"Area 51 LED" Information and discussion

FranJan

FranJan

Well-Known Member
I swear CREE must hire their management from a pool of burnt-out electrical engineers they keep in a basement in SC. Dumb call CREE. With calls like that it's not hard to see why your stock price is so schizophrenic.

Maybe a divorce from the CREE association is what Jeff needs to keep A51 moving forward. A51 didn't always use CREE, right?

My thing with a commercial COB light is look how easy they are to build. How much can he charge for them and make a decent profit without people going "Oh I could build that for half!"? Jeff's strategy of making sure he get's a better price on LEDs than any person on the planet is not his ally with COBs IMHO since they seem to be priced so low to begin with. I haven't really studied the price for buying in bulk like Jeff does and maybe he will get his price point that lets him produce the best price for performance panel on the planet. Maybe something based on smaller B-lux COBs and Osram or LEDEngin reds is what the future holds for the A51 fans.
 
hyroot

hyroot

Well-Known Member
Fran read up on Cree stock. They repurchased shares. That's why the price dropped to $20. I think there was a split. Its been steadily climbing. Cree owns like 13% of another lighting company going public this month. I forget the name of the company. Its out of Taiwan I think. They have rights to crees proprietary designs. So cree will make a killing and their stock will continue to climb. Cree also has been suing lighting companies left and right for copyright infringement.
 
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Greengenes707

Greengenes707

Well-Known Member
I know this is an a51 thread so I will only say this...
Just because cree won't work directly with a51 does not mean they are giving up or neglecting horticulture. All I can say right now is that they are working with a company I know well ;) . 2015 might be more of a rebranding/repositioning year than anything.
 
PSUAGRO.

PSUAGRO.

Well-Known Member
Greengenes707 said:
I know this is an a51 thread so I will only say this...
Just because cree won't work directly with a51 does not mean they are giving up or neglecting horticulture. All I can say right now is that they are working with a company I know well ;) . 2015 might be more of a rebranding/repositioning year than anything.
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So it is true..........I thought that the rep blew smoke up my ass after all this time has passed now.......
 
AquariusPanta

AquariusPanta

Well-Known Member
hyroot said:
Fran read up on Cree stock. They repurchased shares. That's why the price dropped to $20. I think there was a split. Its been steadily climbing. Cree owns like 13% of another lighting company going public this month. I forget the name of the company. Its out of Taiwan I think. They have rights to crees proprietary designs. So cree will make a killing and their stock will continue to climb. Cree also has been suing lighting companies left and right for copyright infringement.
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Woohoo! Monopoly!
 
BigEasy1

BigEasy1

Well-Known Member
So I went onto Area 51's site and was going to buy a couple W100's. They have them listed as "in stock", the only thing in stock. I add two to my cart and go to check out but you can't pay. There's no option to pay by credit card so I tried the "PayPal" button but it is a dead link. What gives with Area 51? Are they in business or not? I can't stand half assed customer service so I'll spend my money elsewhere. Fuck them and their fucked up website.
 
Yodaweed

Yodaweed

Well-Known Member
BigEasy1 said:
So I went onto Area 51's site and was going to buy a couple W100's. They have them listed as "in stock", the only thing in stock. I add two to my cart and go to check out but you can't pay. There's no option to pay by credit card so I tried the "PayPal" button but it is a dead link. What gives with Area 51? Are they in business or not? I can't stand half assed customer service so I'll spend my money elsewhere. Fuck them and their fucked up website.
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That's not a very good attitude to have.
 
BigEasy1

BigEasy1

Well-Known Member
I can't even get logged on now. Not sure what's up. Tried two different computers. Not sure if it's my shit or theirs. Oh well.
 
