[mikeerdas]

Which means 90% of the trade-ins won't be honored,if the track record of mail in rebates holds.

Ruh-roh... I misread this to say the price would be taken off at the register. Didn't know it was a mail-in rebate. Hate those, generally.
I've got a ton of lights ready to return... but may not after having read this.

 

[mikeerdas]

Hello? I never said it was a rebate form. They will give you a form that you take to the register. Its printed on what looks like a rebate pad that they tear off and hand to you. You need to get one of these forms when you turn in your lights.

Thanks for clarifying. I know you personally never said it was a rebate. My mistake presuming from another's presumption. Guess the lights go back in the car today.

 

[mikeerdas]

My experience and savings today

Visited one HD early AM this morning to purchase something else. Was told at check-out that you could just turn in one stand and purchase up to 5 lights at a discount. Returned later and was told this was incorrect info--that it's one strand per discounted light purchase allowed. But they let me purchase the 4 red and green spots I wanted anyway using one strand. I had extra strands in the trunk just in case. Pretty embarrassing. Guess my instinct was correct.

That HD didn't stock the White Kaleidoscopes and blue non-motion spots I wanted, so traveled to another HD. This one was fully stocked--brought in four stands to purchase four lights. The customer service person was great--I said I wished I'd had more strands, because I didn't realize there was a Green Kaleidoscope--she asked how many I wanted; just two--I like getting these in pairs. So she let me purchase them. Further didn't realize that the same store had both the Blue Kaleidoscope lights--still have my Lowes receipts for those--as well as a *red* Kaleidoscope.

As stated, the single color non-motion spots were $3 off list price of $15, and so the cost was $12.
The Kaleidoscope lights were $5 off list price of $20, making them $15.

Returned the $20 White Kaleidoscopes to Family Dollar and the $15 single-color spots to the At Home (Garden Ridge) store.

May return later in the week to the store with the Mega Stock and return purchase two blue Kaleidoscopes and two red Kaleidoscopes, returning the blue K's to Lowes.

My advice--bring one strand per light you'd like to purchase to be safe. Especially if that's the official policy. Sounds like it's unequally enforced. Some of my strands were the small cheap Orange and Purple $1 strands from Dollar Tree that I didn't much care for anyway. My cat of course had to give my replacement merch the sniff test, if you look closely, you'll see her.

 

[mikeerdas]

mike, I sooo need a blue kaleidospotlight, any chance you can hook me up to ship to me? Also, if your old light strand has lets say, a bitten wire from squirrels or something, is that something that thats they will accept for trade in, or does it specifically have to be usable?

Not sure I'd be comfortable sending out a light. Maybe someone else can pitch in, sorry. I think they'll take anything. No one was really inspecting anything. They just had a big huge box they said to toss the lights in.

 

[mikeerdas]

I'm just more comfortable being anonymous on the forums and helping people through info, research, and photos / ideas; so I don't interact a lot with people and their real names, etc. That may all change once, thinking positively, I start the Charity Haunt. :--) I bet someone else would be glad to help.

sorry, I didnt mean for you to pay on your own, Id pay everything of course, even at the full price without you sacrificing an old light set.

But if you meant you didnt want to pick up and ship to me I can pay you in advance if that makes you feel better, not sure why you would be uncomfortable shipping an item but I guess you have your reasons? Id be the one taking a risk after all and I feel I can trust a fellow forum member.

There are none in my county or the next so Im at the mercy of fellow forum members. Another forum member is helping me get my cat inflatable, so without members to help each other out for places that are dry of merch Im not sure how else we all can really get these sorts of things from weird stores like HD and Lowes.

it really is just a great forum.

I suppose I can try ebay but really do hate paying out the nose for a $20 light.

 

[mikeerdas]

The promo says incandescent strands in any condition.

A few years ago I bought a couple 100-mini light incandescent blue light strands I thought would look cool on our fence...going for an icy look. No one liked them up however and figured it would cost me more than I paid for the strands to change out all the bulbs to another color so plan to pull those together and turn them in.

There's a few green LED spots l'd like to pick up for my halloween display and maybe one or two of the white kaleidoscopes so want to do the trade in before they all get purchased by xmas shopping people. Most HD locations in my area are only showing a few of each color and once gone not sure if they will restock before the offer expires.

As I'm positive you know, but others may appreciate being reminded of, buy what you think you might use now; return what you don't use later, after testing, etc. Regret's not fun. I have yet to test all my single-color spots; but have plenty of time to do so, with HD's return policy of, what is it, 90 days?

I like most of my incandescent Christmas lights. So on the way home, I purchased five boxes of 20-light-each strands of multi color and white christmas lights for $1 each. So for $5, I bought 5 Kaleidoscope lights--5 x $5 off = $25; minus $5 = $20 savings. I bought them out completely of the Blue Kaleidoscopes (3) and picked up two Red Kaleidoscopes. Don't know what I'll keep and what I'll return. But definitely keeping all of my Blue Kaleidoscope--I loved the Pandora (Avatar) In My Backyard effect when combined with the green laser spots. Returned two Blues to Home Depot that I had with me. Will probably keep one as a fourth for whole backyard coverage.

Here was my take today on the way home from work:

Also justifying additional purchases to help decorate a Charity haunt I'm trying to establish in my area (Raleigh, NC).

So I'm now the proud owner of 10 Kaleidoscope lights:

(2) White
(4) Blue
(2) Green
(2) Red

Interested in seeing how I like, or not, the single color Green and single color Red Kaleidoscopes. The Blues are still by far my favorite. Thinking Green will be nice--blue and green are two of my favorite colors for yard haunts.