Mars-Hydro - Formerly TopLedGrowLight - Customer Service Review

[StreetPreach]

Hi Sara

I'm trying to repair my light which has failed just after the warranty expired, even though the light is well under 10,000 hours...

I have an entire region that has stopped working, but I checked power supply and it works fine to light up the other regions, so it's not a power supply problem.

And since it's an entire region of lights I find it hard to believe that all of the diodes have gone bad.

What else could be the problem?

 

[ItsNatural]

Seems to be a trend with these lights and warranty. So I guess I tell my Mars Hydro Experience.

I bought a Reflector Series 192 and a tent. Halfway thru the 1st grow. (if that) the stitching around the zipper at the bottom has failed. SO now I have a good 3 or 4 inch what looks like slash. It started small. But because its around the zipper, It has gotten much bigger. I tried to glue it but didnt work. So now I just dont zip past that point. And have my cover wall, pushed up against it to stop light leaks. I informed Mars several times. Never even bothered to contact me back. And it just wasnt worth the hassle to keep trying.

Now...Somewhere thru my second grow or beginning of 3rd, my light messed up. Didnt even make it a year. I thought...ok..still under warranty. Ill get it fixed. But its not that simple. After jumping thru the pictures hoop, Im told that I will have to pay to ship the light to them, pay to have it shipped back...and will also have to pay labor to get fixed. All in all, about $100. $100 I dont really have. The light itself is only $320.. But I should feel better knowing that its still under warranty and they will provide the 6 cents parts FOR FREE!!!

I honestly feel they should pay for shipping AND labor. The reason they wont is they cant afford to do that. They put out too many bad or defective lights....But you would think they would AT LEAST not charge to fix their own defective light. But they do.

And the fact that they can just say..we feel you damaged the light so we arent paying, just shows what kind of company you are dealing with. Dont get me wrong. Sarah and the other I have talked to have been super nice. But honestly, If you were getting mugged, would you care that the guy was "super nice" No, all your gonna care about is the fact that you just got mugged. Now I have to figure out if its even worth sending the light back to get fixed.

 

[Mars Hydro]

Hello Street,

If so, it was caused by the LEDs, when the LEDs out, if the protect diode did not handle the problem well, it will broken again. the the circuit on the board are out, then then whole circuit LEDs will not light up. Do you want us to help you repair or you want me to teach you how to do ? If you have no experience, we would like to help you. If you have experience, I would like to teach you how to do. not that hard, but for a green hand, truly hard. waiting for your information.

Hi Sara

I'm trying to repair my light which has failed just after the warranty expired, even though the light is well under 10,000 hours...

I have an entire region that has stopped working, but I checked power supply and it works fine to light up the other regions, so it's not a power supply problem.

And since it's an entire region of lights I find it hard to believe that all of the diodes have gone bad.

What else could be the problem?

 

[Mars Hydro]

Hello ItsNatural, could you please tell me who are you talking with in our factory, it seems you got the wrong solution. After three months, we need you to pay to ship back to our repair center, that is wrote in our warranty policy, why we want you to pay but not us? because we have paid for customer in 2015, most customers shipped with very expensive shipping company. Like you said, the reflector is only 320USD, the shipping cost will be 200USD when they ship back or even more, we can not accept that . and we tried many ways to ask them ship with cheaper shipping company, no result, so we have to ask them pay themselves. We do believe customers will not care about our money, but if they need to pay themselves, they will try their best to ship with the lowest shipping company they can find. we will cover the parts, labor and ship back to customer cost. so please tell me who are you tacking with, then I will find our the problem ASAP. thank you .

Seems to be a trend with these lights and warranty. So I guess I tell my Mars Hydro Experience.

I bought a Reflector Series 192 and a tent. Halfway thru the 1st grow. (if that) the stitching around the zipper at the bottom has failed. SO now I have a good 3 or 4 inch what looks like slash. It started small. But because its around the zipper, It has gotten much bigger. I tried to glue it but didnt work. So now I just dont zip past that point. And have my cover wall, pushed up against it to stop light leaks. I informed Mars several times. Never even bothered to contact me back. And it just wasnt worth the hassle to keep trying.

Now...Somewhere thru my second grow or beginning of 3rd, my light messed up. Didnt even make it a year. I thought...ok..still under warranty. Ill get it fixed. But its not that simple. After jumping thru the pictures hoop, Im told that I will have to pay to ship the light to them, pay to have it shipped back...and will also have to pay labor to get fixed. All in all, about $100. $100 I dont really have. The light itself is only $320.. But I should feel better knowing that its still under warranty and they will provide the 6 cents parts FOR FREE!!!

