Outdoor lighting company - Sunrise Lighting Northridge, CA

In March of 2007, I ordered over $2000 worth of outdoor lighting to =

complete the landscaping in our backyard. We were limited in our =

choices because we did not want to use low voltage lights. We placed an =

order with Sunrise Lighting (address: 9349 Melvin Ave #1, Northridge, =

CA 91324). The order took a long time to arrive, however it seemed all =

in good order (we never did see any UL stickers on anything and the =

light bulbs are impossible to find anywhere) - except for an item we =

were told we had to have for the light poles we ordered. (We ordered =

three light poles and were told we had to order a "Base" for each light =

pole.) The bases were not included with the order, and when I called =

to question this I was told we didn't need the base because the holes =

were already drilled in the base of the light pole. I then requested a =

credit for the three bases we had been told we must order - I was told =

we would get the credit. Additionally, the light pole itself did not =

match the lights we had ordered (the lights go on top of the light =

pole). Apparently the pole we ordered was made out of a different =

material. I was told we should have known this if we had read the =

information on the website. I immediately went back to the website =

(www.sonriselighting.com) and read through all the information - I never =

found anything indicating the poles would not match. One of the owners =

did agree, however, to pay for 1/2 of the cost of repainting the light =

poles. I was happy with this and immediately contracted a painter who =

repainted all three poles for $175.00 (So Sunrise now owed me $87.50 =

for 1/2 of the pole repainting and $74.97 for the three "bases" we =

didn't ever receive and never needed to order.) It's now been six =

months and after many many many phone calls, e-mails, faxes, submitting =

a scanned copy of the invoice for the pole repainting etc. I have never =

received any credit at all. In fact, the last time I called Sunrise =

Lighting and told the man I was giving up and would just post this =

information to alert other consumers, he said, "Well if you have that =

kind of attitude and you're going to threaten me I'm not going to help =

you at all." In other words, he had no intention of ever helping me. =

I would strongly suggest shopping around for outdoor lights. If you =

need any customer service at all, Sunrise Lighting will not accomodate =

you.

Comment On This

Sunrise Lighting and Socal Lighting are the same fraudlent company.

I am writing this to warn people of this online company, whom never in my life did I encounter such a troubled company operated by immature group of humans.

They do not follow anything on their website, with refunds, made in the USA, and they have a picture of a American female on the contacts page. But the company is far from American.

The people working there does not speak or type English.

There products were shipped to the US and repackaged as made in USA (My lights came in a box made in USA, but found a made in China Sticker on the light itself)

They don’t have any customer service and will trick you into defaulting on a refund.

Your calls are answered rulely, put on hold, or hung-up game play, in which you can hear laughing in the back ground.

Your e-mails are sent out via g-mail one account where it does not clarify whom the sender is.

OMG are the e-mails unprofessional. I have replys calling me names and with threats of ruining my credit and life. A copy of the e-mail is pasted below.

SoCal Lighting falsely posted themselves as a Better Business Bureau and was forced to remove that publication.

One of the online blogs show that SoCal Really did post a customer's credit card information online.

They will really try to ruin your credit.

They have your Name, Address, Credit Card Number, that they can pass out to friends for other illegal activities, leaving you with your identity and messed up credit to clear up.

Not to say, maybe send a bomb to your house!!

Here’s the unbelievablely rude and threatening e-mail pasted below:

From: "socallighting AT gmail.com" <socallighting AT gmail.com>

To: john woods <johnwoods411 AT yahoo.com>

Sent: Friday, July 8, 2011 4:41 PM

Subject: Re: WHY YOU MESSING WITH US

YOU GOD SUCKS, MUSSLIM BABY, NON AMERICANO. THERE’S NOTHING U OR YOUR SYSTEM CAN DO TO SHUT US DOWN. BTW WE STARTING LAW SUITE WITH BBB. FUC#$% YOU

From: john woods

Sent: Thursday, July 7, 2011 11:16 AM

To: socal lighting

Subject: Re: WHY YOU MESSING WITH US

Dear SoCal Lighting,

That last e-mail had nothing to do with my lights except for it was pass 30 days. But your company representative said to wait 3 weeks. Now your company will not honor my return of the products?

