Cost of equipment

[David Spangler]

This might be the wrong forum but this is where posts about cost came up a couple of times. I'm new this year and I have two LOR controllers, two LOR pixels w/controllers, Coro pixels w/antidongle, and some stuff off of Ebay all in my planned display and all work fine together. The LOR was the easiest to set up but the after market stuff was allot cheaper, cost wise, but did take some work to put together. Why are LOR pixels sooooooo much more expensive? Are the parts they use that much better from the rest of the stuff, or do the parts come from the same manufacture and assembled differently? Like I heard computer parts come from only about four manufactures and the computer companies build them and put their name on them. Is it the same for Christmas light stuff or is there that much difference in quality? Don"t get me wrong, I love LOR but do they lose a lot of business due to cost?

[Ron Boyd]

When you buy from LOR, you get a few thing that you don't with other vendors. "Warranty", "Customer Service", and "Plug and Play". The other stuff there's more DIY to it and usually no warranty implied or expressed. The reputable vendors will stand behind their product, to a certain extent, and most will help if you need it with an e-mail or phone call.

 

LOR prices are for the 3 things I named earlier, that's what you're paying for, along with a rock solid component.

[jimswinder]

Like Ron said...plus you pay for "convenience"...

 

same reason 7-11 products are more than a grocery store...

 

convenience...

 

as for are their prices too high?

 

apparently, it didn't stop you from buying their products...  

[dmoore]

When you buy from LOR, you get a few thing that you don't with other vendors. "Warranty", "Customer Service", and "Plug and Play". The other stuff there's more DIY to it and usually no warranty implied or expressed. The reputable vendors will stand behind their product, to a certain extent, and most will help if you need it with an e-mail or phone call.

 

LOR prices are for the 3 things I named earlier, that's what you're paying for, along with a rock solid component.

 

I completely agree with Ron - I'm with HolidayCoro and I completely understand why LOR's prices are where they are - they provide excellent customer service and warranty.  Don't underestimate the value of support unless you are a strong technical person or you have lots of free time - we, at HolidayCoro, spend over 1/3 of all our hours providing support (warranty, how to advice, setup, errors, wiring, etc).  Also look at the warranty periods - if you are getting something off of ebay, don't expect a warranty in November (or maybe even August) and that is exactly when we get LOTS of panic calls and emails to get displays working.

[PaulXmas]

When you buy from LOR, you get a few thing that you don't with other vendors. "Warranty", "Customer Service", and "Plug and Play". The other stuff there's more DIY to it and usually no warranty implied or expressed. The reputable vendors will stand behind their product, to a certain extent, and most will help if you need it with an e-mail or phone call.

 

LOR prices are for the 3 things I named earlier, that's what you're paying for, along with a rock solid component.

 Their warranty is second to NONE!!!

"Unconditional Lifetime Replacement Policy:

Regardless of current end user, any Light-O-Rama hardware device that fails for any reason (e.g. eaten by dog, no longer like color) can be replaced with the same or current equivalent unit for 60% of the current list price of the new unit.  The end-user is responsible for shipping the old unit back to Light-O-Rama and for the shipping costs of the new unit.  In the event that there is no current equivalent for an Light-O-Rama device, Light-O-Rama will make every attempt to work something equitable out. Light-O-Rama will also honor this policy for any other manufacturer’s device for which we currently have a comparable device."

 

I wish LOR would sell cars!

 

[Ron Boyd]

When you buy from LOR, you get a few thing that you don't with other vendors. "Warranty", "Customer Service", and "Plug and Play". The other stuff there's more DIY to it and usually no warranty implied or expressed. The reputable vendors will stand behind their product, to a certain extent, and most will help if you need it with an e-mail or phone call.

 

LOR prices are for the 3 things I named earlier, that's what you're paying for, along with a rock solid component.

 

I completely agree with Ron - I'm with HolidayCoro and I completely understand why LOR's prices are where they are - they provide excellent customer service and warranty.  Don't underestimate the value of support unless you are a strong technical person or you have lots of free time - we, at HolidayCoro, spend over 1/3 of all our hours providing support (warranty, how to advice, setup, errors, wiring, etc).  Also look at the warranty periods - if you are getting something off of ebay, don't expect a warranty in November (or maybe even August) and that is exactly when we get LOTS of panic calls and emails to get displays working.

And, see, here's one of the vendors that are very helpful and stand behind their products. Thanks David. Are you still looking at the next week or two on the Tiny Pixel Controller shipping?

[George Simmons]

A couple years ago I had a controller act up during display season.  I called LOR (Dan answered) and I had a replacement controller two days later.

 

I'm not saying that another company can't match that level of service.  But it goes a long way towards explaining why there's 68 various controllers in my display this year and every one of them says LOR on it somewhere.  

[vdipaola73]

When you buy from LOR, you get a few thing that you don't with other vendors. "Warranty", "Customer Service", and "Plug and Play". The other stuff there's more DIY to it and usually no warranty implied or expressed. The reputable vendors will stand behind their product, to a certain extent, and most will help if you need it with an e-mail or phone call.

LOR prices are for the 3 things I named earlier, that's what you're paying for, along with a rock solid component.

I completely agree with Ron - I'm with HolidayCoro and I completely understand why LOR's prices are where they are - they provide excellent customer service and warranty. Don't underestimate the value of support unless you are a strong technical person or you have lots of free time - we, at HolidayCoro, spend over 1/3 of all our hours providing support (warranty, how to advice, setup, errors, wiring, etc). Also look at the warranty periods - if you are getting something off of ebay, don't expect a warranty in November (or maybe even August) and that is exactly when we get LOTS of panic calls and emails to get displays working.

A lot is to be said about this. I am compiling my list of items to purchase from Holidaycoro and have already emailed several times (sorry) with a range of questions that I couldn't find solid answers on. I have received the necessary info in record time and always with a thank you.

Thanks Dave

[David Spangler]

I hope nobody took me the wrong way, I wasn't complaining I was just curious. Somebody told me that LOR uses different parts that were proprietary. I had a problem with LOR equipment on something I didn't understand and they were very fast to respond and help me through it. The forum is great too, a lot of helpful people out there.  I also had questions with Holiday Coro and Dave was very fast to help. He also has a lot of good stuff in his knowledge base. Both LOR and Holiday Coro are GREAT companies to deal with. I have nothing but praise for both. Thank you both.

[Steven]

On the technical side, the LOR pixels (CCR, CCP), can use the LOR protocol, which moves some of the processing from the PC to the controller, which allows consistent chase and shimmer effects using a fraction of the bandwidth of DMX. This allows me to have a CCR arch across the street from the rest of my display, controlled using a relatively low-bandwidth wireless link.