LED W5W Sidelight Lamps. My Story

[GlenQ]

In late July this year i purchased a set of two 'Error Free White LED W5W Sidelights For Various MB Models' from a member here.

The lamps were promptly dispatched and upon recept I proceded to install them following the installation instructions included. After fitting I noticed that one of the lamps was flashing on and off while the other one was fully working. After turning the sidelights on and off a few times the flashing one turned on and seemed to be OK.

Later that day I emailed the seller and explaned the situation and said that I would monitor the LED lamp over the comming weeks and report if I had any more problems. The seller emailed back with further advice and instructions which I followed.

Since then I have not used the car much as I work from home and due to the time of year I did not use my headlights until recently. Now when I turn on the sidelights I get a lamp failure warning and the same lamp is not lit.

Again I emailed the seller and told him of the problem and he replied that the lamps only carry a one month warranty from the time of purchase (no warranty period is mentioned in the add for the lamps) therefore the lamp would NOT be replaced.

I did point out that I had informed him of a possible problem with the lamp a couple of days after I had received it but he remaind unmoved and is refusing to replace the lamp because my last email is outside the one month warranty period.

I think the after sales policy is poor from a member selling to another member on this forum. If I had only recently informed the seller of the problem fair enough, but he was aware of a possible intermittent fault with the lamp within one week of purchase.

I don't think the lamps have a problem when used with Mercedes cars I just think I have a problem with one of mine which I think was present before I received it.

Obviously the £7.50 cost of one lamp means more to him than customer satisfaction.

The upshot of this is that I have now replaced both of the LED's with OEM filiment lamps and now both sidelights work with no errors reported.

If any other member here has installed these lamps and would like a working spare PM me and I will gladly send my remaining working lamp FOC.

Please note:

I have no other axe to grind with the seller and have NOT fallen out with him I just think his customer service leaves a lot to be desired. I will not be drawn into a flame war about this, the above facts are true and I will NOT comment further other than via PM. This is just my experiance when buying parts from a fellow forum member.

 

[KillerHERTZ]

I sold the LEDs to you back at the end of July, once they arrived the next day you contacted me informing me that one of the LEDs was flickering, and it appeared to correct itself and that you would 'monitor both lamps over the course of the next few weeks and contact me for advice' you never did. 50 minutes later I had replied to your email offering a possible cause as to why this maybe happening (such as deactivating the 'Get me home' lighting function) and asked you to please let me know how you got on.

Fast forward to Tuesday of this week, almost 3 months later. I recived my first communication from you in over 11 weeks, a PM message simply saying "Ive got a faulty one".

I accept that not every single LED will be 100% problem free as with any product, and on a handful of other occasions since I started selling these back in January I have replaced a faulty unit. Each time the customer has contacted me well within the month and an exchange has been offered after I have suggested a number of fixes until we have run out of options.

You never replied to me in the first instance as we could have tried a number things which may have fixed the LEDs, if not I would have been happy to replace the LED free of charge, instead you didnt reply at all and continued to use the LED in question.

As with any product purchased online you would expect to have a warranty period, which if you still have the orignal instructions I do mention this at the bottom of the page - (im not that strict as I have honoured any replacements in the past just out of this time). but I cannot be expected to replace an item which you have continued to use for 3 months without any contact with me - im on here every day and a PM only takes a couple of minutes! If you bought a bulb/LED from Halfords and returned after 3 months you wouldnt be able to claim a refund either.

Your last email sig mentions you are part of trading standards, if you look into the Sales of goods act guidelines you will see that I am within my rights - you left it the best part of 3 months.

I try my best to reply to any communication within 24hours or less, all of the member who have purchased from me will agree with this.

You are the 1st person in 10 months who has complained to me, and im sorry you felt the need to post on here rather than keeping it between us, the parties involved.

Please search through the forum, in 10 months there has been no negative feedback what so ever from my LEDs.

I would prefer it if we could continue this by email.

 

[diandave]

I use LED bulbs in the sidelights and number plate, these work perfectly on my E Class,
when you bought your LED's did you state Canbus error free if not the lights will flash on and off and the dash will show a failed bulb because LED's only draw 1 watt of power instead of 5 watts so computer thinks it's a failed bulb.

 

[A210AMG]

I'm not getting into the who did what war only to say...

As part of my Job I purchase AV equipment and the bulbs for projectors, these typically cost from £175 to £300 each.

