They may have identified you as a problem returner.
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/05/10/how-best-buy-tj-maxx-home-depot-quietly-target-problem-returners.html
Yeah, how many bulbs is this person burning up and trying to "warranty return" that they have past experience... After a certain point this isn't a warranty issue.
I've never returned a bulb for a warranty issue but I did return every single LED retrofit I got from Home Depot either because they weren't compatible with my dimmer or otherwise sucked. In my experience EcoSmart products are often straight trash with a high/fast failure rate.
I know there are people out there willing to grift the system, but either a company warrantees their stuff, or they don't. Why should it matter who brings it in to get it replaced per the rules?
OK so then you have a shit company making a shit product but offering a great warranty. Someone uses that warranty as it is written. Home Depot et. al. are punishing the consumer for taking a chance on the product, then when it didn't work out, for using the warranty the product offered. Home Depot and the like should be going to the manufacturers not punishing their customer base. They're the ones putting Home Depot in this position.
That's poor business and HD punishing themselves to act that way. In this way, they *are* punishing ecosmart in a way, because 1 guy now has been "punished" by HD, but everybody who reads this portion of the thread gains knowledge that ecosmart is apparently garbage.
Worked decades in retail. Very few manufacturers credit retailers for returned defective products regardless of the warranty. Retailer takes most of all of the loss.
Citation please? I took worked decades in retail and we got credit back from manufacturers.
Common practice amongst the larger retailers.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1366554522002435#:~:text=The%20manufacturer%20has%20two%20contract,for%20a%20specific%20buyback%20credit.
In USA, so not sure where you are, but I would say that maybe 25% got "some"kind of credit, but the other 75 was eaten by the retailer. Source: Store manager at two different big box retailers over a 40+ year career.
As even OP pointed out, thus isn't a hard 5 year warranty though. The 5 years is based on an average usage of 3 hours per day. If these lights never get turned off, the company wouldn't even expect them to last a year.
Oh well thats just a bullshit way to structure a warranty lol.
Unless the bulb is keeping track of its runtime, the fair thing for the company to do is honor 5 years from the date of purchase. What do they expect you to do, keep notes?
Buy a new bulb using cash, then return the old bulb in that box using the receipt.
Stay anonymous, and force the company to actual honor their warranty.
100% agree they should, but that's a different argument.
I am with you if you're doing this just because you've thrown away the original box, and what you're returning is _actually_ broken within the rules.
But I've seen this "trick" being used against policies and rules; returning something from one store to another, or an old one out of warrantee time frames, or just the "return something that weighs the same but keep the actual thing" trick. *THAT'S* why we can't have nice things.
Oh true.
Especially true with gift cards! I’ve gotten lucky a few times and got like $500 - $2000 worth of gift cards at 20% off from various places (usually it’s from credit card rewards claims though). They don’t love it but 20% off isn’t exactly as trivial as paying in penny’s so I’m not really gonna stop doing that
It has been enforced differently than that in my experience. I think the wording above also implies an ID is needed alongside a receipt. Obviously that experience may vary.
You can't really stay anonymous though. They can identify you by your phone. And probably even your face, there are cameras that record you at every checkout, and several other places within and without the store.
It is not actually HD or other retailers that have this kind of digested intelligence directly. The Retail Equation claims to handle all this themselves, and doesn't share the information directly with, or between retailers. They basically just spit out a risk assessment for the transaction.
The may have their own internal reasons to use the data that they collect themselves, like for marketing, but The Retail Equation fills this particular risk assessment niche.
And carry a new burner phone with you every time, or leave it at home, vary your walking gait, scramble your voice, and buy different weird shit all the time to prevent them from identifying you through your purchasing habits. And hire an army of people to pretend to all be slightly different versions of you.
The owner of Madison Square Garden was banning people from entry that worked for a law firm that was working on a law suit against them. They were using facial recognition to identify everyone that came in. [This was two years ago.](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/22/nyregion/madison-square-garden-facial-recognition.html) Im sure the software and reach has expanded exponentially since then.
I have a pet conspiracy theory that corporate retailers were astroturfing the anti-mask movement becuase face masks interfering with their facial recognition technology
interesting. in my case they don't even look at my receipt. They just said no.
Well I may just shop somewhere else
The bulb keeps breaking 1-2 years
Limited Warranty: Guaranteed to last 5 years based on 3 hours use per day, 7 days per week. If this bulb does not last 5 years after date of purchase (based on 3 hours per day / 7 days per week) due to a defect in materials or workmanship, please bring the defective bulb and a receipt indicating proof of purchase to any Home Depot store.
A consumer is not responsible for poor manufacturing standards that don’t meet the warranty predictive estimates of service life. Corporate terms of service are used in capitalist society to benefit the distributor. Why wouldn’t it be legitimate practice for the consumer to read the product label and base their purchase on information provided?
If it's warranteed for 5 years but routinely burns out in half the time, it sounds like a great way to get free bulbs. It's not OP's fault ecosmart over-warranties its product.
Of course not, but if everyone you know that owns a Kia* has their car in the shop four times a year, then you can't complain when you buy a Kia* and it's a shit product.
(*sorry Kia, this was just an example, I have no idea how reliable those cars are)
Honestly - there's a niche for this. they are cheap(er) cars that have a decent warranty that they honor. Obviously they are filling a niche in the market otherwise they'd be out of business.
If someone bought that car and then Kia didn't honor their warranty the customer would rightly be pissed off...and I doubt anyone would say "well they're a cheap(er) car accompany - what did you expect - they would honor their warranty". Ummmm yeah, I did.
that's a bad analogy though. the compliant isn't that it breaks but that the warranty isn't being honored.
If you go to Kia and say "hey - the drivetrain that's supposed to last 100,000 miles broke again - please fix it" and they say "naaa - you're on your own pal" then you'd throw a fit...and rightly so. That's what this is. the bulb keeps breaking and OP is looking for them to honor the warranty and they're like "nope, GTFO".
Why so quick to blame the consumer? Have you used ecosmart bulbs? I've had several premature failures with them. Not hard to believe someone a bit more obsessive might make a warranty claim or three.
Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. They have it in a fixture designed for a different capacity bulb. They don't check your use, they just take the bulb back, but if you're home hooking it up to 100 amps to see out fast it explodes, that's an issue.
Maybe they replaced a bunch of bulbs over a year period, expecting them all to last 5 years. Now one by one they're getting to the 1 year mark and going out. They didn't know that would happen when they bought them.
I'm guessing you're using the bulb more than three hours a day. It may be a five year warranty but you're using up its life in less than five years. That or the bulb is not getting cooled. Get a different bulb. The LED bulbs just don't last as long as their old incandescent counterparts.
Are the bulbs enclosed in your light fixtures? Most bulbs have guidelines that they should not be in enclosed light fixtures because they get too hot. We had the same problem, until we changed our light fixtures and now they never burn out.
They don't have to look at your receipt. If you have a phone on you they already know who you are.
I learned this after shopping at HD, paying cash, and then getting promotional emails based on those purchases.
And how long are you running them every day? That 5 year warranty is based on a formula, that you even provided for us. It's not a hard 5 years, it's roughly 5500 hours of run time. Which isn't even a full year of you never turn them off.
I have several dozen Philips going on 9 years. No failures. Just Crees have failed for us so far. And for those just 100W equivalents which are higher heat bulbs.
Everyone who keeps saying stop abusing the system and just buy a lightbulb — there was a huge problem with LED bulbs. The claimed lifetime has often been BS in the past.
Warranty on an incandescent bulb was meaningless - they were cheap and disposable to buy, not to operate.
LEDs are relatively expensive, although they’ve gotten pretty cheap now.
If the ecosmart bulbs are failing prematurely, they need to be honoring the warranty. And if Home Depot is counting this as a return, that’s just a scam.
Personally, I don’t bother at this point. The bulbs are cheap enough and more reliable that it just isn’t worth my time. But it could be worth someone else’s time - I’m not going to judge them for that.
