Online hydro store scamming me what to do?

[Bigrick31]

Just because one light costs more than another dosnt mean the quality is any better. A friend of mine bough a couple of those 345w stealth grow LED panels and his yields arnt anywhere close to that of a HPS the problem is that false advertisement is allowed to run a muck in the hydroponic industry.

 

[darby crash]

So ICmag consensus is if you buy something with a 2 year warranty and it breaks within the first year you shouldnt get your money back.

A warranty means you will get your shit fixed, not get a full refund

Just because one light costs more than another dosnt mean the quality is any better. A friend of mine bough a couple of those 345w stealth grow LED panels and his yields arnt anywhere close to that of a HPS the problem is that false advertisement is allowed to run a muck in the hydroponic industry.

Haven't you ever heard of let the buyer beware. When advertisers make such claims take it with a grain of salt, you don't know these people from a hole in the wall. Why believe them at face value without doing your own research first.

 

[Bigrick31]

A warranty means you will get your shit fixed, not get a full refund
Haven't you ever heard of let the buyer beware. When advertisers make such claims take it with a grain of salt, you don't know these people from a hole in the wall. Why believe them at face value without doing your own research first.

So when my shit thats under warranty breaks and I contact the store I bought the stuff from and i get this as a response I shouldnt expect any money back?

"Hi Rick,
We just spoke on the phone regarding your LED lights you purchased from us a while back. I will be looking into your account and retreiving your invoices for the multiple purchases to get a grand total of the amount you spent with us. Once we receive the lights, we will be able to assess them for any damages/defects. If it is determined that there is a factory defect with the lights, we will be able to give you 100% of your money back including shipping costs back to us. If there are no defects found we will then determine the refund amount based on the time you have had the lights and the warranty time that is left. I have attached our LED warranty information below just for your reference.
You can return the LEDs to:
The Green Leaf
303 Bowdoinham Rd
Sabattus, ME 04280"

"The Green Leaf LED Warranty Information:

The Green Leaf has a 60 day satisfaction guarantee on all LEDs:
You may return your LED light within 60 days of delivery as long as it is in the original packaging and in like new condition. If there is no defect to the light, shipping must be paid by the customer and the refund will be issued after the light is returned.

2 Year Manufacturer's Warranty:

The Green Leaf's LEDs are under warranty from the manufacturer against defects for materials and workmanship for two (2) years from the date of original purchase. If a defect is determined, the light will be repaired or replaced at no extra cost. A replacement light will only be issued if the defective light is beyond reasonable repair. Return shipping will be arranged through UPS or Fed Ex at not cost to the customer.

Shipping Damages:

If you receive an item that is damaged you must notify us within 5 business days of delivery. Once you have notified us of the damage we will arrange for return shipping through UPS or Fed Ex at not cost to the customer.



If you need to return your LED for any reason please call us 207-375-4072 or email [email protected].



Refunds and replacements will not be issued until the original item is received back.



*Any modifications to any product purchased from The Green Leaf will VOID ALL WARRANTIES*"

Your logic is exactly what is wrong with this type of situation. First off you want to blame the consumer for getting ripped off because they wernt cautious enough. You offer no help as to how the consumer should go about handling the problems they are having. All you offer is hindsight advice how about when a company makes a claim we hold them accountable. How about we stop letting companies that market crap to consumers take advantage of us and start actually helping people who have been ripped off rather than trying to rub their face in the matter. Its not my fault the lights broke and its now my fault the store told me I would get a 100% refund if I returned the lights. All your doing is justifying what the scammer did I didnt come here asking how I can avoid being ripped off I came here asking what I can do to get my money back the money I was promised by the seller before I ever sent my broken lights that are still under warranty back to them.

 

[Dr.Dank]

There's an old saying in Spanish "el papel aguanta todo" " anything and everything can be said on paper" and is alwas true to me. Sorry for your loss... Hope you are fully legal and that get your problem solved.... Buy hid lights and set up some nice grow ad never look back. all the best

 

[Critter]

Ya dude you are not a good shopper.

Buyer beware do your research

Warranties and refund claims have no merit if the seller is bogas/crappy /a double wide home.
You were lucky to get that refund quote then you bitch about that
geez
lesson learned
dont buy cheap grow shit off ebay.

 

[iSMOKE.KUSH]

it sounds like the lights weren't actually "defective" it just sounds like you weren't happy with what they were producing. big difference when it comes to returning them.

