"I recently purchased 3 outdoor light fixtures from lightingdirect.com. Two were OK, but one of them came broken (glass is cracked all the way down the middle) and missing pieces. I emailed customer service about the broken glass/missing parts and they didn't respond. I emailed them again and someone wrote back and apologized for not responding earlier and said she would check with the light supplier and get back to me. Never heard back. Emailed three more times... nothing. Now I have a $300 light fixture that is broken and totally unusable. So, pretty much the worst experience/result possible... THANKS LIGHTING DIRECT! If you are looking for good prices on products that you will never be able to install, this is your company :)"

"This review is for the business practices at LightingDirect.com/Build.com. I originally was going to review the Maxim undercabinet lights I bought from them at 4 stars, only because the girl I spoke to there actually knew what she was talking about, unlike my other experiences, but after they badgered me to write a review they had the nerve to actually REJECT my positive review - just like other customer's noted below, so it is important for people to know they are sneaky and only post 5 star reviews. Note to company: Don't solicit reviews if you don't want them and waste my time. BTW - here is a copy of their response and my original review so the public at large can see for themselves.
Their response: "Lesley, Our staff has read your review and values your contribution even though it did not meet all our website guidelines. Thanks for sharing, and we hope to publish next time! "
My original review: Good direct-wire kitchen lights -
I've had these in for several weeks now and overall I am satisfied with them. They were a little more "blue" than the lights from Lowe's I was trying to match so you can tell a slight difference but they offered the flexibility in sizing for smaller cabinets I couldn't get elsewhere. This was the first company that actually knew the products they were selliing (seller AND manufacturer) and understood that direct wire means no junction boxes or other electrical boxes inside the cabinet!) My electrician was happy to see they could be directly wired with no complications. One of the lights did flicker a bit, which is a small defect in the light itself but since it was already installed by the electrician and it doesn't always do it I decided to leave it alone. This, and the color, is why I don't give it 5 stars."

"We recently remodeled some rooms in our home and used lighting direct for new sconces, chandelier, ceiling lights , ceiling fan and light kit. All came in great condition. A couple later than I expected but when I contacted customer service they were right on it. Very helpful. Good prices."

"I recently purchased several lights from LightingDirect.com. Within 10 days, all of the lights had arrived, with only one glass shade getting damaged in transit. All of the other lights arrived in good condition and as advertised. Upon calling about the shattered glass piece, I was extremely pleased with how easy and professional the customer service was. They indicated they would ship me a new glass shade right away and I did not need to send anything back since nothing else was damaged.

A few days later, I decided to return a couple of the lights for interior design reasons and they were just as helpful and quick. In less than 24 hours, they have sent me all the return labels and instructions to send the lights back.

I always naturally get a little nervous buying from a new company online, but I have been very impressed with the level of service, pricing, and prompt shipment of my order. This was a great first-time buying experience!"

"I have bought from this company (and their other incarnations, build.com, etc) several times. It is a hit and miss in terms of promptness of shipping -- even if the site says the product is in stock, shipping can be delayed and then delayed again. Returns and order cancellations are usually painless though.

What I noticed is when I submitted a negative product review to their site, it hasn't been posted (I submitted it weeks ago, it was written very politely, so no reason to reject the review). So beware that their product reviews are probably filtered and biased.
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"BEWARE! They charge credit card immediately and don't ship product until at least a week later, in my case confirmation stated 7/11/13. BUT on 7/10/13 I got an email stating that the lamp would now ship on 8/23 (yes, AUGUST 23rd!!!). I cancelled. Bottom line: These guys have NO PRODUCT IN STOCK (even though their web-site states they do) and are only a pass-through site to manufacturers."

"+ I've made 5 purchases in the past 2 months and have been very pleased. Their website is easy to use and I appreciate their online inventory availability.

+ shipping has been very quick and items well-packed. Every light fixture I bought had glass in it and everything arrived intact."

"I was looking for some lights that had been discontinued by the manufacturer. When I found them on LightingDirect.com at half of what other stores were selling them for, I was quite happy. Then, when their shipping costs to Alaska were about half of what other vendors wanted to charge, I thought it was too good to be true. I'm glad I took a chance and placed my order; today, less than a week after placing my order, the lights arrived. I couldn't be more pleased with Lighting Direct.com."

