I don't blame you Angie. I had the same issues and if I had the means I'd definitely just get a new tree as well. I won't do Costco though because they carry the GE stuff which is terrible lighting. They should call it "constant off" instead of "on" because there is a single bulb in their strands that can't be replaced - EVER - if it fails. the whole set has to be replaced. Not worth it. My next tree will be LED or an unlit.

I had a horrible experience with Balsam hill - I paid $800 for a tree which after finally getting in touch with them I found out they did not have in stock. I asked them to send an alternative overnight and they refused. The manager I spoke with was incredibly rude and they were not even able to confirm the measurements of their tree - they had different measurements than what was on the website. Truly a horrible experience. I would not go near this company again under any circumstances

Six years ago I decided no more expensive fresh trees that were so dry we feared plugging in the lights by Christmas Eve.

I researched on this forum and found Tree Classics recommended--and that tree I orderedis fabulous and people think it's the real thing! I even still use the huge box of sample branches they sent for decorating around the house!

You must have read a recommendation of Tree Classics from 2007...because if you bothered to read anything past 2010 when they went out of business and were purchased by another poorly rated brand you would have seen that they are not the real thing any longer. Just what seems to be another site for unfortunate buyers of Balsam Hill products. :(

I just bought a tree from Balsam HIll and I got burned. They ship fast but the lights on top did not work. Called, sent in photos as requested. Just asked for a new string of lights and it has been a week and no luck with their shoddy customer service who did not even have a record of my first two calls!
Beware! Don't buy one!

I'm late on the topic, but I researched trees and found that Balsam Hill has a lot of complaints and that Frontgate's trees look better. I ordered the Eastern Fir flip tree, and it is great, easy to install and I'm happy with it. I was torn between the Fraiser Fir & this eastern Fir.. but was afraid the Fraiser would be too large. I probably should have ordered the Fraiser.. as the Eastern is slightly smaller than I thought, but I didn't want to pay shipping fees, so I kept it.

I should note - I have had nothing but EXCELLANT service from Frontgate. After I placed the order, it went on sale (as well as a couple other items) I called them up and they adjusted the price! Also had an animated store, and part didn't work, they sent a replacement next day air and issued a pick-up for the defective one. Very happy with their service!

We just put our Tree Classics tree up (purchased in 2005), and almost none of the lights are working. Anyway, I think it is the last year for this tree, so will be on the hunt again.

We bought a 6.5' Noble Classic Tree (Santa's Own brand) from http://www.christmastreeforme.com . I read a review of one of their trees on Good Housekeeping's website, and couldn't find anything bad about the company on the web.

My son unboxed and put together the tree in about 10 minutes. I was reading the directions, looked up, and it was already done! It looks beautiful. The needles are soft, so that we didn't need to worry about being lacerated by them. It is a prelit LED tree.

Our sole guest thought the tree was real. My husband said if he didn't know I'd bought a fake tree, he'd have thought it was real, too.

We are very pleased, so I don't have any experience with the company's customer service.

Here is a link that might be useful: Christmas Tree for Me

Texasjana, that was us last year, but what we did was just cut off all the lights as the tree is still in great shape and still looks great. We bought lights and now string them on. Although it was nice to have the pre lit and just put it up we just couldn't find anything that looks as good as the one we have and it is so easy to throw away a string of lights if they stop working. Really didn't take me that much time to string some lights on.

I bought a Balsam Hill tree in 2009 and it worked for only that year. It is a 9 foot clear lights/colored lights option purchased at over $1300. The second year I could not figure out the lights to get them to be all clear or all colored (the reason I bought this tree in the first place). Apparently, the lines were crossed and I spent hours trying to fix it to no avail. The folowing year I spent days on it coming back and forth trying to get it all lit- half of the lights burned out. This year, I spent hours cutting all of the light strands off. I do not want to buy another tree and have the same problem. I'm just going back to the old fashioned way of stringing my lights on and taking them off, this way if any burn out, I will just buy new ones and not worry about it. But I would not recommend buying from this company. When I called back in 2010, I could not get through to a person. Recording said something about this being a busy time of year and the best time to call was after the season. Ridiculous and a complete rip off!

