AgHhH!! Ballast question . . . YaY!!

[Tangman]

Sorry to here about your problems, I tried to warn people about Hamilton Teck ... Here and on RC. If you try to call them all you will get is the run around. They already have your money and don't care about customer service and have no quality control with regards to there products. For these reasons J&L wont sell there products!
As for the problems , the bulb has to " burn in " along time before it fires up right away ,like about a weeks worth of 8 to 10 hours a day. Mine did the same thing as your are doing , and after repairing some patched together wiring, and some other problems.... and along burn in time , they fire up right away. in the mean time good luck!
if you want you could PM me with your phone number and I will call you with the whole story...