Frequently Answered Questions
Most frequent questions and answers
Sales & Marketing
Melinda manages our day to day phone calls, warranties, colour options, and general shop-floor production. Melinda has been at Barn Light for almost two years (April 2022), so as a wealth of experience in both colour options, manufacturing options, custom colours etc. Melinda can be reached on (03) 8743 5500 generally from 10am-3pm Monday to Friday.
Jesse-Lee works major projects, corporate schedules, technical datasheets, and new product development. Jesse can be reached on 0499 635 473 all hours. While his mobile will ring, it will divert to the main number if he’s unable to answer your call. Do leave a message.. we all listen to those!
Corporate
If you’ve got a corporate project, commercial RFQ (GYG, Triumph, BP etc) its best to call Jesse (0499 635 473) for technical specifications and associated trade questions.
No.
Builders and Electricians value IP ratings in a different manner – Barn Light can see their respective angles/requirements, for this reason providing a firm “No” and educating the customer is worth the time.
What is Ingress Protection? See our Outdoor Rating page for more information
No. We don’t sell piece-parts for incorporation into other lighting fixtures nor designs. Given the time, effort, attention to detail, and general appreciation for our products.
However. On the rare occasion you are making repairs to, restoring, or “making new” on an existing mounting – Please contact us. There are a number of rare (and rarities) Die-Casted Steel Mountings that we’d love to work with. Its part of our “giving back” ethos.
We’ve got a whole FAQ for you wonderful people; Electrical Wholesalers FAQ
Join our Trade Discount Program, then contact Barn Light to discuss your project so we’ve got a better handle on you/r clients requirements.
Melinda is your first point of call for all things designery – Jesse’s the technical guru and does more of the designs based on what Mel tells him to do. We work well together :)
Our trade program is auto-magic and auto-approves where all the fields are entered correctly. We’ll reach out if you ask for assistance in your original application.
The average phone call goes like this:
| Ex. Beacon Customer | I’ve bought an Outdoor Barn Light from Beacon Lighting, the Portsea Exterior Wall Light and <cut off> |
| Jesse: | Yeah, its rusting already and we’re well aware of this problem. Unfortunately you are caller <x> of <y> people this week to have the same problem. We probably expect that its been installed undercover, outdoors and is still rusting from the backing plate? Here’s a photo of what to expect in Tropical Environments (Scroll to the very bottom) |
| Ex. Beacon Customer | Oh, how did you know THAT?! Beacon assured me that IP44 would be fine outside. |
| Jesse: | You are unfortunately not the first, nor the last to be affected and we’ve had to write this into our FAQ just so customers KNOW that its an issue. Beacon Lighting is aware, strictly by the amount of warranty claims they process – they don’t care – Its not a Barn Light, its a rust trap. If warranties were easy, they would simply call the electrician and find out the cause rather than subjecting you to this “Warranty Claim” Form: https://www.beaconlighting.com.au/warranty-claims – What’s important for you to know is that IP44 (Ingress Protection) doesn’t mean quality, just how solids and water can interfere with your light – it doesn’t matter where you shop. |
| Ex. Beacon Customer | Oh.. I’ve bought six of these from my store, and want something similar to replace them with – What do you have? |
| Jesse | Our 30cm Original Gooseneck Barn Light with PG12 Petite Gooseneck Arm. (If you want the Glass, you can upgrade to IP55 and not install the cage) |
Store Hours / Open?
Yes. We’re trading! If you’d like visit to our factory, you’ll need to book in a time (Book an Appointment)
Our physical hours are Monday-Friday between 7am – 3pm.
Our phone hours are Monday-Friday between 10am – 2pm.
Our virtual/live-chat/socials are typically 7am – 9pm.
We continue to process, manufacture and deliver orders via Australia Post. If you need information, always feel free to call (03 8743 5500), email, or Live Chat us whenever convenient to you.
Yes. Kinda, Not Really.
The factory’s gates remain locked during weekends, however as we’re an online manufacturer, we *occasionally* get stuck at work on the weekend.
