Lamps Plus

Eek! Methinks NOT! I have already filed a complaint with the BBB, a complaint with their corporate office, and soon with the District Manager in the morning. Long story...LONG!

Bought a fan this past weekend, the sales person was some what helpful (the 1 star), got home, husband installed it, (mind you his background is experienced automotive technician, we own our own business, with specializing in electrical repairs), something in the fan motor was making a noise. We let it run for a while, looked perfect, no wobble, etc. But it made this racket every 2 to 3 minutes. We take the time to uninstall it, put it back in the box and return it. Husband went in to do the return only to be confronted with the store manager (won't put his name on here, call the store if you want it), that I guess was completely unprofessional, cracking jokes, etc. My husband is a nice guy, he was totally talking to the guy nicely and the manager had nothing but sarcastic responses. Why was he so defensive? For example, my husband was talking to him about our business we own, and that things like this come up with our store, and this is how we handle it, he used a specific car as an example, and after the discussion the manager says, well was the car hooked up to a blue box instead of a metal box? That's the kind of answers he was giving.

He shorted us $50 on our refund due to cut wires. However it states on the back of their receipt that there is a minimum charge of $50 for cut wires, which I totally can understand if what the consumer is returning has nothing wrong with it. If the fan or item is defective which the fan we bought is, that cut wire fee should not apply. The manager told my husband that there was nothing wrong with it, but how does he know with out installing it himself and hear the noise in the motor like we heard. The manager kept saying that he can't re-sell the fan we brought back because of the cut wire and that it was not in the box perfectly, but why would you want to re-sell something that the customer said is defective. It should be sent back to the manufacturer for a refund to the company. I can understand if someone installed it, there is nothing wrong with it and the people returned it for other reasons other then it not working properly. Then heck yes charge the $50, because essentially it is something that can be re-sold. But not something that is defective! Also just to say, when the fan comes with 3 feet of wire and you need to hook up the wires to install it to see if it works, you need to cut the wire. This is what gets me... the manager suggests that this is all avoidable by having a professional electrician install the fan and by having a metal box for support... but I don't see this connection... wouldn't they need to cut the wire too? If the motor on the fan has something wrong with it, whether it's hanging from a metal box or not, the motor is still going to make the noise. The noise was not coming from the ceiling, we're not stupid.

My next problem is, the whole suggestion of a professional electrician as the installer. First off, not one single thing was said to my husband or I when we were buying it that they recommend a professional to install the fan, nor was there any warning about a $50 charge for cutting the wires? Also, last time I checked Lamps Plus sells to the public? They sell to people who are buying things for their house? They are selling to people who are "do it your selfers" meaning they will install something themselves if it comes with instructions, right?

We have a close family friend who is a Certified Union Electrician, we explained this situation to him tonight and he agrees that we should have a certain box for support, but that would not cause a noise in the motor... he said that the manager is just making things up to make it look like our fault.

Bottom line, refund the $50 to the consumer, send the fan back to the manufacturer, get the companies money back, make the customer happy, and avoid situations like these. If nothing will come of this, fortunately for me I have nothing better to do than take care of this legally if it comes to it. I have so much time to deal with things like this it's not even funny. I cannot stand for service like this, this would never fly in the business I own, you have to cut your losses sometimes as a business to keep a good name and to keep your customers coming back or recommending you to other people.