I am SO VERY GRATEFUL to all those who took the time to post your experiences with various artificial christmas tree companies. I have agitated for an artificial tree for over 30 years; today, my DH finally started looking around online for a tree.

He was settled on Balsam Hill when I asked if he had googled the internet for reviews. He hadn't, so I did. This site was one of the first three listed in the results. As I started with the initial question, posted several years ago, it became clear very quickly that Balsam Hill would be more trouble than it appeared they would be at their website.

Everyone who posted here has made our search a lot more focused on just two companies. My DH has come a LONG way just being willing to look. But, if we had ordered from Balsam Hill and had the problems and disappointments described here, I'd be vacuuming needles after Christmas for the rest of my life! Thank you, thank you.

BTW, they were just barely accredited with the BBB November 2013. They are still getting complaints on that site, with many of the same kinds of problems listed here. All I know is that we will not be doing business with them, this, or any, year.

Thank you all again. Your reviews have saved us from making a purchase we probably would have regretted.

Definitely consider the setup!! Mine is in 3 pieces, not counting the stand, and all I need to do is pull the branches out and fluff. It's still very time consuming since it's a 10 footer, purchased at a Christmas store in San Diego about 6 years ago. Very realistic looking.

time to rev this topic up again, I guess. I got rid of my Martha Stewart white tree after several years because it was just looking sad. I'd like another, but prices sure have gone up in the interim! And I can't seem to find an unlit tree either.

Probably will go with a real tree this year, and look for sales for an artificial white tree next year. I like them because you can easily change the look with lights or ornaments without a lot of trouble. For years I collected ornaments . . . am so over that. Gave them all to my kids.

So glad to have found this thread through a google search, I had forgot about the GardenWeb.

We are probably going to buy a pre-lit LED tree from Costco - at least that is DH's plan, but I am worried that they will be too bright. Someone asked above about dimming them - is this a possibility? Are there brands that have less bright LEDs.

Our artificial tree is 28 years old - takes hours to assemble and two days to get the lights on. I am ready for a pre-lit model.

So, I can't figure out where the taller trees are. So, do you think a 9 foot tree is tall enough if I have 16.5 foot ceilings??

Also, what do you think of Costco's 9 foot LED tree by GE?

Never!

I have to laugh now. I glanced at the date on this post and saw Nov 19 and that it had 63 posts already and thought this must be a really hot topic. Didn't see the year at first. lol

Like most posters here we were tired of messing with lighting issues with our 10 year old pre-lit artificial tree (Bethlehem). We were intrigued with the catalogs from Frontgate, and initially the reviews of Balsam Hill, Tree Classics, etc. After reading all the bad stuff however, we ordered a tree from Hammacher Schlemmer which seems to have very few bad reviews. Will post an update when we receive it in a week or so.

12/12/2013 Update
Still haven't received the tree, but did receive the wreath. We're hoping the wreath is a good indication of what the tree will be like, as it is really great. It's the nicest artificial wreath we've ever seen. Very natural branches, and the LED lights are a nice warm color temperature so they don't have the bluish glare that older LEDs have.

According to UPS the tree is close and should be delivered today.

12/13/2013
Christmas tree arrived. First observation is this thing is heavy--at least 2x the weight of our old Bethlehem tree, although this is a 8 1/2' tree and the old one was 7'. Second observation is that the needles are amazingly lifelike. Just like the wreath, they look very realistic.

Took me about 20 minutes to unpack, carry the 3 sections and stand in from the garage, and get everything put together. Took another 10 minutes or so to untangle the branches and wires to unfold everything, and 5 minutes or so to find the 6 internal electrical connectors, connect them, and plug everything in.

The connectors seem really solid--2 prong round connectors that have a sleeve that screws them together securely. We'll see what it's like in 5 years or so, but so far I'm pretty impressed.

