Block lighting -- I won't order from them again

[Ken Garlock]

Good morning. Back on September 15 I ordered a 50W HID bulb, a socket for the bulb, and a new matching Advance Postline ballast from Block lighting in Newport News VA. After several days, less than a week, I emailed them asking for the status of my order- NO response. After a week, I called on their 800 number. No answer, so I left a message - NO response. Into the second week, I received the bulb only. I continued to wait, and finally after another week, the bulb socket arrived.
In the interim, I tested the old ballast using the new bulb and found that the ballast was good. I then called Block lighting and by some quirk of fate had someone answer the phone. I told the man that I did not want the ballast as the old one was still good. He then tells me that they had found a new ballast at another location and had already shipped it to me. He then said to call them when it arrived and they would send instructions on how to return the ballast, a $200 item, to them. I have made at least 2 phone calls, and two emails to these people trying to get a RMA or instructions. NO response.

My conclusion is that they are too busy making big dollar sales to commercial businesses and can't be bothered with an individual's order.

Foot note, they claim that my CC number was wrong and that I needed to contact them. I replied to that email that I would discuss the CC when they provided instruction to return the ballast and credit my order for the ballast cost. As part of their customer care program, NO response.

On the plus side, Block lighting does have an excellent inventory of lighting parts.

On the minus side, their customer service is non existent! As a result, they are handling two orders for me, the first and the last.

Use the company at your own risk.

[Brian Elfert]

I can't imagine they treat their commercial customers much better unless they have a different number to call. It is amazing that companies like this stay in business in this economy.

It could also be that they have had to cut back on employees due to the economy.

[Ken Garlock]

Brian, yes I can cut a little slack on a cut back staff, but Never returning a call or answering an email goes beyond minimum staffing, IMO.

I will try again next week.....

[Rob Damon]

I can understand your frustration.

Looking at thier website to see where they are actually located, they are in a industrial park area about 8 minutes from where I live (Keith probably drives pretty close by them on his way to work at CNU, depending on his route.) They would appear to be geared more to the larger commercial clients as oppose to one fixture at a time client. (Not sure what your situation is.)

Common sense would say if you called to buy 1000 lamps and were calling from CNU or a local hospital or the Canon plant or from one the many military bases around here (and you regularly buy in those quantities) you would be getting excellent response and service, because that is the client base they seem to be marketing to and not to the Home Depot/Lowes walk-in buy one lamp in ten years client.

With the cut backs in the economy, a sales rep. that only calls on large order customers , would you spend your time trying to quick ship/resolve a one time purchase of one lamp/ballast when you have 8 other commercial clients that are trying to get their $180K orders. My guess is probably not, because the margins are so low, for a one off purchase, they would lose money, because that is not what they are geared up for.

In most cities across the country there are lighting supply houses that the commercial contractors use that would have most lamps/ballast in stock that you could drive and pick up. If you pay cash, you don't have to setup a commercial account. I would be amazed if there was not one within 10 miles of where you live.

Now I could personnally call up a local distributor and get a fixture or two with a quick response, but that is only because I work for a Arch/Engr. firm and can easily specify up to a $1M in lighting fixture/products per year that flow through guys like this.

So just looking at their site, if all I needed was one lamp/ballast, I would not have expected anything different. Retail is geared toward individual service, large distributors are not. And personnally, if I was that large commercial client who was trying to place $100K order and found the rep. dealing with a one off sales, I would get a little frustrated for lack of attention.

On the other hand if he got off the phone and said "I just closed on another $2M lighting contract from XYZ military base", and I know that I only order $10K of lamps per years, I would fully understand that the big stick gets the attention. That's the way commercial distributors work. They may say every customer is important, but that is not the reality.

Sorry it does not help you, but it's just my opinion.

Rob, Yorktown

[Ernie Miller]

I can understand your frustration.

Looking at thier website to see where they are actually located, they are in a industrial park area about 8 minutes from where I live (Keith probably drives pretty close by them on his way to work at CNU, depending on his route.) They would appear to be geared more to the larger commercial clients as oppose to one fixture at a time client. (Not sure what your situation is.)

Common sense would say if you called to buy 1000 lamps and were calling from CNU or a local hospital or the Canon plant or from one the many military bases around here (and you regularly buy in those quantities) you would be getting excellent response and service, because that is the client base they seem to be marketing to and not to the Home Depot/Lowes walk-in buy one lamp in ten years client.

With the cut backs in the economy, a sales rep. that only calls on large order customers , would you spend your time trying to quick ship/resolve a one time purchase of one lamp/ballast when you have 8 other commercial clients that are trying to get their $180K orders. My guess is probably not, because the margins are so low, for a one off purchase, they would lose money, because that is not what they are geared up for.

