Lake Forest Lamp & Shade Company

Great selection ! Fun choices and reasonably priced

I have never written a review before, negative or positive. I don’t like to badmouth anyone, but this review is deserved and hopefully it can help someone else. This shop has beautiful merchandise and the owner knows her product. If that’s all there were to it, you bet I’d go back. What she doesn’t know is how to deal with people. I went to purchase something last March. Deciding between one shade and another, I took both home on approval. The very strict rules of «on approval» means three days or you buy. I complied, which was difficult, and brought both back with a decision three days later. Unfortunately, the decision I made was for a shade she didn’t have enough of in stock. She suggested I purchase the other kind, just in case I guess, and she put my name and number and what I really wanted in a little book. I was hoping to have the right kind before company was coming for holiday in April. I called her to find out, though she knew I’d want to know and should have called me, and discovered they were still backordered. I continued to wait while these shades I OWNED sat in their original bag so nothing could happen to them as I made it very clear to Ann that I was not going to keep these shades. Not having them for holiday company in April, I switched my goal to holiday company in May. I called and this time I found out that the wrong ones had been sent and we were essentially starting the wait over again. If Ann cared about her customers, she might have thought to call me to deliver this news and not wait for my next call. In fact, I called every time, enough times for her to remember me, not enough times to annoy, probably 4 – 5 times in all. Not one time did I express anger or disappointment, which I probably should have done; each time I kindly asked this woman I still hoped to do business with in the future what the status of my order was. I left a message last Monday in which I asked for a return call with a status report no matter what it was. I didn’t hear back Tuesday or Wednesday. Thursday also went by with no return call. Friday I got a call back and I quote verbatim, «This is Ann from Lake Forest Lamp and Shade. The shades are in.» Not Hello Mrs… Thank you for waiting so patiently… They’re finally here… No, the kindness came from me. I excitedly thanked her. I THANKED HER! I changed my day around to include a trip to her store just in case she were to give them to someone else. I decided to say something. I told her how upset it made me that she never followed up with me. Her response? «I’M BUSY.» When I explained to her that we were all busy, but that this was her business and I a customer who deserved a trace call, and certainly a return call, she said, «I’M SORRY YOU’RE UPSET ABOUT THIS, BUT I AM ALWAYS BUSY.» Then she had the nerve to tell me that I hadn’t paid her last March. I admit that I was a fool to do so and after a month of not getting the replacement product, I should have insisted that she take the unwanted shades back and give me a refund not an exchange. Who knew this would take 3 months?! I really wanted the shades, for sure, so I ended up going along with this. I wasn’t about to pay her again so I said I’d call my bank. As I was about to do so Ann said, «So what are we doing here cause I would have to go back through my March receipts?!» As busy as she says she is, during none of this time did another customer come in the store. In fact, when I walked in the store, she was just walking back inside the building. I called my bank and before my banker could even look up my account, lo and behold, Ann found my receipt! Of course I had paid. She had use of my money for three months. If I had use of those other lampshades for three months, I wouldn’t have been able to return them at all. This is a helluva way to run a business. Sad and unfortunate, but I won’t be shopping here again.

I love to shop at the flea market, and I’m somehow particularly drawn to unique vintage lamps. But purchasing older lamps can be tricky since they often need to be rewired or completely overhauled. Nonetheless, on a recent shopping excursion I simply couldn’t resist this pair of brilliant crystal lamps and brought them here assuming they needed a complete overhaul. I figured this would be a pretty big job, so I wasn’t exactly sure where to begin, how much, or how long this project was going to take. Getting ready to host an event in my home, I had hopes they would be fixed in time so I could show them off to my many house guests. To put me at ease, the repairman assessed them right on the spot and discovered they only needed a quick fix and agreed to work on them while I shopped for my shades. This was such a huge relief, although I was faced with the challenge of selecting the right shade from their vast collection!
My first time to this particular shop I was overwhelmed, in a good way. It’s not uncommon to walk into a lamp repair shop and discover a mish mosh of shades stacked high and in no particular order. But that certainly wasn’t the case with this cute, clean, and well-​organized shop. Not knowing exactly where to begin, I was given assistance to help me figure out my style and selected two expensive, but high quality shades. I should also mention they have custom order books if you want an even greater selection for a special project. Wiring done, shades selected, my flea market find just exponentially increased in value!
Quick turnaround time in my case, quality shades, and beyond excellent customer service, I will definitely be back to this place.