Lightings

blackforest

New Member
Hi Kim,
You may want to go to the thread under "Cheap lightings shop to recommend" for comments on Light Arcade. My experience with them is cheap and good despite a hiccup with their wrong delivery.
 


kimmie

New Member
Hi Blackforest, thanks so much for replying. I actually checked up the names under that thread before going to check out selected shops along Balestier Rd. Did you get installation done by them? If yes, if you don't mind can you let me know if they outsource the installation or they are the ones who are doing it?
 

kenneth

New Member
The electricians who do up the wiring for the house will usu be the guys who also install the lights. Check with ur ID.
 

pebbie

New Member
totally agree with gotham's comments about "lighting square" along jln besar and opp macdonald's. terrible experience really.

bought quite alot from them, including downlights. my bad exp began when they did not send the gds on specified date , followed by sending the wrong brand for all my ballasts.i personally sent the wrong ones back to the shop and chased them for 1.5 wks before the shop sent the correct ones.upon installation by my electrician, found that a good number of the bulbs were faulty.
(the owner had earlier assured us that we cld go back to him anytime if any problem with our lightings upon installation.) However when we tried to exchange the faulty bulbs, he told us that it has been more than 7 days from date of our purchase so no exchanges allowed. This is really ridiculous as they first delivered my lights only 5 days after my purchase, then i had to wait 1.5 wks again for the right ballasts.

this must be my worst experience with lighting shops.
sad.gif
 

bennysmurf

New Member
Hi all,
does anyone have any problems with lighting delivery from Palace of Lights?
some of you might know that I ordered a set of 3 round alabaster dining lights from them LAST AUGUST 2004. Until now I STILL HAVE NOT RECEIVED IT
angry.gif
. Whenever I called them up, they kept said that the the goods would be coming in the next shipment, or that the shipment was delayed due to some reason. Yesterday when I called them up they told me they got "played out by the factory". Turned out that the shipment that they promised my lights would be, did not have them. In fact, they claimed that alabaster lights for other customers were not inside, so I was not the only one affected.
They promised to refund me my money. I was slightly appeased as at least I could get me $$$ back.
However I would like to ask other forum users some questions:
1) Are there any Palace of Light customer who have been similarly affected and given the same excuse as me?
2) I am not sure if the story given by Palace is really true or just an excuse to sell off my alabaster light to someone else cos I got it at a much lower price than a similar one at Lightology. Can I get CASE to get them to honour my order and sell me the alabaster light?

Any help is really appreciated!
 

angela82

New Member
any1 bought lights fr. elite illumination b4? went to them last week but didnt buy yet nid to verify with u guys b4 i do tat. please share your experience with me i like alot of their lights they haf very wide range but after seeing all ur msg about lousy lighting shops got scared nid to think twice and ask for your opinion
 

angela82

New Member
hi smurf my in laws bought from palace of lights too got extremely bad experience too, but compared to yours their is not worst, the lights they bought were not sent to them and they were force to accept the replacement lights and they were not given a refund option. Going to CASE will not help, coz they oredi given you the refund so they nid not fulfill their obligation in the invoice, so more you will nid to pay processing fees of $25 at CASE, so better forget bout the whole issue, juz remember NEVER GO TO PALACE OF LIGHTS for your lighting again.
 

bennysmurf

New Member
Hi si si,
thanks for your telling us your in laws' story. Just to let you know I went to them to get the refund on 19th February 2005. The salesperson agreed to tell his boss that I insisted on cash refund (I was worried about bounced cheques). Got a shock when I found reached the shop and found them giving me a cheque instead. The salesperson gave me some lame excuse "the boss just came for a while and gave me the cheque" and "dun worry we are such a big shop, it will not bounce". No choice but to accept.
uhoh.gif


They did show me invoices of other people they claimed to be affected by the "factory problem". Dunno whether to believe them or not.

Luckily the cheque did not bounce (how ironic, this is the only promise they kept). Anway, agree with you. I will advise others NEVER TO GO THERE!!!!

Can you imagine this entire "saga" lasted from August 2004 to Feb 2005??!!!
angry.gif
 

angela82

New Member
at least u got ur refund back, lucky u, feel so sad for my in laws sl more i accompany them to buy their lights haizzzzzzzz palace of lights are full of lamers, swear never to go to them for lights ever in my life.
 

rachelcheng

New Member
Anyone has experience with this shop "The Light Shop? Jus opp palace of lights.. Think price wise quite ok cos I spent total of $900 for whole house lightings including kitchen, 3 bedrooms,store,toilets,dining, balcony area and 20 downlights. Initially turned off by their high retail price tag. But only get to know that the price tag is for contractor's customers due to commision for the contractors. So we got quite a huge discount off the retail price tag. If you just want to compare price by taking into their price tags, they are considered high end. So remember to ask for the real consumer discounted price. Also, never go with your contractors to buy any accessories cos definitely get ribbed off. Will only get to install my lights in June so will update you guys when I got all my lights.
 

sun_elle

New Member
Try the Best Light Shop.

