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Affordable Quality lighting is a fraud. I was scammed and researched them in preparation for my lawsuit.
--Real owner George Kalta indicted by the FBI. (Google George Kalta FBI to see for yourself).
-His nephew Hanni Michael Hanna worked for him and started his own company
doing the same scam (see sunriselights.com, sonriselighting.com and now socallighting.com)
-says they are a manufacturer and made in USA --reality they are an internet sales co that buys cheap Chinese products from an importer in LA (I have the name).
-Had 79 BBB complaints and a terrible reputation so they changed their name from consumerchoicelighting.com to contractorschoicelighting.com and now to affordablequalitylighting.com, each time to start with a new reputation.
-Every customer has to sign a 3 page FAXED contract after you pay for the sole purpose of taking away your rights to dispute credit card charges or sue. That's right in the Internet age-- you must have access to a fax machine to order from Affordable Quality Lighting.
-created fake consumerlightingreports.org website to make them look good. (And to bad mouth his nephew's competing scam).
-Affordable Quality Lighting spends ALL their money on Goggle Ad Words to get you to buy-- no money left over--like a PONZI SCHEME. No money left for service, quality, returns or anything--that's why a highly advertised co hangs up on you, swears at you and never refunds or allows returns.
-Says member of all these associations and shows all these badges on their website--all fake. I called first one listed, American Lighting Association and they said Affordable quality lighting is not a member. Affordable says "we never said we are members of those associations, the website says 'you can judge people by who they associate with', then listed many associations. It doesn't say Affordable Quality Lighting is a member or affiliated with them." How deceiving, and fraudulent.
-Testimonials--fake
-Lifetime warranty --worthless--read terms and conditions CAREFULLY -- covers essentially nothing. Entire terms are double talk.
-Building photoshopped to look twice as big and removed all their warnings signs. Real building is small, has barbed wire, fencing surrounding entire building, cameras and big signs all over it saying "smile your on CAMERA" to keep all the unhappy local customers away.
-Been in business 1 year 3 months as affordable quality lighting, more if you include the 3 different names -- but not even close to 34 years.
-If wish someone had told me. I assumed because they were always listed first in Paid Ad Words that they must be legitimate--after all who would go thru all that trouble for a scam operation--boy was I wrong. All the FBI WARNING, SCAM ALERT and strange sales tactics should have clued me in that there was something wrong with this co...
-Don't believe me? Do your own research, Google affordable quality lighting or George Kalta, read their own terms and conditions. Call and ask why you need a fax machine to order, look-up contractors choice lighting in BBB.org, buy one item first as a sample (oh forgot--they won't sell you less than $100 orders).
How Google or the Gov't allows this company to go on is unbelievable.
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
Decided to check online for company reviews of AQ Lighting. Why? My wife and I are currently doing a complete kitchen remodel and after Google searching for lighting I found this company. I reviewed their offerings and spoke directly w/ Tom P. at length about what I wanted and his suggestions. I "found" him by asking more pointed questions about products then the phone rep. could answer. Was told Tom P. is the "go to" guy for technical questions. Tom was very specific about product details of the lighting I was interested in (PS-113 raw copper LED floodlights w/ brass mounting base and the appropriate dimmable transformer needed and a dimmer switch) and walked me through what was needed to build an entire suite I needed. After viewing other online choices I placed my order with them through their rep. Larry.
The items were needed ASAP as my electrician who was scheduled to install them bumped up that date. Needless to say because of that AQL's free shipping on orders over $199 by standard ground freight delivery times wouldn't work for me. Larry informed me that FEDEX overnight air would get the items to me 1 day ahead of schedule at a cost of $194 : California to NY. That added over 30% to the total cost of my order ! For a package that weighs roughly 15 lbs I think the government ought to investigate FEDEX under the RICO act.
Fast forward to receiving the items. Of course FEDEX delivered the items to my doorstep the minute I stepped out for about an hour. Upon picking up the box I noticed many punctures around the container. Here we go I thought to myself. I opened the box and was "momentarily" relieved to see that my items were carefully wrapped with bubblewrap. Upon removal of such I became the unfortunate recipient of shipping damaged floodlights. VERY expensive upgraded floodlights. In fact 3 of the 6 lights had enough damage as to be unusable for display.
I immediately called Larry at AQ Lighting to inform him of this. He requested I email him pics of the damaged items. I not only did that but forwarded the same to Tom P. Within 5 minutes I rec'd a call directly from Tom P. who said he would gladly sort through their "remaining" inventory to get me the replacement pieces needed so I could disassemble the damaged lights myself and repair them myself. He mentioned in passing these lights are extremely popular and in fact just sold 300 of the 500 units he last ordered to a Marriot Hotel in Hawaii. Not being rocket science to accomplish a parts swap I willingly agreed provided they overnight the new parts for Saturday delivery. This was when the electrician would be arriving to do the job. At $118/hr he's not going to be standing around at my expense for any amount of time longer than needed.
Tom P. informed me that since it was now early Friday morning (their time on the West coast) and that they have abbreviated working hours that day (they close at 3pm PST) my order would be expedited before the packers left for the rest of the week. They are closed weekends I might add. He promised the order would be packed and shipped for arrival the next day. Hours later at 6:05 pm EST in NY I checked my emails finding two from AQL and two more from FEDEX. AQL emails confirmed that items were being packaged and subsequently shipped. FEDEX emails were confirmation of shipping order being placed by AQL and then notification the AQL told FEDEX to halt the shipment. No notice or courtesy call from AQL about why? So now being 5 minutes after their offices closed I cannot contact them and am forced to have only half my lights available for installation. I am not a very happy customer right now. I attempted attaching pics of the shipping carton and damaged items here but site won't accept images for some reason. I wonder what I will be told by AQL when I call them first thing on Monday morning? Stay tuned for update.