What warranty do I get, 1 month or 3 months, that's all.

 

[C240Sport97]

I have the LEDs from KH in my CLS .. no problems at all. No need to adjust or turn any other function on or off either.

 

[BlackC55]

Just a quick note.

The bulb holder on S-class 220 model are known to be poor and can quite often cause a flickering bulb. It maybe worth having a look at them first.

 

[219]

I'm not getting into the who did what war only to say...

As part of my Job I purchase AV equipment and the bulbs for projectors, these typically cost from £175 to £300 each.

What warranty do I get, 1 month or 3 months, that's all.

I too am responsible for maintaining several hundred data projectors throughout our Fire Service spread across many establishments and covering a wide area .

Out of countless lamps I have replaced , I have only ever returned one under warranty - this was a lamp ordered specially for a projector we did not support ( the end user had ordered it directly so we had no stock of spare lamps ) , when this lamp arrived it was clearly broken and was replaced without a fuss .

For all the projectors we support , we hold a central stock of spare lamps - it can easily be the case that a spare lamp will lie in our store for a year or more before ever being needed - but we can't afford not to have at least one spare for each model we support so we accept the fact that warranty is unlikely to be available . Never had to put it to the test though .

 

[goldenii68]

I wish I bought my LED lights from KH, the ones I got from Autoled failed miserably and I have switched to PIAA non led ones (which incidentially are very good!).

 

[bpsorrel]

Bought LEDs from KH also, not one problem either installing or running. (I shall miss them actually now the 211 is gone).

Will buy them again when I have another MB.

 

[renault12ts]

This sort of thing always rebounds on the OP. I have them...they work.

I wonder did the OP swap the bulbs to each side to check that one wasn't working.. We may never know he conveniently says he will not be adding to his libel.

 

[DSM10000]

I also have a set from KH. There was good communication throughout and the bulbs work as advertised.

I find the post by GlenQ somewhat disingenuous. He stated

" Later that day I emailed the seller and explained the situation and said that I would monitor the LED lamp over the coming weeks and report if I had any more problems. The seller emailed back with further advice and instructions which I followed.

Since then I have not used the car much as I work from home and due to the time of year I did not use my headlights until recently. Now when I turn on the sidelights I get a lamp failure warning and the same lamp is not lit.

So you contacted KH and you got a rapid and helpful response, at your suggestion you then decided to monitor it over the following weeks and now, some significant time later you seem surprised and disappointed at not getting a refund.

To say that you have "no axe to grind" is misrepresenting your intentions as that is clearly your intent.

The correct and civilised way to deal with this would have been to keep up a private duologue and thereby attempt to sort this out to the satisfaction of both if possible.

Sometimes in life we cannot resolve things to our satisfaction, at that point you make a rational decision to expend your energies on something more useful

By making this public you have demeaned your argument and yourself.

 

[A210AMG]

Turn the light off on this I say.

Forum member helps out, you can never keep everyone happy.

I orgainized a group buy for HID kits, the grief I had over that.

I orgainised the 'life hammer' group buy and had some grief over that..

You sometimes think why bother....


however I bothered because 99.9% of people thank you. The rest moan yet do little if anything to ever help others.

Probably like the OP I made very little profit that wasn't why I did it. Any I did made went to help the heros.

 

[horgantrevor]

i have bought several sets for a few people and all ok

if you touch the led as in instructions you can damage them all mentioned in the instructions as most people dont read them

i have one set in my car and never had a problem i would say in at least 10 months

 

[Mavster]

What does Moderator mean????

 

[KillerHERTZ]

What does Moderator mean????

I started selling these way before I became a moderator, my LEDs have nothing to do with this forums moderation team, the running of the forum at all and shouldn't be linked as such.

Infact the OP originally contacted me/ ordered through the other forum and not this one!.

 

[Mavster]

Sure

 

[CKLclive]

just got my LED's from KH fitted and work superb and will be buying more bulbs
so no probs

 

[crockers]

No problem with mine ...



But am I reading this right ...... making a fuss over a bulb that costs ....................£7.50 ???? Come on get real..

 

[DSM10000]

No problem with mine ...



But am I reading this right ...... making a fuss over a bulb that costs ....................£7.50 ???? Come on get real..

Plus making that fuss on a forum!!

 

[bpsorrel]

So proud of my LEDs from KH that I put them in my album!