Caveat Emptor, Buyer Beware, Hydro Grow LED!

Yes, I will have to return the lights. It has been a major point of discussion between the credit card company, PayPal, and myself! I am waiting on instructions from my credit card company as to where to send them. I have already replaced them with some quality 3w lights that are far superior and are working very nicely!!
 
Glad to read that you got your money back. Whether or not you pursue it any further (via the legal/court system) is up to you.

But I do hope you have in mind to contact major cannabis publications such as HT to let them know what one of their advertisers is capable of doing (and, it seems, inclined to do) to any of the people reading their magazines/etc. It's kind of like they're selling ad space to a narc.
 
I'm glad that worked out for you jeb55!
I notice that you almost have enough posts to pm me an addie.

And recent news . . .

I received this from the fine folks at Grow Light Express:

"Just to add some fuel to the fire, I took a look at one of her 345 Watt Penetrator lights that I’ve got and noticed that there is no heat sink installed inside the unit. This will seriously diminish the output as well as lifespan. Not sure if its intentional (for her to save money) or a problem with her manufacturer but still is very lame to not get what you paid for."

"Feel free to pass the word and let people know to check their units to make sure they are not getting ripped off…"
 
The 345w was the same light that I had trouble with. Six light engines had gone out by the time that I quit using it. It was only four months old!
 
Thanks for posting this. Unfortunately for me I bought a 345 watt panel from them back in August. When I got it 3 weeks later I was out of veg and it truly sucked for flowering so I thought I'd try it just for veg on my next grow. It still works but I now know I fucked up buying this panel from them. What a piece of work this he/she is. Sending someone to the door, if you can find it, seems to work at getting your money back. So there are options....
 
Hi everyone,
I have not been able to get on-line for a while due to ISP problems. The problem has been corrected and I have been able to update myself. I did send an e-mail to High Times to warn them about HGL and thought that I would have a response when I got back on-line. I have heard nothing and I’m not sure what that means.

When night7hunter posted his information in this thread, I called every phone number listed and sent an e-mail to every address that was listed. I only got an answering machine on all phone calls, but I left a message with contact info. All calls and e-mails only produced one return and that was from the detective in Washington. I thought that more people would respond and that things would heat up in Palmdale!

I am perplexed by all of this; I contacted everyone that I could that might be connected to Cameron/Cammie/HGL, almost 10,000 hits on this thread and I am assuming that some of those 10,000 have spread the word, and yet this person still seems to be in operation!! I was very surprised to see that HGL has not only, not gone away, but has reworked the web site and it is business as usual. They now offer the “Penetrator Pro 3w” and are boasting their in-house science team and their number one position as the acknowledged leader of the LED industry!

What gives people? Am I to believe that Cameron is just that much smarter than all the rest of us? Does he somehow have special protection, is he karma proof? I was very glad to have the dispute decided in my favor and get my money back; but, just as important to me was to see this person leave the community and stop preying on people and maybe be held responsible for some of their bad acts. Selling crappy lights by using bogus tech info and all of the lies are one thing, but, to call law enforcement and attempt to have people busted so that their lives turn into a living hell just because you are mad and want revenge is not an option under any circumstances!!!

This thread should have given Cameron/Cammie/HGL the status of the black plague! With all of the information that came out it is easy to see that this was not just a case of “sour grapes” between Cammie and myself, especially when it was posted that Cammie also threatened to bust a grow in Spain. If I was a first time reader of a thread like this, there would be no way that I would take a chance and buy from someone with this much history even if I didn’t necessarily believe all that was posted. It’s not like there is a shortage of places that LEDs can be purchased. They all claim to be the best and Cammies leg-up was the fact that she advertised on the major MJ sites and was so aggressive in the forums. With that not available now, I would think that sales have dropped sharply; but apparently not enough because of the web site upgrade and progression to 3w lights.

The upgraded web site has a new contact phone number but is still using the Palmdale/Cosmos Ct street address which is a house in a family neighborhood. It’s not a business setting and I would be surprised if Cameron/Cammie actually lives there because I gave that address to everyone that I contacted including law enforcement in three states and US Customs. I would say that someone would need to be there to send and receive packages but chances are that orders are drop shipped from China; that was the way that I got mine.

BUYER BEWARE!!!
 
All in all things seemed to have worked out threw the leagal system.Its good that the word is out on cammie.I dont think she is the face of the led company.This thread was a good heads up to keep buisiness done threw a store or company and not an individual selling threw a weed forum?All we can do here is review a product and pass along knowledge to others of its quality.In my opinion we should not buy any thing from china or any other state than our own any how.Just a bunch of sweat shops over there where they work long hrs on big orders and are lucky to get paid for there time I dont want to support that.But still would not be fare to people loosing there jobs over not in this day in age.Seems there improving there products.But we a have all learned when doing buisiness keep it threw the main company and not a third party.This camie person has moved and now lives in la this is why you could not get in touch with her he.Glad things worked out for you and you got the word out.:peace:
 
Thanks for posting this. Unfortunately for me I bought a 345 watt panel from them back in August. When I got it 3 weeks later I was out of veg and it truly sucked for flowering so I thought I'd try it just for veg on my next grow. It still works but I now know I fucked up buying this panel from them. What a piece of work this he/she is. Sending someone to the door, if you can find it, seems to work at getting your money back. So there are options....

