morrisonstreet Posted December 13, 2010 Share Posted December 13, 2010 So I'm finally up and running with 6 of my 12 sequences (all with video this year). I've been running for 3 nights now and went out tonight and noticed that all of my green LED strings (from ledholidaylighting) are going bad. I just purchased them in September. Some strings are out all together, others only partially out. I also see a string of blue starting to flicker.I contacted them and their response was:"We have encountered a general error with any "green" strings this year it seems the factory missed a QC step in making them causing failures on them. Our general warranty (below) will replace the bad strands as well. Please advise.Our warranty policy states that if the product is defective in its first season of use (within 90 days of install) we will replace it for you by January 15th. Defective strands will be picked up by UPS and verified for deficiencies. If none are found, you will be charged a 15% restock fee, the cost of the strand and the cost to ship it back to you."WHAT?! They have a known defect and didn't contact all their customers that purchased the strings to let them know of the possibility?! It's 13 days until Christmas and I have no backup green strings. I have 2 TV stations coming to film my house and I'm going to have big dark spots where the green is supposed to be. Possibly no green on my mega-tree (so far only 1 of 8 strings there is partially out).Will let you know how LHL responds to this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Simmons Posted December 13, 2010 Share Posted December 13, 2010 At least you heard back from them. That's more than most people can say. Having navigated through Travis' lies last year, I'm guessing he knowingly bought the cheapest lights he could find and just didn't bother to tell anyone they weren't dimmable. I'm further guessing his warranty is about as good as his products and his word. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rstately Posted December 13, 2010 Share Posted December 13, 2010 How many strings do you need? I have extra 50 count green from CDI. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
morrisonstreet Posted December 13, 2010 Author Share Posted December 13, 2010 rstately wrote: How many strings do you need?I have extra 50 count green from CDI.Aw, thanks...I really appreciate that. Let me see what LHL will do...I may take you up on that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
morrisonstreet Posted December 13, 2010 Author Share Posted December 13, 2010 UPDATE: No apology, but did offer to replace with some other strings. I told him that I'd take the 70L's but they needed to be replaced by string length, not the number of strings.I can't believe he made that comparison to the "big box stores!" First of all, Costco takes stuff back for a year or more. I took back 20 sets of LED lights that failed the 2nd year to Costco, no questions asked. I've never had a problem returning to Walmart or Target.All he needed to do was apologize and take care of the problem. I'm not sure I believe that it's all taken place in the last week, I purchased these in September and I assume people had their lights up and running long before last week.Here's his response:"This has all happened in the last week and it is not all strands and we are replacing as we can - some are waiting until after the season, some now. You purchased C6 100's which are out for the season we can replace with 70L or M5 100L's Please advise ASAPAs for telling where the strands came from that is fine - We would like to see you buy at a big box store and have them do what we are doing for our customers. Yes it is not a fortunate situation, but we are helping resolve the problem(s) people are encountering." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rstately Posted December 13, 2010 Share Posted December 13, 2010 No problem, I think your close to me. Just let me know... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
morrisonstreet Posted December 13, 2010 Author Share Posted December 13, 2010 OK, I actually don't know who I've been dealing with at LHL, as they've never signed their name. But they have made this right, at least in writing.They are sending me 33 strings of 70L to replace the 24 strings of 100L. I just have to send back the other lights by 1/15.I was worried if I sent some lights back that were currently working, they'd charge me the restocking fee, but he said they'll call it a wash.I'm sorry it took so many emails and pointing out not-so-good customer service, but I think he saw my point and I hope he'll learn from it.He did say other companies were having the same problems with green lights. Anyone else having problems?I wonder when the new green lights will get here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Wingert Posted December 13, 2010 Share Posted December 13, 2010 I bought a ton of green 5mm lights from Holiday Light Express, not a single issue. I rec'd mine in May and ran them about every day during my testing. Also set them out for halloween show which ran for 25 days. The green may just have been bad from him? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
morrisonstreet Posted December 13, 2010 Author Share Posted December 13, 2010 pokrplr wrote: I bought a ton of green 5mm lights from Holiday Light Express, not a single issue. I rec'd mine in May and ran them about every day during my testing. Also set them out for halloween show which ran for 25 days. The green may just have been bad from him?Maybe, but he's saying that other sellers are having similar problems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Roberson Posted December 13, 2010 Share Posted December 13, 2010 George Simmons wrote: At least you heard back from them. That's more than most people can say. Having navigated through Travis' lies last year, I'm guessing he knowingly bought the cheapest lights he could find and just didn't bother to tell anyone they weren't dimmable. I'm further guessing his warranty is about as good as his products and his word. Sounds like the exact definition of what happen to allot of us in 08 from another vendor. ; )I have also contacted Travis about the bad green lights. He has responded and I told him I will wait til after Christmas. I now have all my spare greens in operation where I have had to replace strings that went outI asked him if our lights will be replaced with lights with the known defect corrected by the factory or if they will just get replaced with the same stock our lights came from in the first place. I have not received a response from this question. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ponddude Posted December 13, 2010 Share Posted December 13, 2010 Every year it is interesting to me for people who report defective strings from either suppliers. Why? Well they apparently both purchase them (both meaning CDI and LHL) from Diogen or Holiday Creations...same company. 2 years ago CDI was selling strings that were catching on fire and LHL, when they were still a good company, were selling the same thing with no issues. Last year LHL was selling lights that were losing voltage somewhere in the rectifier and and CDI had no problems. This year strands are dying on people. It really is odd to me.I will say this, I purchase only from CDI this year and 2 of their green strands did die as well. I had spares on hand so it wasn't an issue, but it just is weird. I really goes to show you how mass production really does vary from lot of lot.This didn't help you at all and for that I apologize...haha...but I thought I would share what I have noticed over the last few years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
morrisonstreet Posted December 13, 2010 Author Share Posted December 13, 2010 Well, I think it's good that we all stay on top of this and report it to each other so we have an idea of where to buy and what to expect.I wonder if it's possible to create an online database of each retailer's products, and any problems people have with them.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Simmons Posted December 13, 2010 Share Posted December 13, 2010 I think that's kinda what we're doing here for anyone in the future who's industrious enough to do a search. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts