Quoted by Tom K:

"I could be wrong but I don't know of any dealer that checks the piece before shipping. They get them in and put them in stock til they're sold or have to be shipped. If your in the store they tell you to check it but thats about it."

Just had to throw our 2 cents worth in here, but it sounds like you haven't had a good dealer. Maybe your comments are correct for 95% of the dealers. I believe you are correct for the bigger stores, who, even though they have several employees to do the task, don't make the effort to check them.

My wife and I are Harbour Lights dealers, with no employees. Every order that comes into our store is checked twice, once when we receive it, and once when we sell it. THIS GOES FOR LITTLE LIGHTS TOO! Why? If I have a broken piece, I need to report it to Harbour Lights right away to get a credit/replacement. Also, I need to know that every Harbour Lights piece is in sellable condition when the customer wants it.

When a customer asks for a piece in the store, we don't ask them if they want to see the piece; we've already taken it out of the box and handed it to them for inspection. It would be very embarassing to us to be opening the box for the first time, and say "Gee, it looks this one is broken." Showing them the piece is not only good for customer service, it also protects us. If they happened to drop the piece when they get it home, they wouldn't be able to claim it was broken when they opened the box.

Yes, it is tedious and time consuming, especially in the summer months when you may get 100 Little Lights at a time, or the September shipment of 50 Christmas pieces, checking the lighting/adapter on each one, but we couldn't imagine not doing it that way. Whether it's Harbour Lights or a cheap $2 souvenir magnet, everything is checked when it arrives at the store. It makes sense for the customer, and for keeping business expenses (breakage writeoff, etc) to a minimum.

Jim & Ann