I also don’t appreciate you bringing my god into this. I will be reporting you the Better Business Bureau. Have a nice day.

Kind Regards,

John

From: socal lighting <socallighting AT gmail.com>

To: john woods <johnwoods411 AT yahoo.com>

Sent: Wednesday, July 6, 2011 9:45 PM

Subject: Re: WHY YOU MESSING WITH US

To bad, so sad, 30 days, you call back to chek dumsit. your name john woods, you child molesting priest, sounds like it, DAM YOUR GOD, we will messed you up, wath your back, wanna go to heaven.

On Monday, July 4, 2011, john woods <johnwoods411 AT yahoo.com> wrote:

> Dear SoCal Lighting,

>

> The lights we received from you does not look like the pictures. One flashes every 3 mintues when plugged in. Your website shows that these were made proudly in the USA. My wife found a MADE IN CHINA sticker on the inside housing. I tried to call your company (818) 772-0500 for US customer service three times. I first call I did not understand the person but was put on hold for 28 minutes ending with me hearing a dial tone. The second call seemed to be a 10 year old boy answering and laughing in the back ground. The third one for that day, a man took down my order number and said my replacement would arrive in 3 weeks than hung up. Three weeks later, nothing came in the mail. I called again and the lady said no calls were made, my 30 days are up. I asked to talk to a manager, she put me on hold for 5 minutes. The same voice picked up and said your 30 days are up, don’t call again!! Please advise what I was suppose to do with 2 broken lights that does not resemble the pictures on your website.

>

> Kind Regards,

> John

> From: socal lighting <socallighting AT gmail.com>

> To: Johnwoods411 AT yahoo.com

> Sent: Friday, July 1, 2011 12:29 PM

> Subject: WHY YOU MESSING WITH US

>

> WHY YOU MESSING WITH US. YOU BETTER CANCEL YOUR COMPLAINT. WE HAVE YOUR INFO. SAY GOOD BYE TO YOUR CREDIT. WE ONLY ACCEPT FAX REQUEST FOR REFUNDS AND WHEN YOU FAXED THE MACHINE WAS BROKEN. ENJOY YOUR ORDER

>

>

Comment On This

If you have been taken advantage of by Sunrise Lighting, sonriselighting, socal lighting, so cal lighting, please take the time to file with all appropriate entities as well as filing a complaint with your credit card company and its parent, whether Visa or Mastercard.

1 - Department of Justice Calif

2 - Dept COnsumer Affairs Calif

3 - Better Business Bureau - Los Angeles County

4 - complaints.com

5 - topix.com

6 - ripoffreport.com

7 - complaintsboard.com

And, if the money is not an issue - bitterbuyer.com.

Comment On This

I am in agreement with others complaining.

My greatest area of complaint is the treatment over the phone, which I ceased making use of, then the continued abuse in emails. The materials used in manufacturing are of concern, but secondary in nature. Mike of Socal claims they make all of their own product, but several complainants deem otherwise.

I purchased eight SRA-104LED in raw brass. Increasing the number ordered form one to eight evidently changed the finish back to the default to black, completely my fault for not reviewing the order afterward. When the fixtures arrived and I opened them, I called about the finish. Mike told me I ordered black. He said I could have them sand blasted because the raw brass is what is underneath.

I took them to a machinist. The machinist began blasting one stem and then told me I would be better off using an industrial stripping agent. He had some, showed me how it worked (it worked great), I went and purchased some and started stripping.

All of the stems are brass, all of the tops are copper. I called Mike. Mike told me that it was older brass off the shelf. I explained that neither the machinist nor I believe it is brass. Then Mike told me since I ordered black their part was done. I explained their advertising should state "may not be all brass if coating is ordered", as the ad states "solid brass". The conversation became fruitless.

I deliberately ordered one raw brass and one black. I stripped the black, it is all brass. In the interim the client wanted four more as the 25watt equivalency stated on the socal website is incorrect, another case of false advertising. I ordered three more raw brass fixtures, they came with the wrong bulbs. Not a big thing, we all make mistakes. It is what transpired afterward that was inappropriate for a professional exchange.

