George Simmons Posted August 25, 2016 Share Posted August 25, 2016 (edited) 28 minutes ago, pikadroo said: Yup, just buy from China. The risk of endangering your home, family, and general well being is well worth it for boat load of holiday magic. Maybe I missed something, but the last time I looked, I thought ALL lighting vendors were supplying goods made in China. Edited August 25, 2016 by George Simmons 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orville Posted August 25, 2016 Share Posted August 25, 2016 43 minutes ago, George Simmons said: Maybe I missed something, but the last time I looked, I thought ALL lighting vendors were supplying goods made in China. I must have missed that same memo George, just about every L.E.D., light or lighted wire frame I've bought, all made in China. Don't think I've seen any "Made in America" labels since the mid 1990's or thereabout. So if we don't buy the Chinese, Taiwan or ?{other countries} made stuff, where we going to find, or get it? Surely no Made in America Holiday items we use in our displays are around{unless you build it yourself, but still, lights, added stuff, all made in China!}, so nothing in the lighted sense we use is made in America, perhaps some little unlit trinket, but I don't even find that very often either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zvacman Posted August 25, 2016 Share Posted August 25, 2016 1 hour ago, pikadroo said: Yup, just buy from China. The risk of endangering your home, family, and general well being is well worth it for boat load of holiday magic. It's fine, I am sure it will be fine. Drew I Don't understand the unwarranted sarcasm. All I posted was that I am trying to get my money back from somebody who intentionally tried to screw me. He knew he was going out of business when he took my order and money knowing full well that he wasn't ever going to send me the products. Enough said. Z Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zman Posted August 25, 2016 Share Posted August 25, 2016 Greg Young, great post. I know some are frustrated with SE and the communication. Greg's situation is dynamic and fluid. No one likes to get burnt on an order, but you also do not know what is going on in Greg's world right now. Like others who have gone before him, his council is guiding him on what he can and cannot do. It's just unfortunate that a good vendor is now no longer in our community. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mega Arch Posted August 25, 2016 Share Posted August 25, 2016 9 hours ago, Greg Young said: Having been around these forums for the last 15 years dating back to the early PC days I have had the opportunity to see more than few businesses start up by fellow decorators. Some have gone on to be very successful (ie LOR). Others have started out well, go on for a few years, then fail. It is a rare person who intends to start a business to screw over others in the community. The one common issue when their businesses fail is the lack of communication which leads to a lot of understandable angst on the part of folks with orders pending. I am not going to defend Seasonal Entertainment, but I will say 2 things: 1) I have ordered from Greg over the years, and have encountered some product failures. When I contacted him the replacement parts were sent to me in a matter of days. He wanted me to send the units back for repair at his expense. The failures involved components (ICs predominately) installed in the Chinese factories. With my background repair was a quick fix so I told him I could handle it myself, to save time. For someone not comfortable with handling electronic repairs he ran a USA based company that the unit could be sent back to for repair. He stood behind everything he sold, at least up until his business closed unexpectedly. For those having issues, request a cancellation and refund. I would certainly hope you would get it, even if your email wasn't answered! While I don't ever support not keeping customers informed of issues related to delays in orders, etc. I will say if he posted what was occurring behind the scenes folks might think a little different of the situation. The fact that he didn't post his problems publicly, to garner sympathy, etc says something about his character to me. I am sure those of you with merchandise pending may disagree. 2) My observation is that some initially well intentioned folks want to take their hobby of decorating to the next level, sometimes starting out with group buys, and then turning it into a business. I can remember when David B. did this with blowmolds for example. Many of us ordered through him the first year, and got great products at a good price. A year or two later he lost $$ on an order coming in from China, and closed his business, unfortunately leaving folks who had placed orders without merchandise/refunds. There are several other examples in recent past. I have had good success ordering from many others including Todd Jetzer, Ray Wu, Paul Sessel, Valerie Piechur, to name just a few. In my experience I have found them all to stand behind their products. When folks are shopping for supplies, and looking for good quality items at good prices, then can often find them from folks who run businesses basically based on sales to the holiday decorating community. Most of these are small privately run businesses, which always have the possibility of unexpected setbacks and being forced to close, vs a larger commercial company which may have the resources to eat the loss and continue. Bottom line when you order from anyone, use PayPal or your credit card to allow you to recover your funds in the event of non-delivery of ordered items. Protect yourselves, because it really is caveat emptor.. Greg I'm flipping out of "likes" again - so quoting instead. Nicely worded & some good points Greg. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caniac Posted August 25, 2016 Share Posted August 25, 2016 1 hour ago, zvacman said: I Don't understand the unwarranted sarcasm. All I posted was that I am trying to get my money back from somebody who intentionally tried to screw me. He knew he was going out of business when he took my order and money knowing full well that he wasn't ever going to send me the products. Enough said. Z You don't know that the individual intended to screw you, kind harsh assessment if you ask me. Businesses fail for a variety of reasons so without really knowing the person you have issued a harsh judgement. In all the time I have been on here we have only had ONE person that I am aware of intentionally screw someone. It was a person claiming to have used controllers for sale that he didn't actually have, FBI took care of that situation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DougP Posted August 25, 2016 Share Posted August 25, 2016 2 hours ago, Orville said: I must have missed that same memo George, just about every L.E.D., light or lighted wire frame I've bought, all made in China. Don't think I've seen any "Made in America" labels since the mid 1990's or thereabout. So if we don't buy the Chinese, Taiwan or ?{other countries} made stuff, where we going to find, or get it? Surely no Made in America Holiday items we use in our displays are around{unless you build it yourself, but still, lights, added stuff, all made in China!}, so nothing in the lighted sense we use is made in America, perhaps some little unlit trinket, but I don't even find that very often either. All of my wireframes are hand made and sold here in the USA. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mega Arch Posted August 26, 2016 Share Posted August 26, 2016 1 minute ago, pikadroo said: Yeah, I don't think I was directing it at anyone particular, and I really am very sorry to hear you have been screwed by Seasonal Entertainment. It's upsetting to hear a vendor out in this hobby broke the trust of the hobbyists. However, my point was just that it's annoyingly sad that most people out here have to go to China for this stuff... especially when we are in a forum of a company who provides similar UL tested products that are excellent. Was in no way a slight against you personally my friend, just wish we could make it here and all be safe using it. =) Drew I'm still outta "likes".... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmmienLightFan Posted August 26, 2016 Share Posted August 26, 2016 9 hours ago, pikadroo said: Especially when we are in a forum of a company who provides similar UL tested products that are excellent. Was in no way a slight against you personally my friend, just wish we could make it here and all be safe using it. =) Drew LOR's products are good, and are assembled in the USA, I think, but surely they get many of the components made elsewhere. It is just so much cheaper. A lot of people are trying to turn their lighting hobby into a business, which is great. If they feel enthusiastic about it and they feel they can do it they should. Most of these companies just buy it from China, and sell it on, or maybe they ask for some pigtails to be attached or something. Us buying from China is probably about as safe as anywhere else. PayPal, AliExpress and AliBaba all offer protection to stop bad things happening, and I have heard of that protection being used more times in this thread about a US company alone than I have ever heard of it being used on orders from Ray Wu, Paul Zhang or other foreign lighting retailers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmmienLightFan Posted August 26, 2016 Share Posted August 26, 2016 1 hour ago, pikadroo said: No doubt Light O Rama gets components from China but the products are engineered and tested to US standards. My comments on safety were to that point not about identity theft. Though to that point, when AliBaba asked me to email them a copy of my license or ID card I said hell no. Drew I wasn't talking about identify theft. I was talking about losing money. AliBaba asking for your ID is safe. They are massive, bigger than Ebay. They wouldn't want a bad story that could put others off purchasing through them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orville Posted August 27, 2016 Share Posted August 27, 2016 On 8/25/2016 at 7:29 PM, DougP said: All of my wireframes are hand made and sold here in the USA. Wasn't referring to yours Doug. I'm was talking about buying the pre-made ones found in most retail or discount stores like Wal-Mart, Big Lots, etc. Guess maybe I should have made that a little clearer in my original comment. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Todd_91 Posted October 18, 2016 Share Posted October 18, 2016 Z, I found out about a month ago that Seasonal went out of business sent him one email which got not response. Then proceed to dispute the charge with my credit card company and got all my money back. The charge on my account was from sometime in May so if you purchased with a credit card contact your card company and you should be good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zvacman Posted October 18, 2016 Share Posted October 18, 2016 Todd: Already got my money back, Thanks for the reply. Z Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sjsocane Posted October 18, 2016 Share Posted October 18, 2016 (edited) I am glad you got your money back... I did not...... I have heard some justify the actions of company saying "you don't know what he is going through".. Well he did not care what I sacrificed going through to place my order "He" only pocketed my money and failed to deliver... So after planning my entire design on items I never received, I ordered through Holiday Coro, and am trying to redesign my entire season... but wait according to some I should not be upset about what the owner is going through..... So my hundreds of dollars are less important than his.... this is why this country is in the problem it is in...... Edited October 18, 2016 by sjsocane adding Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sjsocane Posted October 18, 2016 Share Posted October 18, 2016 Greg Young, great post. I know some are frustrated with SE and the communication. Greg's situation is dynamic and fluid. No one likes to get burnt on an order, but you also do not know what is going on in Greg's world right now. Like others who have gone before him, his council is guiding him on what he can and cannot do. It's just unfortunate that a good vendor is now no longer in our community Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sjsocane Posted October 18, 2016 Share Posted October 18, 2016 (edited) This is the post I was replying to from ZMAN.... ^ Edited October 18, 2016 by sjsocane Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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