A

az2000

Well-Known Member
BigEasy1 said:
There's no option to pay by credit card so I tried the "PayPal" button but it is a dead link. What gives with Area 51? Are they in business or not? I can't stand half assed customer service so I'll spend my money elsewhere. Fuck them and their fucked up website.
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I didn't like the PayPal payment thing. It's more of a problem with PayPal. At first it gives the impression you can either sign-in to PP for the full PP experience, or just enter your credit card information for a typical low-friction purchase. But, it forced me to login to PP. I couldn't just enter my credit card info and pay. It seemed to know I have a PP account (either my email address or the credit card # I tried to use).

I got the impression it's more about PP using this merchant service as a way to get people into PP, not really providing a low-friction merchant service.

Jeff should offer other payment options like BitCoin and Google Wallet. I don't dislike PP, but I found PP's payment screen to be too much drama. I would have chosen a different payment if I had the choice.
 
BigEasy1

BigEasy1

Well-Known Member
az2000 said:
I didn't like the PayPal payment thing. It's more of a problem with PayPal. At first it gives the impression you can either sign-in to PP for the full PP experience, or just enter your credit card information for a typical low-friction purchase. But, it forced me to login to PP. I couldn't just enter my credit card info and pay. It seemed to know I have a PP account (either my email address or the credit card # I tried to use).

I got the impression it's more about PP using this merchant service as a way to get people into PP, not really providing a low-friction merchant service.

Jeff should offer other payment options like BitCoin and Google Wallet. I don't dislike PP, but I found PP's payment screen to be too much drama. I would have chosen a different payment if I had the choice.
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Can you log on to the site right now?
 
werm11

werm11

Well-Known Member
Yea man i wouldn't blow them off just yet...I ordered a light just a week or so ago...the light was on back order when I purchased it...it arrived two days later. I was kind of amazed. Paypal has always been a breeze on there too but I have an account that I've always used...dunno if that matters or not but I just click two buttons and I'm all set.
 
H

Heavy Consumer

Well-Known Member
With a phone number listed, site navigation and/or payment issues can be resolved INSTANTLY! The fact that A51 refuse to publish a phone number is a turn-off for me. Can't state this strongly enough. I've not had any contact with A51 since 2 emails that were answered pretty quickly albeit not too warmly, a few months ago. That's fine, but not being able to call and ask a person a Q or feel confident that I would be able to do so post-purchase, is a hang-up of mine, because great value or not, I don't spend thousands of dollars on purchases everyday. I'm not THAT old and I'm online at least 12 hours out of the day on and off, but when it comes to resolving a customer's issue, there really is only one way to properly convince me I'm in good hands and I know a lot of other people want to hear a voice with a name too (no name given on email replies - what's with that? It's strange!). From reading this site and others and doing as much research that I as a lay person can pretty much, I'm 100% sold on A51's products. Tonnes of journals and documented customers and only praise, not 1 bad word to be found - that's good enough for me! That is the way I'd want to go if buying today, no-brainer IMO! But I'm not convinced they know how to deal with people and that would never enter my mind (as it pretty much never has with any other company, ever) if they put just a touch more effort into communication. For me, they don't need a fancy website with bells and whistles, but communication should be easier than it is IMHO. I wonder if a little thing like no phone number has cost them sales. This is purely meant as a constructive comment and I sincerely hope it's taken as such.
 
AquariusPanta

AquariusPanta

Well-Known Member
Heavy Consumer said:
With a phone number listed, site navigation and/or payment issues can be resolved INSTANTLY! The fact that A51 refuse to publish a phone number is a turn-off for me. Can't state this strongly enough. I've not had any contact with A51 since 2 emails that were answered pretty quickly albeit not too warmly, a few months ago. That's fine, but not being able to call and ask a person a Q or feel confident that I would be able to do so post-purchase, is a hang-up of mine, because great value or not, I don't spend thousands of dollars on purchases everyday. I'm not THAT old and I'm online at least 12 hours out of the day on and off, but when it comes to resolving a customer's issue, there really is only one way to properly convince me I'm in good hands and I know a lot of other people want to hear a voice with a name too (no name given on email replies - what's with that? It's strange!). From reading this site and others and doing as much research that I as a lay person can pretty much, I'm 100% sold on A51's products. Tonnes of journals and documented customers and only praise, not 1 bad word to be found - that's good enough for me! That is the way I'd want to go if buying today, no-brainer IMO! But I'm not convinced they know how to deal with people and that would never enter my mind (as it pretty much never has with any other company, ever) if they put just a touch more effort into communication. For me, they don't need a fancy website with bells and whistles, but communication should be easier than it is IMHO. I wonder if a little thing like no phone number has cost them sales. This is purely meant as a constructive comment and I sincerely hope it's taken as such.
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Word.
 
