Lighthouse USA Web Site

It always amazes me when I want to spend money with someone and they make it difficult to do so. If they (i.e. anyone) wants to sell their products, they should do the extra legwork themselves to make it easy for customers to get their hands on their product. It shouldn't be the customer's job to jump through a bunch of hoops to buy - the hoops should be pre-jumped for you by the seller.

There are of course a few dealers like that out there and I think we've all had experiences with them. People who never respond to inquiries, for example.

I have an order in to Lighthouse right now -- I ordered a Ka-Be binder and some Lighthouse pages (quite intentionally -- they're for different purposes) and several days later, it occurred to me that they might wonder if I made a mistake (i.e., ordered a mismatched set of pages and binder). And indeed, last week they left a telephone message for me, asking for verification that it was really what I wanted (although they said it was their second message left, and I have no record at all of receiving the first one). So again, I guess I've lucked out with them -- but that doesn't excuse what others here have experienced. I wonder if they're not concentrating their efforts on the coin side of things -- after all, coins seem to have a bigger following than stamps these days.

Customer service definitely matters -- but I don't know that I'd choose my album pages based on that alone. For example, I've had positive experiences with service from Davo and Lindner -- but for me, the "minuses" for those albums outweigh the "pluses". Still, if one wants a preprinted album, you need to pick from what's available.

I've been searching for "old" (pre-Lighthouse) Ka-be pages for some Eastern European countries, which were all discontinued several years ago -- haven't had any luck.

Put the champagne back in the bottle. I got an email today from Lighthouse USA telling me their German office bounced the whole thing back to them- I have to order from them. The woman there did go through my want list and some sections are available in regular format, most aren't and any hingeless pages will be ordered from a discount supplier, not direct from them. She did tell me she is the only employee they have there. Either someone else has the franchisee and has other interests and has her doing all the work or she's 'it'. It is, as I suspected, a one person office. No wonder.

Like I said, they shoot themselves in the foot. Just letting others know they cannot do a work around the US office.

That's why I no longer buy Lighthouse albums. Last time I did an order through a dealer for over $2,000 of lighthouse albums, 3 1/2 months later I still did not have them. I told the dealer to cancel the order and call Lighthouse to blame them.

Apparently, if Lighthouse does not have them in stock, they will not print them until they get a big enough order. I have had other dealers tell me that many times when they place an order it is out of stock or discontinued.

Lighthouse does not even keep their distributors informed.

They have a great album, but way overpriced, discontinuing more countries all the time, and have lousy customer service.

If they keep it up, they will be out of business in no time.

Or, maybe SG should buy them.

I will stick to other albums from now on where the service is as it should be, with the customer in mind first.

On its current showing, SG mght be the right fit, but not in the way one might hope. Its Ideal, Imperial and New Age albums seem to have disappeared, with the promised replacements for the last two not available. Its current edition of the Nubian album (black springback with black leaves) is a horrid parody of its cloth-bound predecessor.

If Lighthouse doesn't want to sell albums other than hingeless, it might be best if it were to put collectors out of their misery by announcing the fact, and holding a sale of the remaining old stock.

Album producers are facing the same issues as catalog publishers. There already is competition from online albums that user can print for themselves (at low/no cost), and of course designing your own pages has never been easier.

It would only make sense that they would be consolidating their product lines around albums/pages which cannot be easily done online (like hingeless).
Don

Don

Indeed. Will be interesting to see what consolidation occurs in the next few years. Hard to see a continuing market for all of Davo, Lindner, Schaubek, Lighthouse etc.

Geoff

'Or, maybe SG should buy them.'

LOL. They seem to be made for each other, don't they? I had started earlier this year remounting parts of my collection in Lighthouse albums but it is getting to be so much work just to locate what I need. I may need to cut my losses, switch to another line and sell what I have so far- at a loss, no doubt- and walk away. They seem to be one of those companies with a culture of indifference toward the customers that support them- the philatelic equivalent of Bank of America. I had thought about venting to their home office but that's a waste of time- they'd just forward it to New Jersey.

I've had the same experience with a White Ace order through a dealer. After more than a month of what I feel was more work than I needed to put in, the dealer - who is well regarded - finally responded that they were on back order at Washington Press. A f/u up with them revealed they were waiting to print them. Not only does it reflect poorly on the manufacturer, but it reflects poorly on the dealer.

I might change my mind, but if I were a dealer, I'm not sure I'd list anything album-related items for sale unless I had them in stock. But I understand the opposite - they don't want to carry a huge stock that takes a lot of space and may take months to move.

GeoffHa- I went to the website for Schaubek and was impressed. My first German album was a Schaubek, back about 1970. They seemed a bit cheap then but it looks now that after reunification they are offering some good stuff. Attractive binders, stock sheets, etc. I have sent a catalog request. Amos press is supposedly a representative here in the US but hopefully I can order direct from their site. I assume you like using them, right?

Stamps

I've only done the order I described, which went very well. One of the great things about Schaubek is the capacity of the binders, if you use the peg type. I think Vera Trinder is Schaubek's UK stockist, but I wasn't directed down that route, so I hope they'll deal direct with you.

Geoff

Any idea what the page capacity of the binders is? Looks like they have a standard size and a smaller one, I would be interested in the standard. I dislike split back mounts so would be looking for plain pages and would attach my own mounts.

My strong preference is for the cloth-bound binders - not keen on plastic/mock-leather efffect! The Schaubek catalogue indicates that the capacity of the binder is 150 standard sheets or 120 "brilliant" sheets (with mounts)

I wanted to add a brief postscript. I have totally given up on Lighthouse. My remounting project has been put on hold while I change album makers. I have decided for now to go with Schaubek.

I just placed an order via their website and it was one of the fastest, most pain free online orders I have ever made. Everything seems geared to making the buying experience easy. They accept Paypal, the site calculates your postage- in my case 33 Euros which seems to be a standard fee for US orders- very reasonable. I got an email with tracking links.

I really like the looks of their binders; I wish I could have had page sample to gauge the paper quality but am sure it is ok. I ordered Germany 1972-1945 (no mounts) with plenty of protectors because I plan to hinge a lot of the cheaper stuff. I am actually looking forward to getting my order and will update on here when I do.