 

[darby crash]

Bigrick you aint the only one buying lights off the internet. I've read led light claims on online stores a few months back when I was looking to buy a few more lights. Then I came here to ICMag and read thru some LED threads and saw what the plants looked like. I wasn't impressed, so I decided not to buy. Instead I bought hids from a reputable company after doing research here on ICMag again.

There is nothing anyone here can tell you that will help change your situation. This is between you and Green Leaf. My advice isn't hinsdight to beware and research who you buy from. Learn it, use it, live it. The world is full of people who want to take advantage of you. Always has and always will be. Im not blaming you, I'm educating you. Good luck with future purchases, you're going to need it.

 

[Bigrick31]

Ya dude you are not a good shopper.

Buyer beware do your research

Warranties and refund claims have no merit if the seller is bogas/crappy /a double wide home.
You were lucky to get that refund quote then you bitch about that
geez
lesson learned
dont buy cheap grow shit off ebay.

lucky to get a refund quote? WTF are you talking about no id be lucky if I got an actual refund. Anyways good looking out for your fellow grower thanks for help

it sounds like the lights weren't actually "defective" it just sounds like you weren't happy with what they were producing. big difference when it comes to returning them.

Im not sure if the power supplies were blown to begin with or if they blew out later

If you bothered to read what has been posted here the store told me that the power supplies in the lights had gone out. Each light has 2 power supplies and each light had 1 power supply that was blown.

 

[robbiedublu]

LEDs suck. Is any serious (commercial) grower using LEDs?

 

[jack Haze]

Just contact PayPal and tell them your story. I'd send them any correspondence between you and the seller as well as receipts for shipping. They nearly always side with the buyer.

 

[BongRipkenJR.]

I looked into buying some LEDs, but then after I did the research I realized they sucked balls!

Sucks that that happened dude. EBAY is lame for hydroponics. Go through a more reputable store next time. Sometimes I forget how difficult it is for those that aren't in a medical state.

 

[SOTF420]

LED lights can have excellent results, when you get your refund and money situation straightened out check out the company named Lumigrow they have a 330 watt model that is definitely comparable to a 600 watt HPS. I have used a few LED's and if you have ever seen a Procyon 100 in action I would say the Lumigrow easily equals 3 or 4 of them intensity wise and they have an excellent spectrum with 5 watt LED lights in them so they offer much better penetration that the common 1 watt LED lights.

UFO's are very low down on the LED quality ladder I am afraid I hope you choose better next time sounds like maybe it is just going to be a learning experience but I do hope you get your refund all in order.

 

[Strainhunter]

Ya dude, google map that address from their website and it's an old country road and a couple of houses and a trailer. Here is a picture for you.

The shop must be the shed left hand side from the deck...

 

[el dub]

Big Ballin' LED style!

lw

 

[accessndx]

So ICmag consensus is if you buy something with a 2 year warranty and it breaks within the first year you shouldnt get your money back.

No, the consensus is don't be a total toolbag when dealing with people. That works both ways from the seller to the buyer.
All I read is alot of angry diatribes from you stating how bad your shipper was and how bad the product was and how unreasonable your assumptions were.
You've had the product for a year, it's not like it was defective out of the box.
You didn't have 1 issue, you had a multitude of issues affecting multiple products.
Now you want these middle-men that obviously don't make or stock the items you bought to refund all your money lock stock and barrel 365 days later after the money has been deposited, and spent.

I think it's completely reasonable to expect your money or a portion of your money back IF there was a determination there was some sort of mass failure of the devices you purchased. Considering they came from China, it's no surprise if it did in fact occur. It's unlikely, but I wouldn't be shocked to learn that all your power supplies died simultaneously.

At the same time you're getting upset with the people that drop-shipped your lights for not being able to live up to the unbelieveable and incredible hype that some 90 watt light can outperform or perform equally as well as a 250-400 watt light. You even go one step further and attempt to compare it to a 600 watt and even the manufacturer doesn't make that claim. How'd you decide it would be a great idea to see how a 90 watt light goes toe to toe with a 600watt light?

I'm no Einstein, but let me tell you my educated guess:
You'd be dissappointed.

Then you take all your rancor and launch it at those two hayseeds in the middle of nowhere that were facilitating your purchase of sub-standard garbage. You left them holding the bag because you believe anything you read, and you assume that something from China is going to stand up to regular use. I think if you actually read anything at all you could make a more educated assumption.