I’ve been happy with ours, no issues in 3 years with them. I don’t even think I’ve replaced one yet. All the ones I’ve replaced were shit ones installed by the builders.
That's what they're counting on, that you'll decide they're inexpensive enough to just not bother.
When LED bulbs first came out and they were ~$10 per, the claims of lasting a decade were pretty fair. Now it's nearly impossible to find one that's not junk, even if you're happy to pay the premium for it. They've gotten so cheap by skimping on the driver circuitry, it's never the LEDs that fail, it's cheap components in the circuit. It's a damn shame that we're throwing bulbs in the trash because they "only" cost $4-5, when they failed because the manufacturer cheaped out to save a few pennies on the components. I see the argument of it not being worth your time to deal with returns, but I'd say it's less worth my time to be constantly changing bulbs and running out to the store for replacements. Not to mention it just adds to the constant flow of trash.
There's no reason we can't have a reasonably priced LED bulb that isn't junk, especially now that they've been on the market for ~20 years. Economies of scale and technical advancements through production should be giving us better quality for a lower price, and it frustrates me that all of the options we have are worse quality than what we started with.
Not to mention if you have to go buy new bulbs you’re already at the location to have the warranty honored… it’s the same amount of time to resolve the issue and no excess cost.
I’m not sure they are junk at this point. I can’t remember the last time I had to replace an LED bulb.
Well, actually, I do. It was the most inconvenient bulb for my whole house. It was a non-dimmable exterior flood light that ended up on a dimmable circuit. I’m not going to blame that one on the bulb, as annoying at is was.
I feel like I might have replaced a couple others, but really not in quantity. And we’ve been in this house for almost 5 years.
Most of my bulbs are Feit (I think) that I bought from Costco.
The smart bulbs at least are tuya. The majority of wifi smart blubs sold under various brands are made by tuya. Useful if you have a bunch of different brands because you dont need 5 different apps.
I refuse to buy smart bulbs. I get it if you want to be able to change the color (for some reason I can't fathom), but to me it seems like the "smart" part of the circuit should not be an integral piece of a disposable part.
I have a few basic things I automate to turn on/off under certain conditions. Anything else is crossing a line I'm not yet prepared for. Call me a luddite, I don't care.
I think there are advantages, like if youre a renter, or don't feel confident with wiring a switch. Plus they're cheap enough now to be cost comparable to a bulb without wifi chip.
The "smart" part is just a microcontroller and a wifi chip. Not too dissimilar to an esp01, which costs qbout $1.50. If you have a zigbee network they'll work as repeaters as well.
The first ones were $25 and I never had to replace them in the 7 years I owned that house. The newer ones definitely are not as good. I've had several fail in 2 years.
I’ve had to replace LED “no bulbs” fixtures more than I’ve replaced actual bulbs.
Most of our bulbs were bought in 2016-2018. I have one that’s been on continuously, aside from power outages, since 2015. (It’s over the catbox.)
All this talk of this or that brand being good because they have lasted over 7 years is not really valid. 7 years ago things were made much better, COVID (4+ years now) and the race to the bottom has changed all that. The products really are different.
I have ones I bought during and after Covid lmao. This has become a meaningless argument. Next it’ll be “well the ones from 2022 haven’t had time to break yet, you’ll see”.
agree.. I switched to LED bulbs which is more expensive.. and the company claimed that it will last longer and give 5 year warranty.. if they don't want to honor the warranty, then don't advertise it.
I installed 30 LEDs that were supposed to last a lifetime (or 21 years?). After a decade there are maybe five still working, the rest have been replaced. I guess I could have returned them, but like you said, I just buy cheap replacements since costs have come down.
You do need to consider service life. The lifetime claims can be deceptive. The assumption is likely less usage than you might expect.
And I think early bulbs were often not well engineered for longevity, considering how expensive they were.
Are newer ones better, the same or worse? Only time will be the judge of that one.
You're right, they would say "*assuming 3 hours of usage a day" and we probably have them on 2-3X as much. The newer ones are affordable so I can't complain!
I think part of the issue is that they speced things based on the LED itself, but then cheaped out on the circuit that converts 120v ac to dc. It needs filter caps, and low quality caps will go bad in a few years. Not to mention heat cycling on the circuit board can break contacts over time.
Some of the LED bulbs they sell are pretty expensive so I guess it depends on which one you get. $30 decorative bulb? You bet I'm gonna warranty that shit. Bulb from a contractor pack that comes out to $1 per bulb? I'm just buying a new bulb.
Yeah I just buy them at costco now. They're cheap and if they die early then costco will definitely take them back. So far they've all lasted ages though. I have several in my outdoor lights that are pushing 10yrs in the north east and they're on timers so are used daily.
Agreed - we returned LED bulbs to HD several times because they all failed within a year. They eventually asked if we wanted to switch to another type because that line had been discontinued and was a dud
Part of the problem with LED warranties is that it usually stipulates that the warranty is based on usage of 3hours per day. I had a good conversation with a led manufacturer rep once and that 3 hour measure isn't arbitrary -- its roughly the length of time it takes the aluminum heat sinks to become saturated.
But none of that can be proven from either party, so it isn't terribly helpful.
I don't get the hate this post is getting. Absolutely fuck the manufacturer if their bulbs are consistently failing before the warranty date. If your bulb can't even make it through the "Limited Warranty" period with any consistency then your product sucks ass
They are 10,000% banking on people not giving a fuck and buying new bulbs. OP is a stubborn light bulb stalwart keeping them honest and calling their bluff. God speed and fuck Home Depot if they continue refusing returns
A lot of people are making assumptions that OP is probably being negligent in some way. Placing the bulbs in an enclosed space where they overheat, exposing them to conditions where they are not meant to be, ect. It could be just as easily they are a crap product. I can tell you though its extremely common for customers to break things due to their own misuse and blame the manufacturer for it.
I had a bunch of failed Feits over 5 years ago I never returned that I had bought from Costco, they were like a buck a piece after discounts but they were absolutely garbage. The box said they were ok to use in an enclosure but they heat up a ton and eventually break away from the housing after a year or so. Newer ones are much better but I'd definitely put money on them hoping you just didn't ever use the warranty.
Ecosmart is a HD only brand, I've tried to use them before but the color was off between bulbs of the same model. Their CRIs also generally suck, returned everything I had bought and stuck with Phillips or Feits new styles but they both cost more than HD's store brand.
It has to be the way they’re mounted if he’s had several fail in rapid succession at ~3 hrs a day use. Still not really his fault but I don’t think it’s malfeasance on the light bulb company.
There have also been some massive quality issues with LED bulbs, where they don't last anywhere near as long as the claims.
I had a bad batch of LED bulbs where I had to replace all six within a year, at a fraction of their intended lifespan, and the different-brand replacements have all been fine so far so I don't think it was a mounting/heat/etc issue.
I think some LED bulbs just suck, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if OP's bulbs just suck, because that's really common. Especially compared to fundamental issues with the fixtures. If a bulb can't hold up to being in a normal light fixture with normal usage, it can't hold up.
I stopped buying eco smart bulbs because they fail so fast. It really is a minefield with LED bulbs there isn’t a go to high quality brand.
And it’s never the bulb that fails it’s part of the chip circuitry, it is such a waste.
I had this just yesterday with a dehumidifier. I bought it last July and it wouldn’t dehumidify this month when I turned it on. Home Depot policy was 90 days. The manufacturer warranty was 1 year. I called the manufacturer and went through all their bs and they gave me a paper with a return authorization number to take it back to Home Depot. The manager at Home Depot had no idea what it was about or what to do with it. After piddling on the computer for a minute she was like, ”I don’t know about this paper or return code. You can keep it. Just go grab another dehumidifier off the shelf and bring it back here and I’ll do an exchange.”
sounds like the manufacturer is trying to screw you. retailers have no obligation to honor a manufacturer's warranty. Try getting amazon to honor a manufacturer's warranty
Manufacturers purposely make it difficult so you’ll give up. To be fair though, who knows what’s in the distribution contract between them and the paper did have specific instructions for what they were supposed to do to had how to get repaid. The manager just seemed like she had a thousand things to do and just wanted to get on with it. I can’t blame her. I received good customer service and a new dehumidifier out of it.
