{"id":1210,"date":"2015-02-16T09:26:35","date_gmt":"2015-02-16T15:26:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/night-scenes.com\/?p=1210"},"modified":"2015-02-16T09:26:35","modified_gmt":"2015-02-16T15:26:35","slug":"austin-landscape-lighting-design-beware-of-false-claims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/night-scenes.com\/2015\/02\/16\/austin-landscape-lighting-design-beware-of-false-claims\/","title":{"rendered":"Austin Landscape Lighting Design: Beware of False Claims"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Wouldn\u2019t it be great if you could trust every business or contractor to be honest and truthful? Wouldn\u2019t it also be great if there were real consequences for those people or businesses that misrepresent who they are, what they do, their affiliations and their certifications? \u00a0I sure do!<\/p>\n<p>I just logged into my Twitter account (@nightscenes) and noticed an additional follower who is a new local outdoor lighting provider. Of course, I couldn\u2019t resist going to their website to get a better idea of who this fresh competition is, just like any business owner would. I was quite surprised to see their claim to be a member in good standing in the <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aolponline.org\/\"><strong>Association of Outdoor Lighting Professionals<\/strong><\/a><\/span> and to have earned their \u201cFundamentals of Lighting Certification.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_256\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-256\" style=\"width: 200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aolponline.org\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-256\" title=\"Texas outdoor lighting\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/night-scenes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/certified-AOLP-2.png?resize=200%2C123\" alt=\"Austin outdoor lighting\" width=\"200\" height=\"123\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-256\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">We are proud to have 4 AOLP certified technicians<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Since I have served on the <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aolponline.org\/executive_board.html\"><strong>Board of Directors<\/strong><\/a> <\/span>for the AOLP for almost 10 years, I have a very good grasp of the membership. Every membership application is screened by a committee first, and then the Board has to approve. So, of course, I questioned the membership claim in case I had missed them or forgotten. \u00a0But no &#8211; sure enough, as of this date there is no record of this company being an AOLP member.<\/p>\n<p>The AOLP offers two certifications. The <em>Certified Low Voltage Lighting Technician (CLVLT)<\/em> and the <em>Certified Outdoor Lighting Designer (COLD)<\/em>. These are both extensive and comprehensive courses of study, requiring time and financial commitment. It would be interesting to know exactly where the \u201cFundamentals of Lighting Certification\u201d comes from. A little research on the internet turned up some educational opportunities, but no other certifications specific to this industry. There are some lighting fixture manufacturers that will give a participation certificate when you go through their half-day sales seminar, but the AOLP is the only national association that offers any landscape lighting certifications as far as I know.<\/p>\n<p>There are only a few AOLP member companies in the Austin area. There is <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.texasoutdoorlighting.com\/\"><strong>Texas Outdoor Lighting<\/strong><\/a><\/span>, <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/plantscapesolutions.net\/\"><strong>Plantscape Solutions<\/strong><\/a><\/span>, and <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/night-scenes.com\/\"><strong>NightScenes Landscape Lighting Professionals<\/strong><\/a><\/span>. In this group of members, only NightScenes actually has AOLP <strong><em>certified technicians<\/em><\/strong> on staff &#8212; and we have two of them.<\/p>\n<p>As a reputable business working in Austin and the central Texas hill country, we always encourage consumers to take a little time for research and to verify claims made by people or companies providing services, especially prior to a major purchase. You can easily verify AOLP members by going to <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aolponline.org\">www.aolponline.org<\/a><\/span>; look under the Membership tab to search by state.<\/p>\n<p>You have to ask yourself: \u00a0If a company will misrepresent themselves about matters like this \u2013 their education and certification &#8212; can they really be trusted to deliver the products and services they are advertising? After a little research I discovered that the owner of the lighting company also has a lawn care service called Sublime Lawn and you can find his reviews on Yelp. OUCH!<\/p>\n<p>Please<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">\u00a0<a title=\"Contact Us\" href=\"http:\/\/night-scenes.com\/contact-us\/\">Contact us here<\/a><\/span> if you would like to have an AOLP certified technician take care of your outdoor lighting needs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wouldn\u2019t it be great if you could trust every business or contractor to be honest and truthful? Wouldn\u2019t it also be great if there were real consequences for those people or businesses that misrepresent who they are, what they do, their affiliations and their certifications? \u00a0I sure do! I just logged into my Twitter account &#8230; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1460,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44,19,5],"tags":[9,46,54,57,376,14,50,377],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Austin Landscape Lighting Design: Beware of False Claims - NightScenes Landscape Lighting<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/night-scenes.com\/2015\/02\/16\/austin-landscape-lighting-design-beware-of-false-claims\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Austin Landscape Lighting Design: Beware of False Claims - NightScenes Landscape Lighting\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Wouldn\u2019t it be great if you could trust every business or contractor to be honest and truthful? 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