The lights are great--nice warm (2700k?) color temperature.

It will take quite a bit of fluffing to get it just right, but hopefully we can figure out a way to store it so that fluffing is largely a 1-time event.

Here's a close up of the wreath. The tree is similar and I'll post photos of it in a subsequent reply.

This post was edited by ACHiPo on Sat, Dec 14, 13 at 14:04

The Balsam Hill tree I ordered has been a nightmare! I wish I had returned it. The Noble Fir tree with white and multi-colored lights is a beautiful, realistic tree. But after spending 6-7 hours shaping it, there were about 12 branches (not in just 1 section)in which the clear lights did not light. I FINALLY found a broken bulb and some of them came on. 2 dome-shaped fuse lights did not light and I took the tree apart and switched them out but they did not work still. After calling and having to wait a long time to be helped, the man told me I hadn't "gotten to know" my tree yet and needed to get "intimate" with it. I AM NOT WANTING TO MARRY the tree, I just want the lights to work that I paid for! I have never had an artificial tree but can no longer get the real tree in the stand and in the house, so decided to get an artificial tree. I regret getting this tree and should have sent it back but I spent so much time putting it up, I hate to start over. I might take it down and not have one this year. Oh, yes, the "helper" also told me their goal was for me to have a beautiful tree by Christmas. NO, my goal was to have a beautiful tree by last weekend!

I'm single and go out of town for XMAS every yr. Still, I wanted to hang the many PB ornaments I got on sale after XMAS last yr. I ALMOST bought from Balsam Hill, but couldnt see spending $500, when I dont have a family and wont be here at XMAS anyway.

Lowes had a sale so I went over there Black Friday. I got a 6.5 foot tree (smaller than I wanted) for $48. It set up in 5 mins. the lights work. It has some gaps, but I filled them in with the bigger ornaments. It's not perfect, but I'm glad I got it. If I am in town next yr., maybe I'll get a nicer one and move this to the den.

Here's a photo of the Hammacher Schlemmer tree (pre-fluffed)

Here's a photo of the electrical connections for the lights. Not sure if Balsam Hill or others use a similar connector, but this is a lot different from our old Bethlehem tree. You can also see the pretty typical branch and trunk treatment. Nothing very special there.

Here's a photo of the fluffed tree. Pretty impressive. Hopefully it will hold up and the lights will continue to work. Fluffing took a while--probably 30 minutes for three of us.

I'm new here but need to advise prospective buyers of my disappointing experience with 'pre lit' trees. Our BalsamHill lighted tree (almost $400 in 2010) had multiple light failures this year >> less than 3 weeks out of the 3 yr warranty. So we had 2 years of 'Plug-n-Play' and this year- multiple failures.

We thought the high (imho) price was worth it for two reasons.
1- never have to string lights on a tree again
2- high quality pre lit trees would come with very long lasting lights. We had strings from Walmart/Kmart that have lasted several years, so I wasn't worried.

So now we were wrong on BOTH counts.

Consider- a 9 ft tree has MANY lights, all tightly attached and the same shade of green as the branches. So tracing down the faulty socket is a monumental job.

FYI, we used moving boxes (wardrobe size) for storage, so it wasn't like we jammed anything together during storage.

Finally- I checked fuses, and the 1st socket downstream of the failure, and changed those bulbs anyway- no luck.

My Opinion- Unless you are wealthy enough to toss a $400 tree every few years, chasing faulty tree light becomes very difficult when you're working with hundreds.

Maybe we got a bad one, but I've seen similar complaints on lighted trees. So as lights are a big part of the price of a 'Pre-Lit' tree, "Be Forewarned".