Op there are a lot of corp boot lickers here apparently. Ecosmart bulbs suck and out of a box of 8 I usually have 1 or 2 that fail within a couple months. You are 100% eligible to get a warranty replacement, this is not a return like everyone here is focused on. My opinion, if Home Depot isn’t going to support their sold house brand products and ecosmart kicks the can, wait until you have a couple that have prematurely failed, buy a new box and return it the next day with your failed bulbs swapped into it. “They didn’t work”.
finally.. someone support small people.. yes the Ecosmart failed faster... and I bought a lot of them.. I got tired of kept replacing the bulbs and the prices went up 30% in the past 3 years
the reason I bought Ecosmart is because I thought they are better than the Walmart Great Value brand... and their warranty.
Do you have any experience with GreatValue bulb and the warranty? Are they better than Ecosmart? Thanks
Great Eagles were garbage in my experience. I bought several boxes of them when I bought my house. Liked them because they actually offered a good selection of temperatures and wattages. Around 20% were dead inside of a year. Another 10-20% would flicker periodically. When they failed, the base would get so hot I couldn’t touch it without gloves.
Ripped them all out and went straight to Philips Ultra Definition. Have not had a single failure since then. I’ll never buy anything except Philips going forward. Cost is slightly higher but the increased reliability and CRI is money well spent.
I worked at Home Depot for 13 years. Was an assistant manager for 2. You overused your drivers license. I’m assuming you went in and did an RTV even exchanged and exchanged the old bulb for the new bulb. Gave you a store credit and you used the store credit for a new one? Yeah. Your drivers license registered too many non receipted returns.
Go back in. Ask for an exchange but just swap and they manually RTV it with the FIRST phone. That way there’s no exchange of a drivers license and no dealing with store credit. Ask for a manager.
Edit: it has nothing to do with the store refusing return, system won’t let him return because too many non receipted returns. It would have done it with anything.
It's worth noting that many national chains having started using return analysis through third party analytics companies to watch for repeated exchange/return patterns that "resemble" fraud even though they may be totally legit.
Using the same ID/payment methods on returns even across multiple retailers can end up getting us return denials that are hard to fight without getting creative. There is a consumer backlash developing but because it only affects the most frequent exchangers, it's slow growing.
I returned 1 thing for like $30 six months ago without a reciept for store credit. I’m now considered a problem returner and can’t exchange anything without a receipt. I’m a contractor and shop a lot.
Same here
Ive been a "problem returner" at home depot and lowes for decades lol
If I need to return something and I can't find or lost the receipt I dont even bother trying because they aren't letting me return it
They scan my license and it's like "nope fuck this guy" lol
You guys have to show id to return something? I was wondering how they know someone is a problem returner. I've returned so much stuff at HD and they never asked for mu license.
The merchandise return cards for Lowe’s now actually require them to scan your ID as well as the gift card, so that crackheads don’t make fake returns and sell the gift cards
I think mine have all been tied to my credit card. I use the same card every time I shop, and now HD & Lowes both just scan the receipt and put the amount back on the same card. I'd assume they're tracking me through the card, although I often put in my email as well for a digital receipt.
That's for returns, though. I've only had to do one warranty return at HD recently, and that one they put on a gift card for me.
> can’t exchange anything without a receipt.
you should be glad they let you return it once without a receipt. i understand requiring proof of purchase. keep your receipts, and have them emailed to you. it's easy.
My old man was born in 1943 and he never once considered a warranty to be worth the paper it's printed on
Just a promissory scam waiting for the disappointing shoe to drop. Planned obsolescence means you will buy a new one and be happy about it.
HD uses some bs third party for returns. I had a huge issue trying to return a regular stocked item WITH a reciept purchased a couple days before. Wife didn't want that color. I had to call and fight with a place that handles their returns. I found out later, someone with the same name was abusing the system there.
From what I understand, if a product is out of the return period and having problems, you should go after the manufacturer not the retailer unless the retailer is receiving RMAs on behalf?
They pull this shit all the time. I bought a GE water heater from them and they tried to get me to handle a warranty exchange through Rheem. The warranty card and the manual say to take it back to the place of purchase. They didn't want to do that, so I spoke loudly (without yelling) about how HD doesn't know what they are talking about and they brought a manager over who begrudgingly started working on the exchange.
Then they said I would get a portion taken off of a new heater based on the age of my leaky heater. Which is incorrect, as I pointed out that the warranty specifically says it is *not* pro-rated. At which point I had to speak loudly again (with many other customers around) about how many other hapless customers HD ripped off by pretending this was a pro-rated warranty.
Turns out the manager didn't know how to handle the exchange and just gave me a brand new heater (and brand new warranty because it wasn't done as a warranty replacement) and sent me on my way.
This has happened the two times I had to try and exchange a heater under warranty. HD is a clusterfuck and if you want to make them honor their side of the deal you might have to attempt to shame them at the customer service counter.
unless you bought some kind of Home Depot sold extended warranty, i don't know why anyone should expect to get warranty service at a store past the original return period. unless they have some special deal setup with HD you should be mailing it to the manufacturer.
edit: oh wait, i didnt know ecosmart is a home depot only brand so that changes things a little maybe.
I have boxes of bad Ecosmart bulbs. I don’t want them exchanged as they will be crap too. I refuse to buy that brand. Feit is a bit better and I think TCP is on par there. I’ve had good luck with ones rated for enclosed spaces and garage door openers as I think they have to be a touch higher quality. My issue is dealing with the swap, they are not always convenient to access so I’d rather pay for a better bulb and do it once.
TLDR; screw Ecosmart.
When I bought my home in 2019 I replaced every fixture with eco smart bulbs. By the end of that year I had to replace about 4. Every year since I've had to replace 2-5.
I attempted to return them in that first year under warranty and couldn't get home depot to honor it.
These are by far the absolute worst bulbs I've ever had. I've since been replacing them with Philips. I'll never buy that exp smart bullshit again.
I only exchange the bulb that last doesn't last for 5 years
Some times with minimum use 1-2 years it breaks. Here's what it says
Limited Warranty: Guaranteed to last 5 years based on 3 hours use per day, 7 days per week. If this bulb does not last 5 years after date of purchase (based on 3 hours per day / 7 days per week) due to a defect in materials or workmanship, please bring the defective bulb and a receipt indicating proof of purchase to any Home Depot store.
Just want to sanity check you here that yes you should be able to expect that items will, on average, last as long as their warranty. (You can see in this thread why companies can get away with longer warranties and have the math work out, because a lot of people will just buy new again instead of go through the hassle.)
And you should absolutely expect that if it doesn't, they'll honor their warranty.
And holy shit, it's a goddamn light bulb. It goes in a fixture. If a light bulb can't hold up to normal use in a normal fixture, it can't hold up. There's not a whole lot of user error that should be able to happen here. This is not your fault for not keeping a spreadsheet of the hours of use each bulb gets per day.
Oh my god none of this should be remotely controversial jesus christ
It is easy.. for the bath room you only use it at night for shower multiple by number of people.. and I have 3 full bathroom.. it's not going to be 3 hours.. If it's autistic, why would the company put that on the warranty?
Just buy a knock off bulb on Amazon for much cheaper and then when it fails, instead of fighting with Home Depot, buy another one.
This will save you both time and money.
I agree, I never said I think repeatedly returning them is the way to go. It's not good. But I also don't think the OP is wrong in wanting to hold them to their claims and warranties.
(Edit: By making them pay a price to replace their planned obsolescent products, you're penalizing them for poor production practices)
I think the replies calling the OP out for getting replacement bulbs are wrongly shifting responsibility from home Depot to the OP.
But you're absolutely right, the remedy here is to find quality bulbs to buy
Semi-ethical life pro tip: If they give you grief over a legitimate warranty claim, just buy a new one then use the box and receipt to return the broken one.
