Rant: Holidaycoro strips

[Dcroc]

I have to be done with Holidaycoro rgb strips.  Every single year, without fail, I have to replace every single strip.  Several pixals, usually red but not always, go bad in each strip each year as they sit unused.  Every single year I am blowing my entire budget on replacing strips I just bought.  Have yet to have a single strip last more than 2 seasons at best.  Doesn't matter if they are left up all year, or stored, every single strip I have is no good.  my pixel tree strips were used for 2 Christmas seasons.  Last year (excatly 1 year after paying $1000)  I dealt with dead pixels in the strips after only being a year old, this year they are totally unusable, and I have to replace all 16 strips.  Now, every strip on my house is no good.  I can't keep doing this.  HC was nice enough to discount the 16 new strips I had to buy to replace the tree,  but I simply can't keep spending money on the same damn lights every year.  Can't add anything new, because I'm hundreds of dollars into replacement strips.  Done with it.

[caniac]

12 hours ago, Dcroc said:

I have to be done with Holidaycoro rgb strips.  Every single year, without fail, I have to replace every single strip.  Several pixals, usually red but not always, go bad in each strip each year as they sit unused.  Every single year I am blowing my entire budget on replacing strips I just bought.  Have yet to have a single strip last more than 2 seasons at best.  Doesn't matter if they are left up all year, or stored, every single strip I have is no good.  my pixel tree strips were used for 2 Christmas seasons.  Last year (excatly 1 year after paying $1000)  I dealt with dead pixels in the strips after only being a year old, this year they are totally unusable, and I have to replace all 16 strips.  Now, every strip on my house is no good.  I can't keep doing this.  HC was nice enough to discount the 16 new strips I had to buy to replace the tree,  but I simply can't keep spending money on the same damn lights every year.  Can't add anything new, because I'm hundreds of dollars into replacement strips.  Done with it.

welcome to the club, have done that twice myself.  But be careful, HC has trolls and they will hunt you down, shout "fake news", blame it on something you must have done.  Good news is there are only three of them.  I have started using Wired Watts and so far so good.

[Mr. P]

1 hour ago, caniac said:

 I have started using Wired Watts and so far so good.

Wired Watts is awesome, they are just up the road from me and they have some pretty good pricing.

[k6ccc]

One of the reasons I am largely going away from strips.  Pixels are fairly easy to replace an individual pixel if it fails.

 

[Mr. P]

I have never had any issues with HC pixel strings or strips. I have used the strips on my eaves and tree for the last six years and the tree is still going strong. The eaves I replaced last year after five years since they stay out year round and they turned dark yellow from the sun. Maybe it's because mine are an older batch from years ago and they now have a new supplier for more recent batches, I don't know.

My issue was always the alphapix controllers as it seemed like I always had a few failures every year on the older versions haven't purchased any newer ones.. I finally gave up trying to repair them and changed most of them to Falcon.

Overall they have been pretty fair to me and no I am not one of the trolls that caniac refers to.

Edited September 25, 2019 by Mr. P

[LOR Staff]

Wow, sure would be nice if there was a company that stands behind their strips and warranties them, huh?

[Mr. P]

59 minutes ago, DevMike said:

Wow, sure would be nice if there was a company that stands behind their strips and warranties them, huh?

Do you know of any?  😁

[caniac]

18 hours ago, DevMike said:

Wow, sure would be nice if there was a company that stands behind their strips and warranties them, huh?

We mentioned WireWatts!!  

[caniac]

20 hours ago, Mr. P said:

I have never had any issues with HC pixel strings or strips. I have used the strips on my eaves and tree for the last six years and the tree is still going strong. The eaves I replaced last year after five years since they stay out year round and they turned dark yellow from the sun. Maybe it's because mine are an older batch from years ago and they now have a new supplier for more recent batches, I don't know.

My issue was always the alphapix controllers as it seemed like I always had a few failures every year on the older versions haven't purchased any newer ones.. I finally gave up trying to repair them and changed most of them to Falcon.

Overall they have been pretty fair to me and no I am not one of the trolls that caniac refers to.

Early on I had mostly good luck with those folks but as time wore on it headed south.  I think it started the year he got the truckload of bad strips but sold them anyhow.  Had read on here that most of the people that had bought them had almost all fail and didn't discover it until they were out of warranty.  I got lucky that time and mine still were but I could tell in the phone conversations and emails that he really didn't want to replace them.  He insisted I prepay for the replacements and he would credit the amount back once he received my damaged product.  When he got them back he complained for hours how the strips were not back on the spools, when you know its damaged product why would you want it back on the spool (unless you planned to send it out to some other unsuspecting customer).  Had a similar experience with pixel nodes.

[Al Saunders]

19 hours ago, DevMike said:

Wow, sure would be nice if there was a company that stands behind their strips and warranties them, huh?

 My thoughts exactly. Love my LOR products!!

[Dcroc]

Stayed away from the LOR due to the lack of ability to modify the length of the pixel strings.   I stay with LOR for all my AC controllers, and software..  

[Mr. P]

15 minutes ago, Dcroc said:

Stayed away from the LOR due to the lack of ability to modify the length of the pixel strings.   I stay with LOR for all my AC controllers, and software..  