I purchased a 5' 5" tree from Balsam Hill. It came with a bag for off season storage, but I cannot fit the tree sections into the bag. No instructions were included with the tree. I called Balsam Hill for help and learned that I did not receive straps with which to reduce the diameter of the sections so that they could fit in the supplied bag. Balsam Hill simply told me that they would not send me those straps because they were not available. No offer was made to send the straps in the future, and no direction was given on how the tree sections could fit into the supplied bag. Instead I was told that I could buy a larger bag or follow the personal practice of the customer service rep by tying a bungee cord around the tree sections. It would take a large number of bungee cords to compress each tree section, and I find it hard to believe that Balsam Hill could offer no other solution.

I am now faced with the problem of having to find space to store the very bulky sections of the tree.

I expected more of Balsam Hill and am very disappointed in the manner in which Balsam Hill trivialized my problem, leaving me with the impression that they considered my problem as unimportant.

Yes, the product is good, but Balsam Hill's customer service is nonexistent. I strongly urge people shopping for an artificial tree to buy one from a different company, one that cares about its customers.

We went with artificial several years ago. I'm just tooo allergic to them to keep getting them. This is ours. 9', 750 lights. Nice space at the bottom so there's room for packages.

I got it from Brad's Deals in July of 2012. It was a horrendous heatwave. The UPS guys got out of his truck and said "Really? REALLY? A Christmas tree?" haha

It was originally $278. I got it for.........$31!!!! Delivered.

Forgot to mention, it was from Lowes. Hmmm, or Home Depot? One of the two.

Here's a close up....

I have probably had at least a dozen, or so. I usually have 2 trees each year.

The best one I ever had, shape and lights, purchased at Lowe's in 1990 to replace one from a high-end shop that lasted a week. (My DIL gave up on trees for her tall entryway after so many had burned-out lights, and asked to borrow the 1990 model. I let her borrow it in 2002. She still has it after 12 years). This, of all the trees she puts up, is her favorite for her entry because the shape is so nice and the needles don't glob or collapse. It is not Chinoiserie.

My favorites, at this time, came from Hobby Lobby and the lights are GE and have lasted 4 years. .

I have GE clear lights inside my book case and the strands burning now are at least 2 years old and have burned everyday without being unplugged since. I don't work for GE and I really, really do not like Jeffrey Immelt, so no endorsement for the company, just the lights.

I will have three trees this year, all artificial after one awful year we had a ruined floor from a leaking tree stand. Our library tree is so full of ornaments that it almost doesn't matter what the tree itself looks like as long as it is green, 9-10 ft tall and slim. When the lights start winking out, Handy Guy keeps an eye out for a suitable replacement and brings it down. The bedroom tree is "planted" in a nice urn and is only around 6.5 ft tall.

This summer I purchased a Frontgate tree at 20% off that will be shipped the second week of October. It has the appearance of an Alpine tree, but fuller, with natural pinecones and IIRC around 500 lights. It is 7.5 ft because the ceiling in the back room of our lower level is just 8.5 ft. We are going to try something new with this tree--- wire on all the ornaments, then wrap the tree in clean cotton sheets and store it fully decorated. I've never tried this before, as we carefully wrap each and every ornament on our other trees, even though most are unbreakable. I purchased all the ornaments over the summer and have no emotional investment in them at all, so I'm willing to take a chance by leaving them on the tree. (Does anyone else do that?)

kswl, I knew a lady that had a rather large house. She lived alone and kept her tree fully decorated and covered in her den. The only time she used the den was at Christmas when all her children and grandchildren came to visit. She loved not having to decorate the tree every year.

Lol, caminnc! That's one way to do it :/)

As Christmas crazy as I am I'm not ready to give up my library, but I seethe wisdom in leaving a tree decorated that doesn't have to be moved. That is really my only worry, that while the tree is being moved, ornaments would be broken or fall off and disappear into the lost property ether of this house. Downstairs at least it can be taken into the storage basement with no steps or great distance.

