One dead lamp

When I sat down Monday evening to stitch, my 18W Ott-Lite floor lamp took longer than the normal 2 seconds to illuminate. I was talking to DH, and had actually forgotten that I switched the lamp on, and it suddenly lit up. It took a few minutes to light!

On Tuesday, I thought we were in for a repeat performance. I switched on the lamp and waited. And waited. And waited. Apparently for something that was not going to happen. Well, it's probably the bulb, although these bulbs are supposed to last 10000 hours, and I haven't used it nearly that long since I bought the lamp. So, I trucked off to JoAnn Fabrics to buy a bulb, coupon in hand.

Armed with a new bulb, I sat down again in my stitching nest. I installed the new bulb, and hit the switch. And waited. Well, apparently it wasn't the bulb. This lamp is DEAD. I decided I should look for the receipt for the lamp.

Wait a minute - when did I buy the lamp? I remember that I walked into JoAnn's and they were on sale for a very good price, so I called MIL, and ended up buying one for each of us. It had to be within the past year. Luckily, I keep an accordion file of my bills and larger receipts for the past year. I don't think it was snowing when I walked out of JoAnn's with the two lamps, so I checked the spring records. Nope. Ok, let's go through month by month. Nothing. Time to hit the "to be shredded" shoebox where the records go when they come out of the accordion file. Ah ha! Ok, so it wasn't in the past year. It was last August. (At least I remember the "not snowing" part right!)

I sent a note to Ott-Lite customer service, and got a very helpful email back. There's no way to replace the likely bad part on this lamp. I need a whole new lamp. But, they can warantee the lamp for up to 15 months if I have proof of purchase. It's a good thing I found that receipt! I sent a picture of the receipt to the customer service lady.

The latest note says that I need to send a picture of the lamp completely disabled - with the cord cut. I suppose that's reasonable. After all, the lamp's dead already. It's not going to make it more dead if I cut the cord. And that way the company knows I'm not scamming them. Then I just need to pay $10 shipping, and a new lamp will be on its way to me!

So here goes nothing... off in search of wire cutters or a junky pair of scissors!

(In the meantime, I've been stitching with my old high-intensity incandescent lamp. Wow, that light is so much more yellow! I'm looking forward to getting my true color lamp back!)