A bad buying experience with Terry Lang!

[mufret]

Let me preface this by saying that I’m new to reef keeping and my attempts to get some lighting for my tank has not been a very pleasant experience. The first attempt resulted in nothing getting shipped and having to battle Paypal to get the charges on my credit card reversed. In searching for other options, I came across the following thread Terry Lang posted in the "for sale" section of Reef Central:

http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...hreadid=515112

I was hopeful that this transaction would turn out better than the first since I couldn’t help but notice that Mr. Lang was the president of North Coast Marine Keepers, his area’s marine club, and had years of experience. Unfortunately, as the title of this thread stated, that’s NOT how it turned out. I apologize, in advance, for the long read however I feel it necessary to describe how this transaction transpired, so here goes:

We exchanged e-mails and telephone calls and were able to come to an agreement. Initially, everything went smoothly (the items were paid for, shipped and arrived at their destination). I get the box home and since there is no power plug, there’s no way to test the lights. No big deal – off to Home Depot for a plug. The problems started as soon as I went to wire the plug to the harness that came with the set up. The molex plug for the harness was rusted and due to the corrosion, the power wire was no longer attached to the molex plug so there was no way to wire the power plug! I was frustrated at this point but an e-mail to Mr. Lang and he suggested a repair. Unfortunately, after searching multiple locations of Home Depots, Lowe’s, Radio Shacks and hobby shops, I was not able to find the necessary items to repair the harness so I ended up purchasing a new harness and set about changing out the harness (I did this wire by wire to make sure that everything was wired exactly the way it had been. Let me also say that even though I’m new to reef keeping, I’m not new to DIY projects and have all the proper equipment including a multimeter to check wiring). After everything was finally wired up, I went to test the set up and 2 bulbs flashed for a second and then nothing. So again, I e-mailed Mr. Lang and he responded by directing me to the IceCap forum on Reef Central. I then proceeded to follow the instructions on troubleshooting and that led to the replacement of 2 of the bulbs that had apparently been damaged in shipment so off again to the LFS to purchase 2 new bulbs. Not what I was hoping to do just to test the setup but I knew I’d be needing new bulbs so again, frustrating but not a big deal. Installed the new bulbs and again followed all of the procedures spelled out on IceCap’s website to test all of the circuits and everything checked out. Plugged in the ballast and again, NOTHING! This time all 4 bulbs flashed for a second, which according to the IceCap site, meant the ballast was bad. Just to make sure, I then took the ballast to a LFS that had a VHO setup with a 660 installed on one of their display tanks and they tested out the ballast I was sent and it did the same thing on their setup which confirmed that the ballast was not operational. I e-mailed Mr. Lang with this information and he responded that the ballast was under warranty and that I should just send it in.

Again, I wasn’t happy about being shipped a non-working T5 setup but other than to inform Mr. Lang of what was going on and asking questions, I made no demands on him and was following through with getting all of the information together to send in the ballast. As I was researching what would be needed, I discovered that the ballast that Mr. Lang sent me, the URI A4, is not recommended for use with T5 HO bulbs. I called the manufacturer (IceCap) and was told that although the A4 was similar to the IceCap 660, it was not to be used with T5 bulbs. He went on to say that the A4 would fire T5 bulbs but eventually the ballast would blow! Could this be why the ballast is not working? I then called URI and was told basically the same thing. They stated that the A4 was manufactured specifically for the URI VHO bulbs and that it’s missing the circuits that allow the 660 to be used with T5 and PC bulbs. After getting this information, I again e-mailed Mr. Lang and informed him of this and then asked for a refund because the setup that was sent was not in working order and, more importantly, he advertised a T5 set up but sent T5 fixtures and a VHO only ballast. The final response that I received from Mr. Lang stated that the sale was “as is� irregardless of what he advertised (he’s ignored any e-mails or messages left on his voicemail since that response)!

Now maybe it’s because I’m new to this forum and reef keeping and that’s how things are handled here (I sure hope not). I feel like I’ve been very patient and cordial in my dealings with Mr. Lang and wouldn’t think that asking for a refund, given the situation described above, was too much to ask (I was, in fact, even willing to compromise and stated that I would still be willing to purchase the working items in the set up but would like a refund for the ballast and harness). I also want to illustrate that I did not rush to any judgments (that’s why I relayed all of the events). I was very willing to try and make this work! I think it’s especially frustrating when you’re attempting to gain knowledge and put trust in someone that professes to have that knowledge but leads you astray for their own financial benefit. I sure hope Mr. Lang shows more restraint and ethical dealings when it comes to the new members that are joining the club that he presides over!

Finally, after all of this, I’m still without any lighting. I ended up with a T5 retro kit sans a ballast and a non-working although supposedly under warranty VHO ballast. Not a very good purchase!