Quite good personnel there to help you and work out a quote for you.

But, if you are looking for Chandeliers, there isn't la..

Simple lights they have..

Just bought a few lights from them yesterday..
 

sun_elle

New Member
Try the Best Light Shop at Balestier.

Quite good personnel there to help you and work out a quote for you.

But, if you are looking for Chandeliers, there isn't la..

Simple lights they have..

Just bought a few lights from them yesterday..
 

rc123

New Member
Hi,

I've just bought all my lightings from Light Arcade. Look for the boss, Andrew. He should be there most of the time and he's able to recommend the type of lightings for your house. I've bought 16 square downlights (2x13W), 1 hanging light, 10 ceiling lights, 4 round halogen lights all for $850. They come with 1 year warranty for the PLC and 1/2 year for the rest. I think it's very worth it.
 

keepitreal

New Member
Hi tsukushi,

I was brought to VLUX by my ID. Like wat smurf had said earlier in this thread, VLUX and Etoile are under the same boss, so becareful. Anyhow, I did not get my lights from VLUX as I can get similar stuffs elsewhere at a cheaper price.

Note: VLUX's designs are quite unique cos from "ITALY" and dun expect a double digits price, majority triple digits, some 4-digits.

Remember to look do your homework first...
 

makino

New Member
Hi Ali,

Thanks for the warning! Any recommended shops? If it's not convenient to write here, can you pls msg me? Thanks!
 

jojok

New Member
Hi roxyz,

I got my lights there; Nice modern designs. No complaints with the installation. Reasonable price too.
 

roxyz

New Member
thanks jojok

then i feel very safe liao...gg to get lights this sat...will prob pop by there

hi deardear
lights zone is at 338 balestier rd no: 63580514
 

roxyz

New Member
I just bought my lights from Light Arcade ...Andrew's a very friendly person and will advise us wat we need and dun need.

Got the below for $1,080 ( with installation )
- 14 double tubed Australian Atco ballast and Spain holder & Osram bulb downlite
- 6 4feet flourescent tube
- 6 halogen spotlights
- 1 hamburger light
- 2 kitchen lights & 2 bedroom lights
- 1 crystal light for foyer
- 1 crystal hanging lights for dining ( consist of 6 crystal with coloured bulbs )

Very worth it...we went to a few shops to compare prices before coming to Andrew. We like his service and his prices are very reasonable esp as it includes installation
 

hazelsee

New Member
Hi All

I bought all my lights at Etoile Lumiere (Hong Fu). Was v v pleased with their services in the showroom, but after-sales service is TERRIBLE!

Late delivery, bad attitude delivery man, missed out many items, then after installation, within two hours, two transformers (or balast) and two bulbs died!!!

Am going down to confront them today, gearing up. Should have done my research on this forum before going... sigh. But I must say the lights are v nice, just that they cheat on the quality of transformers and bulbs. Price is cheap

I paid $795 for
21 downlights
2 halogen spotlights
1 three-in-one tracklight
2 square aluminium tin lights
2 Cristal (made in Italy) bedroom lights
1 Living room cracked glass with stainless steel lights (made in germany)
1 Stern (made in germany) bedroom light
1 E/S holder light (this one they charged me $15, when I found out later at hardware shops, it cost only $1 for holder and $8 for tube!)

Free delivery, free body massager, but no installation.
 

hazelsee

New Member
Hi all

Updates on Etoile Lumiere (or Hong Fu Deng Zhi Jia). Does anyone know how to contact its boss? Every time I call, they'll tell me boss is not there.

Today went to exchange my transformers and bulbs and faulty lights.

1st thing we walked in: asked for boss (lao ban), they told me no "lao ban", "di ban" want or not! Then I'm already frustrated by the past two days of calling them and having to deal with missing items, items which can't fit etc, and having to deal with salesman scolding me. So I was really boiling boiling already. Got a customer in there when I went today, so they tried to hush us, but we were just stating facts that there were problems and bad attitude delivery man. We didn't talk v loudly nor softly, but the customer who was there, about to buy lights decided to leave. So salesmen were angry with us.

