Surefire® Well Almost

Another day in the life of the forgotten man. Began the day today with a flat tire in the dark of the morning. Okay so I changed the tire to the doughnut in the trunk. As I am doing this I am using my trusty Surefire® M4 Devastator. The Surefire fell from my hands and killed the filament inside the lens. My Surefire surely went dark. But what do you expect from a $300 flashlight, err, lighting tool. MagLights are flashlights. So I finished the job with my trusty MagLight.® $20 at Walmart.

When I finally got to work, still po’d from loosing a $40 bulb, I decided to call Surefire® and report this unexpected event. Why unexpected? Because from reading their literature and how they advertise their lighting instruments as being nearly indestructible, I felt they owed me one.

Connected. “This is Surefire. For our award winning customer service press 1.” Okay. After waiting 10 minutes I was connected with a technician and told him about my situation. I must say he was sympathetic and very courteous. His explanation for the discrepancy in advertising and actual real life situations was that Dropping the light onto pavement or cement would likely cause the superheated filament (225 lumen bulb) to break. But wait I said. These are advertised to work well with Special Ops, Law Enforcement and even the Stargate Atlantis Team. Under the worst of the worst conditions. And changing a tire in the dark of night breaks the the light? Several seconds of silence pervaded the conversation. He said that as a courtesy, he would send out a replacement bulb at Surefires expense.

Okay. They really do have world-class customer service. I was told I would receive my new bulb within 2 to 3 weeks. (maybe just under world-class) Much better than most companies would do.

As a side note to this While the gentleman was taking down my information I created a scenario and asked him the likely results. “What if a policeman needed to kokonk an assailant over the head whilst in a struggle in the dead of night. Would the Surefire light go out, or would the assailants lights go out?” He replied by telling me that most likely hitting someone over the head with the light would not cause the filament to break because a persons head is not as hard as pavement or cement. Well, that’s good to know. Maybe it is worth the money. :)