There is a 96 long thread on facebook about ray and the new source, Paul Zhang
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LoginMy feeling
1) Ray has been honest. No one has ever said Ray has cheated them
2) Ray has the largest selection you can browse
3) Ray has become more and more slow to respond to people. This may because he has more and more business
The new person, Paul Zhang, works for a chinese lighting company. I don't know if orders are going through his company or he his using his contacts with the wholesale manufacturers.
Paul
1) Has taken and shipped a number of orders for people that were > $1000
2) Is very responsive. Usually order goes out in same day. The way he communicates is by facebook
3) He doesnt have a website. His standard procedure is you send him a link to lights (like from Ray's site) and he comes back with a quote
4) ALl feedback seems to be positive.
As an example:
I asked for a quote for
(1) ws2811 12v flex strips and (10) tm1804, 100 nodes lights.
Ray
(10) ws2811 12v flex strips, $24 each
(10) tm1804, 100 node, $36 each
shipping $90
Paul
(10) ws2811 12v flex strips, $24 each
(10) tm1804, 100 node, $35 each
shipping $81
So I would save about $20 on the Ray $690 order if i went with paul. This was a 3% saving.
Paul has the advantage that he is quoting against Ray.
In Summary, I would not have a problem ordering from either one. I will probably order from Ray again since i am not in a time crunch. Ray may need to get more help to handle the order volume he has. I have some loyalty to Ray in how he handled bad strings i have had in the past. He sent new ones and did not ask for the old ones back. i do not know what pauls policy of defective parts will be., I do think a large portion of Ray's base is moving over to the new guy. Customer service (you cannot over communicate with a customer) is key.
I have copied the gist of this post and sent it to Ray so he is aware there is competition.
thanks
sean