"I placed an order with Ottlite on October 14th, 2011. A receipted arrived immediately after, however intercepted by Gmail as spam, so check your spam folder and label it as NOT spam so Gmail will learn and not mark it as spam in the future! Anyways, since my order was over 49.99, I received free shipping. Now, before I go any further, I would like to say that I had a VERY hard time finding additional free shipping info from the Ottlite site. Eventually I found it at http://www.ottlite.com/t-shipping.aspx and will also quote it here in case that page ever disappears: "We appreciate your business, so let us help pick up the tab. Enjoy free shipping for all orders over $50. A flat fee of $9.95 will be applied to all orders under $49.99. Please note that discount applies to a single "ship to" location within the contiguous United States, and cannot be combined with other orders. All OttLite.com orders are shipped via UPS Ground service. Please allow 7 to 10 business days for your order to be shipped."
On the 18th, I received a UPS tracking number via email. The product arrived on the 21st (7 days after order), so in line with 7-10 day estimation. However the working "to be shipped" makes me think that it was referring to the actual handling time, like 7-10 days after the order is placed online it will finally go out in the mail. If that is true, then my order was WAY faster than usual... or is just their wording wrong? I live on the East Coast in the United States by the way to give an estimation of how far it traveled.
It was packaged fine and all, but the box it was in had text describing exactly what was inside (I only ordered one product and it said just this) and that it was Ottlite. It was not small at all, so if you want to be discrete or if this is a gift, you better be home to intercept it or check for a gift option at checkout (I never use that so I don't know if it exists, probably). I had the kind of package where even a quick glance would tell you what was inside.
The actual product arrived broken though! It was not physically broken, just a manufacturing error. One of the sockets for the bulbs didn't work. The other socket did. There were 2 bulbs inside, and I thought it was just a broken/ bulb at first, so I swapped the two, but both bulbs worked in the working socket. I then inspected the entire area for physical defects and saw nothing. So I guess I just got a lemon. The product was dated as 6/2011.
Found a piece of paper with warranty info included, but it was VERY vague at the actual exchange process. Now, I don't know Ottlite products in general, if everything has a warranty and if any of the conditions are the same or different, so what I explain after, keep in mind it may be not be universal. Basically my warranty just said that for exchanges, after 90 days, there is a $9.90 charge for shipping and handling, and that returns had to have a return number. So I thought that I would be returning the defective product in the mail with a prepaid shipping label.
I called up customer service to take advantage of the warranty, and they were AMAZING. I actually had to make 2 calls though. The first call, I explained my trouble shooting, but then a personal matter came up on my end... I wasn't even that far into the situation, so I had to call them back. I waited maybe 5-10 minutes on the line? Didn't time either call. The second call I made, I had to wait much longer. It was maybe 15-25 minutes? It was getting near their closing though, so that is expected. Again, didn't time it. Anyways, I got the same person as before and they were fine with my own trouble shooting. They didn't ask many questions or have me further inspect the socket; perhaps I covered all that was possible. And come to find out, there was nothing I had to return at all! Instead, they were going to send me a complete FULL replacement as part of the warranty! This means I don't have to repackage anything, make a trip to the post office, wait for the product to arrive on their end, wait for them to fix it, wait for them to send it back out, and then wait for it to arrive on my end! Since there was nothing to send out, I also got 2 bulbs to keep for free!
The hassle I just mentioned was also talked about too, how it would just be easier to just send a replacement. But first I had to disable the product and email Ottlite a picture, that way they know the product is really defective/useless and they aren't getting scammed by replacing something working. I was told me to cut the cord and email them a picture of that. Did it, send the picture, and when he got the picture, I was told a replacement would be shipped on the 24th.
The man I was speaking with was with Louis O. He was really professional. He was nice, detailed, patient, and just an example of great customer service. That is the reason why my overall review is a 5. The combination of excellent warranty plus pain free agent I spoke with. That is definitely worthy of a 5, and I am not the person to lightly give out 100% scores in any way. If something works as advertised, I give it a 3.5-4/5, if it works and is extra special, I'll give up to 4.5/5, and if it truly goes the extra mile, I'll give up to 5/5.
So I guess that is all to say. Only other things I can mention is that I did NOT receive a UPS tracking number for the replacement. It arrived on the 28th. Also when I made my order, it give me an option to create an account as well... well first it said something along the lines of "call this number to associate this order with an account" but at the same time, also looked like if I just made an account off a link right there that it would do the association for me. So I clicked the link. It never did. My account works fine, only thing is the order I placed just doesn't show up in order history."