I honestly feel they should pay for shipping AND labor. The reason they wont is they cant afford to do that. They put out too many bad or defective lights....But you would think they would AT LEAST not charge to fix their own defective light. But they do.

And the fact that they can just say..we feel you damaged the light so we arent paying, just shows what kind of company you are dealing with. Dont get me wrong. Sarah and the other I have talked to have been super nice. But honestly, If you were getting mugged, would you care that the guy was "super nice" No, all your gonna care about is the fact that you just got mugged. Now I have to figure out if its even worth sending the light back to get fixed.

 

[DoctorGonzo]

Buy your lights from a local store, and make sure they handle any warranty process in store, to avoid hassles like this.
Buying lights that are fresh out of a shipping container from China, with little domestic support, is begging for trouble to begin with.
For instance, our local shop simply replaces Blue Lab meters, e-ballasts, etc., under manufacturer warranty.
If you buy inexpensive equipment, expect "10,000 hour" LEDs to last a small fraction of the stated lifespan, and expect the money you "saved" up front to go to repair or replacement costs. That's how "corner cutting" goes, and why it rarely works.
If you "saved" 50% by buying a cheap tent, expect the zippers to not be YKK & expect the stitching to be shoddy. If you spent top dollar on a tent, you wouldn't encounter these problems & if you did, you'd have a zero hassle warranty to back it up. Chinese-direct hardware sales have a long way to go before they equal what Americans expect from retailers, but they're trying.

-Doc

















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[Mars Hydro]

but we also heard some local stores have bad service, and the buyers would better to buy half price product from Chinese manufacture, if they can not get warranty, they still have another half money to buy a new one. No matter where to buy, we have money on our hand is much better than others hold. that is my life experience.

Actually, we are providing some OEM service too, we make lights or tents for them, put their own brand , but except the name, all he material are the same, when their customers need warranty, they ask us first.

We also have some local store distributor. when their customers need warranty, their customers contact us directly and we help them. If they do really provide great service, their customers will not contact us with directly, when they contact us directly, I believe that means they can not reach the local store they purchased products.

Buy your lights from a local store, and make sure they handle any warranty process in store, to avoid hassles like this.
Buying lights that are fresh out of a shipping container from China, with little domestic support, is begging for trouble to begin with.
For instance, our local shop simply replaces Blue Lab meters, e-ballasts, etc., under manufacturer warranty.
If you buy inexpensive equipment, expect "10,000 hour" LEDs to last a small fraction of the stated lifespan, and expect the money you "saved" up front to go to repair or replacement costs. That's how "corner cutting" goes, and why it rarely works.
If you "saved" 50% by buying a cheap tent, expect the zippers to not be YKK & expect the stitching to be shoddy. If you spent top dollar on a tent, you wouldn't encounter these problems & if you did, you'd have a zero hassle warranty to back it up. Chinese-direct hardware sales have a long way to go before they equal what Americans expect from retailers, but they're trying.

-Doc

















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[Mars Hydro]

Why I say Mars Hydro has the best service, We know Mars Hydro met bad situation for the limited tech in the past two years, but we did not disappear here, we do as before. we have been here to help people since 2013, good words or bad words, good situation or bad situation, we are always be here to help, how many company can do like this? we are here even during our holidays because your guys need us. We will have our Chinese new year holiday soon, 28th, Jan, 2017 is our Spring festival, we will have 11 days holiday, we will reply emails when we are on holiday, we will ship products out within 24 business hours, we will answer questions here like we are working...... This is what Mars Hydro can do , we do not know how many other companies can do the same. If you buy from other Chinese company, they can not ship out fast,and they will be very slow from next week. but we can, we have shipped enough lights to our warehouses, around 50.000 lights in our USA, Canada, UK,Germany, Australia warehouse. this is company power. no other company can beat..... We have confidence on our company and products)))

 

[StreetPreach]

Buy your lights from a local store, and make sure they handle any warranty process in store, to avoid hassles like this.
-Doc
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HAha! I did buy my light from a local store, and they handle the warranty issues themselves, however that didn't help since my light failed after about 16 months, and the warranty only covered 12 months...

And it doesn't matter that the light wasn't actually used for a full 12 months, and has far less than that 10,000-50,000 hour estimated lifespan...

