexpress and ebay that can provide the same or similar lights, but you must make sure you know what you are buying and to expect that there could be surprises. Im sure there are plenty of people that dont use Ray and have had great experiences with dealing with other vendors, so their advice would be valuable.

But with any sales you will hear 10 bad stories to the 1 good story as people who are unhappy will be the most vocal.

[Crazydave]

Ray did offer reduced cost on my subsequent order when a previous order took 4 weeks longer than expected. (and a few extra modules were on the string.. howver I dunno if this was intentional or lack of quality control.... I will assume it was intentional.)

[Shubb]

All are valid points. I can understand shipping delay's when the manufacture runs low on inventory. But a simple fix would be to tell me it will be 2-3 weeks, not 4 days. If your prepared for a 3 week delay, and it takes 4 weeks you can overlook it. But when your expecting 4 days and it takes 4 weeks (and counting) it is poor service, no matter what language you speak.

I had a few problems with some of his items. One pixel will not light red if you move/wiggle that section of the ribbon. A power supply cover interferes with the cooling fan. I shrug them off and set them aside, after all that's why the price is cheaper and so I buy a lot of extra.

But the story of great vendors that get busy then start having problems is like a broken record around here.

I have been preparing another order and maybe I will try another vendor, or tell Ray I insist on going through the escrow service.

[edvas69]

Even LOR at this time have delays with shipping due to an increase in orders, The try for free is a great marketing method of allowing LOR to extend the shipping times so they can catch up on their orders.

Most places have issues keeping up at this time of the year and the best thing that one can do is plan earlier and beat the rush.

[smeighan]

i just placed an order with ray for 36 strings of lights. I talked to him about the delays and said his stellar service level seems to have degraded. He said all the factories are busy and he had one person who ordered 70,000 pixels. This order has now been processed but he said it did back up the pipeline. He never said who ordered 70,000 pixels, it would be a good test case for nutcracker.

he said he is working hard to get back to the service levels he had before. I told him , factories can effect your service level but please communicate by email and just keep people informed. you cant over communicate when there are bottlenecks in the supply chain.

He had half my order with 5-10 days shipping and the other half 15-26 days. i told him to send them in two shipments, which he is doing. I just sent him the paypal for the full amount last night.

Ill let you know how the service is.

thanks

sean

Edited September 18, 2012 by smeighan

[Crazydave]

Wow 70k thats $25k in pixels..must have been a commercial order

[Shubb]

Ray is rounding up, I only ordered 68,000 pixels.

But yes, communicating is a big, big thing in any business. He did answer every e-mail with an apology. But I would rather have a more accurate delivery time, even if it is 2-3 weeks away.

I always add some "oops" time to my completion dates. And that way if I finish early, the customer is happier. If something gets delayed, be it my fault or some one else's, I can still finish on time. Hopefully Ray is working out the kinks and things will return to how they were.

[k6ccc]

For whatever it's worth, I received an order from Ray yesterday. It was exactly as expected, and received in something like 10 days from date of order to received in southern California. OK granted it was just three 5050 strips, so nowhere near your 68,000 pixels Scott ....

[bdeditch]

I have used Rita led lighting - it kind of seems like Rita and Ray are Somehow connected, they have largely the same products.

In general I had good luck there - it takes a few days to get things shipped so I do plan for the lead time..

I also try to keep in mind that most of those companies are in the business of selling rgb strips by the container - not the 3 pieces I order :-)

This is Rays Company.

[bdeditch]

I deal with Ray and I also deal with this one http://www.lgdlight.com/

His name is Gary and I have to admit he is very honest, or has been with me, when it comes to choosing lights. Just remind him to ship DHL if you order from him. I think Fedex has gone around and been giving them a good deal on shipping.He also has a great knowledge page that shows a lot of information on the RGB Lights, haven't seen this on any other site from China http://www.lgdlight.com/en/news/led-knowledge.html

Edited September 18, 2012 by bdeditch

[roknjohn]

Who is this Ray you speak of?

[Crazydave]

Who is this Ray you speak of?

Ray Wu is the favorite supplier of LED pixels/modules/Strips,etc from China

http://www.aliexpress.com/store/701799