Grumblings over online ordering

[Phil Harris]

I am having the worst run of luck.  Earlier this year ordered four neon 52s from Spencers, 3 of the 4 cloudy, store took them back and exchanged for clear ones.  A for recovery to Spencers.

Ordered five 20 oz neon from planetlava.   All five cloudy varying from bad to just enough to be annoying.  They acknowledged the need to replace but are waiting on lava lite to check off on that.  odd but ok.   

So far 8 of 9 cloudy via online.

Today got two clear view 32oz i ordered from lavalamp.com and they are both unaccepatably cloudy right out of the box.  didnt even bother to unwrap em.

10 of 11 cloudy.  

What the hell? so discouraging, especially when i am so interested in whats coming up with the heritage line... yikes.

[Brad]

geez, sorry to hear about your run of bad luck.  i would make sure you let LL know about your experience.

[Rodrigo]

Yeah, that is a bit discouraging.. Thats the reason why ive been staying away from online ordering and just check my three nearby spencers for new lamps, still none of them carry pink/white and i WILL NOT order online if theres a chance of picking it up in person once they get some.

According to the other thread the Heritage line will cost 39.99$ and online only, so they better have used a different formula that doesnt cloud up as easy or something because i will be very disappointed if we all start seeing cloudy Heritage lamps out of the box, if thats the case then they should have them at stores, so Spencers has to deal with returning cloudy lamps and we just go buy them in store, like it should be.

[Phil Harris]

yeah they know... lol

is what it is, its not saving lives but dammit, i want em clear!

[Loren]

Even US made lavalite globes can cloud up during shipping, if the conditions are right. I'm clearing up two right now by cycling them, that clouded up during shipping only 3 hours away. Both were brand new. It's taking a long time, but both are clearing up.

I hear ya though...I would much rather pick them up in person, so I can check them out if I can before I buy them. Cycling is for the birds. :( It works, it just takes months of running cloudy lamps...time which SHOULD be spent looking at the nice fresh lava in a brand new globe! You have to wear it out just to be able to see it!

[Phil Harris]

i opted for a refund on the clear views.  planetlava contacted LL with my info and arranged the replacement lamps to be sent to me.  well... the lamps arrived, i got five different lamps (incl a 52 oz neon green) and ALL FIVE ARE CLOUDY.  

good gawd i have no faith in getting good lamps via shipping from anyone.

I have seen the so far positive experiences with the heritage lamps on that thread and i so want to get them but uff da I'm too gun-shy about it now.

score is now 15 cloudy 1 clear

[Erin]

Ordering online is tough. I will never understand why they cloud during shipping, but not when you run them. It doesn't make sense. And older lavas don't cloud when shipping, and if they do, they clear up. 

I'm so sorry :( that really sucks. 

[Phil Harris]

maybe i'll spend my money on a iPad Air instead

[Phil Harris]

interesting... I've been cycling the neons i originally got in hopes of seeing progress.  i rested them a few days then restarted again.  basically its 3 hrs on 3 hrs off with a timer 24/7 but i am not seeing any improvement.  at least not noticeable.  

does anyone have a 'clarity measuring method'?  I've thought about printing something with smaller and smaller print something along the line of a eye chart and seeing if there is a way to put a measure on what you can 'read' through the globe... i dunno... i guess it comes down to it either is or isn't regardless.  cloudy is in the eye of the beholder?  

Loren said:

I'm clearing up two right now by cycling them, (edit)  Both were brand new. It's taking a long time, but both are clearing up.

[Brad]

but you need lava lamps

[Loren]

It literally took me a few months for my midnights to clear, and they weren't even as bad as the midnights I just got a couple of months ago. Those are much better than they were, but still super cloudy.

The Chinese lamps that arrived cloudy were an orange accent lamp, and my colossus replacement globe. The orange accent is now crystal clear, but the colossus is going to take a few more months of cycling.

I put my globes on a bookshelf in front of the spines of a particular book with distinct b/w text in order to gauge the clarity of the globes. Ar first I saw NO text (let alone the book...or anything else), then I could see some dark blurs, then I could tell they were words, but couldn't make those words out. There are three different sizes of print on that book spine, which is the reason why I chose it, but I'm not to the point yet where that even matters. I can't even read the largest text yet.

Plus that doesn't work so well for the colossus. :p

Shining a maglite through the colossus works pretty well though...the more beam you see, the cloudier it is!

[Phil Harris]

OMG this is hugely depressing. I did the 'maglite' test (why i didn't think of that before i dunno) and now I'm seeing truly that globes that i had considered "clear" are actually just slightly hazy.   Only a few were actually clear enough to not project any light beam thru... O.O

Makes me think of that famous line 'you want the truth, you can't handle the truth'

makes me wanna dump em all out and goo kit away till i can't anymore

[Phil Harris]

well... i can't seem to get a response from Susan on my problems now.   I haven't ordered any heritage because of the fear of cloudy and now painful attempts at contact.   :/

getting really REALLY disappointed now.