I paid a fortune for my noble fir through Balsam hill. I have never really thought it was worth the price but it is a nice enough tree, so I thought ok it will last many many years.

Today two strings of the lights have gone out. This is only my second season, so there should be some type of warranty, whatever that means.

Called Balsam hill. Their first step is to have the customer replace the fuses and see if that works. They will not discuss next steps until this is completed. I understand, but I am so dissapointed in the quality, now I am disgusted when looking at the tree. I told the person on the phone that there is no way I can go digging for the plug to try to find it at this point... the tree has over 200 glass and crystal ornaments on it and I am not about to jiggle it and also not about to try to move it just to get to the back of the tree. I am basically stuck with this until I take it down for the season. If this was the day after Christmas I wouldnt feel so bad.

Terrible quality lights are used. I am stunned. I have never had lights fail on any previous prelit tree, and I only paid 100.00 for some of them.

Who knows what they will do if the fuses dont solve the problem. I cant have a tree that is only partially lit... I now realize the downfall of prelit trees ---they are great WHEN they work.. I may end up having to spend a huge amount of time removing the lights if a satifactory solution is not reached. I dont have faith that others wont fail. I cant pitch this tree after two seasons.

I guess I am just venting, as I dont think anyone can offer a solution. Has anyone encountered anything similar?

I waited until after Christmas to purchase it at a discount since I was investing so much into it. When it arrived I was SO EXCITED but when I opened it, I was so disappointed. It looked no better than my $l0.00 mark down tree from Walmart. They would not take the tree back because it was after the season. They said they would credit me what I paid for it toward a larger, fuller tree, but I declined. I insisted I wanted my money back. They said I could donate the tree to a charitable organization and they would pay me for it, but by this time it was March and I couldn't find an organization willing to take a tree at that time.

I approached them about donating the tree at the start of the following year's Christmas season and they said too bad, so sad, we offered it back in March and now the offer is off the table. They said, in fact, all offers were off the table, including the offer to get a credit toward a fuller, more excellent tree (the type of tree I thought I was reccommneded in the first place).

I ended up donating the tree to charity myself and taking the tax deduction for it. That same year I got a prelit from Target which I LOVE.

http://www.bbb.org/greater-san-francisco/business-reviews/christmas-tr ees/balsam-hill-christmas-tree-company-in-redwood-city-ca-202592

And here is another site with complaints:

http://www.complaintsboard.com/byurl/Balsamhill.com.html

Its very hard to find companies you can trust on the Internet but at least we have forums like this to protect consumers. My sis wasn't scammed by Balsam Hill but by Tree Classics who ironically is now owned by them. Snake oil is snake oil I suppose?

Go with Treetime, I was definitely not disappointed.

Wishing everyone a happy holiday season! Have a great Thanksgiving next week and a very merry Christmas!

Punk

Although, I don't trust Frontgate because they don't specialize in trees. They simply buy them wholesale from Barcana and then sell it to you for a MUCH higher price. True story. You can look them up at barcana.com. I'll never buy a tree from a place that doesn't 100% specialize in Christmas and have a hand in the manufacturing process. Why bother otherwise, then I might as well just buy a costco pile of junk that lasts 1-2 seasons.