I bought a pre-lit, 9' Fraser Fir from National Tree Co.in 2006. I thought a pre-lit tree would be a great way of getting a beautiful tree without all of the set up requirements. It was a great tree. The first year! The second year I set the tree up and plugged in the lights only to discover less than 1/2 of the lights worked. I called their local dealer and was told to bring the tree in, and they would fix it. I took the tree down, took it to the shop, and a few days later they called to say it was ready. I brought it home, set the tree up, plugged it in... Even less lights were working! I called again, took it back in... Again, they called to say it was ready, took it home, set it up, plugged it in and even few lights were working! I called again and demanded that they come to my house to fix the tree.
They sent a young man out who worked on the tree for a few hours and said it was fixed, all of the lights appeared to be working. The next morning, I turned on the lights and most of them wouldn't come on. I called the shop again and was told to bring it in after Christmas and they would re-string it. I took the tree into the shop in Jan. and left it, they said they would call when it was ready. Then they closed! After nearly 6 months I was able to reach the owner who told me I could come by to pick up my tree, they had re-strung the lights.
I started setting up the tree for this Christmas and one string of lights out of over 20 worked. I spent hours trying to get the tree to work, replaced 20 lights out of a single string and still couldn't get it to work. Most of the lights are burned out after being used less than 2 months.
In desperation, I called the manufacturer... National Tree Company. They told me they would sent me some lights to put on the tree for Christmas, then have the tree picked up after Christmas to be fixed. A week later, still no lights.
I called again and was told my tree was out of warranty, they weren't sending any lights, and even if they did they would only send one string of lights (there are over 30 strings of lights on this tree!). They told me that letting their dealer work on the tree voided the warranty... THEIR DEALER! The tree is covered by a 5 year warranty and the lights by a 2 year warranty.
Of course they didn't provide any warranty information in the box, you have to go to their web site or call them to find this out. I explained that I had followed their dealer's advice on getting the tree repaired... That didn't matter. I explained that the lights failed while they were still under warranty... That didn't matter. I explained that there is still a month before the 2 year warranty expires, that didn't matter.
The lights that were promised never shipped because they decided it wasn't under warranty. They didn't bother to call to tell me that, just waited until I called them.
I now have a pre-lit, 9' Fraser Christmas tree that cost over $500 and National Tree says they have no responsibility for the fact that it only worked for one Christmas. I just spent several hours putting more lights on this tree to get it to work for Christmas. It looks great until you look closely and see that it is covered with lights that aren't working!
If you're thinking of buying a pre-lit Christmas tree, buy it anywhere except from National Tree Company.
The best part... They offered to sell me lights to put on my tree!
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