I GAVE Up On The Purple Neon's!!!

[Carol]

Ok, so I just got back from my 1 1/2 hour drive up to Spencer's to replace my purple 52 ounce Neon that I bought last nite!!!  It had some sort of what looked like scratches all over the globe.  The sales guy tells me, "oh look it's coming off", it's only from the Styrofoam".  NOT!!!  My last purple neon clouded up and the wax faded but that was totally my fault.  The guy today on morning shift looks and says "omg, that is horrible"!!!  He tells me that they are on the inside.  I told him weird thing when the lamp got hotter they showed up worse.  I'm thinking could it be wax.  But it's white.  So he gets a base cooking and we continue to open not 1 but 3 neon purple!!  One worse or maybe a bit better then the other.  I said I give up.  Long story short I end up getting the pink liquid/white wax 52 oz with silver base.  I figure with the colored liquid it won't show up as many flaws, lol!!  This one looks pretty good though.  Clear.  Not shaken.  Wax all in tact like a new lamp should look.  Oh, and get this, I wanted the red liquid/white wax.  Open it up.  It was shook!!!  Little particles of wax floating on the bottom.  I said oh hell no, that's been shook!!!  Anyway after about 6 open lava's sitting all over the floor, I said do you normally have a lot of returns on these.  He was like oh yea.  Most are from internet sales where the lamp was shook around in transit.  I said what now?  he said he has to get in touch with his buyer but they are going back as defective.  I said you should complain because not 1 decent globe out of 6?  Ok guys, time to pick brains and ask some questions?

 

1) What are those "scratch" like white marks all over the china globes?

 

2)  Has anybody else had this experience?

 

3)  Is it only Spencer's lamps or is this anywhere you buy?  (I bought a kmart classic for 8.95 and it's fine).

 

and finally,

 

4)  Do you think shooting an email to Susan Richardson at LL would do any good and tell her about my pia Spencer's experience?

 

P.S.  Not to get into another discussion on the whole china globe thing, but I thought they were getting better and is this just a fluke?

[Jim]

Scratches on the inside of the globe could possibly be caused by the coil sloshing about in transit.

In terms of writing to Lava Lite Customer Support - I would say its not going to do you much good.  My stance is not regarding the level of customer support they provide, as I have had nothing but very pleasant experience with their customer support staff.  Hell - I even invited Susan Michaels to join us for dinner when Critter was in Chicago.  Susan is a super duper nice lady and I have nothing but great things to say.

However - in your situation I see little to no action that you are expecting from Lava Lite.  Your transaction on the 52 ounce Neon is essentially all wrapped up I assume.  You either got a return or an exchange?  Feedback on the quality of the lamp would only be as an FYI to Lava Lite.  It will likely just get filed in the "Neon complaint" folder and would wither and die there.  Lava Lite will not make any significant changes to the Neon series as they have been out for too long and the success rate on this line of lamps is most likely quite high.  Many members on the site have been quite pleased with the Neons, which is a departure from some of their other lamps where they sucked so bad coming out of the tube that you didn't even want to plug them in.

Not surprised with what you heard regarding Spencer's returns from Online sales.  I just won't even attempt to get a single China lamp shipped.  At least with Spencer's (and other retailers) get their's shipped properly since they are bulk purchases.  Cases of lamps strapped to a pallet which limits the shaken lava lamp effect.  Shipping a single lamp just isn't going to work out well.

[Carol]

i kind of figured that would be the answer jim as far as writing to LL.  I do like Susan also.  She helped me to get my son's lava oozing again in his "dead" lamp!!!  Yes, I did get an exchange which was supposed to be pink liquid with white lava, not that it's oozing though the lava is kind of like clear.  it's really weird, but it's first launch so maybe it will whiten up after a few runs.  Not really crazy about it being clear looking wax, but gotta say, globe is free of imperfections or scratches, liquid is clear, and so far flow doesn't look too shabby for just getting going so we will see.  Oh and best part on sale for 22.99.

[Erin]

1) What are those "scratch" like white marks all over the china globes?
- They are likely imperfections in the glass. They can sometimes look like smears. 

 

2)  Has anybody else had this experience?
- Oh yeah. New lava lamps are very hit and miss. Open in store when you can before purchase. 

 

3)  Is it only Spencer's lamps or is this anywhere you buy?  (I bought a kmart classic for 8.95 and it's fine).

- Anywhere, really. All lamps produced after 2003 are subject to these types of defects. They have gotten marginally better in the last two years. But I'd say over 60% of the new lamps Lava Lite puts out will experience at least one of these problems: flow issues, crap in coil, glass smears or imperfections, wax stuck at the very bottom of lamp or liquid clarity issues. 

 

and finally,

 

4)  Do you think shooting an email to Susan Richardson at LL would do any good and tell her about my pia Spencer's experience?

- No. You might get a replacement, but it will likely be subject to similar problems. 

Keep reading Carol, and you'll get the full picture. In short - these lamps are always a crap shoot. Always return lamps that are not up to your standards. Problem is, some of them go to crap after 30 days. I don't really know how long they are warrantied for though!

[Carol]

Checked my Spencer's receipt. 90 days, so ill keep vigil!! Lol. I will b soooo disappointed if my bright pink goes to crap!! Im being so anal with them. I even asked my daughter to sew me a lava lamp cover to keep on my sons when not in use! His room gets so much sun. So when lamp not in use i cover it and keep it in the dark. You would not believe what the sun does to the china lamps fast!!! My daughters 1996 wizard was in the sun for awhile. Lava still vibrant pink although colored water did turn ckear. Time will tell.....

[Erin]

Oh, 90! I didn't know that. I brought my pink/blue to work today and it's so much easuer to see against a white wall. I can barely see the wax move when I run it at home in my room. It's such a dark lamp. 

[Carol]

OMG, where the hell did I see 90??!!  I just double checked and it says 30!!  I must have been looking at a different receipt.  I'm so sorry Erin.  Well if this lamp is gonna take a dump, it better do it in 30 days!!!

[Kirk]

Of the 52 oz Neons, the green, yellow, and watermelon have been flowing well for me -- green is the best.  I recycled my 52 oz purple neon a few months back and put glitter in it!

[Carol]

Hey Kirk, guess what?  That's what's gonna happen with my 52 oz Neon Purple as well as soon as I recoup my funds.  My son has the green in his room and it's nice.  No scratches on the globe, don't know about the flow yet.  He hasn't been running it long enough.  His first Neon green that we fried had really nice flow, but he never shut it off and let the sun get to it.  Now that he see's the b4 and after, he covers it up with a black pair of gym shorts when the sun hits his room.  I'm kind of glad we did that   At least now we know the do's and don't.  My pink and white 52 oz is flowing great after 2 runs.  Although 2nite midway through the melt I found the coil on it's side.  I was like Oh here we go again, back to Spencer's, haaa!!!  Gotta be honest though, the pink and white is my fav and I hate to say that because it's china but I luv the flow and the brightness of the lamp!!!

[Keith]

Coil flip is not uncommon and normally isn't a problem.  It does take the lamp longer to get flowing if it is a drastic flip though.

[Carol]

Yea, it fixed itself.  I'm on the 3rd launch and no coil flip 2nite.  Hopefully it won't cloud either.  I'm only running them 8 hours although LL said 10 was fine for the 52 oz, no more then 8 for anything less.  Even my new usa's I'm really afraid to push it with them.  They seem to really get hot like my wizard.  Maybe that's why the usa's flow better too.  Seems like they tend to run hotter.  I think with the China's it's just a combo of a whole bunch of cost cutting "the great American way"  stuff......