Beware buying generic brand LED lights from China - massive false advertising industry

I have been selling generic brand LED lights for years and I have been sucked in the false advertising trend that all starts with the Chinese manufacturers on Alibaba, Aliexpress and DHgate, Ebay and the rest.

My top selling products for years has been residential downlights both in 12 Volt and 120-230 Volt variants (MR16 and GU10 fittings).

These lights were always advertised as 12 Watt power and good enough to replace 80 Watt.
However upon testing them they only drew 4 Watt of power and were only good enough to replace 30-35 Watts.
When I confronted the Chinese sellers about this they said that 12 Watt is the maximum power but they are limited to less than half to conserve a longer lifetime, which they advertise as 10-20 years or 100,000 hours.

Maybe the LED chips last 10-20 years, who knows however the drivers inside these lights last 1 to 2 years and cost about half the price of the entire light to replace and replacing drivers is quite time intensive.

The problem is that because they are advertised as 12 Watts retailers also have started advertising them as 12 Watt LED lights which has caused seller all over the world the falsely advertise by a factor of 3 about the light output of these products.
Not many people have voltage of luminous output meter handy which keeps the scheme going. Seller's who truly advertise the product as 4 Watt LED lights will not make a single sale because the consumer believes their product is 3 times less bright and powerful.

I would just like to make everyone aware about the LED light scam before purchasing from any retailers or from China direct.

Always check with the seller/retailer about brightness and power consumption, if you have on paper that they are falsely advertising getting a refund for inferior products should be a piece of cake unless of course you are buying China direct.
Chinese websites always favour their seller's when it comes to product disputes:

Please use this handy chart I have made before purchasing any LED products made in China by generic brands.
As I said before generic brands overstate their output by a factor 3.

18W = 6W - replaces 50W halogen lights
15W = 5W - replaces 40W halogen lights
12W = 4W - replaces 30-35W halogen lights
9W = 3W - replaces 25-30W halogen lights

Please be aware that warm light is always less bright than pure light and cool white lights colours.

I hope this helps some of you, LED lights are a great investment, the electricity you save is amazing and you will pay the lights off within 3-6 months of use and after that period the savings go straight into your wallet.