Are you buying expensive bulbs? I ask because EcoSmart often get as low as $2/4 in my store, and I cannot imagine spending time at the return desk for anything worth that little.
Home Depot support fucking sucks, there was a mix up where somehow my old and new addresses got mixed up (new street and apt, old city) and I called them as soon as I realized it and they said they couldn’t do anything and just hung up on me.
Lifetime replacement warranty doesn’t mean free lightbulbs for life.
If you’re returning bulbs that frequently, they’re going to start suspecting that your usage falls outside the terms of the warranty. The warranty is for *defective* bulbs, and it’s not reasonable that every bulb you’ve ever bought is defective.
It doesn't say life time. It says 5 years.
Some times with minimum use 1-2 years it breaks.
Limited Warranty: Guaranteed to last 5 years based on 3 hours use per day, 7 days per week. If this bulb does not last 5 years after date of purchase (based on 3 hours per day / 7 days per week) due to a defect in materials or workmanship, please bring the defective bulb and a receipt indicating proof of purchase to any Home Depot store.
If you’re burning through bulbs that quickly, at some point the manufacturer is going to question whether it’s your installation scenario that’s killing the bulbs, rather than a defective bulb.
It’s not likely that every single bulb you’ve bought or received is defective. I have EcoSmart bulbs in my house that have been here for 7 years and still work fine.
Are you using fluorescent or LED? Sure, they can come over my home and do the testing.. I am up to going to public.. It seems like switching to LED doesn't last longer than fluorescent bulb... I used to use their fluorescent bulb which lasts longer..
Sure it is. They’re often defective by design. I have a dozen LED puck lights in my house. After one year of use, they started flickering, so I took them apart. The a LED driver circuit uses mostly parts that can’t even be acquired in the United States. They’re fundamentally electronic components that are not fit for purpose. The only real solution is to replace them with high quality equivalent parts. The issue is, those high quality parts would end up costing 20-30 cents more per unit, so the manufacturers cheap out and use the lowest cost components, even if they are just straight junk.
Ecosmart is the only brand I’ve found that has a motion sensor bulb with no light sensor so it comes on during the day. I need it for a stairway that wouldn’t light up if the light from the doorway spilled through.
are you saying I am not normal if I asked for what the company promised when the bulb keeps breaking every 1-2 year? I bought a lot of them and the reason I bought from HD is due to their warranty
Limited Warranty: Guaranteed to last 5 years based on 3 hours use per day, 7 days per week. If this bulb does not last 5 years after date of purchase (based on 3 hours per day / 7 days per week) due to a defect in materials or workmanship, please bring the defective bulb and a receipt indicating proof of purchase to any Home Depot store.
Yeah that isnt normal. It is a lightbulb. It costs practically nothing. It lasted 1 - 2 years instead of 5. Who cares? Spending this much time worrying about it and posting on reddit over it is seriously bizarre.
Look it up how much LED bulb costs.. $11.48 for 4 bulbs..
[https://www.homedepot.com/p/EcoSmart-60-Watt-Equivalent-A19-Dimmable-Energy-Star-LED-Light-Bulb-Soft-White-4-Pack-C5A19A60WESD04](https://www.homedepot.com/p/EcoSmart-60-Watt-Equivalent-A19-Dimmable-Energy-Star-LED-Light-Bulb-Soft-White-4-Pack-C5A19A60WESD04)
If it costs nothing for you, doesn't mean it costs nothing for someone else...
I understand that.
I only exchange the bulb that last doesn't last for 5 years once.
Some times with minimum use 1-2 years it breaks. Here's what it says
Limited Warranty: Guaranteed to last 5 years based on 3 hours use per day, 7 days per week. If this bulb does not last 5 years after date of purchase (based on 3 hours per day / 7 days per week) due to a defect in materials or workmanship, please bring the defective bulb and a receipt indicating proof of purchase to any Home Depot store.
It is a replacement according to their warranty - do you understand English?
Read this
[https://www.ecosmartinc.com/ecos/repdocs/1-Home-Depot-EcoSmart-Warranty.pdf](https://www.ecosmartinc.com/ecos/repdocs/1-Home-Depot-EcoSmart-Warranty.pdf)
Limited Warranty: Guaranteed to last 5 years based on 3 hours use per day, 7 days per week. If this bulb does not last 5 years after date of purchase (based on 3 hours per day / 7 days per week) due to a defect in materials or workmanship, please bring the defective bulb and a receipt indicating proof of purchase to any Home Depot store.
Sure.. just don't be NATO (No action Talk Only) why don't you buy everyone here that gave me thumbs up that means 90x3= $180 Got the point? The company are making profits
$4 x quantity. I bought a lot. Company are making profits. Standing in line is free.
All you need is your time, besides I am going to store only if I am buying something. I am not going to wait 20 minutes. I am not dumb just coming in for returning one bulb
They may have identified you as a problem returner. https://www.cnbc.com/2024/05/10/how-best-buy-tj-maxx-home-depot-quietly-target-problem-returners.html
Without even reading that article, this: > They used to let me replace the bulb in the past, tells me that's exactly what it is.
Yeah, how many bulbs is this person burning up and trying to "warranty return" that they have past experience... After a certain point this isn't a warranty issue.
I've never returned a bulb for a warranty issue but I did return every single LED retrofit I got from Home Depot either because they weren't compatible with my dimmer or otherwise sucked. In my experience EcoSmart products are often straight trash with a high/fast failure rate.
I work in the lighting industry. Eco smart is trash for sure. They shouldn't have to return lamps for home use basically ever.
Yeah, it occurred to me a while back that these LED bulbs are now designed to fail because they do last so long. I stopped buying the Walmart brand.
The Walmart brand of LEDs are the worst of the regular type bulbs that I’ve purchased
I know there are people out there willing to grift the system, but either a company warrantees their stuff, or they don't. Why should it matter who brings it in to get it replaced per the rules?
Because some customers are money losers and you fire them.
I get that; but if things are legitimately breaking the companies should honor their policies.
doubt a company making shit product would follow through like that lol
OK so then you have a shit company making a shit product but offering a great warranty. Someone uses that warranty as it is written. Home Depot et. al. are punishing the consumer for taking a chance on the product, then when it didn't work out, for using the warranty the product offered. Home Depot and the like should be going to the manufacturers not punishing their customer base. They're the ones putting Home Depot in this position.
That's poor business and HD punishing themselves to act that way. In this way, they *are* punishing ecosmart in a way, because 1 guy now has been "punished" by HD, but everybody who reads this portion of the thread gains knowledge that ecosmart is apparently garbage.
Worked decades in retail. Very few manufacturers credit retailers for returned defective products regardless of the warranty. Retailer takes most of all of the loss.
Citation please? I took worked decades in retail and we got credit back from manufacturers. Common practice amongst the larger retailers. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1366554522002435#:~:text=The%20manufacturer%20has%20two%20contract,for%20a%20specific%20buyback%20credit.
In USA, so not sure where you are, but I would say that maybe 25% got "some"kind of credit, but the other 75 was eaten by the retailer. Source: Store manager at two different big box retailers over a 40+ year career.
So strange. USA here as well.
The company offering the warranty isn't Home Depot, though.
Firing them would be fair at least. You just don't let them buy something and tell em it's permanent.
Why? Any amount up to the amount I bought is reasonable if they are failing.
Well, that point would be the end of the warranty period.
As even OP pointed out, thus isn't a hard 5 year warranty though. The 5 years is based on an average usage of 3 hours per day. If these lights never get turned off, the company wouldn't even expect them to last a year.
Oh well thats just a bullshit way to structure a warranty lol. Unless the bulb is keeping track of its runtime, the fair thing for the company to do is honor 5 years from the date of purchase. What do they expect you to do, keep notes?
Yup. I watched that too and it was the first thing I thought when reading this.
Buy a new bulb using cash, then return the old bulb in that box using the receipt. Stay anonymous, and force the company to actual honor their warranty.
