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Litebulb ripoff?


Several weeks ago I was contacted by phone by a person who said he
represented Handicapped & Disadvantaged Employment of Phoenix AZ. He
told me they were selling long life lightbulbs for $5.00 plus
shipping. I know there is nothing outstanding about that price but I
assumed they were compact flourescent bulbs and he told me I would be
helping disadvantaged and unemployed persons. When I received my bulbs
today I was very dissapointed.They were ordinary bulbs and seemed to
very sloppily made. there was poor soldering on the base, some bulbs
seemed to have dirt inside them and one had a broken off filiment.
(metal content). There was no brand name on them but they were marked
"American, made in USA, !0,000 hours, 130v, krypton. They billed me
$47.06 for 4.
I checked them out on the Internet and they had one complaint on a
website called Ripoffreports:
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Also the Phoenix BBB has an unsatisfactory rating for them:
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So now I'm wondering what would be the best to do, send the bulbs back
collect, call them and complain, send a report to the BBB or keep the
bulbs and do nothing?
Engineman
Reply to
engineman1
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Sounds like about 78c worth of bulbs ya got there.
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If it was me, I'd send them back with a well worded letter. Then I would contest the charge on my card after the merchant predictably failed to refund.
--Winston
Reply to
Winston
Something like this was operating around here some twenty years ago except that the bulbs did appear well made, and any that burned out in less than five years were replaced no charge. I don't recall the price at that time but I did have several replaced and was totally satisfied. Gerry :-)} London, Canada
Reply to
Gerald Miller
On Thu, 11 Sep 2008 00:27:45 GMT, with neither quill nor qualm, Winston quickly quoth:
Engineman got off lucky. I might be taken by Everycontractor.com to the tune of 3 grand, if, as expected next month, they fail to return my funds. Their money back guarantee was for delivering a minimum of fifteen times my contract fee worth of work during the year. They have so far provided two leads, neither of which were within my listed expertise or work areas. Caveat emptor.
I'm composing a letter to the Nevada Attorney General now...
Reply to
Larry Jaques
Whatever you do, do not use the bulbs. Super long life bulbs are big energy wasters. And the extra amount of electricity you use will be several times the amount you were charged for the bulbs. If they paid you ten dollars a bulb to use them, you would still be better off not using them.
Dan
Reply to
dcaster
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Alert your credit card company and block any future charges from them...they WILL tap you monthly! Cheap tuition, you just went to school.
Reply to
Tom Gardner
This scam has been around for decades. JR Dweller in the cellar
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Reply to
JR North
If as you say, they billed you (as opposed to your having agreed to a credit card payment, and I hope you didn't give your credit card number to an unknown company) just return the product.
Personally, I never do business of any sort with someone who slithers in my phone line. Or, in fact, anyone who approaches me instead of my approaching them. I don't understand why some people feel obligated to listen to any huckster who tries to demand their attention. Hilary's campaign team tried to use my phone line to intrude into my home and that clinched my voting plans. Same thing with charities; decide yourself ahead of time which reputable causes you wish to support this year and how much and do so; then simply tell any others no; you don't owe anybody an explanation (yes, I make rare exceptions but never to unknowns). The moment somebody tries to persist, that's your clue to hang up; you don't owe them an explanation.
David Merrill
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Reply to
David Merrill
For profit company. do they really use handicapped workers? I'd ask for a replacement for the bad one at least, or return the whole bunch.
I only use about 3 screw in incandesents in the whole shop and only as machine lights. so I always say no to these people.
Thank You, Randy
Remove 333 from email address to reply.
Reply to
Randy
This doesn't help your current dilemma, but my rule of thumb on these things is if it's worth their time to cold call me with a "deal" it's not worth my time to listen...
Reply to
glyford
Take the rated lumen , the rated wattage and the rated hours and calculate the total lumen hours produced in the bulb lifetime. Also calculate the kilowatt hours of electricity used. Multiply the kilowatt hours by your cost per kwh to get the cost of electricity used during the life of the bulb. And finally divide the cost by the lumen hours to get the cost per lumen hour.
Now do the same thing for a standard bulb.
Now divide the life of the long life bulb by the life of a standard bulb to get how many standard bulbs you would have to buy for the same number of hours of use. Now calculate the cost of the same number of lumen hours for standard bulbs and add in the cost of all the replacement bulbs.
If you do this you will find that GE and the other manufacturers make their bulbs to have the lowest total cost for light provided. Long life bulbs will cost at least $60 more than standard bulbs to supply the same amount of light for the life of the bulb.
Now repeat for compact florescent bulbs. They will save you a lot of money. At least in the summer when the heat from the bulb does not help to heat the house.
Dan
Reply to
dcaster
I like to let them give their whole pitch, until they get to my using a credit card. I appoligize for not having one, or any money in my checking account, then ask if they would mind holding a check for a couple months, since their product sounds so good.
Reply to
Michael A. Terrell
More than that, you don't owe them a second of your time, you don't even owe a "duty of politeness". It is your home and your phone line.
Just hang up! If everybody did that, there would be no "do not call" lists because nobody would bother making sales calls.
Reply to
Vaughn Simon
Agreed. And if you want a little satisfaction, lambaste the individual on the other end for disturbing your peace. "I'm just wondering what kind of pitiful, useless excuse for a semi-human being you are, that you can make a living only by annoying other decent human beings to the point that they buy your shoddy goods just to get you to go away and leave them alone."
Yeah, I'm a little over-the-top but I hate solicitations, whether they be door-to-door, by phone, or by letter.
Best -- Terry
Reply to
Terry
I still get calls, even though I'm on the list. They ask for another name, and after you tell them they have the wrong number they go into their pitch. That is why I waste as much of their time as I can before telling them no sale.
Reply to
Michael A. Terrell
The ONLY time a "Super Long Life" bulb like that makes sense is if you have to call an Electrician like me out to replace it, usually because it's difficult to change. Big ladder, scaffolding, taking apart displays or climbing inside the walls to get to the back side of lighted glass shelves.
(And Joy of Joys :-( there's one building I have to rappel off the roof to change one of the parking lot floodlights - they planted a tree under it. One of these years I really should make them rent a basket lift, or move the light over to one side.)
In that case, you have to add in a minimum $72 service call to each lamp change, and even when that gets spread around multiple lamps it still hurts. And sometimes a laborer - the 24' trestle ladder doesn't go far from the truck without two bodies.
And it's still smarter to change the lamp type so I'm not there as often - go to a Metal Halide or High Pressure Sodium or Fluorescent, and get the longer life and a lot better efficiency.
If it HAS to be dimmable, they make fluorescents that can be fully dimmed - and some MH and HPS lamps can be "dimmed" if you put relay switched capacitors on a CWA ballast - you can choose Dim or Full.
-->--
Reply to
Bruce L. Bergman

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