2nd thing: The transformer or ballasts that were faulty. The 1st thing the salesman did was, threaten me, "what if it is working?" so I replied, you check first. so my fiance kept a v close eye on him, just to make sure he didn't swap the faulty transformer with a good one. When it's proven that it's spoilt, I told him, there I told you it's spoilt already, then he kept hushing me and shouted at me "can you shut up?" As if it's my fault. Then that salesman scolded us, said, "you're 20-30 yrs old already, still so childish, one small thing like this spoilt, you come in and make so much noise. Childish" Wow, personal attack!

3rd thing: They told me, they delivered things to my house 3 times (coz they made mistakes and had to rectify). They said that if they'd no service, they need not bother with us AT ALL. They complained that we were loud and rude and drove away their customers. Then I told them, if you've good service and I'm unreasonable, your customers can differentiate between an unreasonable customer or a lousy shop. They even told us, if we want to continue kicking a fuss, they want to drive us out of the shop!

4th thing: The transformers n tubes used in showroom are TOTALLY different from that delivered. Bad attitude, and my fiance was kind, he wanted to tell them nicely what customer service should be about. We cooled down and used a v nice and soft tone liao. Salesman Elson Seah (who claimed to be sales manager) refused to look at my fiance in the eye. My fiance said, "I'm talking to you, can you at least look me in the eye" I just want to feedback to you, your delivery man has a problem, it reflects badly on your company. Elson Seah didn't want to listen AT ALL and just said, I'm a sales manager, I've sales targets to meet, you come in like that and spoilt my sales. We provided service to you, you still behave like that. Then didn't want to talk to us. Fine lor, so he didn't want to listen, forget it.

Anyway, he's lost many potential clients by offending me. My parents are buying a new home and would need lights, if they'd done a good job, they would buy from them. My uncle is buying a private house too. In fact, my entire extended family is into selling property, construction and related businesses. I should have been prudent and asked those uncles of mine which shop to go to, to buy stuff b4 committing to the shop. My dad recommended me Crystal Palace at Thomson, but it's beyond my budget. This Etoile Lumiere is only standard pricing, not exactly v v cheap, but the sales people are really really terrible. Like gangsters.
 

friends78

New Member
Hi Hazel

U did the right thing to 'scare' off their customers! Bravo! We as customers should not be threatened by the the sales person. Thanks for posting... at least now... Etoile Lumiere is off my list should i need to buy lightings.
 

hazelsee

New Member
Hi All

I found out the name of the company's bosses. Wrote a letter to them and will send it out. CC copies to CASE complaints and Singapore Retailer's Association. Atrocious behaviour. Just hope no one else will be conned and threatened by salesmen in Etoile Lumiere.

I found out that just by paying Yellow Pages $4.20, you can retrieve information about the company's director and manager instantly. If any of you ever suay suay encounter a similar situation, can try searching for bosses' contacts this way thru the online yellow pages.
 

sasa12

New Member
when lights hunting at balestier, was lookin for certain design... until we at Light Arcade, they got what we was lookin for.... went back there few days later to complete buyin rest of our home lights.... they were helpful and friendly on both visit there.... think their pricing shld be ok cos got all 13 lights within our budget...up to nw our experience with them was wonderful! nw waiting for their delivery...hope they will complete their excellent service all the way.

p.s. To the "handsome" boss and 2 "pretty" sales girl...as promise we had done our part....
happy.gif
 

sasa12

New Member
when lights hunting at balestier, was lookin for certain design... until we at Light Arcade, they got what we was lookin for.... went back there few days later to complete buyin rest of our home lights.... they were helpful and friendly on both visit there.... think their pricing shld be ok cos got all 13 lights within our budget...up to nw our experience with them was wonderful! nw waiting for their delivery...hope they will complete their excellent service all the way.

p.s. To the "handsome" boss and 2 "pretty" sales girl...as promise we had done our part.... frm 650
 

sasa12

New Member
when lights hunting at balestier, was lookin for certain design... until we at Light Arcade, they got what we was lookin for.... went back there few days later to complete buyin rest of our home lights.... they were helpful and friendly on both visit there.... think their pricing shld be ok cos got all 13 lights within our budget...up to nw our experience with them was wonderful! nw waiting for their delivery...hope they will complete their excellent service all the way.

p.s. To the "handsome" boss and 2 "pretty" sales girl...as promise we had done our part....
happy.gif
frm 650
 

cafelii

New Member
Anyone been to Fusion Lighting at Upper Serangoon Road? Its just opposite Potong Pasir MRT. I happen to pass by and go in look look. Surprisingly their price is very good and the salesperson (I think his name is RIC) very helpful and friendly. Cos I am buying the fabric light for my MBR. He display 4 different kind of fabrics on the ceiling and help me to analsye which is the best. Very good salesman! But he is not pushy cos he tell me I can go other places take a look first b4 deciding whether want to buy from him or not. Actually the designs not alot but the price quite okay... so maybe I will go down again this weekend to confirm my order.
happy.gif
 

hazelsee

New Member
Hi Cafelii

You did the right thing by not confirming your order immediately and doing some research here, unlike me who got conned by the excellent service provided in the showroom.

