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Caveat Emptor
– "Let The
Buyer Beware".
Below are glaring examples – actual screen shots – from nine different
vendors on a single "wholesale" Web site – {DHGate.com} claiming to have 1,000mw (1 WATT),
2,000mw (2 WATT), and 3,000mw (3 WATT) Red, and 5,000mw (5 WATT) Green LASERS for
sale at ridiculously low prices. There are dozens of vendors on this
particular Web site making identical claims, and the site has first-page
Google visibility for the search term "1000mw
LASER". I
am particularly partial to the second ad shown below – 1,000 Milliwatts
in a PEN LASER (powered by two AAA batteries) – with a "star cap", no
less!!! What a joke!!! If such a diode that could power such a pen even
existed, a 1,000mw LASER
in a pen-sized package as shown below, would turn red-hot in your hand
in a few seconds, and burn itself out after about a minute of continuous
use.
The winner for the most outrageous claim is screen shot #1 - a 5,000mw
Green LASER!. Never mind that the diode to power this thing does not
exist on planet Earth, but once you know even a little about how these
things work, you know right away it's a rip-off! A 5-Watt LASER would
require 5 to 8 TIMES the power INPUT to achieve a 5-Watt output, and
that amount of "juice" is NOT coming out of a bettery you can hold in
your hand - and the HEAT generated would be enough to keep you warm at
night.
See our FAQs instructions on
how to easily and quickly tell if your LASER is putting out the power
claimed in the specifications.
Obviously, this entire Web site {DHGate.com} is a rip-off
– at least where
LASERS are concerned, since there is NO
WAY that dozens of vendors would make identical
typographical errors in
their descriptions, adding an 'extra zero' to their product's power
rating. I only show a few examples here, but there are many more on this
one Web site alone, and hundreds more on the Internet as a
whole.
Everyone is trying to cash in on that 'magical' four-digit power number.
One
Thousand Milliwatts
– and even
Five Thousand Milliwatts
– It has a nice 'ring' to it, doesn't it? There are thousands of people who
know
shinola
about LASERS, who may purchase their first LASER there... and get
totally ripped off.
Now, one might say that I may have jumped the gun in my judgment here,
but let me tell you that I've dissected so many LASERS, that I know from
whence I speak. What is shown below is FRAUD and MIS-REPRESENTATION, and
if that's libelous and slanderous, then let DHGate.com and the minions
of dealers who peddle third-rate, mis-labeled, over-rated, knock-off
crap SUE ME.
I'm a bit of a "Denny Crane", and I can tell you that
TRUTH is an
affirmative defense for allegations of libel or slander.
Their own ads are a contradiction. I'd recover all my lawyer's fees and
court costs and have such a slam-dunk counter-suit you wouldn't believe
it! I'm surprised none of the forums warn of this, and if you are a
member of such a forum, or blog on the subject, perhaps you would
consider linking to this page and alerting those who aren't astute
enough in their new hobby to be aware of what to look for.
The dead give-away for even a novice LASER Enthusiast is in the ads
themselves. In the screen shots below, on the left you have the actual
ad with a photo and the '1,000mw' proclamation. To the right are the
technical specifications. In every case except ad #1 and 4, you will note that
it states "Safety
grade:
Class IIIb" – or "Class
B". Well, a 1,000mw
LASER is Class IV; NOT Class
IIIb, and certainly NOT "Class B" [see ad #8] because there is no "Class
B". 500mw or above puts a LASER into Class 4 – an entirely different 'animal'.
Is this a mistake? Is it a Web site-wide type-o?
No, I don't think so. Ads #1 and #4 avoid listing the "class" or "Safety Grade"
entirely, probably because the sellers knows that a 5,000mw handheld
LASER is
impossible,
and a 1,000mw Class IIIb
LASER is a
non sequituer. A lie of omission is still a lie – see
my book: The Lie
Detection Manual.
I have communicated with several of these vendors to see if I could get
them to FIX their deceptive ads – they played "stupid", and answered my
questions and allegations with statements that had nothing to do with
the subject being discussed, and even made light of their deceptive
advertising – well you can see for yourself. I don't want "live" links
to these thieves from this site, but you can see the thread of the
conversations by copying and pasting the URLs
shown in orange below into your browser:
{NOTE: You must register & sign in to see the message threads}
http://www.dhgate.com/5000mw-green-laser-pointer-cigarette-lighter/p-ff8080812d259ac4012d266fb65e2f8a.html
http://www.dhgate.com/myaccount/message/messagecenter.do?
http://www.dhgate.com/myaccount/message/messagecenter.do?_M=5&topicid=20107561
NOTE: Links shown
in orange
are not active because I don't want to give these people incoming links
to their site.
UPDATE:
60 days after communicating with each of the sellers shown below and
informing them about the existence of this page, and that their ads are
deceptive and absolutely wrong, NOT ONE of them has corrected their
listings. The company that runs the Web site (DHGate.com) didn't return
numerous emails complaining about their deceptive ads.
These people are on my permanent
"shit-list", and I have entered a notice to this effect See:
http://www.ripoffreport.com/Search/dhgate_com.aspx
on Ripoff Report (which is itself, a scam see:
www.AssholesAmongUs.com/ripoffreport.htm).
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