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Comment by wil421 | Hacker News Reader

My father in law is a general contractor and religiously keeps all his LED bulb receipts. If anything goes out before the listed hours he returns it to HomeDepot. He hasn’t had any issue so far including some of the older bulbs described in the article.

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Worth noting that in the UK the "statute of limitations" for getting a refund on a defective product is 6 years according to the Consumer Rights Act (what used to be the "Sale of Goods Act").

AIUI in EU we get default 2 years of warranty on all goods. And we get a 14 day cooling off period on goods that are the result of solicited sales (cold [phone-]calling, selling at your door), or are bought online.

If an LED bulb should last 10 years then up to the 6 year point you should be able to get 40% back on a failed unit. Up to 2 years, get a replacement, repair, or full refund (at the sellers choice).

With the CRA the right is against the /seller/ and not the manufacturer though.

For information, it's not 6 years across the whole of the UK - it's 5 years in Scotland. Of course, that's still pretty good!

I’ve found that Cree is very responsive for warranty replacement. I usually just email them with a picture of the dead bulb and approximate date of purchase and a new bulb shows up in my mailbox a week or so later.

What email address do you use for cree ?

This is relevant to my interests...

Pro tip: Home Depot recently started to allow receipts to be pulled up and items to be returned with just a credit card. Ikea does this too if you always scan your Family Card.

> if you always scan your Family Card

i.e., if you agree to be tracked.

if you don't pay cash, you are also being tracked (credit cards)... and soon/now you will also need a mask/burka to avoid being tracked (facial recognition).

edit: you probably also should not be carrying any tracking device with you (aka, cellphone)

I mean in this case you literally want them to track your purchases so that you can return defective bulbs without keeping the receipts.

Sure, but not for any other purpose, and that's what GP means.

It's like GPS tracking: I track every trip I make with OsmAnd's tracking feature automatically when it starts routing. But I wouldn't trust Google Maps to do the same with their location history feature. Their usage of the data isn't limited to what's in my best interest, so I'll collect it myself.

Does he scan the receipts first?

Because most POS systems now use a thermal printer system that for some reason - even when kept at a "proper temperature" - the receipt fades over time, to where it is virtually illegible.

The conspiracy part of me thinks this was done on purpose to reduce returns and warranty claims...

He will put the receipt in the original LED box. Usually stores them indoors and not in an attic.

I had a Lowe’s receipt do exactly what you describe out in my shed.

This works. I did the same when I switched all our lighting to LED, and was able to replace two faulty lamps that stopped working way earlier than specified for free.

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