"I placed an order for a light fixture that didn't have any notice of being back-ordered or out of stock on July 13th. The item page and order email said it would ship in 1-2 days. Great!
5 days later... I got an email saying that it was back-ordered and my estimated ship date was August 7th!
I was annoyed but decided to just wait on it.
About a week later, I saw that my credit card had already been charged for it. Personally, I think it's wrong to be charged for back-ordered items before they're available. I contacted customer service and told them I was not pleased with this order in ANY way. They wrote back the standard "...blah, blah, we'll look in to it..." and I never got anything else.
The item shipped on August 2nd and took almost 2 weeks to get to me.
I will NOT be shopping with LightingDirect.com ever again!

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"I planned to buy 3 items from Lightingdirect.com, had them in my shopping cart and requested a price match from a live chat operator on 2 of the items. Both of the items had a "Low price Guarantee" icon on their page and met the criteria of the price match. I provided URLs to the two sites that had lower prices and the chat operator said they couldn't match those prices and ended the chat session."

"I have made three purchases within the past two months from Lighting Direct.com. The products represented are of a high quality and I have no issues with the the products. I have had issues in two areas, however. The first has been the accuracy of the product descriptions. Twice I have purchased fixtures that were represented as one size & on arriving were so large as to not fit in the required area. Of these occasions, I paid to ship the item back at my own cost. After pushing the issue, a shipping return label was provided for the second. The major issue I have with the company is a highly questionable business practice. Each time I have returned an item, three times now, a credit has not been issued for the returned item. Only when I call customer service & request they research the return has a credit been issued. In the latest case, despite an order number, a return number & an RGA number, the agent was unable to track & confirm whether the item had been received. I was required to provide the tracking number & return receipt date in order to request a credit. Additionally, despite having received a shipping return label due to errors on the company's part, I was charged for the shipping; this was ultimately rectified. A refund should be automatic, not a process that requires the customer to ask for his/her money back weeks after the product has been returned."

"My wife and I ordered a 2-light and 3-light fixture from LightingDirect.com for a house we just bought. Their website said that they would ship in 2-5 days, which was fine. After ordering, we got an email saying that the fixtures would not ship for over three weeks, which did not work for the 3-light fixture because we needed it by a certain time.

I called to cancel the 3- light fixture but told LightingDirect to send the 2-light one. Instead, LightingDirect sent the 3-light fixture and canceled the 2-light one!

As if all thi9s wasn't bad enough, the UPS shipping label they sent to return the 3-light fixture did not include shipping charges, meaning we would have to pay them. When I called to complain and told them that we're not willing to pay shipping for their mistake, Kay was very nice and said she'd send me another label. But the second label also did not include shipping charges.

At this point, LightingDirect would have to give me the 2-light fixture for free to make up for all my time they've wasted and the hassle they've caused. I will never use this company again and would recommend that others do the same. This is by far the worst online shipping experience I've ever had. The people I talked to on the phone were all nice and seemed to be trying to help, but the management of this company is obviously incompetent, uncaring, or both. There's no way that any of this should have happened, and to have it all happen in one order is beyond inexcusable."

"I placed an order from lighting direct for lighting fixtured from Meyda Tiffany on 9/17/2011 Order total $288.00. I had a delivery date set in early October 2011, they pushed it out until November 2011, December 2011, two dates in January and now February 22, 2012. When I have called both companies they blame it on each other and at times, the Chinese company Meyda out sourses to. I have complained and gotten the run around. But, today Jessie(very professional) at Lightng direct has assured me she will e-mail me on Monday 2/13/2012 with a resolution. Lets see what happends! To Medya Tiffany, I do business with China too, pay your bill to then so they will ship my order, you have my money!!"

"I ordered a Thomas Lighting shower trim (TR6SHR) from LightingDirect.com on December 5, 2011. After reading the other reviews, I was skeptical about purchasing the trim from this Internet retailer. However, I decided to place the order because my local Menards store was unable to order this part number from Thomas and the cost was under $30, so if I got ripped off it would not be the end of the world. I did in fact receive the product on December 16, 2011. The product was in the original factory packacking and it was not damaged in any way. This was good and a relief.

Overall, here is what I learned from my experience ordering from and extensively researching LightingDirect.com. First, this company is a reseller of merchandise. When you place an order with LightingDirect.com (or any of their sister companies), they turn around and place an order for the same product with another retailer. In my case, LightingDirect.com purchased the shower trim from Philips Consumer Luminaries in Elgin, IL. LightingDirect.com places the order in their name, but listed me as the "Ship To" address. I imagine they get a small discount, pocket the difference, and generate income through high volume.