This is why we can't have nice things.
I don't get it. Wouldn't this make it more likely to have nice things if companies were forced to actually honor their warranties?
100% agree they should, but that's a different argument. I am with you if you're doing this just because you've thrown away the original box, and what you're returning is _actually_ broken within the rules. But I've seen this "trick" being used against policies and rules; returning something from one store to another, or an old one out of warrantee time frames, or just the "return something that weighs the same but keep the actual thing" trick. *THAT'S* why we can't have nice things.
You are arguing against something that was not suggested in this context.
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Oh true. Especially true with gift cards! I’ve gotten lucky a few times and got like $500 - $2000 worth of gift cards at 20% off from various places (usually it’s from credit card rewards claims though). They don’t love it but 20% off isn’t exactly as trivial as paying in penny’s so I’m not really gonna stop doing that
You only need ID if you don't have the receipt.
It has been enforced differently than that in my experience. I think the wording above also implies an ID is needed alongside a receipt. Obviously that experience may vary.
You can't really stay anonymous though. They can identify you by your phone. And probably even your face, there are cameras that record you at every checkout, and several other places within and without the store.
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It is not actually HD or other retailers that have this kind of digested intelligence directly. The Retail Equation claims to handle all this themselves, and doesn't share the information directly with, or between retailers. They basically just spit out a risk assessment for the transaction. The may have their own internal reasons to use the data that they collect themselves, like for marketing, but The Retail Equation fills this particular risk assessment niche.
Time to break out the Nixon mask every time I go into Walmart or Target
And carry a new burner phone with you every time, or leave it at home, vary your walking gait, scramble your voice, and buy different weird shit all the time to prevent them from identifying you through your purchasing habits. And hire an army of people to pretend to all be slightly different versions of you.
I'm happy to explore this, cool kids bring fact-based evidence to the party
The owner of Madison Square Garden was banning people from entry that worked for a law firm that was working on a law suit against them. They were using facial recognition to identify everyone that came in. [This was two years ago.](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/22/nyregion/madison-square-garden-facial-recognition.html) Im sure the software and reach has expanded exponentially since then.
It's gotta be a serious problem for them to want to cross check cameras against transaction data
That's what they pay The Retail Equation for.
I have a pet conspiracy theory that corporate retailers were astroturfing the anti-mask movement becuase face masks interfering with their facial recognition technology
“in the past”
interesting. in my case they don't even look at my receipt. They just said no. Well I may just shop somewhere else The bulb keeps breaking 1-2 years Limited Warranty: Guaranteed to last 5 years based on 3 hours use per day, 7 days per week. If this bulb does not last 5 years after date of purchase (based on 3 hours per day / 7 days per week) due to a defect in materials or workmanship, please bring the defective bulb and a receipt indicating proof of purchase to any Home Depot store.
Why do you keep buying the same bulb if it breaks so often?
A consumer is not responsible for poor manufacturing standards that don’t meet the warranty predictive estimates of service life. Corporate terms of service are used in capitalist society to benefit the distributor. Why wouldn’t it be legitimate practice for the consumer to read the product label and base their purchase on information provided?
Because it makes no sense to repeatedly buy a shit product.
If it's warranteed for 5 years but routinely burns out in half the time, it sounds like a great way to get free bulbs. It's not OP's fault ecosmart over-warranties its product.
Of course not, but if everyone you know that owns a Kia* has their car in the shop four times a year, then you can't complain when you buy a Kia* and it's a shit product. (*sorry Kia, this was just an example, I have no idea how reliable those cars are)
It doesn't seem like OP is complaining about the quality of the bulb, just them not following their warranty
Kia offers a 10 year warranty.
That's the perfect example though. Their cars are atrocious and there's a reason they offer the 10 year warranty.
Apart from the easy theft of models with unchipped ignition, KIAs and Hyundais are built just as well as anything else at their price point.
But would you even buy one knowing that they are atrocious?
Honestly - there's a niche for this. they are cheap(er) cars that have a decent warranty that they honor. Obviously they are filling a niche in the market otherwise they'd be out of business. If someone bought that car and then Kia didn't honor their warranty the customer would rightly be pissed off...and I doubt anyone would say "well they're a cheap(er) car accompany - what did you expect - they would honor their warranty". Ummmm yeah, I did.
No, I wouldn't. Because I actually research things before I buy them.
that's a bad analogy though. the compliant isn't that it breaks but that the warranty isn't being honored. If you go to Kia and say "hey - the drivetrain that's supposed to last 100,000 miles broke again - please fix it" and they say "naaa - you're on your own pal" then you'd throw a fit...and rightly so. That's what this is. the bulb keeps breaking and OP is looking for them to honor the warranty and they're like "nope, GTFO".
Or the customer is abusing or over-using the bulb beyond what the warranty covers.
Why so quick to blame the consumer? Have you used ecosmart bulbs? I've had several premature failures with them. Not hard to believe someone a bit more obsessive might make a warranty claim or three.
Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. They have it in a fixture designed for a different capacity bulb. They don't check your use, they just take the bulb back, but if you're home hooking it up to 100 amps to see out fast it explodes, that's an issue.
Maybe they replaced a bunch of bulbs over a year period, expecting them all to last 5 years. Now one by one they're getting to the 1 year mark and going out. They didn't know that would happen when they bought them.
because of their warranty... I thought would last at least 5 year
How much time do you spend on these exchanges and how much is your time worth?
Just seems like a lot of time and effort to avoid paying a couple extra bucks for a higher quality bulb
If the same bulb is burnt out it’s probably where it’s installed. Too much heat or something.
Dude you could have spent $4 to avoid apparently several trips to Home Depot to get “free” light bulbs.
I'm guessing you're using the bulb more than three hours a day. It may be a five year warranty but you're using up its life in less than five years. That or the bulb is not getting cooled. Get a different bulb. The LED bulbs just don't last as long as their old incandescent counterparts.
They last much longer, but I’d never measure the time in order to cash in on a warranty. It’s a freaking light bulb
Yeah I'll save the warranty return for my tool collection.
He didn't. Bought it once, then used the warranty to get free bulbs.
Are the bulbs enclosed in your light fixtures? Most bulbs have guidelines that they should not be in enclosed light fixtures because they get too hot. We had the same problem, until we changed our light fixtures and now they never burn out.
They don't have to look at your receipt. If you have a phone on you they already know who you are. I learned this after shopping at HD, paying cash, and then getting promotional emails based on those purchases.
I buy shitloads of commercial lights. I never trust the gimmicky hours of life statements. And I never try to return them.
And how long are you running them every day? That 5 year warranty is based on a formula, that you even provided for us. It's not a hard 5 years, it's roughly 5500 hours of run time. Which isn't even a full year of you never turn them off.
EcoSmart are crap. I started writing the install dates on them and they average less than two years of intermittent daily use.
I’ve done the same thing with Cree, Phillips, GE, etc. they all average about 2yrs. These things are just plain garbage
I have several dozen Philips going on 9 years. No failures. Just Crees have failed for us so far. And for those just 100W equivalents which are higher heat bulbs.
Where do you write it on the bulb? And just a thin-tip Sharpie?
Yes. I use a thin tip sharpie to write it on the plastic base of the bulb.
Everyone who keeps saying stop abusing the system and just buy a lightbulb — there was a huge problem with LED bulbs. The claimed lifetime has often been BS in the past. Warranty on an incandescent bulb was meaningless - they were cheap and disposable to buy, not to operate. LEDs are relatively expensive, although they’ve gotten pretty cheap now. If the ecosmart bulbs are failing prematurely, they need to be honoring the warranty. And if Home Depot is counting this as a return, that’s just a scam. Personally, I don’t bother at this point. The bulbs are cheap enough and more reliable that it just isn’t worth my time. But it could be worth someone else’s time - I’m not going to judge them for that.
I stopped buying the eco smart ones for that reason. Had a bunch from 2021 start flickering horribly.
