Well guys I guess I will chime in on this thread. About a month ago I purchased 2 175w 10k bulbs from Venki. I was very happy when I fired my first bulb up, it was very blue compared to my 10k Ushio. I was so happy I posted pictures of it right away. Two days later I hooked up my other ballast and fired up the other bulb. To my surprise it appeared the color of about a 6500k bulb. I waited about a week hoping it would burn in. After a week the two 10k's were completely different colors (about a 6500k and 14k). I was told by Venki to ship the bulbs back to him and he would test them. After about 3-4 week of testing the verdict was my ballasts were the cause of the bulbs not firing correctly. These were the same ballasts that Venki told me were the best ballasts for these bulbs (about 2 days before i bought the bulbs). In the 3-4 weeks Venki was testing my bulbs I was following threads on reef central about the same problem other people were having. It seemed to be a common problem with the 175w 10k's. They would either burn really yellow or really blue. Venkie told me the only thing he could do was refund my money and that in the future he would put warnings that the bulbs did always work on tar ballasts.......I though a little late! After he already told me they did. So I ended up with my refund alright......... "I refund your account 2 X 42 = 84 less 20% restocking fee = 67.2 total including tax = 71.90 in the next couple of days." Quote from email...... but that didn’t cover my $15 shipping charge x2. (Since I had to pay for the return shipping)
So in the end I end up with no bulbs and $47 in the whole. This is exactly why my parents tell my not to buy things on the Internet!!!!!!!!!
I apologize for the novel
|