I really do enjoy unwrapping our family tree ornaments every year, remembering when we acquired them and generally reliving happy memories of Christmases past. But if I lose one or two a year of the collection I purchased in three months of power shopping, meh, not such a big deal.

kswl - an acquaintance of mine is married to the son of an international builder and they designed their current home with a special double closet in the family room. The closet is recessed into a paneled wall and can accommodate a 12' foot tree. The closet doors have invisible hinges and there is a panel above the closet doors that lifts up. Their Christmas tree is on large casters to allow for easy moving. She also puts up a live tree in the kitchen/sunroom area so that she can enjoy the aroma of real pine.

I think of her every year when I pull the boxes of holiday decorations out of the attic. How wonderful to have a dedicated space to store a fully decorated tree.

What a fantastic idea! We have a huge storage closet in our library with a 14 ft ceiling, but I am using it as the decorative accessory graveyard at the moment. If I could clear that out......god, what an idea!

Well there you go....you just need to go through that graveyard.

If we build another home I told DH I would create a similar closet. He thought that would be a waste of prime space - but since we'd be downsizing at that point it wouldn't need to be as huge as my friend's.

With regard to Balsam Hill, Beware. I disregarded the negative reviews describing issues with customer service to my detriment. Immediately after pushing 'place order' I had second thoughts, it is a substantial investment for a Christmas tree. The cancellation notice (very fine print) on their site specifically states that the customer has 30 minutes to cancel. BUT when I called literally 5 minutes after placing order, I was told they could not cancel as my order was considered in process. I was adamant as it became glaringly clear that everything the reviewers had written about this company was true. I went through 3 levels of management all said, "they felt bad but the order was in process" and they flatly refused to cancel. I have reported this company and their dishonest, corrupt business practices. Despite all the glitter in my opinion, Balsam Hill is a very crooked company.

Update on the Christmas tree in our lower level! I posted these on a separate thread but am doing so again in case anyone is interested in what the 7.5' alpine tree from Grandinroad looks like fully decorated. It was very easy to assemble and is a very slim tree (which is why I bought it). The tree was about $240 on sale this past summer.

Don't know if anyone has mentioned this previously, but Hammacher Schlemmer offers a life time warranty - tree can be returned any time for any reason.

I bought a 5.5' pre-lit Noble fir about 4 yrs. ago from them, and we love it. As seniors, we just keep it in one piece, carry it to the basement and put a tree bag over it until next season. Then we just have to add the ornaments. We do raise ours a bit on a 12" platform. If we were younger and had a bigger living room, I would have gotten a larger one, but this is the perfect size now.

We have three trees. The kids' tree (a pre-lit 3 footer) is from Balsam Hill and we've had it for 3-4 years. It works well and we've had no issues with it.

The foyer tree is a slim pre-lit 7-footer that we got at Garden Ridge a couple years ago. It is great and was a bargain since we got it on a post-Xmas sale.

The main tree is an 8-footer from Costco, and we've had it for 17 years. It is NOT pre-lit, but that's okay - it has served us VERY well all these years and still looks brand new when we set it up. It's a very full tree and once we spread out the branches it is very hard to see that it is fake. It's nice and full and the pole is all but invisible.

I've debated getting a fourth tree (we have more than enough ornaments to go on four trees), but have decided to wait and get a pre-lit slim 8-foot tree when the kids have outgrown the need for their 3-foot tree in the TV room. I would then use the 3-footer elsewhere in the house, or give it away.

I love Christmastime - can't wait for Thanksgiving because that's the weekend we decorate the entire house for Christmas!

We are longtime artificial Christmas tree users, and our Balsam Hill tree is the most beautiful tree we've ever had! We've had visitors tell us that they thought it was a live tree until they got really close to it. We like it much better than Frontgate's trees.

We also use artificial christmas tree and i prefer Balsam hill trees over Frontgate's trees because our balsam tree is one of the most beautiful christmas tree u ever seen and mostly people think it was real........

I am debating whether I should buy an artificial tree from Balsam Hill or Tree Classics. Any suggestions? Also, do you think the trees will go on sale even mores after Christmas or no? They are already marked down. I'm new to the artificial tree world, so any advice is welcome. I am looking for the widest, fullest 9 foot tree.

