ATI Clone

[scotty0131]

Purchased Kassray 165 LEDs from Alibaba and when arrived one of the LEDs were out and contacted them But as i already left a review saying 1 of the led pucks are not working But soon as they seen this all customer care went out the window and are no longer dealing with me. So I’m stuck with a faulty light So I would recommend dealing with Aliexspress as better customer service But cost a little more

 

[lancesmith1]

I had the same identical issue. I used AE. The seller has shipped a new board to replace the defective one.

 

[kboogie]

I find these experiences more come with the deep discount foreign aggregator sites. It even happens with Amazon. I do think it is part of calculus of buying through these sites. You expect certain percent of your purchases to be duds and you have no recourse. You do this in order to experience the times where you get something good and a great price.

I also wonder if we should define terms to better help understand the expectations for a product. I think “Clone” and “Knock Off” have two different meanings. To me, in this context, a “clone” is the identical product with a different brands name, typically a product made by an outsourced manufacturer, branded and distributed by a known brand. Where a “Knock Off” is a product made to look like a well known product from a desired brand but the knock off is made with much lower quality materials.

Using these definitions, is this a clone or a knock off?

 

[lancesmith1]

do you have examples of aquarium products that you consider to be clones? likewise examples of knockoffs?

 

[kboogie]

do you have examples of aquarium products that you consider to be clones? likewise examples of knockoffs?

Unfortunately, I don’t track clones and knock offs in the aquarium space. I know in home electronics for years Marantz was rebranded Denon products. In the last several years Marantz makes modifications to the output stage but they still start with the a Denon product.

Years ago Panasonic sold rebranded Pioneer TVs as their Viera deep black line.

Denon once sold a repackaged Toshiba HD-DVD as a Denon. These are clones.

In the automotive world the Subaru BRZ is a rebranded Toyota GR86. That would be a clone. The top of the line Chevy Suburban is pretty much the same car as the base Escalade without the Cadillac brand.

I know you can buy the Kamoer pumps without the branding directly from their supplier.

99% of the products on Alibaba and AliExpress are knockoffs but I do know you can get lucky and find a product made by the third party manufacturer but that is rare.

 

[rtparty]

This is the risk you take buying from unethical companies. There is almost always no customer support after the fact.

In the US, if we buy a box of 100 pens for $10 we expect at least 99 of them work. Each pen is 10¢. In China, they sell the box of 100 pens for $5 and expect 40 don’t work. So each pen is 5¢ to start and after you throw away the 40 bad pens, each working pen is only 8¢. So it’s cheaper than the 10¢ pens. They don’t give a rip the 40 didn’t work.