Beware of new home light bulb installers

[squala]

You may have come across a certain booth offering upgrades to energy saving light bulbs in your local shopping centre. They do it for free and just have to book in a schedule to go to your house.

It sounds all good, but you have to take caution. Some schemers pretend to show goodwill but what they want is to get a good look at your house, as in where the expensive appliances and jewellery are, locking/security systems etc. and will plan a burglary.

It's nice to do your part in saving the planet by changing your bulbs, but you're better off trading your old ones for the energy savers and install them yourselves, like what we did.


Cheers

[exaltd]

You are right, however:

There are some genuine companies carrying out the work. So be cautious but not dismiss all of them.

I had a company 'Green Alliance' come by, I was suspicious at first, but was fine with it after they showed me ID (certified electrician and company certified), the nice brochure (which I checked the website), the paperwork, the backup paperwork on the tablet PC linked back to HQ and all. They did a good job They even got my malfunctioning light to work again Oh and they had Green Alliance branded lights as well to top it all off, in Green Alliance boxes - pretty ellaborate if they just want to steal things from a house.

I also had another dodgy Indian guy with no ID and no brochures etc. come and offer the same serivce. Of course you can tell what happened .

Anyway, this should be gone now - seeing as the new regulations for selling incandescent bulbs was supposed to have been enforced on 1st Jan 2010

Just my 2c worth.

-EXALTD-

[ofey]

I too had the offer of new energy efficient light bulbs.

I told the guy to wait at the door. Went into my house of about 5 minutes and removed every single light bulb I had (about 10) then handed them to him in a box. He then came back with a box of 12 bulbs (the carton quantity) and said to not tell his boss that he didn't do the replacement. I said fine and he went on his way.

[spunkybob]

i don't let strangers in my house period.... unless they came with a mate.

[bd-850]

We have a similar problem at the moment with people coming around trying to sell the FREE house insulation. They try and Scam old people even though it’s free; they say that the insulation is free but they still get paid, etc.

[m1n1on]

What brand light bulbs do you get as a replacement? If they are cheap chinese crap, I'd rather have my incandescent light blubs.

I think all my bulbs are CFL's anyway.

[driftnut((]

i had an indian guy posing as an AGL sales person, first thing he says to me is how much is average light bill and how much do you earn a year?? im like WTF none of ur buisness, so he asked what do you do for a living i then replied "I work for the department of IMMAGRATION and asked for some I.D or a wroking visa" never seen some one run so damn fast in my life he ran to his car and sped off lol couldnt stop laughing

[08VET]

You may have come across a certain booth offering upgrades to energy saving light bulbs in your local shopping centre. They do it for free and just have to book in a schedule to go to your house.

It sounds all good, but you have to take caution. Some schemers pretend to show goodwill but what they want is to get a good look at your house, as in where the expensive appliances and jewellery are, locking/security systems etc. and will plan a burglary.

It's nice to do your part in saving the planet by changing your bulbs, but you're better off trading your old ones for the energy savers and install them yourselves, like what we did.


Cheers

Wow that is horrible !

Thanks for the heads up ^^

[SIR-VRX]

Guys, can we please keep race of the person out of this...

We are an international site, so some may be of the decent that you're discriminating.

[Tin_Pusher]

We had a guy from the local power company ask to come in and change all the bulbs. I told him we had many fittings that the CFLs would not fit and I'd manage the changeover myself. I also fired a complaint off to the power company, asking them what were they thinking - sending a total stranger unannounced wanting access to our house - no reply of course.

I've only got a couple in the house anyway. My brother and I have electonics and electrical engineering backgrounds, and he's experienced two CFL's expelling smoke when a component has failed, we've seen others that flicker and glow when not switched on, some only lasted a few months, and I've read reports of some causing interference to infrared remote control use.

Don't get me started .....

[Blakey]

ooo flickering, when its off cheap shoddy fluroes FTW, thats proably something to do with the starter or the ballast, maybe even the capasitor, to large.

the smoke your mate had coming out of one would of been caues the ballast burt out, happens alot, really. especally to cheap shoddy ones. but expensive ones can to.

iv been in a place that a entire fluro fitting had exploded. totaling the fitting and burning most of celing tiles around it. was quite a spectical.

[billyboy]

lol @ drifnut!

Yeah, cant stand door to door salesmen, had the insulation guys come knocking twice, explained to them that we're not eligable to do it cause we've claimed rebate already by installing a solar water heater.

Always rock up when i'm about to shovel 1st mouthful of my dinner, I dont bother opening the door anymore, ask who they are & tell them to move along.

[SIR-VRX]

I hate them too..

Lady showed up from the Sperm bank the other day.. You should have seen the mouthful I gave her!

[bd-850]

should of said Yes want it now and flopped him out


i had JW's (jehovah witness) (sorry if this is your belief) but anyway, came around rambling on about how its always the Man of the house does this, does that, the women NEED to do this and do that, man has the final say, blah blah blah. i said, look my wife is at work, ive been told not to talk to you type of people, i can that booklet, and give it to my wife to read and tell me what she thinks of it.

hehe.

they didnt know what to say

[bd-850]

I hate them too..

Lady showed up from the Sperm bank the other day.. You should have seen the mouthful I gave her!

ohhh what mouthful was that