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Dennis Laff

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As of today I will never buy another product from Hoiiday Coro, after buying products from them since 2012.   I tried to return a defective rgb strip that did not work when I took it out of the package this week. Now one of my arches is down. They said they would replace it if I sent the defective  strip back. When they receive it they will send a new one in about 15 days.  I said Christmas will be over by then .They said if I want it faster I need to buy a new  one and when they get the defective one they will refund the money. Why should I have  to pay  to replace a defective product  and then wait for my money? They said that's their policy because they don't trust people to return the defective items . Sorry  for venting but I think a long time customer should be treated fairly .  I have been a customer of Light O Rama  for even longer and have always been treated  fairly and with respect.  Dennis Laff 

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Have had a lot of their strips go bad after one season, and I used some dumb nodes this year, that I bought 2 years ago and never used.....full of bad nodes.  Had to replace every single strip on my house, and every strip in my pixel tree this year.  Not one strip more than 2 seasons old, and a lot were new last year.   I have never had problems with the service, and I still like a lot of the products, but I don't know that I will ever be buying pixels/nodes from them again.

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Hate to hear stuff like this.  Did you place the order to get your arch going again?     When possible I order spares to allow quick replacement in a running show.   

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No    I have 6 archs one failed after numerous emails To Holiday Coro I just took the arch down for the season  . The strip that didn't work was the replacement I bought a month ago to repair the arch that was going bad .

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I have bought both dumb and smart strips and only had 1 failure out of 4 years of use. In fact, my house strips are still going strong and they are on the top of the house year round. I have 2 windows that now have a pixel out, but that was my fault. I dropped them. The 1 failure I had was rain getting into 1 smart strip and taking out most of the smart pixels. Holidaycoro did replace it.

I did move over to nodes on my 2 trees and circles now and not one issue. I think it's just the luck of draw on getting a bad strip. Most come from China and they are cheap enough to have several spares on hand.

I have even ordered custom sized strips for some of my props and no issues to date. Those are going on 2 seasons.

All my lights are from Holidaycoro and I will continue to purchase from them. You cannot beat their sale in the beginning of the year. CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP. So order a few spares to be on the safe side.

Edited by gsmith37064
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Last year I bought som flat RGB modules. 1 had issues and I was issued a credit 👍

Early this year, I used them on a project and tested before storing for this season.  Spin forward to Nov, now testing my sequence. 1 module would only light up faintly: Replaced. Then I did a 'burn in (all white for 1 hour. A different module totally failed.  Just a cheap Chinese batch problem.

Previously, I had 1 smart node (out of 2000 from this vendor), go bad during the winter.  I had a dozen store strings fail (leads rusted OFF of the LED's) in previous (mostly pre-LOR) seasons.

Stuff happens. The warranty is for a few months after deliver, not all or next season. It would be nice if it DID last a long time, but that was not what we bought.

 

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17 minutes ago, TheDucks said:

 The warranty is for a few months after deliver, not all or next season. It would be nice if it DID last a long time, but that was not what we bought.

 

They are so cheap that there is no reason to pick up spares. During the sale, you can get them for 8 bucks some times.

If I need 16 strips, I buy 20.

So really at this price, I can see why the short warranty period. He does offer a much longer warranty, but you have to pay for it.

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On 12/10/2019 at 5:36 PM, Dennis Laff said:

As of today I will never buy another product from Hoiiday Coro, after buying products from them since 2012.   I tried to return a defective rgb strip that did not work when I took it out of the package this week. Now one of my arches is down. They said they would replace it if I sent the defective  strip back. When they receive it they will send a new one in about 15 days.  I said Christmas will be over by then .They said if I want it faster I need to buy a new  one and when they get the defective one they will refund the money. Why should I have  to pay  to replace a defective product  and then wait for my money? They said that's their policy because they don't trust people to return the defective items . Sorry  for venting but I think a long time customer should be treated fairly .  I have been a customer of Light O Rama  for even longer and have always been treated  fairly and with respect.  Dennis Laff 

welcome to the club, had that same experience only it involved replacing 16 strips on my mega tree.  Also have had them return my item "repaired" and they had replaced the WRONG section.

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18 hours ago, TheDucks said:

Last year I bought som flat RGB modules. 1 had issues and I was issued a credit 👍

Early this year, I used them on a project and tested before storing for this season.  Spin forward to Nov, now testing my sequence. 1 module would only light up faintly: Replaced. Then I did a 'burn in (all white for 1 hour. A different module totally failed.  Just a cheap Chinese batch problem.

Previously, I had 1 smart node (out of 2000 from this vendor), go bad during the winter.  I had a dozen store strings fail (leads rusted OFF of the LED's) in previous (mostly pre-LOR) seasons.