Do check with them where their bulbs and transformers (or ballasts) are made in and the brand they are giving you, better to make them write it into the contract. Those are important for lasting lights. Make sure there's a return policy as well.

My ID friend recommends Premier or Prema (not v sure exact spelling) in Geylang area, she says it's suitable for HDB flats, designs are nice. Coz I complained about my experience with Etoile Lumiere, and she laughed at me for not asking the expert for advice first. And the other recommended shop, if you want to buy high end lights would have to be Crystal Palace.
 

gingerschnapps

New Member
Hi...I'm new to this thread.anyone can enlighten me on how much an average downlight cost? And how many would I need for my living room(new 5 room flat)

Also,how do you guys rate Chan Huat lighting so far?are their services good?
 

juv

New Member
Hello all..for those going to balestier be careful of my lighting houxx, was rather impressed with the service initially, the guy claimed that he will come n rectify any problems we have, just trust him.

When we tried calling him after the delivery, gave all sorts of excuse like they don't do delivery on weekends and will get back to us... we were so frustrated that we decided to go buy the replacement ourselves...so much for trusting him....
sad.gif
 

tequilaneat

New Member
Hi Hazel,

Did you get to change the items you wanted at etoile lumiere?

I have a bad experience with them. They cheated me S$300+ for a china made lamp and they dare to say its made in italy... the stupid brand call Laniber.. when i check on the net... Laniber was a china company... kao!

I am going to Small Claims Tribunal for the issue... i got a copy of their company profile by paying $5.00 and was wondering r u going to complain them at the same time... cos i dun mind emailing you their business profile.
 

mercutio

New Member
Hi Hazel and tequilane,

I had a bad experience with etoile lumiere also. is there anyway to get them blacklisted from case?
 

sugarsugar

New Member
hi gals,

seems like we are all in the same flight.. had a terrible experience with etoile lumiere too... spoke to the same guy (elson) also... i "scolded" him over the phone when he kept telling me no stock and late delivery, etc, coz my hubby and i didn't have the time and energy to go down all the way to balestier (we stay in yishun)..
threatened to complain to case if this continues.. and he kept quiet.. told him to at least answer me rather than me just talking alone... really makes my blood boil just tinking of it!

tink we should let the rest of the pple know that they are actually not such a "nice" company...
 

tequilaneat

New Member
Hi MerCutiO,

me going to small claims tribunal this saturday. do you want their company profile? i can email them to you... lets go together to log a complain.

their service sucks.
 

tequilaneat

New Member
Hi sugarsugar,

i threatened to complain to case and the guy andy say.. go ahead! kao... i not going to let them off so easily... case is soft approach... i am going to small claims.

lets all go together... make them close shop.
 

tequilaneat

New Member
Hi MerCutiO & sugarsugar...

If i need witness to testify against Etoile Lumiere... would you both willing to be my witness?
 

mercutio

New Member
Hi tequilaneat @ sugarsugar,

My partner and myself is willing to join forces with your gals. But seems like my reply come too late.. pls let me know if u gals have been there today. PM me.. lets get in touch on this... im going to give a long account of our experience with Etolie Lumierie stay tune...
 

tequilaneat

New Member
Hi MerCutiO,

Thanks so much... I really appreciate it.

I have went to Small Claims today. Submit the complain, invoice and paid $10. My consultation is on 22 Aug @ 10am. They will send a letter to Etoile Lumiere to inform them about the consultation.

If it is not solve at the consultation stage, I will have to go through the hearing. Which I need alot of concrete prove to show the referee that they are dishonest in business dealings.

Hmm... maybe you would like to send me an email direct to let me know your case and I can show it as evidence to the judge.

my email is [email protected]
 

chubbybaby

New Member
Hi Juv

who is the person you deal with at my lighting houxx?

we went to that shop and was quite pleased with them.....so not sure whether there will be any hiccups after we order
 

mercutio

New Member
Extremely lousy Customer Service from Etolie Lumierie. Here is an account of what had happened.

