I'm not even sure what you call it, but the plastic piece where the light bulb screws into that actually hold the lamp shade on broke off when my husband tried to adjust it.  It was totally made of cheap plastic.  He had to make a trip to the hardware store to replace the broken element (or whatever it's called).  It worked out fine, but it was a real pain.  You'd be in a real trouble and the lamp would be a total waste if you had the same problem and you were real handy with things like that.