Second, after I placed the order, I received multiple email messages, each one pushing the shipping date back, first from Dec. 7, then to Dec. 8, then to Dec. 13, 14, and finally the 15th. After it went to the 15th, I called them. The first time I called, the customrer representative stated that "all their systems were down" and he was unable to check but would call me back in a few minutes. I assumed he would not call back, which he never did. I simply called back in a few seconds and spoke with a different representative. This person claimed to be calling the manufacturer and inquiring as to when the trim would be fabricated. He stated that it was ready to go and would ship on the stated date (Dec. 15). In the end, he was correct. The item did ship on the 15th. However, I think we all know that he did not call Thomas Lighting, the manufacturer. Rather, I assume he called Philips Consumer Luminaries, the retailer that LightingDirect purchased the product from. I really have no idea why the company perpetuates the charade of ordering direct from the factory. There is value in aggregating products from multiple sites to save customers time and effort. They would be better offer just admitting this is true. As a result of their business model, your experience with LightingDirect.com is really your experience with the company they repurchase from. For example, I went to the Philips Luminaries web page (which is lightingoptions.com) and found that LightingDirect.com repeats exactly the same information from this site (e.g. each site lists the "in stock" value to be 200 for the shower trim). Clearly LightingDirect.com is pulling the inventory numbers from this other retailer. I have no idea how LightingDirect chooses from whom they purchase the products. I can also imagine that some companies know what LightingDirect is doing and purposely ship damaged, faulty, or previously returned merchandise knowing that it will be a huge pain in the a** for the end customer to return it. Like I said before, your experience with LightingDirect is really your experience with the company form which they purchase the product. I imagine this is the source of the high variance one sees in the reviews of this company.

Third, you need to read the fine print on their policies. For example, to a return an item, their return policy clearly states that you are NOT allowed to even write on the box that the item came in. This will invalidate the return. Unfortunately, though this is obviously a gimmick, they are within their legal right to enforce the stated policy. Their return policy needs to be strict because they need to be able to return the product to the company they bought it from. If that company refuses to accept the return, then so does LightingDirect.

Fourth, use a CREDIT CARD for the purchase. DO NOT USE A DEBIT CARD for the purchase and keep records of everything. The reason is that consumers have greater legal protection if they use their credit card. For example, if the company does not ship a product within 30 days of the order, you can dispute the charge and receive a refund from the credit card company. This is not possible if you use a debit card. Also, I printed out and saved all communications with this company in case I needed to dispute the charge. I printed the product page showing 200 items in stock and all of the emails showing the shipping date being pushed back. If the shipping date went over 30 days, then I had a very strong case for a refund.

Finally, it is clear that the employees of this company write fake Internet reviews. Any review that sounds like a sales pitch for the company (what a great web site, they had the lowest prices anywhere, what an amazing experience, etc.) was probably written by employees of the company. Since all they do is reorder from other companies, the employees presumably have lots of extra time to screw around on the Internet. Employees of LightingDirect.com are also very aggressive in responding to negative or critical reviews on the Internet. In each case, the response follows a generic template - contact the company because they want to make the customer happy. I really doubt any of that is true. I can only speculate, but their employees might be paid on commission for every sale they make. So if they can refuse, delay, or confuse customers to prevent the return of an expensive item, the more money they make.
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"I bought some fixtures from them about 3 years ago and the experience was pleasant. Prices were good and they shipped promptly.

I decided to buy a couple of things again last weekend. Ordered something that was supposed to be in stock and expected to ship in 24 hours. But it turned out that it was backordered by a week or so. I contacted CS via online chat. They called the manufacturer and told me that it was indeed backordered and they apologized for the error. They offered to up the shipping to a free 2-day air as ground would take another 5-6 days to reach. I told them that I wasn't in any rush and that they could save their dollars and just ship ground. I hinted to the rep that I'd actually appreciate some sort of $ credit rather than 2-day air because I wasn't in a rush. I didn't insist and she didn't say anything. I just mentioned it in the passing and left it at that.

This morning, I get an email that they gave me credit of over 10% on that order. I was pleasantly surprised that they felt they wanted to do this without me insisting on any refund. I think it is a very nice gesture. I wish more merchants showed this type of common courtesy to their customers because it certainly wins loyalty."