Flag and pass along to the proper authorities ...

And I thought "PRO" status was something you earned.

Can anyone assign "PRO" to their title ?

I bought two wreaths and garlands from Balsam Hill 2 years ago. I also ordered a tree at the same time but never got it--somehow the tree didn't ship and when I called about it they apologized but then it would have come Christmas week and just cancelled the tree. But I was totally UNDERwhelmed by the wreaths and garlands so I am so leery to buy from them again. I need to upgrade my wreaths and get a tree but so unsure who to go with. My friend got a tree and Frontage and it looks quite nice.

I bought a 8 1/2 foot Hammer Schlemmer in 2011. In 2014 I call that a string of lights wasn't properly working. Customer Service was outstanding they offered to take the tree back for a full refund and return shipping. Due to the way they handled the situation I returned back for another tree. I trust that they live by their word!

TREETIME is who I would buy from. Wonderful people, beautiful products, helpful & courteous employees

The purpose behind purchasing an artificial tree is that it is a time saver and the high end ones look real. We purchased the Grand Noble 7.5ft - Clear from Frontgate in 2014. With the self cover it was over $1,000.00 and although aggravatingly crooked the lights worked each year. I'm hosting a party this Saturday but I now have a crooked tree with 4 light sections out and the CSR advised us to individually remove every bulb from every strand and check it. That is like finding a needle in a hay stack! After only three years I intend to throw this expensive tree out and purchase another more budget friendly tree. The time saver has become a nightmare. Buyer beware!

Geeze, all this so it's "easier" to put up? Easier than what? Building the Pyramids? I get a fresh tree each year. I buy it from a nearby garden center, take my stand to them, they put the stand on, deliver the tree and set it up. They also move a table for me to the garage. All this for (including tree price) is about $140 for an 8 ft tree. I like a LOT of lights on my tree and I cannot do this by myself, so I hire a woman who charges me $50 to put the lights on. Then the grandchildren come and put the ornaments on the tree.

Around New Years, DSIL and the boys come and untrue the tree, remove lights and wind them back up neatly, and then take the tree out to the curb and bring my table back into the LR.

My allergist told me that if an artificial tree is not carefully covered, it must be dusted very thoroughly when put up - each branch and all the needles - or it's going to cause the allergic person in the house just as much trouble. He said that most tree allergies are actually an allergy to the stuff the tree companies spray their "cut in Aug" live trees to make them stay fresher for a longer time. If one finds a fresh cut tree with no spray on it, allergies should not be a problem.

Now THIS is easy!

do not buy frontgate tree. Warranty 1 yr for 1100.00 tree. 2 yrs later part of tree doesn’t work. Too bad Says Frontgate

Bought a VERY expensive flip tree from Balsam Hill on "sale" in July of 2017 Used it in 2017 and 2018, when we went to use it in 2019 a large section of lights did not work. When we called they said the warranty was only for 2 years. (I guess we were supposed to check it in June to make sure it was still working). Agreed to send a strand of lights, which did not arrive until January. What a waist!!!

I got scammed by the Balsam Hill company. I bought a tree on sale for $1800.00 and less than a year later, most of the lights went out. They gave me a very hard time about replacing it and even suggested that I go to Home Depot and buy more lights to put on there. Finally I got them to replace it but they wanted the original tree back. My poor husband and I had to wrestle a 9 ft tree into 2 refrigerator boxes and return. They then sent me a replacement tree that was $300.00 cheaper because mine was out of stock. The new tree lights lasted 1 year again! That time when I called they said “we don’t warranty replacements.” So in other words, they replaced my defective tree, with another defective tree. Their customer service is horrible.
I would never buy anything from them again. We thought we were investing in a tree to last for many years. Not the case. This year we are going to cut all of the lights off and restring. We have to try to get our moneys worth. For 2 older people, this is very difficult work. Very sad that they do not stand behind their products. #balsamhill