How about being a bit more reasonable with the timetables on you getting a refund considering you've been using the product for 1 YEAR?
How about not freaking the hell out on two yokels who obviously don't have the cashflow to immediately quelch your complaints?
When someone says things will be done on "Friday" and it actually takes until "Monday"....usually it's not time to call in the National Guard or the Army. That's the way things work in the "real world", and unfortunately it happens more than I'd like to see. It doesn't make those folk duplicitous or unwilling to assist you.

From the entire tone of all your collective posts, I can tell you're one of those aholes that complains about everything that doesn't suit you to a "T" perfectly. Your underwear is too tight.....yell at the Fruit of the Loom guys.....don't consider you may have put on a few pounds or purchased the wrong size.
You don't like the taste of your orange juice, well it's time to blame the friggin Sun and soil instead of checking the expiration date on the carton.

Respect is a two-way street buddy boy. You can't take a dump in people's throats and expect to be invited over for tea.

 

[Bigrick31]

You've had the product for a year, it's not like it was defective out of the box.

And you know this how?

You didn't have 1 issue, you had a multitude of issues affecting multiple products.
Now you want these middle-men that obviously don't make or stock the items you bought to refund all your money lock stock and barrel 365 days later after the money has been deposited, and spent.

They are the ones that said they would give me a 100% refund so yes I expect them to stick to their word.

I think it's completely reasonable to expect your money or a portion of your money back IF there was a determination there was some sort of mass failure of the devices you purchased. Considering they came from China, it's no surprise if it did in fact occur. It's unlikely, but I wouldn't be shocked to learn that all your power supplies died simultaneously.

At the same time you're getting upset with the people that drop-shipped your lights for not being able to live up to the unbelieveable and incredible hype that some 90 watt light can outperform or perform equally as well as a 250-400 watt light. You even go one step further and attempt to compare it to a 600 watt and even the manufacturer doesn't make that claim. How'd you decide it would be a great idea to see how a 90 watt light goes toe to toe with a 600watt light?

If you would stop to read what I wrote I said that I tested 6 90w ufos against 1 600wHPS if 6 90w ufos=540w cant match the production of 1 600w hps than whats the point of buying LEDs?

I'm no Einstein, but let me tell you my educated guess:
You'd be dissappointed.

Then you take all your rancor and launch it at those two hayseeds in the middle of nowhere that were facilitating your purchase of sub-standard garbage. You left them holding the bag because you believe anything you read, and you assume that something from China is going to stand up to regular use. I think if you actually read anything at all you could make a more educated assumption.

How about being a bit more reasonable with the timetables on you getting a refund considering you've been using the product for 1 YEAR?
How about not freaking the hell out on two yokels who obviously don't have the cashflow to immediately quelch your complaints?
When someone says things will be done on "Friday" and it actually takes until "Monday"....usually it's not time to call in the National Guard or the Army. That's the way things work in the "real world", and unfortunately it happens more than I'd like to see. It doesn't make those folk duplicitous or unwilling to assist you.

From the entire tone of all your collective posts, I can tell you're one of those aholes that complains about everything that doesn't suit you to a "T" perfectly. Your underwear is too tight.....yell at the Fruit of the Loom guys.....don't consider you may have put on a few pounds or purchased the wrong size.
You don't like the taste of your orange juice, well it's time to blame the friggin Sun and soil instead of checking the expiration date on the carton.

Respect is a two-way street buddy boy. You can't take a dump in people's throats and expect to be invited over for tea.

Right im out of my mind for holding someone accountable for their advertisements. I guess if I bought a car that was supposed to get 50mpg and it turns out it only gets 20mpg I should just shut up and be happy with that as well. Who knows maybe the lights did work they way they were supposed to. Maybe a 90w ufo is comperable to a 200w-400w HPS but ill never know because my power supplies went out. Im not complaining about the quality of the lights I am complaining about the store thats done nothing but lie to me every step of the return process.

First they state I will get a 100% refund if I return my lights after spending $330 to ship the lights back to the store I find out I will not get a 100% refund thats a pretty big lie

After they tell me the refund amount they say I can either have the lights repaired or I can take store credit and place a new order. I opt to place a new order and they tell me it will ship within 1 week. 3 weeks later and many emails/phone calls on my part to find out the tracking number for my order I find out they never sent me anything.

After I find out they never sent me any of the products I ordered I get an email fromt them saying that my order is coming in and that they are going to 2 day ship it to me. 3 days later still no order and no word from the store.