SARA!

Yes, I would love to learn how to repair the light myself. I did some more testing, and noticed that the affected region actually does glow slightly when attached to power, however the LEDs just don't light up completely.

It seems the diodes themselves are fine, and the power supply is fine, so I'd like to learn what to test next.

Thanks!

 

[ItsNatural]

Hello ItsNatural, could you please tell me who are you talking with in our factory, it seems you got the wrong solution. After three months, we need you to pay to ship back to our repair center, that is wrote in our warranty policy, why we want you to pay but not us? because we have paid for customer in 2015, most customers shipped with very expensive shipping company. Like you said, the reflector is only 320USD, the shipping cost will be 200USD when they ship back or even more, we can not accept that . and we tried many ways to ask them ship with cheaper shipping company, no result, so we have to ask them pay themselves. We do believe customers will not care about our money, but if they need to pay themselves, they will try their best to ship with the lowest shipping company they can find. we will cover the parts, labor and ship back to customer cost. so please tell me who are you tacking with, then I will find our the problem ASAP. thank you .

Now THAT seems reasonable. I have no problem paying to ship it to you if you all will pay for the part, labor, and shipping back. I have been talking to a Jennifer. I have 3 weeks left in my grow before I can send it back. I am suppose to email her a couple days before harvest to get some kind of RMA. Not sure what that is. Sarah, I appreciate you being reasonable and thank you for helping.

 

[DoctorGonzo]

If Mars wants to rule the LED lighting business, the formula is simple:
Bullet-proof, end to end warranties that cover everything but abuse. Cover all shipping, both ways, and all repairs, and do it with no hassles. It's do-able, and if Mars doesn't, other companies will.
If Mars wants consumers to believe they've got the best product out there, then they need to back up "+10,000 hour bulb life" claims with actual warranties that back that up. And they need to stop the worst practice: Rating their lights at (alleged) HID specs.
An LED cluster that uses 280w at the plug is NOT an "800w" light nor is the par value equal to 800w of HID HPS lighting. So stop misleading people. It's poor marketing and insults the educated consumer.
That said, the service here is very friendly and should be commended. These observations aren't complaints, they're simply business notes. .

-Doc


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[sleepless]

Mine didn't get through veg lol

 

[Mars Hydro]

We will upload more videos this week on youtube to help people learn how to repair themselves if they do not want to ship out to our repair center and want to repair themselves. hope it helps.
I think you need to pay a lot to get the light repaired after warranty if you buy from a local store, right? after warranty, usually, our labor is only 30~50USD per light, but if your light went to terrible badly, a lot dust, drop water in, and other badly broken, they will charge three times repair fee. why we charge so low service price, because we are finding Chinese people to help us. and their repair work is great !!!! we are very happy with their service, good and fast,

HAha! I did buy my light from a local store, and they handle the warranty issues themselves, however that didn't help since my light failed after about 16 months, and the warranty only covered 12 months...

And it doesn't matter that the light wasn't actually used for a full 12 months, and has far less than that 10,000-50,000 hour estimated lifespan...

SARA!

Yes, I would love to learn how to repair the light myself. I did some more testing, and noticed that the affected region actually does glow slightly when attached to power, however the LEDs just don't light up completely.

It seems the diodes themselves are fine, and the power supply is fine, so I'd like to learn what to test next.

Thanks!

 

[Mars Hydro]

Now THAT seems reasonable. I have no problem paying to ship it to you if you all will pay for the part, labor, and shipping back. I have been talking to a Jennifer. I have 3 weeks left in my grow before I can send it back. I am suppose to email her a couple days before harvest to get some kind of RMA. Not sure what that is. Sarah, I appreciate you being reasonable and thank you for helping.

Thank you Natural , Here is the link of our warranty policy, please read it carefully. Mars , Led grow light , Mars Hydro
We will do what we promise in our warranty policy, we will not break. so when you have any problem, please contact us ASAP.

 

[Mars Hydro]

As to the warranty, When we buy a car, they will tell us 2 years or 60K KM, when we drive 2 years, it is only 15K, the warranty is expired too. they will not keep the warranty for us because we did not drive 60K KM. Our company the same，If you force us to over 10000 hours, some customers only use one round per year, three months,90days, 2160 hours, 10000hours , they need to use at least 7~8 years because they will not turn the light on 24 hours per day. Can we give them 7~8 years warranty? we can not. we can only give the warranty stated in our policy.

