Lamps are great and nice to have around the house.....cords and bulb assembly SUCK!
The lamps themselves are nice and I like them very much. The power cords and base rings that you have to insert to hold the bulbs, leave MUCH to be desired. The power cords are why these lamps receive 3 stars and not 5. A brief explanation as to why I am rating the cords. Without the power cords and the bulb fixture on the cord, the lamps would be useless and they would just be salt on a block of wood.<br />I purchased this set of lamps in May of 2014. Upon receiving the lamps, which were very well packaged, I immediately had issues with the power cords. There is an issue with the lamp cords/clip in base light. The clip in light brackets are not short enough for the lamp base to sit flat. They are ALL too tall for the bases in all lamps and the lamp sits and wobbles because of this. I sent a message via Amazon to the seller and this was my response:<br /><br />&#34;I have attached several pictures. Some with the lamps standing and some of the bottom view of how the cord end fits in the lamp. It couldn't possibly be the bulbs....they are so small and in no way being intrusive. (I mention the bulbs because they originally said they thought my bulbs might be the problem) The end of the cord with the bulb has 2 prongs on either side that you have to pinch to set the bulb into the lamp. These 2 prongs, that you pinch to insert/remove the bulb portion, are too long as you can see in several of the pictures, the lamp sitting on the prongs, not the base. The base of the lamps are not deep enough for the prongs and the prongs only go in so far so the lamps wobble on the base while standing and the metal prongs actually scratch the mess out of my tables when they are scooted a hair or moved without a complete lifting. The cord itself is not in the way at all and could go right into one of the designated cord spaces on the base if the base was sitting level. Maybe you can grab one of the sets you sell and put it together to see what I am talking about. I think the better option for a cord would be to have one that just has the plastic ring that goes on the bottom with the bulb base built into that instead of one that makes the plastic ring insert and the bulb base 2 separate parts.&#34;<br /><br />After sending this response, they messaged me back and said,<br />&#34;We looked at your pictures and comments and it turns out this is a common<br />question we have and is an easy fix. When you first get the cord and lamp<br />the metal connectors that hold the bulb are sticking straight down. In<br />order to fix this issue you simply need to put the cord in and push the<br />metal tabs out and toward the wood base. This will bend them up and out of<br />the way. Below I have attached some photos of us doing this ourselves. In<br />picture #3 you can see the fingers pushing the tabs down toward the wood to<br />bend them out of the way. If you need to further bend them you can remove<br />the cord and gently bend them further before replacing them in the bottom<br />of the lamp. We hope this helps and you continue to enjoy your salt lamps!<br />Thanks,&#34;<br /><br />My response to them on the altering of the lamp tabs,<br />&#34;I'm glad you were able to give me a solution to the problem, however, it was not as &#34;easy&#34; as you might think. For those of us who do not have very strong hands, the solution is nearly impossible to accomplish without some extra brain storming and a tool of some sort. Luckily, I was able to find some tools that made the process a bit easier, but it was still tedious. I have to recommend a few options on your part, as the distributor, that you could do in order for this to stop being a problem for your consumers.<br /><br />A) Include this solution to the metal prong problem in each customers box of orders in print, to ensure that they do not have this problem. Hence, giving your staff less inquiries and save them time in trying to trouble shoot in the future with others. Therefore giving you the possibility of not receiving a low rating on your products page.<br /><br />B) Have this done to the metal connectors in house so that they come ready to go and your customers do not have to struggle with trying to do this themselves. **I understand that many people could probably do this, but for those who are not able to bend the metal, which is very strong and for good reason, it is not an easy solution.<br /><br />C) Just distribute the lamps with a new and improved bulb assembly that does not have this problem. (My top recommendation being that this was an issue for every single one of the 6 lamps I received. I find it very hard to believe that this is not a problem for 100% of the lamps that you send out.)&#34;<br /><br />Now, this brings me to issue #2 with the lamps bulb assembly. The plastic ring that inserts into the bottom of the wooden base is too lose to stay put on every single one of my lamps and thus, when I pick up a lamp to move it, out come the entire bulb assembly and it falls to the ground. Luckily, I have learned to watch out for this problem and have not had any bulbs hit the floor and break (yet). It's just plain annoying. I've tried super glue, but over time the lamps get too warm and the hardened glue lets lose.<br /><br />Problem #3 with bulb assembly, if your even still with me this far into my rant, is where the electrical cord attaches to the bulb base. The cord splits in 2 and each piece or cord is inserted into the bottom of the bulb base. Well, I could see exposed wire when I first got them, but over time, I am now seeing at least 1/4 inch of exposed wire between the cord cover and the bulb base. I'm assuming my wire is slowly coming out of the bulb base and since my new house is a bit more humid than the house that I lived in when I bought these, the lamps now sweat quite a bit and my cord, with exposed wire, now has a puddle of water that it sits in if I don't catch the sweating before the puddle gets significant. I have had to, yet again, take the bulb assembly out of each lamp and wrap each one in electrical tape so that the wire is no longer exposed.<br /><br />I've come to the conclusion that the bulb assembly's just really suck and for the money paid for these lamps (I only paid $66 with shipping included), there should be WAY WAY better bulb assembly's included.<br />I'd love to buy more of these lamps, but I am just so completely turned off by the bulb assembly (and now the $99 price tag) that I just can't bring myself to do it. I will be looking for another set of lamps from another seller to purchase as gifts for friends and family this year and if they come with the same kind of cords and bulb assembly's, they will be going RIGHT back to the seller ASAP.
Rating: 3 stars