Ditto, when you buy LOR pixel strings/strips you are paying for a great warranty. I can't see myself spending $30-$60 for pixels when I will be voiding the warranty by cutting or modifying my pixels.

[Dcroc]

Just opened a roll of strips I got with last years replacement lot.   Never opened it last year.  SAME ISSUES.  So, it is not the way I mount them.  It is not that they are out all year.  It is not the way they were stored.  This roll was on a shelf, unopened, in my climate controlled house.   It is brand new, other than being a year old.  Their answer to this is for me to "upgrade" to nodes at a discount.  I'm done throwing good money after bad.  Would rather pay twice the price once every few years, than half the price every year.  I totally blew my budget replacing strips that I blew my budget replacing last year.   I'm out hundreds of dollar just this year.   You lost me, HC.   I will be switching them all out over the off season.  Not even gonna wait to see if all of these new replacements are still good next year.  I am out so much time over this.

Edited September 27, 2019 by Dcroc

[Orville]

My opinion, I'd prefer all this stuff was MADE IN AMERICA by Americans.  may cost more, but when stuff was made in America and we purchased it, we had very few, if any failures!    And I'd rather buy American made {even if it does cost more} than worry about foreign knock-offs or fakes that they are prone to creating that might work for a short while, but will eventually let you down and fail or do something even worse, like burst into flame and burn your house down!

Just my $2.00 worth.

[TheDucks]

Sorry Orville, but it ain't gonna happen.  We have over regulated (zero tolerance) and driven many businesses 'off shore'

A lot of stuff is 'assembled in the USA from ('dirty process' )components made elsewhere.

Note: I worked for over 30 years in the Silicon Valley. Yes, some were careless. Some were just before we knew some of the nasty side effects (PCB's, TCE, Tetraethyl lead...)

But I am also seeing regulations that are denying usage of some technique for a  .0000001% reduction of causing agents.

[wt1924]

Hey Dcroc! I am in the same boat you are in. I am going to pixels this year instead of strips. They are just too finicky. I have had LOR and HC. None last very long. As many, I tried leaving them up all year thinking I was handling them too much. That worked for 2 years but the third they were unusable. I am done with strips. I am going to zip tie pixels on pvc. Again, as been said if one goes bad it is easy to replace it and not the entire string. I like the look of strips better, but... Don't get me wrong, I am not rich by any stretch but its not so much the money to me, its the time to replace. I do not have time to keep redoing and worrying about what I have already accomplished and dealt with.

I feel yea, man!

[Dcroc]

I am so [angry].  Sp;ent all day Saturday replacing another smart strip on my roof (1 year old).  Use another BRAND NEW HC smart strip that I bought last year, and did not open.  4 days later.....BAD PIXELS!!  I can't believe this.  I am SO far behind due to this [] that I should, in no way, have to deal with.  Going to lose another entire day replacing this.  Holidaycoro's answer:  "Would you like to upgrade to nodes at a discount?"   NO!  IT'S NOT A DISCOUNT IF I HAVE TO REPLACE THEM EVERY YEAR!!  Awful.  So discouraged that I may just drop out of the [darn] hobby.  I am out hundreds of dollars replacing these again this year, and I am STILL replacing them.  GARBAGE!!!   Never again will they get a dime from me for this garbage.

 

[ed:  I cleaned it up a bit to be more PG.]

[dibblejr]

On 9/28/2019 at 8:30 AM, Orville said:

My opinion, I'd prefer all this stuff was MADE IN AMERICA by Americans.  may cost more, but when stuff was made in America and we purchased it, we had very few, if any failures!    And I'd rather buy American made {even if it does cost more} than worry about foreign knock-offs or fakes that they are prone to creating that might work for a short while, but will eventually let you down and fail or do something even worse, like burst into flame and burn your house down!

Just my $2.00 worth.

Almost nothing electronic is made in America my friend. Along with textiles and almost anything.

JR

 

[dibblejr]

14 minutes ago, Dcroc said:

I am so pissed.  Sp;ent all day Saturday replacing another smart strip on my roof (1 year old).  Use another BRAND NEW HC smart strip that I bought last year, and did not open.  4 days later.....BAD PIXELS!!  I can't believe this.  I am SO far behind due to this crap that I should, in no way, have to deal with.  Going to lose another entire day replacing this.  Holidaycoro's answer:  "Would you like to upgrade to nodes at a discount?"   NO!  IT'S NOT A DISCOUNT IF I HAVE TO REPLACE THEM EVERY YEAR!!  Awful.  So discouraged that I may just drop out of the damn hobby.  I am out hundreds of dollars replacing these again this year, and I am STILL replacing them.  GARBAGE!!!   Never again will they get a dime from me for this garbage.

The couple strips I had Dave replaced ,, no questions asked. That was last year.

LOR also replaced 6 strips, no questions asked. Stand up support as usual, I just opened a HD ticket. Of course I included a video with the ticket and I had to send them back- all understandable.

Did you call him upset or something?

JR

[Orville]

5 hours ago, dibblejr said:

Almost nothing electronic is made in America my friend. Along with textiles and almost anything.

JR

 

But many things used to be and we need to get back to that.  Just tired of things falling apart and failing just outside of their "warranty period" and made elsewhere.