It was after some shopping and research before we decided to buy our lightings from Etolie thinking that they offer nice lighting design and also pretty “good” customer service. We were served by a sales man by the name of Elson.

At the day of lightings installation, we realized that most of the lightings we ordered are with some defects namely:
1. unsightly glass bubble and scratches on designer lighting for bedrooms
2. dents and scratches on kitchen and toilets lightings
3. Broken glass cover and prominent scratches on almost ALL the living room down lights.

We order lightings of the entire house from Etolie, and a good 80% of them are with defects. We called up Etolie - Elson at once and requested him to change the goods for us within the same day so that our lighting installation work will not be delayed. However, Elson could not be reached and the below are the responses I gotten after Eltolie after several attempt to reach him:
1. Our Shop open at 11am, Elson is not in yet.
2. Elson is with a customer, pls call back later.
3. Elson is having his lunch at the moment, pls let him finish his food first.

By Evening, I finally got a replied from Etolie. I was told that exchange cannot take place on that day. They will have to arrange for collection of defective lightings on the following week, return to supplier and then deliver new lightings many days later.

The above encounter was a mere poor customer service experience. What had happened next had shocked me! Collection of the defects was schedule on one of the weekday at 5pm – 6pm. We had specifically informed Elson to call us before delivery as we were rushing to run some errands that day.

We received no call from Etolie till 5.45 when we arrived at the new house; we decided to call Etolie to recheck on time of collection again. We were told by another sales guy call Ken that his driver had knock on our door but received no response, hence, driver left without any collection. Ironically, on that very day, a group of renovation contractors were working at our new house, from morning till we arrived and with the big living room door widely opened. How could Etolie claim that nobody had answered the door for his driver! Worst still, instead of apologizing for defects and quickly re-arrange for delivery, Ken from Etolie rudely accused my husband to be being fussy! We were very furious then.

Few minutes later, we walk into the storeroom and to our astonishment; we realized that the batch of defect lightings had went missing. We panicked, we questioned the renovation workers, we called up lighting technician and we even went to the rubbish chute to check on the whereabouts of those lightings! It was no where to be found. In the end, we decided to check out Etolie with the suspicion that they might have screw up the collection and communication.

Just as what we had predicted, our defect lightings were sitting right in their shop! When I tried to reason things out with Elson, I was stopped by another sales person in the shop. He said: “Miss, Elson is serving customer now can you excuse him.”
I said: “fine.”
I then joined by husband to be who was in an argument with Ken. We demanded for an explanation which he wasn’t able to give and there also wasn’t a word of apologies for delivering defective lightings and miscommunication of collection which had caused us to panic at the thought of lost of lightings!

Delivery of new lightings was arranged on one of the weekday and our agony experience with Etolie has yet to end! Etolie did not deliver the lightings on the agreed date and time. We waited in the new house for 1 full hour for the driver to arrive but to no avail. Desperately, we called Etolie again. We were told that driver had gone for IPPT and will not be delivering our lightings. I thought that was unbelievable, failed to deliver lightings per agreed timing and did not even have the courtesy to inform us with merely a call. Is this an intentional act?? We couldn’t help having such thought.

The next delivery arrangement was nothing better with the fact that delivery was very late and we had once more gotten some defect lightings which we rejected and still get defective glass cover for a designer light on their next delivery. Todate, this has not been resolve. We are still waiting for new stocks to arrive (in sept) so that we can do exchange on the costly designer light.

Another unprofessional act by Elson was, he claimed that 2 x 5 watt (total 10 WATT) light bulb is sufficient to light up a bedroom. He assured us with the brightness and we were told to go back to him if 10 WATT is not bright enough. When we got back, we were told to buy a new set of higher watt bulbs at our own expense.

Above is what we had encountered with Etolie Lumierie. We had tried to contact the boss for complains but to no avail. The staff refuse reveal boss contacts. We wanted to lodge a complaint with CASE, but no point as we had made full payment on their first delivery. The best we can do now is to post our encounter in the few major forums so that people will be aware of this black shop. Etolie Lumierie is located along Balestier Road with BIG PINK striking company board. Chinese name of this shop is “HONG FU”. Pls avoid!

It is easy to put up a friendly courtesy front to create a good customer service impression. However, it is always when issues arise when consumer gets to see the true color of a service provider.
 

booboo

New Member
Hi guys,

May I know any one have brough light from "Light Zone Enterprise" & "Light+From"? Need to know how gd their light are and how is the after sale service and their price X?

Plan to buy light from these 2 shop, hope u guys can feedback & help. Thanks.
 



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