The Lighting Empire, LLC

Back in the summer of 2018, I decided to purchase landscaping lights and underwater fishing lights for my home on Lake Jacksonville. After researching different companies in East Texas, I decided to use Austin Gwartney / The Lighting Empire. The primary reason I chose Austin was because of the “lifetime warranty” he so proudly boasted on his website. It took him about two days to install everything. The price was steep (around $5,000), but I was initially impressed with the overall quality of the lights. About a month went by after installation and I accidentally hit one of the lights with my lawnmower and the plastic stake at the base of the light broke. I called Austin and his crew came out and replaced the broken plastic stake with a higher quality metal stake. He also upgraded all the other lights with metal stakes, because I was not happy with the quality of the plastic stakes that were initially used. They should have never been used in the first place…not for the amount I was spending. He assured me these replacement stakes were covered under the “lifetime warranty” and never once mentioned he would be charging me anything. At the time, everything was right in the world. Fast forward around 2 years to when I noticed our underwater fishing lights stopped working. I tried calling Austin once or twice a week for about 2 months and he never took the time to return my calls (I even left voicemails). I know Austin drives all over East Texas, he should at the very least be able to return my calls while he is driving. After TWO MONTHS, Austin finally decided to call me back and told me that he wasn’t going to fix the underwater lights until I paid him $700 for the metal stakes that were used for the warranty work. He promised me at the time of replacement that they were covered under his “lifetime warranty”. If I would’ve known he was charging $700, I would have purchased the stakes elsewhere and done the work myself. He never once brought to my attention the cost of the metal replacement stakes. This is not the way you do business! Over the past 2 years, I have referred several people on Lake Jacksonville to use Austin Gwartney / The Lighting Empire. I still even have his business sign on the front of my boathouse (which boasts the bogus “lifetime warranty”). If anyone ever calls or asks for a reference again, I will gladly tell them the truth about Austin and The Lighting Empire. $5K for landscaping lights should come with better customer service. The fact that it took Austin 2 months to even return my call is all you need to know about him as a business owner. I would definitely look elsewhere for your lighting needs!