With the aid of some great karma gifts from some great SIGforum members, I am on my way to owning my first AR-15 rifle. In fact, my first rifle of any kind.

Primary use is expected to be Home Defense. I expect that in the very very unlikely event that this would ever actually be required, it would be because of a sudden noise at night, so it makes sense to me to have a light mounted on the rifle. I could be wrong, if you have a counter-argument for this, please express it in my current thread in the Rifle section; this post is about websites that are hosted by a manufacturer and a dealer for lights.

In thinking about a light for the AR, StreamLight is a name that keeps popping up. Most manufacturers have some sort of "Find A Local Dealer" section on their website; StreamLight is no exception. Plugging in a local zip code -- 32703 for Apopka FL, I see a dealer on South Washington, right in Greater Metropolitan Downtown Apopka. That dealer has a website, so I click on the link. The dealer's website has a Shopping Cart. Great. All I need to do is ...

Nope. Use the drop-down menu for Products -> StreamLight Flashlights, and for every selection I make I am informed that this product is not available.

WTF? "Contact Us" gives me an email form for Sales@<the dealer>.com

I use the email facility and receive a reply that they do NOT sell to the public.

How is this retail?

Why do they have a Shopping Cart?

Why does the StreamLight website list them as a retail dealer?

Yeah, I know that there are other dealers around, that's not my point. I just wonder why this sort of misinformation is so abundant on the internet.

I have seen it on many products. I'm looking for a source for carbon brushes, 5.5mm x 5.5mm x maybe 7/8" (length is not critical as long as it's somewhere near that). Probably a dozen or more internet leads pointing to electric motor supply houses in my area have resulted in wild goose chases.

Is it really that difficult to keep a website reasonably current?

Cannot help with the StreamLight

I have a SureFire and am most happy with it.

http://www.surefire.com/x300u-...ght-rail-lock-1.html

And I can quickly move it from shotgun, to AR, to SCAR, to P220ST as I need.

I feel your pain. I have moved most of my shopping to Amazon for that reason.

If you're looking to buy a light online, why not buy directly from Streamlight?

quote:

Originally posted by Orguss:
buy directly from Streamlight?

Usually more expensive than retail - as to not compete with their vendors.

Fenix Outfitters

The owner is a member here. I bought from him and had ZERO issues and he was fast.

Yes, there are alternate places to buy lights.

As I said in the original post, I am not looking for them, I am already aware of them.

This is a RANT about companies that just don't care enough to keep their websites current and accurate.

I am not looking for a mail order source (although it is good to know that the owner of Fenix Outfitters is a forum member, that will be useful in the future). What I was looking for, on the StreamLight website and the "retail dealer's" website that was provided by StreamLight's "Find A Dealer," was a physical store that carried the line of lights that I want to look at.

The one that popped up on the StreamLight website is about a thirty second detour on my way from home, to my hangar. My quest was for a dealer who has a new model in stock, so I can look, touch, try, and buy if I like it. The websites led me to believe that there was such a dealer convenient to me. The websites are totally inaccurate: that is the topic of my rant.

Sort of like a credit union I deal with. Their website tells me how wonderful they are, but has no useful information for things like their schedule (which holidays do they observe, what days are branches closed for corporate staff meetings, when are online services going to be unavailable for scheduled software updates, etc.).

My rant can be summarized: If you have a company website, keep it up to date with accurate information.