As to mislead people ,We states maximum power and draw power,If you want to know the real power, check the draw power under 110V or 240V, your decision. We do believe the educated people know the difference. Why we state like that, because most uneducated people want us to give those information to compare with other companies, without that information, they will make mistakes. When we do business, we can not only make things for very less people, we will make things for most people, then we can improve our sales.

Hope you can understand our situation.

If Mars wants to rule the LED lighting business, the formula is simple:
Bullet-proof, end to end warranties that cover everything but abuse. Cover all shipping, both ways, and all repairs, and do it with no hassles. It's do-able, and if Mars doesn't, other companies will.
If Mars wants consumers to believe they've got the best product out there, then they need to back up "+10,000 hour bulb life" claims with actual warranties that back that up. And they need to stop the worst practice: Rating their lights at (alleged) HID specs.
An LED cluster that uses 280w at the plug is NOT an "800w" light nor is the par value equal to 800w of HID HPS lighting. So stop misleading people. It's poor marketing and insults the educated consumer.
That said, the service here is very friendly and should be commended. These observations aren't complaints, they're simply business notes. .

-Doc


Sent from my iPad using 420 Magazine Mobile App

 

[ItsNatural]

Thank you Natural , Here is the link of our warranty policy, please read it carefully. Mars , Led grow light , Mars Hydro
We will do what we promise in our warranty policy, we will not break. so when you have any problem, please contact us ASAP.

Wait...What?? Now Im confused. So your NOT going to pay for labor and to ship back to me?? Because Earlier you said

we will cover the parts, labor and ship back to customer cost. so please tell me who are you tacking with, then I will find our the problem ASAP.

Now your referring me back to the Warranty that says I must pay for everything but the parts? Saying you will not break?? what does that even mean? Im very lost. l

 

[Mars Hydro]

How long have you used the light? you said less than one year, right?

Wait...What?? Now Im confused. So your NOT going to pay for labor and to ship back to me?? Because Earlier you said




Now your referring me back to the Warranty that says I must pay for everything but the parts? Saying you will not break?? what does that even mean? Im very lost. l

 

[Mars Hydro]

@natural you have great grow skill, join our Mars Hydro cup three, you will have chance to get FREE lights , tent, glass and hangers from us.
Mars , Led grow light , Mars Hydro
That is the link to Mars Hydro Cup 3 details.

 

[ItsNatural]

How long have you used the light? you said less than one year, right?

I had used it less than a year at the time, but have had the light 13 or 14 months. So I guess we are back to where we started. WIth me being forced to pay $100 for a $300 light that didnt make it past 2 grows? Thats not good business practice. I spent over $400 with you all for a tent and a lgiht. Both were tore up before 2nd grow was done. And because its been over a year im just screwed. Im very disappointed with your company right now. I honestly cant recommend them anymore do to the lack of warranty and lack of quality lights that arent going to break. And I know Im not alone in feeling screwed. So maybe instead of having a "we will not break" attitude you should listen more to your customers.

 

[StreetPreach]

I managed to fix my light on my own, but it was a complete accident so maybe someone can tell me what the actual problem was.

I found a multimeter and was testing for current across all the diodes +/- on the problem region, with the power plugged in!

When testing one of the diodes the entire region lit up, and surprisingly everything stayed lit after I stopped touching it with the probe.

I guess it must have just been a bad connection, or the solder is failing, and I managed to jiggle the circuit into working again just by touching it...

I'm going to try resoldering the diode and hopefully that will permanently fix the problem. Strange thing is that I thought 1 bad diode wasn't supposed to affect the rest of the LEDs?

I also have a few LEDs that are legitimately burned out, and some where the bubble has melted but the diode still works. I guess I just need to order some new diodes and safety circuits and the light should be nearly good as new!

EDIT: And an update on the Morsen lights, the 800w (tested to draw 240w) arrived with 10 dead diodes, and the free replacement arrived with 8 dead diodes. Both lights had multiple regions completely fail within a week... They refunded $100 of the $160 cost and let me keep the lights. I managed to repair them on my own

So it seems none of the Chinese lights are really very reliable, but the Mars Hydro II is definitely the best of the lot! At least the Mars light survived through a full hot summer, but the construction of the light is FAR superior. The other Chinese light feels like a toy in comparison!

 

[Big Sparks]

Wow...still watching this one. @StreetPreach- good stuff buddy. Glad to hear that you figured how to repair the light on your own. I guess something a lil good came out of the whole situation.

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