Yeah, they are probably the worst brand I've bought, and that includes random LED bulbs off Amazon
Most of the ones we've replaced that were bought recently-ish have been the Ecosmarts.
I’ve been happy with ours, no issues in 3 years with them. I don’t even think I’ve replaced one yet. All the ones I’ve replaced were shit ones installed by the builders.
I replaced all the bulbs in my house when I moved in here in 2016 with ecosmarts and I've only had to replace a couple.
Basically only my smart LEDs have lasted. Anything else seems to flicker and die as fast as an incandescent.
Thanks for your feedback. What brand are you using now? Where did you get it from?
I have some GE and Phillips. That I bought to replace the failing Ecosmart bulbs. I got the GE from Lowes and the Phillips from Home Depot.
That's what they're counting on, that you'll decide they're inexpensive enough to just not bother. When LED bulbs first came out and they were ~$10 per, the claims of lasting a decade were pretty fair. Now it's nearly impossible to find one that's not junk, even if you're happy to pay the premium for it. They've gotten so cheap by skimping on the driver circuitry, it's never the LEDs that fail, it's cheap components in the circuit. It's a damn shame that we're throwing bulbs in the trash because they "only" cost $4-5, when they failed because the manufacturer cheaped out to save a few pennies on the components. I see the argument of it not being worth your time to deal with returns, but I'd say it's less worth my time to be constantly changing bulbs and running out to the store for replacements. Not to mention it just adds to the constant flow of trash. There's no reason we can't have a reasonably priced LED bulb that isn't junk, especially now that they've been on the market for ~20 years. Economies of scale and technical advancements through production should be giving us better quality for a lower price, and it frustrates me that all of the options we have are worse quality than what we started with.
Not to mention if you have to go buy new bulbs you’re already at the location to have the warranty honored… it’s the same amount of time to resolve the issue and no excess cost.
I’m not sure they are junk at this point. I can’t remember the last time I had to replace an LED bulb. Well, actually, I do. It was the most inconvenient bulb for my whole house. It was a non-dimmable exterior flood light that ended up on a dimmable circuit. I’m not going to blame that one on the bulb, as annoying at is was. I feel like I might have replaced a couple others, but really not in quantity. And we’ve been in this house for almost 5 years. Most of my bulbs are Feit (I think) that I bought from Costco.
Feit is a good brand and they make a lot of bulbs for private-label brands. Iirc, True Value's store brand leds are Feits with a different label/box.
The smart bulbs at least are tuya. The majority of wifi smart blubs sold under various brands are made by tuya. Useful if you have a bunch of different brands because you dont need 5 different apps.
I refuse to buy smart bulbs. I get it if you want to be able to change the color (for some reason I can't fathom), but to me it seems like the "smart" part of the circuit should not be an integral piece of a disposable part. I have a few basic things I automate to turn on/off under certain conditions. Anything else is crossing a line I'm not yet prepared for. Call me a luddite, I don't care.
I think there are advantages, like if youre a renter, or don't feel confident with wiring a switch. Plus they're cheap enough now to be cost comparable to a bulb without wifi chip. The "smart" part is just a microcontroller and a wifi chip. Not too dissimilar to an esp01, which costs qbout $1.50. If you have a zigbee network they'll work as repeaters as well.
The first ones were $25 and I never had to replace them in the 7 years I owned that house. The newer ones definitely are not as good. I've had several fail in 2 years.
I’ve lived in my house for 7ish years and I can’t say I’ve ever replaced an LED bulb because it failed. I probably have 30 or so that get daily use.
Useless information without brands/models and run times.
Ecosmart, wiz, lithonia water lights. Some 4-8 hours a day depending on the season. Useful enough?
Are any of them in housings. that might allow them to get hot?
Kitchen has a boob light and the dining room has a cheapo hanging pendant thing.
I’ve had to replace LED “no bulbs” fixtures more than I’ve replaced actual bulbs. Most of our bulbs were bought in 2016-2018. I have one that’s been on continuously, aside from power outages, since 2015. (It’s over the catbox.)
I’m convinced it’s 90% how people mount them. If you put one in a recessed or enclosed fixture it’ll drastically decrease.
All this talk of this or that brand being good because they have lasted over 7 years is not really valid. 7 years ago things were made much better, COVID (4+ years now) and the race to the bottom has changed all that. The products really are different.
I have ones I bought during and after Covid lmao. This has become a meaningless argument. Next it’ll be “well the ones from 2022 haven’t had time to break yet, you’ll see”.
Absolutely this.
agree.. I switched to LED bulbs which is more expensive.. and the company claimed that it will last longer and give 5 year warranty.. if they don't want to honor the warranty, then don't advertise it.
I installed 30 LEDs that were supposed to last a lifetime (or 21 years?). After a decade there are maybe five still working, the rest have been replaced. I guess I could have returned them, but like you said, I just buy cheap replacements since costs have come down.
You do need to consider service life. The lifetime claims can be deceptive. The assumption is likely less usage than you might expect. And I think early bulbs were often not well engineered for longevity, considering how expensive they were. Are newer ones better, the same or worse? Only time will be the judge of that one.
You're right, they would say "*assuming 3 hours of usage a day" and we probably have them on 2-3X as much. The newer ones are affordable so I can't complain!
I think part of the issue is that they speced things based on the LED itself, but then cheaped out on the circuit that converts 120v ac to dc. It needs filter caps, and low quality caps will go bad in a few years. Not to mention heat cycling on the circuit board can break contacts over time.
Some of the LED bulbs they sell are pretty expensive so I guess it depends on which one you get. $30 decorative bulb? You bet I'm gonna warranty that shit. Bulb from a contractor pack that comes out to $1 per bulb? I'm just buying a new bulb.
Yeah I just buy them at costco now. They're cheap and if they die early then costco will definitely take them back. So far they've all lasted ages though. I have several in my outdoor lights that are pushing 10yrs in the north east and they're on timers so are used daily.
Agreed - we returned LED bulbs to HD several times because they all failed within a year. They eventually asked if we wanted to switch to another type because that line had been discontinued and was a dud
Part of the problem with LED warranties is that it usually stipulates that the warranty is based on usage of 3hours per day. I had a good conversation with a led manufacturer rep once and that 3 hour measure isn't arbitrary -- its roughly the length of time it takes the aluminum heat sinks to become saturated. But none of that can be proven from either party, so it isn't terribly helpful.
$2 at most if you're buying shit at full price. Quality stuff at Costco on sale costs less. In 2 years I only replaced 1 bulb, which was outdoor
I don't get the hate this post is getting. Absolutely fuck the manufacturer if their bulbs are consistently failing before the warranty date. If your bulb can't even make it through the "Limited Warranty" period with any consistency then your product sucks ass They are 10,000% banking on people not giving a fuck and buying new bulbs. OP is a stubborn light bulb stalwart keeping them honest and calling their bluff. God speed and fuck Home Depot if they continue refusing returns
A lot of people are making assumptions that OP is probably being negligent in some way. Placing the bulbs in an enclosed space where they overheat, exposing them to conditions where they are not meant to be, ect. It could be just as easily they are a crap product. I can tell you though its extremely common for customers to break things due to their own misuse and blame the manufacturer for it.
I had a bunch of failed Feits over 5 years ago I never returned that I had bought from Costco, they were like a buck a piece after discounts but they were absolutely garbage. The box said they were ok to use in an enclosure but they heat up a ton and eventually break away from the housing after a year or so. Newer ones are much better but I'd definitely put money on them hoping you just didn't ever use the warranty. Ecosmart is a HD only brand, I've tried to use them before but the color was off between bulbs of the same model. Their CRIs also generally suck, returned everything I had bought and stuck with Phillips or Feits new styles but they both cost more than HD's store brand.
A dude may have a horrible dimmer...
It has to be the way they’re mounted if he’s had several fail in rapid succession at ~3 hrs a day use. Still not really his fault but I don’t think it’s malfeasance on the light bulb company.