Certainly a very unprofessional company.
A very unprofessional company to say the least.
I have been ordering from AQLighting on and off since 06' depending on the season and economy. I have been agreeing to those terms and conditions for years with out even paying attention or reading them. The reason I never paid attention is because I am a honest person, and my first instinct is NOT that someone is trying to screw me over. Every company (Especially electrical stuff) has terms & conditions and or policies. I have been saving money for years with theses guys. I have had great customer service, knowledgeable and professional. Everyone has a right to have their [censor] covered, doesn't mean you're getting ripped off.LOLv
Most of these comments echo my experience. Affordable quality lighting is neither affordable nor quality and worst of all the customer service is arrogant, rude and misleading. For me the worst is their boast about their BBB status; I decided to cut my losses with them and not pursue but would be interested if anyone has been successful in pursuing legal avenues. David
I agree the terms are... interesting. But I also must say that I have had no issues with three orders now. Any you can tell who I am as I have provided my name, and company website from which you may get my phone number and everything else. Other people may sign/say/state whatever they wish, but in order to add validity to my complaint with SOCAL aka SUNRISE, etc., I identify myself. I have even been called to confirm.
I will also be the first to say that the fixtures are not ...say...FX quality, but the pricing is MORE than reasonable and the fixtures are very good, making it easier for people to do full yard lighting. I suggest you talk to Tom yourself.
Gary
Because you can't tell who is real and who is not, I read Affordable Quality Lighting terms on off their own web page and from that alone could tell what scam artist / schiesters they must be... its all double talk conditons. I know enough to know when people write the policies they have its so they can get out of responsibility.
Do yourself a favor and READ their terms, conditions, shipping time, etc.. You will be able to make up your own mind without hypothesis-- it's right there in black and white.
I just ordered more lights form them for a client to look at before deciding on redoing her entire backyard. The order process was simple, the online chat and one telephone call were great. I even changed the order and Tom took care of it.
No delivery yet, but I anticipate smooth sailing.
Gary Fuller
30 years electrrical contracting
penlightelectric dot com
I have used this company twice for orders of more than $300. Both times they delivered in good condition in a timely manner everything that I ordered. They charged my credit card for the total amount only once.
I do not know if the company has changed hands since the above complaints or if it is a different company all together, But I am definitely very satisfied with their products and service and I plan to use them again.
I must say that I have reversed my feelings relative to Affordable Quality Lighting. They blow So Cal Lighting away and whoever Tom is, he works very hard to insure things are right. I did buy fixtures from him and I have no complaints. If I could remove my previous comment, I would.
Gary Fuller
WOW! So glad I read all of this. no wonder affordablequalitylighting looks just like the socallighting website! I believe anything after all of these reports on both of these companies. What is amazing is that all of the alleged "watchdog" entities let them stay in business and conduct it just as they always have!
Well, I had a very different experience with AQL. I too hated their terms but it's no biggie to me, b/c you can not waive a statutory right, no matter what it says in a contract. I knew that. Some of the components they sent me didn't work at first, BUT... their owner Tom worked with me, took back what didn't work, no questions asked, sent me new ones at no charge and did whatever it took to make a small $300 order work out for me. The components I ordered all work fine so far. It's been about two months and nothing has exploded. So, I have no serious complaints and will probably do more business with them. In fact I thought their CS was far better than most internet companies that end up routing your call to a third world country.
This is a follow-up by Wired. I got my $700 back. Not sure if it was this company who returned it or Paypal, whom I got a phone call from before I even called them.
I also got my order very promptly (less than 1 week) and it appears perfect. I wonder if, when they found out that I was immediately aware of it and it was on Paypal,
they did the right thing. Hard to trust them now, but maybe they are finally a good company.
I can't say I lost anything yet, but they did run thru not only the legitimate charges for my order, but also an additional charge for $700 (more than 5 times my order's value).
They did reply immediately to my EMAIL promising to return the money, but no explanation or apology. THEN I read these postings and went to pieces. At this point, if I get back the $700 and nothing else, I'm happy. Any more is a bonus. ALWAYS BUY THROUGH PAYPAL AND EBAY ONLY. They are legitimate.
I also bought into the deception. I put up a 100 feet of rope light and 2 days later two sections of the lights were out. Now what do I do. Dupped in Rochester, NY
Trevor,
I too had a very bad experience with affordable quality lighting. I received terrible junk, items arrived broken, they didn't honor their warranty, wouldn't respond to any calls or emails so I gave up. Good luck--I wish you well in your lawsuit.
p.s. I read your post and you are right on--unfortuantely I found out about everything you posted AFTER I had already been ripped off by www.affordablequalitylighting.com -- very strange company and experts at online deception.
read their terms...
I like how they have a disclaimer page that says in stock products may take 2 weeks before they ship, regardless of whether its says PRODUCT IN STOCK. Nice bit of burried info on their site. Here's some of it...(copied from their website page http://www.affordablequalitylighting.com/docs/shipping.html )
"These items noted as Parts In Stock does NOT mean that that particular item will ship the same day you place it. We still need to process your order, meaning we need to download your order, re-enter it in our system, charge it, produce the product if applicable, run it through the quality control department and finally have it placed in our shipping department for its turn to be packed and shipped. Keep in mind, we work long hours Monday through Thursday therefore we are closed Fridays and Weekends. So bottom line, these items normally SHIP from our warehouse within 7 to 14 working days."
Note: 1. they only are open 4 days a week so 7-10 workdays is up to 2 1/2 weeks before the order ships, plus transit time. Up to 3 1/2 weeks to get an order from these scammers? Also says "No restocking fees...then a paragraph later says 30% restocking fee..." "Lifetime warrantee!...then says does not include electrical components..." nice