Trying to return a lamp to catalog company I ordered from...

[CTyankee]

the lamp was not working and I wanted to return it and get a refund. Simple, yes?

The conversation was not easy, to say the least. I gave the phone rep the item number, price and description. I told them I would return it, just give me the address.

I got the biggest runaround I have ever experienced. I had to explain again and again: "The lamp doesn't work. I want to return it but need an address. Where do I send it?"

I told the rep I was happy to put the lamp in a box and send it back to them but he couldn't tell me where. I was put on numerous holds.

Finally, the rep came back on the phone and said "don't worry about sending it back. We are sending a refund check for the full amount."

I will await said refund. Meanwhile, I will put the lamp in its box and place it in the recycling bin...

We will see what the City of New Haven's recycling folks who pick up every Monday will do...

[hlthe2b]

1. You may want to wait until/if you get the refund check before getting rid of the lamp...

just sayin...

[CTyankee]

2. Good idea. I will wait for the check (but not forever, it is taking up space).

Thanks for your input...

[Fla Dem]

3. Don't throw it away, drop it off at a charity resale store with a note attached.

I take it, it's an attractive lamp, afterall you selected it, so someone else may like it as well. If you donate it with a note stating that it doesn't work, someone with some electrical experience might buy it and fix it.

[CTyankee]

4. Good idea. I have another item I am dropping off so that makes sense!

Dunno why that didn't occur to me...

[csziggy]

5. Rewiring most lamps is really easy

Maybe you could do it yourself. If it is just a bad socket that is really, really easy:

[CTyankee]

6. Thank you!

While I got a little lost in the video you helpfully provided, I'm afraid I would do a terrible job, just due to general fuckupedness on my part!

But I will tell the Goodwill people that someone with better motor skills than I could try to work on this.

What I don't understand is how a brand new lamp could alluva sudden get screwed up just sitting on my bedside table, undisturbed. That was what made me believe it was just a bad lamp.


Anyway, thanks for the video. It was helpful to my understanding...

[csziggy]

7. The problem with your lamp could be as simple as a loose wire

If when they wired the socket to the cord, they did not catch the wires well, they could loose. Or it could be a bad socket.

Back when I was in high school, Mom pitched a fit that girls were required to take Home Ec while boys had no equivalent requirement, guaranteeing that college bound girls had one less college credit when they graduated. With four daughters she and Dad were adamant that we were all going to graduate college and wanted us to have the best preparation for it.

Mom lost, but the year I took Home Ec we got to switch with the shop boys for two weeks. The boys learned how to do laundry and some basic cooking.

We learned how to drive a nail (which I already knew, having built a shelf years before), and how to rewire a toaster and a table lamp. Well, you can no longer put new heater elements in toasters, but you CAN rewire a lamp! Kits with sockets and wire are easily found and are pretty cheap. The only time I have paid professionals to wire lamps were when we had antique lamps that were going outside and I wanted to make sure they would be completely safe - some of them still had the fittings to be gas lamps!

[CTyankee]

8. our house was built just prior to WW2. When we first moved in, we had very low electrical service,

as I found out when I tried to plug in and start the toaster and coffee maker one morning. AHA! i discovered something called a "fusebox" in my basement. For awhile I put up with the coffee, toaster thing by doing them separately...etc...got sick of that and called an electrician and had my service upgraded.

Unbelievable, that in the 1980s people were still putting up with low elecrical service...

[Flaleftist]

9. They might not even have a warehouse where you can send it.

They may just take orders and have a third-party mail you your purchase.

[CTyankee]

10. That's what I was essentially looking for...or just someplace to send it, period.

It wasn't that expensive, under $40...