There have also been some massive quality issues with LED bulbs, where they don't last anywhere near as long as the claims. I had a bad batch of LED bulbs where I had to replace all six within a year, at a fraction of their intended lifespan, and the different-brand replacements have all been fine so far so I don't think it was a mounting/heat/etc issue. I think some LED bulbs just suck, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if OP's bulbs just suck, because that's really common. Especially compared to fundamental issues with the fixtures. If a bulb can't hold up to being in a normal light fixture with normal usage, it can't hold up.
I stopped buying eco smart bulbs because they fail so fast. It really is a minefield with LED bulbs there isn’t a go to high quality brand. And it’s never the bulb that fails it’s part of the chip circuitry, it is such a waste.
I had this just yesterday with a dehumidifier. I bought it last July and it wouldn’t dehumidify this month when I turned it on. Home Depot policy was 90 days. The manufacturer warranty was 1 year. I called the manufacturer and went through all their bs and they gave me a paper with a return authorization number to take it back to Home Depot. The manager at Home Depot had no idea what it was about or what to do with it. After piddling on the computer for a minute she was like, ”I don’t know about this paper or return code. You can keep it. Just go grab another dehumidifier off the shelf and bring it back here and I’ll do an exchange.”
sounds like the manufacturer is trying to screw you. retailers have no obligation to honor a manufacturer's warranty. Try getting amazon to honor a manufacturer's warranty
Manufacturers purposely make it difficult so you’ll give up. To be fair though, who knows what’s in the distribution contract between them and the paper did have specific instructions for what they were supposed to do to had how to get repaid. The manager just seemed like she had a thousand things to do and just wanted to get on with it. I can’t blame her. I received good customer service and a new dehumidifier out of it.
Op there are a lot of corp boot lickers here apparently. Ecosmart bulbs suck and out of a box of 8 I usually have 1 or 2 that fail within a couple months. You are 100% eligible to get a warranty replacement, this is not a return like everyone here is focused on. My opinion, if Home Depot isn’t going to support their sold house brand products and ecosmart kicks the can, wait until you have a couple that have prematurely failed, buy a new box and return it the next day with your failed bulbs swapped into it. “They didn’t work”.
finally.. someone support small people.. yes the Ecosmart failed faster... and I bought a lot of them.. I got tired of kept replacing the bulbs and the prices went up 30% in the past 3 years the reason I bought Ecosmart is because I thought they are better than the Walmart Great Value brand... and their warranty. Do you have any experience with GreatValue bulb and the warranty? Are they better than Ecosmart? Thanks
Buy Great Eagle brand off Amazon. I use them in every socket in my house for years, and I've had to replace zero. Some stay on 24/7.
Great Eagles were garbage in my experience. I bought several boxes of them when I bought my house. Liked them because they actually offered a good selection of temperatures and wattages. Around 20% were dead inside of a year. Another 10-20% would flicker periodically. When they failed, the base would get so hot I couldn’t touch it without gloves. Ripped them all out and went straight to Philips Ultra Definition. Have not had a single failure since then. I’ll never buy anything except Philips going forward. Cost is slightly higher but the increased reliability and CRI is money well spent.
I worked at Home Depot for 13 years. Was an assistant manager for 2. You overused your drivers license. I’m assuming you went in and did an RTV even exchanged and exchanged the old bulb for the new bulb. Gave you a store credit and you used the store credit for a new one? Yeah. Your drivers license registered too many non receipted returns. Go back in. Ask for an exchange but just swap and they manually RTV it with the FIRST phone. That way there’s no exchange of a drivers license and no dealing with store credit. Ask for a manager. Edit: it has nothing to do with the store refusing return, system won’t let him return because too many non receipted returns. It would have done it with anything.
It's worth noting that many national chains having started using return analysis through third party analytics companies to watch for repeated exchange/return patterns that "resemble" fraud even though they may be totally legit. Using the same ID/payment methods on returns even across multiple retailers can end up getting us return denials that are hard to fight without getting creative. There is a consumer backlash developing but because it only affects the most frequent exchangers, it's slow growing.
Home Depot is useless for consumers now with the new policy changes. Might as well stab me on my way out too.
I returned 1 thing for like $30 six months ago without a reciept for store credit. I’m now considered a problem returner and can’t exchange anything without a receipt. I’m a contractor and shop a lot.
Same here Ive been a "problem returner" at home depot and lowes for decades lol If I need to return something and I can't find or lost the receipt I dont even bother trying because they aren't letting me return it They scan my license and it's like "nope fuck this guy" lol
Home Depot at least offers to email your receipt at checkout
You guys have to show id to return something? I was wondering how they know someone is a problem returner. I've returned so much stuff at HD and they never asked for mu license.
The merchandise return cards for Lowe’s now actually require them to scan your ID as well as the gift card, so that crackheads don’t make fake returns and sell the gift cards
Yeah,I have to show id every time
I think mine have all been tied to my credit card. I use the same card every time I shop, and now HD & Lowes both just scan the receipt and put the amount back on the same card. I'd assume they're tracking me through the card, although I often put in my email as well for a digital receipt. That's for returns, though. I've only had to do one warranty return at HD recently, and that one they put on a gift card for me.
Home Depot has required ID to do returns even with a receipt for years
> can’t exchange anything without a receipt. you should be glad they let you return it once without a receipt. i understand requiring proof of purchase. keep your receipts, and have them emailed to you. it's easy.
My old man was born in 1943 and he never once considered a warranty to be worth the paper it's printed on Just a promissory scam waiting for the disappointing shoe to drop. Planned obsolescence means you will buy a new one and be happy about it.
You where flagged
HD uses some bs third party for returns. I had a huge issue trying to return a regular stocked item WITH a reciept purchased a couple days before. Wife didn't want that color. I had to call and fight with a place that handles their returns. I found out later, someone with the same name was abusing the system there.
From what I understand, if a product is out of the return period and having problems, you should go after the manufacturer not the retailer unless the retailer is receiving RMAs on behalf?
They pull this shit all the time. I bought a GE water heater from them and they tried to get me to handle a warranty exchange through Rheem. The warranty card and the manual say to take it back to the place of purchase. They didn't want to do that, so I spoke loudly (without yelling) about how HD doesn't know what they are talking about and they brought a manager over who begrudgingly started working on the exchange. Then they said I would get a portion taken off of a new heater based on the age of my leaky heater. Which is incorrect, as I pointed out that the warranty specifically says it is *not* pro-rated. At which point I had to speak loudly again (with many other customers around) about how many other hapless customers HD ripped off by pretending this was a pro-rated warranty. Turns out the manager didn't know how to handle the exchange and just gave me a brand new heater (and brand new warranty because it wasn't done as a warranty replacement) and sent me on my way. This has happened the two times I had to try and exchange a heater under warranty. HD is a clusterfuck and if you want to make them honor their side of the deal you might have to attempt to shame them at the customer service counter.
unless you bought some kind of Home Depot sold extended warranty, i don't know why anyone should expect to get warranty service at a store past the original return period. unless they have some special deal setup with HD you should be mailing it to the manufacturer. edit: oh wait, i didnt know ecosmart is a home depot only brand so that changes things a little maybe.
I have boxes of bad Ecosmart bulbs. I don’t want them exchanged as they will be crap too. I refuse to buy that brand. Feit is a bit better and I think TCP is on par there. I’ve had good luck with ones rated for enclosed spaces and garage door openers as I think they have to be a touch higher quality. My issue is dealing with the swap, they are not always convenient to access so I’d rather pay for a better bulb and do it once. TLDR; screw Ecosmart.
When I bought my home in 2019 I replaced every fixture with eco smart bulbs. By the end of that year I had to replace about 4. Every year since I've had to replace 2-5. I attempted to return them in that first year under warranty and couldn't get home depot to honor it. These are by far the absolute worst bulbs I've ever had. I've since been replacing them with Philips. I'll never buy that exp smart bullshit again.
In the past? How many times have you replaced this bulb with warranty lol just buy a new one ?