In most cities across the country there are lighting supply houses that the commercial contractors use that would have most lamps/ballast in stock that you could drive and pick up. If you pay cash, you don't have to setup a commercial account. I would be amazed if there was not one within 10 miles of where you live.

Now I could personnally call up a local distributor and get a fixture or two with a quick response, but that is only because I work for a Arch/Engr. firm and can easily specify up to a $1M in lighting fixture/products per year that flow through guys like this.

So just looking at their site, if all I needed was one lamp/ballast, I would not have expected anything different. Retail is geared toward individual service, large distributors are not. And personnally, if I was that large commercial client who was trying to place $100K order and found the rep. dealing with a one off sales, I would get a little frustrated for lack of attention.

On the other hand if he got off the phone and said "I just closed on another $2M lighting contract from XYZ military base", and I know that I only order $10K of lamps per years, I would fully understand that the big stick gets the attention. That's the way commercial distributors work. They may say every customer is important, but that is not the reality.

Sorry it does not help you, but it's just my opinion.

Rob, Yorktown

I couldn't disagree more. If they don't want to deal with an occasional small buyer they should say so and not accept the order. Ken's time is valuable to Ken and shouldn't be wasted in this manner. The company certainly didn't mind taking his money but when a problem arose he was too small to bother with. This isn't bad customer service - it's arrogance!

[Ken Garlock]

Hi Rob. You are most likely correct on the contracting. I have been dealing with Global lighting for exactly 30 days as of today. I wold think that in a 4 week, 20 days, period they could sneak in 5 minutes here and 10 minutes there to handle my order. If they don't want business of my type the should say "wholesale only" and save everybody time and effort.

Regarding the ballast, it is for an Advance brand Post-Line fixture. It must be absolutely water proof, and less than 3 inches in diameter. The specific model is not something that is standard stock my many electrical supply houses. I was going to buy a new one when my post light went out. After all the fussing around, I decided to set up a test environment in the shop. The test showed that the ballast was indeed good, and that there was no need for a new one. Then I get into the 'return ballast' game since the new ballast had already been shipped. Yes, I admit that I should have tested every component of the lamp, but I was thinking that it had been in service every night for 8 years through daytime heat well over 100 in the summer sun, and as low as 5 in some winter weather. Heck, I had the entire post lamp assembly out and laying on the ground, why not replace everything, ballast, socket, bulb, photocell. As it turns out, I really only needed a new Phillips HID 50W bulb and the socket. BTW, if you run out of things to do, try locating/buying a new photocell for a post light. First you start out buying a new steel post:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

Thus far I have been using the G L 800 number and a series of emails. Monday I will probably resort to good old ma bell long distance land-line. :eek:

[Rob Damon]

Ken,

I understand trying to locate a speciality item like that, as you are right that part would not likely be an off the shelf part and I would have expected it to be a longer lead time. Most of the custom order items I see have as much as 4-6 week lead times. The fact they researched and found one and shipped it to boot within that time frame (for a small purchase) actually says alot about them.

Before posting my previous comment, I actually spent a little time going through Block's website and from that got the clear impression they are marketing and geared up for larger commercial, government, industrial, hospital clients and no where on the site does it say or imply "small orders, one part orders, retail, welcome, come one, come all". Thus the basis for my opinion.

And not to stretch the point but I clearly assume I could go up to the Ball metal plant in WB and contract for 1000 custom logo'd cans for a company promotion, but I don't think I would get the same attention as the beer/soda manufacturers that purchase 1,000,000 cans a day from them. But I am sure they would take my money just the same. ;).

Rob

[John Coloccia]

They have a retail shopping cart on their web site. Who buys $100,000 worth of lights and fixtures using an internet shopping cart? Their web presence is that of a retail store front for at least part of their web site. I don't think the OP is being unreasonable at all. My experience is that poor customer service is poor customer service. Places with good customer service have it from their smallest to their largest customers, and places that don't treat everyone poorly.

[Ken Garlock]

Yesterday morning I got on the phone and called the BL home number. I spoke with a polite gentleman who called up my order and then re-queued my request for return information. He said I will have the data in about 20 minutes.

It arrived in mid afternoon from UPS in the form of a shipping label containing the tracking number and instructions on how to attach the label. Within an hour of receiving and printing the label, I had the return package in the local UPS store for pickup. I checked a few minutes ago, and the package has left the Dallas area, most likely heading first to Atlanta then up the coast.

The B L people need to learn from McMaster&Carr. I can place an order with them Saturday or Sunday and have it on my door step on Wednesday.

Well, I am glad to have made some progress on the return. Having seen how long the BL people take to process an order, I think i will just set back and wait until next Monday before I call them to discuss why they can't enter my CC number correctly.

In case I overlooked it, I originally ordered from B L be cause they had the ballast was looking for. B L had it for a little over $200, whereas multiple other vendors wanted 300 to 500 for the same ballast.