Originally Posted by
buzzman
I sometimes think that people crow about their expensive lights because they're too embarrassed to admit how economically ripped off they feel.
Upwards of $200 spent on something that frequently fails can make one feel like an idiot. Poor attachment systems, constant battery failure, cold weather failures and the fact that the system goes out of technical vogue so fast that you can't get replacement parts and "must" replace it every year or so just starts looking like a major scam to those of us who have more basic lighting systems. LED, Halogen, USB chargers, wall chargers- yeah, that's the ticket, let's fill the land fills with more chargers, plastic and chemicals until someone builds the "perfect" light. And we should all buy the latest and greatest so as not to be left behind in the great search for the material nectar of the light gods. Let us be slaves to the marketing masters that tell us of the need for ever more powerful light.
Boycott expensive poorly designed and produced crap. Must consumers be the beta testers for everything?
I'm thinking that the people that get ripped off the most and the most often are the die-hard bargin hunters. And my opinion is that they have no-one to blame but themselves. I'd like to think that anyone thats literate enough to participate in a forum has at least basic math skills but seems more like the average 'consumer' is expecting to win some kind of lottery. Light 'manufacturers' simply assembly a product using components available from other manufacturers and therefore performance should be as predictable as 1 + 1 = 2. But nope - seems like theres long lineups to buy from
anyone that posts BS like 1 + 1 = 5. Should be an obvious scam, and people like that used to be called 'snake-oil salesmen', but I guess lots of people still believe in the tooth fairy.
Yeah - I'm talking specifically about things like lighting products that advertise 4,000 lumen outputs from an 18W triple LED array that the LED manufacturer claims can only deliver 1000 lumens per LED with 100 lumens per Watt efficacy. So that should be either 1,000 lumens x 3 and 30 watts, OR 1,800 lumens and 18 watts. Minus losses for lens ineffeciency and driving an LED at below its peak capacity. But that not whats being presented.
And the justification for co-operating in this kind of scam is: "Yeah - but its so CHEAP!"
Lets stop blaming manufacturers for everything. Until consumers actually decide they're willing to pay for something worth buying - lots of reasonable companies are going to continue to close their doors.