Lightology — Local services in Chicago

EDIT EDIT: I got a very nice email from Lightology sharing their records around the order showing that indeed, they were in communication with the vendor when I received the initial 1/31 date. The 1/31 date was a "confirm backorder", and the "4/10" date seems to be a "confirm delivery". So ... it feels like this is more a manufacturer issue than anything else. I appreciate that they shared this context and gave me the opportunity to rethink my cancellation -- it's a minuscule order, and I wasn't as polite as I could/should have been in some of my communication, so they could have just cancelled it and moved on -- but they didn't. This probably saved me the trouble of an even longer wait and higher price. I have to admit, I've gone from really frustrated to really impressed with how this was handled. I would say good service doesn't take much, but you need people in support who are able to solve the issue, not something you can assume of all companies these days, but clearly happening here. Obviously, I have yet to get the light, so perhaps there will be one more update (if not one should assume it worked out).

EDIT: OK, I see that many other places are now saying this particular light is backordered. Still, I'll need to wait another month or so or fulfillment and likely be out another $200 - 300 (since lights are no longer on sale) so hard for me to recommend this business.

Not often that I get burned, but I did on this one.

There are a bunch of reviews that talk about trouble with fulfilling orders, and I probably should have listened.

I needed two lights for a project I'm trying to finish. I ordered a light from Lightology on black friday 2024. Their website claimed "Usually leaves warehouse within 3 to 5 days".

I didn't hear anything back after purchasing, so I went with another vendor (Archiproducts) for my other light.

Within 3 - 5 days, I received an email saying "Sorry, won't ship until 1/31". Meanwhile, the other light I ordered arrived in mid-December. Great.

Towards the end of Jan, I started wondering if they'd even placed the order, since I hadn't heard anything. I decided to contact them and got an email saying that indeed, they placed the order and confirming the 1/31 ship date.

Then, today, 2 days before that ship date, and a day or so after I inquired, I get another email: "oh, sorry the vendor has told us that it won't be available until 4/10". WHAT? Since I received the other light, the only thing I can imagine is that the order wasn't placed at all.

It's also possible that yeah, something really really odd happened and that they really did get misled about ship dates by the vendor (I mean, this is what the support person claimed, and to be fair, in their defense I was able to get ahold of someone on the phone immediately and they were really really nice even when I got upset -- shoutout to kyle).

I've been working with many different suppliers on my project and the only one that had this long of a delay (the situation I expect happened here -- they forgot to put the order in) apologized profusely and offered me a significant make good discount. But in some way, it doesn't matter what happened -- whether Lightology is at fault here or this particular order just was incredibly unlucky. I thought I'd get the light in a week back in November. It's January, and I need to start over with another company, at a price that's going to be at least $100 dollars more than I paid previously, and I actually need to wait another 48 hours just to see what their "cancellation" department is going to say. (I have a feeling this is headed for a chargeback,...

I'm an interior designer and industry professional who placed thousands of dollars worth of product orders for my clients via Lightology in the last year. To complete a client's Master Bath project, I ordered a set of Sara Double Sconces and a single Sara Sconce, to accompany a prior order, already installed, of the same. When the light fixtures arrived, they were in a satin nickel finish, not a chrome finish as needed. I contacted my sales rep, numerous times, to remedy the issue and swap the fixtures for the correct finish. She dodged my emails and phone calls and finally passed me off to the "customer service" rep. After many repeated attempts at contacting this rep, I was finally advised they would need to process a return on the fixtures in the incorrect finish before they could replace with the correct fixtures. They encouraged me to place a new order for the correct fixtures prior to the return being completed, to expedite the process. In good faith the return/exchange would be processed, I did so - ordering another $2000 in the same product, correct finish.

I had to fight for several weeks to maintain communication, and retrieve return labels for the return fixtures. After many emails to the CS Dept and many unreturned phone calls, I was finally was given the labels and prepared the fixtures in the incorrect finish for return. I returned these fixtures via UPS with tracking.

Two weeks after the fixtures were returned to Lightology, I still had yet to receive a refund for my orig. $2000+ purchase. I, again, called and no return phone call. I emailed. A couple of days later, I received an email indicating the return could not be processed because the vendor would no longer authorize a return. Lightology is in possession of the $2000+ worth of paid product and refuses a refund.

This company is beyond unprofessional, peddling additional sales and promises of exchange and/or refund, only to leave you high and dry, and out an additional $2k. I will never order from Lightology again, and highly encourage any future customers to steer clear of this deceitful company. The absolute worst level of service I have ever...

Sometimes you read those reviews in all caps and you think, whoa, chill out. But today I get it! I’ll try to get through this without going caps crazy but....

I went to the Lightology store a few weeks ago to see about getting some new pendants for our kitchen track lighting. Alyssa assisted me. I explained our needs and she made some recommendations for which pendants would work. I picked one and ordered 10. They arrived and the first thing we noticed was only 8 of them worked. Ok NBD. But then we quickly noticed that they were totally wrong for the space. Clearly they were outdoor spotlights and not meant for indoors. The lights were BLINDING. We had to turn them to face directly at the cabinets which made the entire kitchen literally dark, except for the stage lighting on our cabinet doors. It was comical at best.

Ok still NBD. Yes frustrating but this is all part of the process. We’d just return them and order some different lights. We’d find the right ones eventually. Over the course of the next few days, the box that the lights came in got tossed out. Miscommunication.

So when I go to return the lights I notice there’s no easy way on the website. It says I need to get a number but doesn’t say how. So I email Alyssa to see if she can get it for me. I mention that the original box is gone.

She responds that without the box, the items are UNSELLABLE (here come the caps) and CANNOT BE RETURNED.

Wait - it gets better. Apparently even if I HAD the box, I would have only gotten 50% back.

So now I’m out $330.

Three hundred and thirty dollars.

When Alyssa told me this, she made zero apologies. I’m out hundreds of dollars and she doesn’t even care. I’m sure she doesn’t since she got her commission off these purchases.

Alyssa obviously made no mention of this when she was helping me choose lights. And she even suggested that I order several different lights and try them out, knowing full well I’d only get 50%.

So. Lightology stole $330 from me and there’s nothing I can do about it except warn other folks. Don’t support...