A

az2000

Well-Known Member
Heavy Consumer said:
With a phone number listed, site navigation and/or payment issues can be resolved INSTANTLY!
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But then Jeff would have to staff someone at the phone during business hours. That would be an expense reflected in the price of his lights.

Don't say it could go to answering machine if Jeff & co are busy. Inevitably someone would complain that they call and nobody answers. This would be presented in context of some unresolved problem -- the unanswered phone being *proof* the customer is being jacked around.

Even if we accept that it's not a typical 9-5 phone number, then at best it could only be expected to be a "leave a msg, we'll call you back" phone number. That's basically what you have with email right now. Explain you're more comfortable talking on the phone and ask if they'll call you.

On a related note: With Jeff, he's like the "soup nazi" on Seinfeld. You get what you get. If you're not happy with the way he conducts business, I'm pretty sure he'd be the first to suggest you buy your light from a company that gives you a better feeling. Whether that's a good or bad strategy may be debatable. But, probably not with him. He'll just tell you to buy elsewhere. (I've seen it a coupe times.).

I'm just trying to save you some aggravation. If you want one of the best lights you can have from an apparently stand-up guy, buy one. If you're gonna get nervous about phone calls and the "warmth" of communications (i.e., stuff that doesn't matter), you probably want to look at other lights.
 
H

Heavy Consumer

Well-Known Member
az2000 said:
But then Jeff would have to staff someone at the phone during business hours. That would be an expense reflected in the price of his lights.

Don't say it could go to answering machine if Jeff & co are busy. Inevitably someone would complain that they call and nobody answers. This would be presented in context of some unresolved problem -- the unanswered phone being *proof* the customer is being jacked around.

Even if we accept that it's not a typical 9-5 phone number, then at best it could only be expected to be a "leave a msg, we'll call you back" phone number. That's basically what you have with email right now. Explain you're more comfortable talking on the phone and ask if they'll call you.

On a related note: With Jeff, he's like the "soup nazi" on Seinfeld. You get what you get. If you're not happy with the way he conducts business, I'm pretty sure he'd be the first to suggest you buy your light from a company that gives you a better feeling. Whether that's a good or bad strategy may be debatable. But, probably not with him. He'll just tell you to buy elsewhere. (I've seen it a coupe times.).

I'm just trying to save you some aggravation. If you want one of the best lights you can have from an apparently stand-up guy, buy one. If you're gonna get nervous about phone calls and the "warmth" of communications (i.e., stuff that doesn't matter), you probably want to look at other lights.
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My friend, I accept completely your general point, which seems to be (unless I'm mistaken), Jeff has his quirks and you either like it or lump it. That's absolutely fair enough! Of course, every man is entitled to run his own business however he sees fit. Any other observations in your post are easily countered, but at the end of the day, your general point deals with everything!

As stated in my post, absolutely NO offense was intended, just making what I hope could be taken as a constructive observation and I don't want to piss the man off as I CAN see myself buying from him in the future. I was not aware that Jeff is a one man band. I myself have been running a business on my lonesome lately, so I am aware of how much of a balancing act it can be at times. However, admittedly, mine is a much simpler business model (service provider). If Jeff is dealing with every aspect from R+D to manufacturing/logistics/sales/customer care etc., I do not envy him! I can't help but wonder how it's even possible for 1 man to run that type of show without staff!!!
 
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