Well, life's going great right now.

[as40]

If it's not one thing, it's another.
Now it's lighting.
I recently purchased lighting from marinedepot.com (CustomSeaLife 48 SmartLite Fixture, purchased 1/22/04). I find out AFTER the fact that the company, CustomSeaLife, is out of business. Well, what do you know? Not even FOUR months into using my light, it STOPS working. I called marinedepot.com today to see if there was anything that could be done.

Well, there is no longer any warranty, or any service to my product, as the company that manufactured it is out of business. marinedepot.com will do nothing about it. It's tough s**t for me; they only cover the products they peddle for 30 days. Mine is a little over that. They are all for selling me more lightbulbs, though (of course). That might fix my problem, for $40 a pop. Of course, also, those would have no warranty on them. So if anything went wrong after a month, I'd just have to call up marinedepot.com and buy more non-insured bulbs, for $40 a pop.

Oh, and what I think is the best part of their business practices... marinedepot.com still sells CustomSeaLife lights and fixtures, without warning the customer that the company is out of business, and without warning the buyer to beware, there is no warranty!!! I would never have bought such an expensive piece of equipment had I known there was no coverage or insurance or standing behind their customers. I will not do business with marinedepot.com again, as long as they conduct business in such a manner.

 

[mogurnda]

This was posted over at the WAMAS website. I hope it's true:

From Champion Lighting and Supply
CUSTOM SEA LIFE- GOING OUT OF BUSINESS


Effective immediately, Custom Sea Life (CSL) is going out of business. They are closing their doors, not because of bankruptcy or business problems, but due to a personal decision made by the owner.

Through an arrangement with CSL, Champion Lighting will honor all CSL warranties on items purchased by Champion's wholesale, service, public aquarium and retail customers. This warranty will apply to all CSL products purchased in the past and for all current inventory, including refurbished items.

As always, Champion will continue to inventory replacement parts for virtually all CSL products. This includes CSL PC ballasts, metal halide ballasts, fans, sockets, UV's, chillers, and lamps for both the Power Compact and Metal Halide fixtures.

We will continue to distribute and warrantee Velocity pumps.

In the near future we will also be carrying replacement product lines for the PC Moon-Lite, Smart Lite, Power Compact line, Power Coolers, and UV sterilizers under the "Currents USA" brand name. We will continue to carry comparable metal halide hoods, retrofit kits, ballasts, etc.

Be assured that your Custom Sea Life fixtures, hoods, ballasts, chillers, etc. are not orphans. Customers that have purchased or are planning to purchase CSL products will be accommodated by Champion Lighting in every way. Feel free to contact us with parts needs or any concerns with CSL products.

Champion Lighting and Supply Co.
www.championlighting.com
800-673-7822

 

[as40]

Thanks Dave for the information!

Sorry it's taken me so long to respond; but it's been a very busy and hectic week. Not one of the better ones of my life. Hopefully things will start settling down a bit now though.

Back to lights...

Unfortunately, I think this about sums it up:
"Champion Lighting will honor all CSL warranties on items purchased by CHAMPION'S wholesale, service, public aquarium and retail CUSTOMERS. This warranty will apply to all CSL products purchased in the past and for all current inventory, including refurbished items."

If I had purchased my lights through Champion Lighting, I'd be covered. However, I got them through Marine Depot. Whom I sent a long nastygram along with the notice that I had posted my displeasure on a forum for all fellow hobbyists to see, so that they may better research/weigh their options before purchasing lights through them.

They responded, but it was the typical "thank you for your concern, we didn't read your complaint/don't care" type response.

Soo... I bought another lighting fixture. Not from Marine Depot though, of course. I weighed all the options, and as far as future maintanence and costs were concerned it made better sense to bite the bullet and pay a bit more now and get a better fixture that has a warranty. Plus, gave me an excuse I guess to upgrade the lights.

I ended up getting the 48" 4X65W (2x65w Dual Daylight / 2x65w Dual Actinic) with moonlights from these guys: http://www.marineandreef.com/shoppro/power_Orbit.html

Happy so far. And it's twice the lighting/wattage that I had before. Wish me luck that these'll last better than the last ones.

 

[mogurnda]

Sorry, didn't read carefully enough.

I have always had good luck with Marine and Reef. Looks like a nice setup.

 

[as40]

Well, still, I appreciate the info.
Didn't hurt for me to inquire of them either.
I must say again that so far, I really like the new lights. I'm wondering what I'm going to do with the old ones though. Don't know if anyone would be interested in it for parts or something.