I cannot prove what was said verbally, so I will leave that out lest this become a "he said / she said" issue. Here is my first written complaint followed by Mike's reply (there a few other emails, pretty much the same tenor):

BEGIN PASTE

I have bcced the client so he is aware of my frustration and what we are now waiting for.

I called SoCal from the jobsite today, about 37 miles from my home. The individual who answered, Mike, asked how I was doing and I said "not so good". Mike then responded with something like "oh, is something wrong with your family?" I said "no, I received the wrong bulbs with a fixture order". Mike then said something like "Oh, I thought there was something wrong with your family, wrong bulbs is not a big thing, this is why we tell people to buy all of their fixtures at one time."

Mike, who is apparently the owner, has no business deciding for me what is or is not an issue. I bid a job and now will drive another 74 miles to complete it. In essence, this does impact my family, I cannot bill out the job which is what pays my family's bills.

Mike also said the manufacturer sometimes changes things. I was told by SoCal that Socal manufactures the lights. It is very poor quality control not to know what you are making and sending out.

Now, I cannot have new bulbs unless I pay for new ones or you will wait until the old ones are in your hand to send them out.

My client selected your fixtures. He is a very busy individual and delegated purchasing, etc. to me. I cannot speak for the client, but I will attempt to discourage any further purchases from your company by anyone I do work for. And, to be quite honest, we do work on a lot of high-end homes in this area.

My problems with your fixtures:

1) When online I ordered raw brass for the first lot, qty one. When I went to check out I saw the wrong qty and went back to increase the order. I believe when I changed the quantity the system defaulted back to black because I received all black fixtures.

2) I called and was told to have them sand-blasted as they are all brass.

3) I stripped all of them and the tops look like copper.

4) I then deliberately ordered one raw brass and one more black

5) A few days later the client wanted four more, so I ordered those.

6) Some of the screws on the next batch have larger diameter heads than the others and the head of the screw hits the side of the fixture, disallowing easy assembly and disallowing screwing the screw all of the way down.

I have stripped the black one that came, it is all brass. All of the raw brass ones you sent are all raw brass.

Images of all this will be posted at http://www.penlightelectric.com/images/brass.html in about 30 minutes. There is no public link to these, I want you to see them, if you opt to do so.

Gary Fuller

Mike's reply:

ok whats the problem we said we will exchange them like any other company you have to exchange the item to get the new one read our terms we have them plainly shown on the website and if you cant use the website dont get mad at us your the first customer to have that happend and if your such a high end big client why would a job with less then 15 fixtures be such a big deal mistakes happend people are human if your talent or job does not fulfill hapiness in your life dont vent on us do something about other than complain we will echange the sockets thats all we can do for you and we are paying the shipping good luck finding hand made solid brass fixtures made in the usa for anywhere near our prices we will correct the problem and pay all the shipping but if your not happy with your life and have this much time to complain and not stand up and be a man and do something about it like find something that will make you happy dont take it out on us we are doing our part

END PASTE

I wrote while incensed over the phone conversations, I apologize for any apparent tit-for-tat. I will say Mike addressed the bulbs immediately, for which I thanked him (I have all emails). Left undecided are the copper tops and incorrectly sized screws.

So, based on people willing to identify themselves, please do look at what is within the BBB and other entities which exist that house complaints or praise of businesses. I also believe that SoCal has within their purview the ability to provide good service, something is holding them back at this stage.

Side note. The bayonet base of the fixtures is within a well under the cap. There is no drain hole in the well. Sprinklers, or other low level sources of water could easily submerge the base in water. I am drilling drain holes in all of the fixtures.

If Socal takes care of the copper hats, I will immediately acknowledge such at all complaint sites I have visited. I Will also state so on my website where the pictures are posted. I already purchased the appropriate brass screws.

Comment On This

This company ripped us off too. Sent us defective lights that almost burned down aour customers home. I've been waiting 2 months for money back--nothing though. And his little run boy cursed me out lastnight on the phone. Theres no rival company making these reports--just honest businesses trying to make a living.