Problems with Megaman LEDs and apparent ignoring of issue

Sausage11

Apologies for a somewhat long post. Any advice much appreciated.

We rebuilt our house about 2 years ago and installed 60 x Megaman GU10 7w lamps that we purchased through Eyre and Elliston in Welwyn Garden City. We outfitted to a very high spec and paid a lighting design firm in Welwyn to specify the components and plan out the circuits. These were then purchased in consultation with E+E to ensure that everything was matched correctly. We paid around 14 / lamp. Much cheaper lamps were available but we wanted quality and minimal future issues.

One lamp failed quite quickly. We replaced. But in the last 12 months multiple lamps across different circuits either failed outright or began to flicker to the extent we had to change them. 7 have now had to be replaced. Due to health issues it is only in the last few months that I have been able to look into this properly.

I was not sure whether this could be an electrical issue or an issue with the lamps. I spoke to my lighting designer who told me that it looks like I have a faulty batch of lamps and I should ask Megaman to replace the lot. I called a well-regarded local electrician who told me he wasn't surprised I'd had issues with Megaman 7W GU10s - He said he’d used some in the past but no longer did so for the same reasons I was having. He said that I should contact E+E and get them all replaced. He said that they would not want to replace them but that I could force them to do so. I then called called Eyre and Elliston. A member of staff said he wasn’t surprised we had an issue with Megaman 7W lamps – they’d had a complete nightmare with them and won’t sell them anymore. That we’d done well to get even 2,500 hours out of them. (Megaman claim 50,000 hours of usage.). He said that given that I’d had them in for slightly longer than 2 years I would need to go directly to Megaman. He also warned me that another customer had had a similar issue and that Megaman had promised to "investigate" the issue but that this had gone on for so long the customer had just given up and replaced the lamps himself.

I called Megaman on 12th October. They told me the correct process was for me to speak to E+E who would contact the Megaman agent and raise the issue. I called E+E. They left several messages for the agent but got no response. I then obtained the rep's mobile number and left a detailed voicemail. After another 24 hours I called Megaman who told me their rep had left several weeks ago and they were trying to recruit another! I was then asked to email a director, Stuart Eglin, on a generic "sales" email address. I sent a detailed email on 14th October to the sales email address marked FAO Stuart Eglin.

On 19th October I had heard nothing so called Megaman again. I was told to resend the email but this time FAO another person. I did this.

On 26th October I called again. The new FAO person (Lyndsey) answered and told me she had spoken to Stuart on two occasions and he said he would call me.

A week or so later I received a call from Stuart Eglin. He said that they had never had any issues with their GU10 7w lamps and that he was concerned that the fixtures we had installed were not rated as suitable for LEDs. He would investigate and get back to me. I did not record the date and time as I was out when he called and forgot. Perhaps naiively, I believed they would be seeking to address the issue.

On 14th November I had not heard anything so called again to ask for an update. At the same time I obtained written confirmation from the supplier of our fixtures that they were suitable for LEDs.

On 23rd November I left another message with Lyndsey. She told me she would help if she could but Stuart had now taken over the issue and would get back to me. I told her I felt I was being given the runaround.

I have heard nothing since.

I'm not sure what to do next. Should I write a formal letter of complaint? A letter before action? If I do need to take Megaman to court over this will my detailed notes about conversations with the electrician, the lighting designer and with the member of E+E staff suffice as evidence? I feel that they are just spinning me along and have no intention of addressing this issue.

Thank you.

shaun_from_Africa

Sausage11 wrote: »

I'm not sure what to do next. Should I write a formal letter of complaint? A letter before action? If I do need to take Megaman to court over this will my detailed notes about conversations with the electrician, the lighting designer and with the member of E+E staff suffice as evidence? I feel that they are just spinning me along and have no intention of addressing this issue.

Your consumer rights are between you and E&E and it is them that are responsible for providing a remedy.
What you need is written proof that the lamps have failed far earlier than expected and that these failures are due to a manufacturing defect.

You then provide this evidence to E&E and ask them to either replace the lamps or to give a refund, bearing in mind that this refund can be a partial one to cover the good use you have had from the lamps.

Sausage11

Thanks Shaun. What would you say constitutes "written proof" in this instance?

societys_child

Megaman, trading on a reputation.