Stuff happens. The warranty is for a few months after deliver, not all or next season. It would be nice if it DID last a long time, but that was not what we bought.

 

Unless it changed their warranty was ONE YEAR and not a few months.

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17 hours ago, gsmith37064 said:

They are so cheap that there is no reason to pick up spares. During the sale, you can get them for 8 bucks some times.

If I need 16 strips, I buy 20.

So really at this price, I can see why the short warranty period. He does offer a much longer warranty, but you have to pay for it.

short warranty gets him out of replacing stuff that he knows will fail.  As noted above he use to have a one year warranty on EVERYTHING he sells.  Assuming that has changed it should tell you all you need to know about quality.  I use other vendors.

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7 minutes ago, caniac said:

short warranty gets him out of replacing stuff that he knows will fail.  As noted above he use to have a one year warranty on EVERYTHING he sells.  Assuming that has changed it should tell you all you need to know about quality.  I use other vendors.

I don't have any issues with his products and will be buying more come the spring sale. I don't need a warranty because I know the strips are cheap and keep plenty of spares just in case.

As I stated, they are so cheap to buy, it makes no sense to not have spares strips or nodes. The last batch of stuff I bought had a short warranty period, but he does offer a longer one if you want to purchase it. I think people in the hobby can afford to have a couple spares. If you cannot afford it, this is not your hobby. I used to keep spare controllers as well, but my Alphapix's are work horses, so I ended up putting the spares in my show.

I do agree with Dennis about his return policy.. Holidaycoro could make it easier, but I also understand why it's done this way.

Edited by gsmith37064
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1 minute ago, gsmith37064 said:

I don't have any issues with his products and will be buying more come the spring sale. I don't need a warranty because I know the strips are cheap and keep plenty of spares just in case.

As I stated, they are so cheap to buy, it makes no sense to not have spares strips or nodes. The last batch of stuff I bought had a short warranty period, but he does offer a longer one if you want to purchase it.

I used to keep spare controllers as well, but my Alphapix's are work horses, so I ended up putting the spares in my show.

again, he use to offer a YEAR warranty on EVERYTHING.  Tells me all I need to know about the quality of his products.  HAD purchased from him for years because he stood behind what he sells but as time marched on all that stopped.  Have gotten a better quality product elsewhere with a much lower failure rate.  I don't have the budget to stock spares on everything I run other than Falcon controllers and that is only because my wife will frequently say "you know that would look really nice with pixels on it".  Started with Alphapix's and switched to Falcons, overall a better product and more powerful controller.

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18 minutes ago, caniac said:

Unless it changed their warranty was ONE YEAR and not a few months.

The one year warranty does not apply to pre-sale items, with those it is actually a few months.

Warranty Periods by Product

  • Pixels, power supplies, cables, connectors - 1 year warranty from date of customer receipt of product (excludes PRE-SALE items).
  • Controllers (pixel and dumb) - No warranty (AS-IS), 1 year or 3 years based on customer warranty purchase selection. Warranty void if serialised hologram marker is not present on controller (controllers purchased with optional warranties in 2017).
  • Outdoor elements (coro, plastic items, pixnode net, pixnode strip, etc) - 1 year warranty from date of customer receipt of product. While our products are designed for seasonal outdoor use, excludes UV damage due to year round use unless product description specifically indicates a guaranteed outdoor lifespan.
Edited by Mr. P
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44 minutes ago, Mr. P said:

The one year warranty does not apply to pre-sale items, with those it is actually a few months.

Warranty Periods by Product

  • Pixels, power supplies, cables, connectors - 1 year warranty from date of customer receipt of product (excludes PRE-SALE items).
  • Controllers (pixel and dumb) - No warranty (AS-IS), 1 year or 3 years based on customer warranty purchase selection. Warranty void if serialised hologram marker is not present on controller (controllers purchased with optional warranties in 2017).
  • Outdoor elements (coro, plastic items, pixnode net, pixnode strip, etc) - 1 year warranty from date of customer receipt of product. While our products are designed for seasonal outdoor use, excludes UV damage due to year round use unless product description specifically indicates a guaranteed outdoor lifespan.

It use to

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45 minutes ago, caniac said:

FWIW, all my alphapix's failed after a year or two.

I am 4 years in with my Alpha's and also 4 years with my strips and not a problem.

knock on wood!!

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1 minute ago, gsmith37064 said:

I am 4 years in with my Alpha's and also 4 years with my strips and not a problem.

knock on wood!!

your one of the lucky ones.

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16 minutes ago, caniac said:

It use to

Here is a portion of one of my orders from 2015. Even back then the Pre-Sale items only had a 60 day warranty:

$572.04 Shipped
$119.94 Shipped
$0.00 Shipped
$0.00 Shipped
$0.00 Shipped
 
Edited by Mr. P
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