If you’d like to visit – you’ll need to make an appointment (Book an Appointment) for either Melinda or I to open up, strictly for you. We’ve attempted to open regularly in the past however the number of “no shows” due to various reasons meant we keep our weekends to ourselves (and our kids!) to enjoy.
In the event that we get two or three people pre-booking, we’ll open for the general public during that time should they wish to visit.
We don’t have any.
I doubt we’ll ever have a showroom. Instead we’ve got a 6-MONTH return policy, you have to see our Returns & Refund Policy to believe it.
If you are looking to view some lights, we’re adding a small number of independent stockists on our Designers, Trades, and Stockists page
If you’ve ever spent hours agonising online, finally decided on that lighting fixture, purchased, waited around for a few weeks for your Sparkie to arrive THEN found it.. doesn’t work in that space – You are in luck, we pay return freight on the first item, and no sparkie takes six-months to turn up (right?!). In the event you need to change the colour, or return them for a full refund, we’ll deduct the costs incurred (on our special Australia Post account) to your refund amount.
We’ve invested significant portions of our time & resources into our online store since inception. We’ve saved ourselves the difficulties associated with brick & mortar storefronts, and while inconvenient for many of our customers, this decision has permitted our products to be both more affordable AND more configurable that our competitors.
Yup! – We actually prefer these orders!
The costs associated with boxing, void-fill packaging, boxing, taping, postage and the like.. Yeah, it gets really expensive really quickly. If you’ve opted to pickup,
Please don’t just turn up!!!
If we’ve got stock, we’ll arrange a time to assemble/collect parts and generally get your order ready. If you’ve spoken to management, we’ll make your order a priority on the day IF we have finished product ready for you.
Leadtimes / Manufacturing
Black Ace, Flat White Orders or Metallic (Not Galvanised)
Five (5) business days.
COLORBOND®
Five to Seven (5-7) business days.
Commercial Projects
Where advice is not provided, Ten to Fourteen (10-14) business days is typical.
* Our standard lead-time will be shown at the Cart/Checkout Page.
Contact Barn Light – Give us a Call – Send an SMS.
We offer *rush* order options however you’ll need to arrange your own courier. You’ll need to contact us to CONFIRM that we’ve got what you need. ie. Rarely do we have a pink with purple polka dots stocked.
A nominal percentage charge (typically 20% on top of RRP – Yes, loss of discount) is added to each invoice to reflect the cost of “dropping tools and making it happen” at the expense of other customers. These additional funds are non-refundable and are used to employ additional staff, dog treats, or provide snacks (like Espresso…) depending on the costs associated with.
We manufacture as we go or “Just in Time”
We keep Black Ace & Flat White powdercoated stocks, quite literally tubs of hardware with shelves full to the brim of warehouse shades and goosenecks. The raw product is kept at our powdercoating facility in anticipation of different colours/orders permitting us to keep “just enough in stock”
We assemble, box, and ship.
If we’ve got stock, we’re shipping your order within fourty-eight hours (the following day) in most cases once assembly (if needed) has been completed.
Why we have a lead-time then? To cover ourselves if we’re one lampholder short of a fifty-piece order, or you’ve selected a Colorbond colour that takes longer to manufacture.
NOTE: LED Orders cause us the greatest amount of pain due to having to rely on (COVID-19 impacted) overseas exporters since Australian suppliers usually import from these same suppliers – so we jump the proverbial delays and go to the front of queue.
Returns
Well.. there isn’t a catch. Here’s the perquisites and not much of a list.
- Return the product at your own cost.
AND
- Ensure everything is included that was shipped to you.
If you neglect to return certain things (ie. Light Bulbs) – The cost of these items will be removed from your refund.
There is no need to pay freight twice. Contact Melinda or Jesse via email (preferred) or phone if you prefer to discuss what you require.
It might be an upgrade to another shade or your eyes were too big for your design. Where we can, we’ll organise a resolution to be sent to you. We’ll also organise freight back using our Australia Post account (Wait for the replacement delivery, the return label is inside!)
See also: Where are your showrooms?
Australian Made
We certainly can! We actually love this type of work as it provides an ongoing, steady stream of cashflow whilst we manufacture for other customers.
We can offer more competitive pricing if specified and consistent volume is supplied over a couple of months.
