whenever im out of the house doing anything whenever i see a light in a store or outside or anywhere that is not lit/Eol and is not taken care of like for instence when i started my job they have 12 f40t12 fixtures in the store 2 fixtures had eol middle tubes and 1 fixture was compleatly out and some had strataions, 2 other fixtures had there defusers held up by packing tape and the flood lights had burnt out 75 watt halogen lamps mixed with crappy Cfl floods http://www.lighting-gallery.net/gallery/displayimage.php?album=4213&pos=28&pid=129610
 with more then 24,000 hours on them, so whenever i see a place like that or anything it feel bad for how pooly mantained it is and i want to help so bad but sometimes i know that i cant and that really bothers me, it gives me emotional pain lol im wondering if anyone elce feels this way?

Most of the time when i see EOL Fluorescents i remove them or the starters, so it stops flashing or overheating the ballast. In Linear FL's if the sockets are positioned sideways (as they are in most troffers), the tube can be rotated as for removing it and left in that position in the luminaire without falling out, then thats what i do

I know what you mean about it bugging you seeing fixtures with burned out tubes and not kept up.  There have been times I have been tempted to go ask a store manager if I can fix things for free if they provide the new tubes and ballasts.  But I gotta keep my ADHD under control.

yea today i was working at my store and the store across from me had so many of there fixture were out that i couldn't help myself i went over there and asked if i could fix there lights and they seid sure so i went over to the Canadian tire in the mall and bought 60 F40t12's 87cri so 2 boxes of bulbs for $50 and i replaced ever singe bulb within 30 min and there store looked so good after and i felt relieved after lol
idk if i have something but i get a scene of relief and like a weight has bin lifted idk im weird

Yes, it bothers me a lot to see poorly maintained lighting, especially magnetic fluorescent. I get serious satisfaction when I'm allowed to fix it, too. Once, while helping with the stage lights at a local theater, the urge got so bad that I literally asked the manager if I could relamp the fluorescent lights, and when he said sure, I went to the ReStore down the street, bought lamps with my own money, and installed them. Granted it was only maybe 8-10 lamps total so I didn't have to spend much.

I see stuff like lots of EOL lamps, or multiple 'colors' mixed together, and I think to myself 'that looks like crap'.
But in either case I have no inclination to fix it since its not my lights to worry about.

A couple weekends ago I was in a Lowes store, I noticed that something was messed up with an entire section of their fluorescent/LED display...it was all dim (as if on a dimmer), and would sorta blink once every couple seconds (all the lights together). Some of the fluorescent lamps were either EOL or black on the ends from being way underdriven. My thought was "they are going to kill their lamps & ballasts". I was back in that same store monday, and noticed a more of the lights were out - either all dead lamps or fried ballasts(who knows for sure)...those that were on were still dim & doing the blink thing. I have no idea what that store did to get such 'functionality' out of their lights, but I can only assume the displays are probably on some sorta electronic controller (timer maybe?) and it has failed for that section?

A couple weekends ago I was in a Lowes store, I noticed that something was messed up with an entire section of their fluorescent/LED display...it was all dim (as if on a dimmer), and would sorta blink once every couple seconds (all the lights together). Some of the fluorescent lamps were either EOL or black on the ends from being way underdriven. My thought was "they are going to kill their lamps & ballasts". I was back in that same store monday, and noticed a more of the lights were out - either all dead lamps or fried ballasts(who knows for sure)...those that were on were still dim & doing the blink thing. I have no idea what that store did to get such 'functionality' out of their lights, but I can only assume the displays are probably on some sorta electronic controller (timer maybe?) and it has failed for that section?

Well I would of helped them out, by replacing those EOL florescent with some new BLB tubes that are new right off the shelf, and they would be black from end to end.. I like making store lighting displays pretty..

Well I would of helped them out, by replacing those EOL florescent with some new BLB tubes that are new right off the shelf, and they would be black from end to end.. I like making store lighting displays pretty..

There'd be really no point, since any lamps you put in would also be EOL'ed within a week...until they got whatever is wrong with the thing that is powering the display.
As mentioned in the original post I'd have no inclination to fix EOL lamps, but in this case I would love to know what the issue was.

I also found out something interesting from a Lowes guy: I was looking at some small incandescent fixtures that were on clearance, they only had one left on the shelf, so I found the lighting/electric department guy to ask if they had any more.... they didn't, just the one +the display, he said he couldn't even sell the display unit because those displays are handled by a separate contractor!  (but he was able to check another store which did have some in stock )
I guess that's why those store displays usually have EOL lamps/fixtures, and they don't get fixed for some time.

But I like to make them all pretty,I stuck like 10 of those LED disco color changing bulbs in one store, they are still up and running today and they look nice, unlike some glaring LED burning your eyeballs but now it's colors dancing on the floor... And it could be the timer, or a contact failing or a bad connection, or a bad track connector on the supply side they will fix it when it finally smokes in the store, or maybe the kid who installed it wired things in series..

LOL at the disco LED bulbs. That would look awesome.
And I do admit it would be fun to go fill the fluorescent display full of oddball lamps like Gro-Lux or BLB Think how cool it'd be if stores sold actual colored fluorescents...and you stuck a green in a light! They'd probably sell out of them too. (although the security camera that was watching/recording you wouldn't like it)

I'll probably be back at that Lowes in the next week or 2 so will have to see if they fixed. It wouldn't shock me at all if they end up smoking a ballast or something .lol.

Yep they look great and your right they would more then likely move green and red tubes if they did that, I know I would buy them by the box if the price was realistic, and the camera, well someone has to be watching it and I know they are short on staff because that costs money and for the most part the cameras are only in the power tool section in my homedepot and the staff are always hiding afraid I might ask them something, I guess it helps that I also know most of them by name, and I will show up the odd time with a box of doughnuts or something and wander the isles handing them out, that might also be why I can get discounts from the staff when I ask..   

When I started work at the factory I noticed that in one section of the place all the 2 tube fittings had one tube out and always the same side which was a bit weird it used to bug me but I never did anything about it it was not the sort of place you could say anything

When I started work at the factory I noticed that in one section of the place all the 2 tube fittings had one tube out and always the same side which was a bit weird it used to bug me but I never did anything about it it was not the sort of place you could say anything

Could it be that they disabled the other lamps to save energy. Local telecom office did the same thing in their basement by removing one of starters in each 2-lamp fixture. So every fixture had one lamp out and always the same side.

It doesn`t bother me to see lights out at work, because I`m the one that fixes them anyway! , but it does bother me that no-one reports it!, I have to keep checking myself!
A light/lights can be out for weeks, and they will only say something when it comes winter with its darker nights, and they need them!, then its, "oh by the way, this went out a while ago"