Silicon Solar Ripoff Hassle, Hassle, Hassle and NO customer service Sidney New York

I ordered 4 solar powered yard lights from Silicon Solar mainly because their on-line advertisement claims that their lights are the best on the market. The 4 lights, plus shipping, cost me about $70. When I received my order, the instructions were very explicit about how to "charge" the lights before using them in the yard. After carefully following the instructions, however, only 2 of the 4 lights worked at all, and one of the 2 that worked had light so dim that I considered it non-functional as well. In my opinion, a 75% failure rate is totally unacceptable. I returned the whole order by UPS, asking for a refund, but only received an email saying I had to get PERMISSION to return goods. The package was returned to me with a note that Silicon Solar would not accept the package because it didn't have a special code written on the outside of the box. That whole mailing process took 6 weeks. Because I am familiar with the performance of UPS, I believe the delays could only have occurred at Silicon Solar's location.

I contacted the company by email when the merchandise was returned to me, but their excuse now was that according to their return policy, I had had them longer than was acceptable. As a generous concession, however, a return code was given to me, with a deadline of 10 days to get the failed merchandiase back to them. I know UPS didn't take 10 days to get my package to New York.

Silicon Solar's self-righteous attitude also made me feel very tentative about the situation. They claimed that every yard light they sell is tested by their people before being sent, so I had to be wrong about their workablility. That statement is ridiculous, however, because the lights have to be charged before they will work, and mine came uncharged. Silicon Solar was in complete denial about the poor quality of their product and made every effort to derail the return process.

My second attempt to return the merchandiase smelled of fraud, too. Silicon Solar insisted I had to pay for insurance on the value of the lights being returned, even though they were non-working. I discussed the situation with UPS representatives, and it was felt that by returning the broken lights with insurance, Silicon Solar would be able to make a claim against UPS and recover the cost of their non-working lights. UPS recommended against insuring the return. I did request, and eventually receive, confirmation that the merchandaise did get delivered to the Silicon Solar returns department, however.

Eventually, Silicon Solar took back their worthless product, but has subsequently failed to refund any money. I'm still out $70! Silicon Solar took my money, took back their failed merchandaise, hassled me every step of the way, and blamed me for the failure of their product. They even threatened that any disputed charges would be filed with a collection agency..., but how stupid is that? The only disputed charges revolve around the fact that THEY still owe ME $70.

All this happened 7 months ago. The letter of permission to return the lights was dated April 28, 2004. I attempted to call Silicon Solar in June to ask about my refund, but for some reason, there was nobody in the returns department who could speak English. As a result, no communication occurred during that telephone call. With me living in Texas and Silicon Solar being in New York, filing in Small Claims Court seems impractical, so I am totally frustrated with Silicon Solar's self-righteous and unresponsive attitude, and I'm still $70 poorer.

Don't consider ordering ANYTHING from Silicon Solar unless you thrive on hassles. They are a bunch of crooks, and, in my opinion, the owners of that organization belong in jail. Clearly from other reports at this site, Silicon Solar has made a policy out of stealing their customer's money.

Jim
Austin, Texas
U.S.A.