Plenty of posters on here will tell you to avoid cheapo ones, but . .

Packs of 10 for £24 from ebay and amazon, bought years ago, not had any failures, yet.

Pound shop, 3w and 5w, excellent quality, seriously over engineered. There's a youtube video, a guy with good electronics knowledge, strips one of each and can't believe the high quality components and how well made they are.

High prices are no guarantee of high quality.

ryder72

Few points of note here-

I am surprised that a professional designer has recommended GU10 LED's as the light fitting of choice. Heat dissipation is the no 1 enemy of LED lamps and GU10's are particularly bad at this. The reason they are popular is that they infrastructure is all based around the popular GU10 fitting. I would be questioning the credentials of the designer to be honest.

I have had around 100 of the GU10 7w Megamans fitted in my business around 2-3 years ago (before I got familiar with the problems around GU10 lamps. There were sourced from an online retailer with a 5 year no quibble warranty. I am very glad I have this warranty as 15-20 of these have failed and have been replaced by the retailer without any question. I am led to believe that the problem is caused by an issue with the heat sink design causing the circuits to overheat causing the flickering problem. Replacements have been fine. I think there is a known issue with these units that Megaman wont acknowledge. I got mine replaced FOC or have atleast got enough life out of them for them to have paid for themselves so I am not really complaining.

Furts

Which? tested Megaman GU10 as recently as July and put them at the bottom rung of the chart. This rating excluded price, and perhaps just as well because they were the most expensive, albeit not by much over some brands.

This is backing up the wise words of advice from societys child.

For a verdict on the Megaman of around two years ago when OP purchased theirs one would have to check to see if there is a relevant Which? test around that time. I suggest OP pursues this, and if not a Which? member there is probably an issue in a local library.

Sausage11

Just wanted to say thank you all. Some good feedback here. Can anyone elaborate on what I will need as "proof" for E+E so that I can get the lamps replaced / refunded?

Really disappointed with Megaman in terms of both quality and service. I will update this thread if I get any joy or just continued stonewalling from them.

shaun_from_Africa

What you need is a written report from a suitably qualified person (your local electrician may well be able to do this) stating that in their opinion the lamps have failed far too early in their life and that he considers that the failure is due to a manufacturing defect and is not because of the way that they have been installed or used.
It would help if you could other reports (try doing a search on Google) saying the same thing.

brightontraveller

Not what people wont to hear but reality check..... Expert will cost you more than replacing lamps, No experts going to go up against a corporation for a few hundred pounds for a report, Those that would are simply not experts , Manufacture isn’t going to admit liability the consequences for them would me £100,000s LED don’t last for ever and hours isn’t the same as cycles (on/off),

Write a letter who knows they may do good will gesture otherwise don’t waste your time buy cheapo £2-3 pound ones for 70 odd mm or £1-2 if the 50mm type.Nothing wrong with GU10 LED,s we have fitted near to a million some are crap from the start some crap over time and some good is a lottery? Chinese manufactures have whole different approach to business than uk

baldelectrician

I put Megaman lamps all over my dads home when I did work 2 years ago.
Of all 14 lamps (all Gu10 LED) I have had 4 failures which I took back to the wholesaler and got credit for


I now use Enlite (Aurora) or Ricoman lamps which are less than £ 5 each- so less than half the Megaman lamp costs


Stopped buying Megaman- and many wholesalers have stopped selling them

shaun_from_Africa

brightontraveller wrote: »

Not what people wont to hear but reality check..... Expert will cost you more than replacing lamps, No experts going to go up against a corporation for a few hundred pounds for a report, Those that would are simply not experts , Manufacture isn’t going to admit liability the consequences for them would me £100,000s LED don’t last for ever and hours isn’t the same as cycles (on/off)

No one has to go up against a corporation and the manufacturer doesn't have to admit liability.
The OP's consumer rights are against the retailer who sold them the lamps and not the manufacturer.
As to "A few hundred pounds" for a report.
All it may need is a letter from an experienced lighting engineer stating that in his opinion the lamps have failed far too early and I wouldn't expect this to cost a great deal.
If Megaman stated that the lamps would last an average of 50,000 hours and they haven't even go to 10% of this, I can't see that the retailer would be able to dispute that they failed prematurely especially as they appear to already know about the poor reliability and have stopped selling them because of this.