I wanted to post a comment just for balance.

I understand the vent and reports of bad business practices and I'm in no way contradicting these because I lack first hand knowledge of the individual situations, but I'm not sure it's accurate to say the lights don't work.

I've seen journals that demonstrate flowering at around 0.75 to 1g/watt; which while less than promised is still in the range of what a superstar HPS grower would achieve.

I've followed a lot of the LED grows and have come to believe that they are effective for flowering but that there's an extreme sensitivity to the light gap. The plant count is also limited to those directly in the primary light footprint.

If you're growing 1 or 2 plants one of the smaller (1 foot x 2 foot-ish) lights is adequate.
 
I have seen several people say that the lights won’t grow weed. Many times throughout this thread I have said that the lights do not work, but when I said that I was referring to their mechanical functionality. They are poorly built with cheap and inferior components and no heat sinks, but I never said that they would not grow a plant! In spite of all the adversity that I had to deal with and the fact that all of the interruptions caused the grow to be stretched out to 5 months, I was very pleased with the results. You can grow weed with a flashlight if you have enough batteries!! Almost any light will grow weed, it’s just that better quality lights will produce better results. I see a lot of people that say they have had problems growing and will blame the lights or some other piece of equipment and the problem is the grower themselves. I’m not pointing a finger at anyone and I do not mean to offend, but some people just have a black thumb and murder every plant that they come in contact with! I think that most new growers that have trouble are just over tending their grows; too much attention can be bad.

I have purchased better quality lights that are 3w and have another grow in progress. They are out performing the HGL lights hands down. When I purchased these better quality lights, I ordered more wattage than I had before and I paid less than I did for the crappy lights! The only problem is that the clones that I am using were taken when the mother was in flower cycle (monster crop?) and I did some HST to them; they are so incredibly thick and covered in bud sites that they are almost unmanageable! I am about to kick them into 12/12 and this will be a great test for the new light.
 
no disrespect soniq but can you link the specific grows that use her lights? I can only speak from second hand as well, but if i were on a jury it would be a five minute deliberation, and mostly that would be bathroom breaks.

with your admin access if you have found successful grows do you think you could cross reference those growers IP addresses to each other? Just a hunch. They could also proove to be proxy which could mean its the same person or just average joes being safe/paranoid.
 
I still have 3 of Cammie's LED's, two 126w and a 63w. They're adequate, however, after seeing Irish Boy, SS, and others' grows here, I'm working on saving for a pair of 300's from GHL.

I'm only finishing up my 4th grow ever, the last 3 under LED, and still have so much to learn, I can't specifically cite the lights I'm using as hindrance in my learning curve.

Caveat Emptor, indeed.
 
no disrespect soniq but can you link the specific grows that use her lights? I can only speak from second hand as well, but if i were on a jury it would be a five minute deliberation, and mostly that would be bathroom breaks.

with your admin access if you have found successful grows do you think you could cross reference those growers IP addresses to each other? Just a hunch. They could also proove to be proxy which could mean its the same person or just average joes being safe/paranoid.

High Karr,

Happy Holidays ;)

Here's one from a person that is definitely not affiliated with HGL
Roadrunner 126 Watt LED Via DWC

Setting Sun pulled 0.929 grams/watt in his first demonstration and competition thread here. Here's a link to the summary of results

Haight Solid State vs. H.G.LED
 
So, are we going to build HGL back up now?? This is why I never discussed growing performance, I didn't want this thread to become an advertisement for HGL. Like I said, you can grow weed under almost any light but just because it grows does not necessarily mean that the light source is good for growing. As far as Haight goes, when I was shopping for lights and after reading up on them, they weren't even on the list for consideration. In my opinion, they are on the bottom end of the LED chain. They seem like something that mounts under your cabinets above the counter top for growing chives and basil and the like.

As I said above, the new lights that I am using are out performing the HGL lights by leaps and bounds! There really is no comparison! However, this thread was not intended to be an LED performance comparison discussion. The intention of this thread was to alert people that if they are growing and have done business with HGL, that they "have" a snake in their garden. If they are intending to grow and buy lights from HGL they "will have" a snake in their garden and there is the possibility that snake may bite you!!