I call the store and they actually answer when I ask about the items I order they tell me they dont have any of the items in stock. I ask what they do have in stock and it truns out they dont have much. So I ask for a refund instead and I am told I will have my refund withing 5 days.

6 days later still no refund I try contacting the store via email and on the phone but no one answers so a few days later I contact the BBB

The BBB contacts the store and I get a message from the store saying I will have my refund within 2 weeks

2 weeks goes by and I try contacting the store about my email but the only response I get back is "you wanted to use the BBB so we will communicate through them." They then send the BBB a message saying we need to talk with someone at the BBB urgently dont send this to the customer we are trying to communicate with the BBB."

The next day I still havnt heard anything back from the store (this is over 50 days since they received my broken lights and their return policy states it will take no more than 30 days to issue a refund) I call the local police to see if there is anything they can do to help me get my money back but all they can do is offer me the number to the local court house where I can take the store to small claims.

I then get an email fromt he store saying the BBB said they should file for chapter 11 Bankruptcy but they said they can get me my refund sooner if I am just patient. So i send them an email back asking how long they thought they needed to get the refund together and I havnt heard anything back from the store since.

But im the asshole here for getting scammed and lied to repeatedly all while giving this store that promised me a refund (not like I made them promise me a refund) more than enough time to get the money together. Hell all they had to do was communicate with me and tell the truth and I wouldnt have needed to contact the BBB or the police but a funny thing happens when someone lies to you REPEATEDLY you tend to no longer trust them. But your right maybe I should just sit here and twiddle my thumbs until I get my refund the longer it takes the more likely i am to get my money back right? I mean people who run online hydro stores out of their house and then when you call them they send you an email saying they are out of the office for the weekend (isnt your office your home? and why are you emailing me right after I called you?) are totally trustworthy people.

 

[Zen Master]

okay first things first.


are the lights actually defective? I read and read, maybe I skipped a few lines in the giant wall of text and missed something but it sounds like

"540w of LED < 600w HPS"

and you are pissed about that. they work, just not as well as you hoped

that does NOT mean they are broken


second of all, this is OBVIOUSLY just drop shipped from some random persons house. You are getting the brand name lights you ordered straight from the distributor (probably in China given its LED's) So the product faults dont lie with the shop(site) owner. They never even saw the package, it went straight to you.

Refunds for defective merchandise will most likely be handled fairly easily through any company that isn't bankrupt. If they are bankrupt, you just might be shit out of luck.

Someone coming back in to a hydro shop with a bunch of used lights saying "they dont work" aint the same.

they work, just not like you were hoping.

Welcome to the world of sales people, you dove into an expensive purchase without doing your research. LED's are still new in the growing world and need a lot more time to be anywhere near where most manufacturers advertise them to be.


all in all. You bought a product, weren't happy with its performance, and are taking it out on some people just trying to run a biz. Ever wonder why people like reading reviews on places and products? if you took the time to inform yourself, which is your responsibility, nobody elses, you probably would have saved thousands of dollars and a shitload of time.

 

[Bigrick31]

OK EVERYONE READ THIS

EACH LIGHT HAD 2 POWER SUPPLIES. 1 POWER SUPPLY IN EACH LIGHT WAS BLOWN AND FOUND TO BE DEFECTIVE BY THE STORE THAT SOLD ME THE LIGHTS. THE LIGHTS WERE BROKEN WHEN I RETURNED THEM

For everyone saying do your research on the company your buying from I invite you to look up the greenleaf and find negative reviews about them becuase I couldnt find any and even after this whole ordeal the only complaints I can find are from myself and one other person.

also I said the BBB told the store to file for bankruptcy not that the store is bankrupt FFS learn to read people im done responding to people who didnt bother to read the thread and those who think its funny to flame people for getting ripped off. You trolls can go elsewhere to entertain yourselves im done responding to you.

 

[Zen Master]

how did you test them against your 600w if the power supply was broken?


re'read above, you tested a completely different type of LED (ufo's) to an HPS and..... I'm lost now, how is that relevant to this purchase?



btw: no reviews=bad review

oh and P.P.S.
a giant wall of text = TL;DR too long, didn't read. most people probably hit the back button when they saw the wall. You aren't really clear with what you are tryin to get across.

 

[Bigrick31]

how did you test them against your 600w if the power supply was broken?

Short answer the lights were running at half power. Take a 600w HPS bulb and put it into a 300w ballast that is similar to how my LEDs were operating.