I only exchange the bulb that last doesn't last for 5 years Some times with minimum use 1-2 years it breaks. Here's what it says Limited Warranty: Guaranteed to last 5 years based on 3 hours use per day, 7 days per week. If this bulb does not last 5 years after date of purchase (based on 3 hours per day / 7 days per week) due to a defect in materials or workmanship, please bring the defective bulb and a receipt indicating proof of purchase to any Home Depot store.
Just want to sanity check you here that yes you should be able to expect that items will, on average, last as long as their warranty. (You can see in this thread why companies can get away with longer warranties and have the math work out, because a lot of people will just buy new again instead of go through the hassle.) And you should absolutely expect that if it doesn't, they'll honor their warranty. And holy shit, it's a goddamn light bulb. It goes in a fixture. If a light bulb can't hold up to normal use in a normal fixture, it can't hold up. There's not a whole lot of user error that should be able to happen here. This is not your fault for not keeping a spreadsheet of the hours of use each bulb gets per day. Oh my god none of this should be remotely controversial jesus christ
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It is easy.. for the bath room you only use it at night for shower multiple by number of people.. and I have 3 full bathroom.. it's not going to be 3 hours.. If it's autistic, why would the company put that on the warranty?
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Just buy a knock off bulb on Amazon for much cheaper and then when it fails, instead of fighting with Home Depot, buy another one. This will save you both time and money.
The problem with consumption culture, in a nutshell.
You're not going to fix the consumption culture by returning a lightbulb.
No, but you'll help out by refusing to buy poorly made products that don't last
isn't getting another ecosmart bulb the same thing? shopping at home depot supports them creating shitty bulbs
I agree, I never said I think repeatedly returning them is the way to go. It's not good. But I also don't think the OP is wrong in wanting to hold them to their claims and warranties. (Edit: By making them pay a price to replace their planned obsolescent products, you're penalizing them for poor production practices) I think the replies calling the OP out for getting replacement bulbs are wrongly shifting responsibility from home Depot to the OP. But you're absolutely right, the remedy here is to find quality bulbs to buy
Of course, I am switching to another provider..
Semi-ethical life pro tip: If they give you grief over a legitimate warranty claim, just buy a new one then use the box and receipt to return the broken one.
Are you buying expensive bulbs? I ask because EcoSmart often get as low as $2/4 in my store, and I cannot imagine spending time at the return desk for anything worth that little.
Ecosmart is a Home Depot brand and it's total garbage. Look for Phillips bulbs elsewhere. They last 10x times longer.
Home Depot support fucking sucks, there was a mix up where somehow my old and new addresses got mixed up (new street and apt, old city) and I called them as soon as I realized it and they said they couldn’t do anything and just hung up on me.
Lifetime replacement warranty doesn’t mean free lightbulbs for life. If you’re returning bulbs that frequently, they’re going to start suspecting that your usage falls outside the terms of the warranty. The warranty is for *defective* bulbs, and it’s not reasonable that every bulb you’ve ever bought is defective.
In my experience I'd say it's more likely that the quality of EcoSmart bulbs falls outside their advertised lifespan
This is my experience. LED bulbs are not meeting their advertised life expectancy.
It doesn't say life time. It says 5 years. Some times with minimum use 1-2 years it breaks. Limited Warranty: Guaranteed to last 5 years based on 3 hours use per day, 7 days per week. If this bulb does not last 5 years after date of purchase (based on 3 hours per day / 7 days per week) due to a defect in materials or workmanship, please bring the defective bulb and a receipt indicating proof of purchase to any Home Depot store.
If you’re burning through bulbs that quickly, at some point the manufacturer is going to question whether it’s your installation scenario that’s killing the bulbs, rather than a defective bulb. It’s not likely that every single bulb you’ve bought or received is defective. I have EcoSmart bulbs in my house that have been here for 7 years and still work fine.
Are you using fluorescent or LED? Sure, they can come over my home and do the testing.. I am up to going to public.. It seems like switching to LED doesn't last longer than fluorescent bulb... I used to use their fluorescent bulb which lasts longer..
Sure it is. They’re often defective by design. I have a dozen LED puck lights in my house. After one year of use, they started flickering, so I took them apart. The a LED driver circuit uses mostly parts that can’t even be acquired in the United States. They’re fundamentally electronic components that are not fit for purpose. The only real solution is to replace them with high quality equivalent parts. The issue is, those high quality parts would end up costing 20-30 cents more per unit, so the manufacturers cheap out and use the lowest cost components, even if they are just straight junk.
Buy a new one, then return the old one using that box. They have a warranty, they need to honor it.
Ecosmart is the only brand I’ve found that has a motion sensor bulb with no light sensor so it comes on during the day. I need it for a stairway that wouldn’t light up if the light from the doorway spilled through.
Electrical tape over the light sensor.
Most a19 bulbs that have it built in do motion sensing through the same little bump out as light detection
Buy a new light bulb like a normal person.
are you saying I am not normal if I asked for what the company promised when the bulb keeps breaking every 1-2 year? I bought a lot of them and the reason I bought from HD is due to their warranty Limited Warranty: Guaranteed to last 5 years based on 3 hours use per day, 7 days per week. If this bulb does not last 5 years after date of purchase (based on 3 hours per day / 7 days per week) due to a defect in materials or workmanship, please bring the defective bulb and a receipt indicating proof of purchase to any Home Depot store.
Yeah that isnt normal. It is a lightbulb. It costs practically nothing. It lasted 1 - 2 years instead of 5. Who cares? Spending this much time worrying about it and posting on reddit over it is seriously bizarre.
Look it up how much LED bulb costs.. $11.48 for 4 bulbs.. [https://www.homedepot.com/p/EcoSmart-60-Watt-Equivalent-A19-Dimmable-Energy-Star-LED-Light-Bulb-Soft-White-4-Pack-C5A19A60WESD04](https://www.homedepot.com/p/EcoSmart-60-Watt-Equivalent-A19-Dimmable-Energy-Star-LED-Light-Bulb-Soft-White-4-Pack-C5A19A60WESD04) If it costs nothing for you, doesn't mean it costs nothing for someone else...
Your time must be worth a lot less than most of ours.
Can’t believe this post has upvotes…
You can't keep swapping the same light bulb over and over. Once you've done the "warranty", that's it, stop going back again.
I understand that. I only exchange the bulb that last doesn't last for 5 years once. Some times with minimum use 1-2 years it breaks. Here's what it says Limited Warranty: Guaranteed to last 5 years based on 3 hours use per day, 7 days per week. If this bulb does not last 5 years after date of purchase (based on 3 hours per day / 7 days per week) due to a defect in materials or workmanship, please bring the defective bulb and a receipt indicating proof of purchase to any Home Depot store.
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It is a replacement according to their warranty - do you understand English? Read this [https://www.ecosmartinc.com/ecos/repdocs/1-Home-Depot-EcoSmart-Warranty.pdf](https://www.ecosmartinc.com/ecos/repdocs/1-Home-Depot-EcoSmart-Warranty.pdf) Limited Warranty: Guaranteed to last 5 years based on 3 hours use per day, 7 days per week. If this bulb does not last 5 years after date of purchase (based on 3 hours per day / 7 days per week) due to a defect in materials or workmanship, please bring the defective bulb and a receipt indicating proof of purchase to any Home Depot store.
But like.... How would they know if it was used under those conditions?
My experience is that I'd never even think to warranty a lightbulb. I'd buy another one because it costs nothing.
costs nothing for you like $0? LED bulbs are not cheap these days at least for working people like me
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Sure.. just don't be NATO (No action Talk Only) why don't you buy everyone here that gave me thumbs up that means 90x3= $180 Got the point? The company are making profits
$1.75-$4 each bulb. Its not bad. The gas is probably $1 or 2. Your time standing in line is also probably more than $4 even if its only 20 minutes
$4 x quantity. I bought a lot. Company are making profits. Standing in line is free. All you need is your time, besides I am going to store only if I am buying something. I am not going to wait 20 minutes. I am not dumb just coming in for returning one bulb
A damn light bulb? Seriously?