Let's put aside the fact that HGL lights are at the very most, only an average light that is mass produced very cheaply and sold for a very high price. Also, the fact that the components used are very low grade to achieve that low production cost. Also, the fact that they have no heat sinks which will greatly reduce the life of the already low grade components. And now for the sake of argument, let’s assume that HGL has the very best quality LED that is available on the market. And let’s say that even their competitors acknowledge that it is the best performing light. Now, the question is, would you buy from them?

Would you knowingly buy from someone that is a known thief, a known liar, a known con artist, a known traitor, and worst of all, someone who will call law enforcement and send them to your home with the intent that you be arrested and taken to jail just because they want some twisted revenge??? Forget the damn lights people, it’s not about the lights!! Would you really buy from someone like this and support that kind of a lifestyle knowing that you are enabling the person to continue preying on the community at large?? That’s rhetorical, if the answer is yes, I DO NOT want to know about it!

To sell you lights to grow MJ and then call LEO and turn you in for growing MJ is to me about the most extreme betrayal you could endure. If this behavior is okay (entrapment), then LEO should just set up some web sites to sell MJ equipment and take names and bust all who would dare to grow without a government permission slip! With LEO it’s about rules and regulations, with someone inside the community it’s about morals; or at least it should be! We are talking about someone with no morals, no rules, no milk of human kindness, no loyalty to the community, no boundaries, and a desire to please only themselves no matter the cost to anyone else.
When someone gets busted by LEO, it usually causes hell in their lives. Not only their lives, but also the lives of their loved ones and those immediately around them; it can affect their status in their local community, and even their employment. In small, less enlightened communities, a drug bust can completely ostracize someone and make them an outcast. Then of course, there is the fact that you will have to spend thousands of dollars for a lawyer and devastate your savings account if you have one; or else you will have to borrow the money somewhere and go into debt. These things mean nothing to someone like Cameron/Cammie who is morally bankrupt!!

Would you really buy from someone like this???
 
If these lights consistently worked and preformed better than anything I would still not even consider buying them due to news like this. I mean she sends out fd up lights then blackmails her customers? What is to stop her from running out of money and deciding to extort past customers?

For the roadrunner link, the freggin light broke, what is this one light a grow. Do the instructions say to add one fresh light every 100 gallons?

As for ss' grow, good grow, always exceptions to the rules. I joined this site for his comparison and spectra reviews. I would question the quality of his light. It was discounted for the purpose of entering a grow competation, which is advertising. So knowing that a light is being used for co parison and could net business do you really think that she didn't switch lights or components?
 
For the roadrunner link, the freggin light broke, what is this one light a grow. Do the instructions say to add one fresh light every 100 gallons?

IMO saying "IMO this person should be killed." *is* condoning it. You just lost tons of respect in my eyes.

As far as the RR grow, it was later determined that the "broken" LEDs were actually the IR LEDs, not visible to the naked eye.
 
Sorry Jeb, not trying to "~build HGL back up"

There were posts about the lights not performing as well as posts about the business practices.

What we want is accurate information and there were posts saying the lights didn't work; which I felt wasn't accurate so I tried to help balance.

This doesn't mean I'm vouching for them or recommending that company, but if someone sees one on ebay or craigslist shouldn't they have the communities consensus on the full picture ;)

Not trying to be argumentative either. I'm happy to remove my posts from your thread if you wish - I just wanted to answer the question that was asked of me.

no hard feelings, I'm happy to pull them, let me know either here or by PM.

Regards
Soniq
 
Thanks for the offer of removal Soniq, but it's not necessary. I was a little disturbed at first when I read the post; however, some posters just do not seem to have a clue and continue to gravitate to a discussion of "mine is better than yours" so it would be better to get it out of the way. Now that the ability to grow issue has been stated maybe the mine is better than yours people will go the hell away!!

Even if someone found one on eBay or Craigslist it is still poorly made crap with no longevity and you would not want to pay much because you can't be sure that the LEDs will illuminate when the power is turned on. I think that UPS truly knew the value when they reimbursed Cammie $100.00 for the lost light! The 345w lights were $1,150.00 each and their performance was no better than could be achieved with cfls which are far cheaper.

Once again for the record; any light will grow weed and that includes the HGL lights. How well they grow is another issue! Having made that statement, I also want to state: this thread is not about LED light performance or who sells the best LED, It is about a TWISTED SCUMBAG THAT SELLS LED LIGHTS AND CALLS THE COPS ON THEIR CUSTOMERS!! Sorry about that, it just gets frustrating that some people can be so dense or clueless!
 
IMO saying "IMO this person should be killed." *is* condoning it. You just lost tons of respect in my eyes.

As far as the RR grow, it was later determined that the "broken" LEDs were actually the IR LEDs, not visible to the naked eye.

Maybe a stupid question but how would you know the IR LED's were 'broken' if they could not be seen?
 
Back
Top Bottom