I am trying to buy from Northern Lights at the moment.. well, almost at the point of demanding my money back. Don't give them any of your money!!!!
I bought a 500W dual spectrum light from them 2 MONTHS ago and have yet to get the light. Apparently stuff was backordered and they didn't bother to tell me till I called and asked. They promised it was shipping that week, but that was 1 MONTH ago and I still don't have it! Plus, the shipping company has no record of any package shipped from their zip code to mine. Now they won't return my phone calls! I am 1 wk away from going to the BBB of Central Indiana, where NorthernLights already has an "unsatisfactory rating due to unanswered complaints". Wish I had looked that up before giving them almost $300 of my money.

Put it in writing, with a deadline, that you want your product or your money back. Then kick it up to the credit card company if you get neither.

shrubs_n_bulbs, thanks for the advice. Unfortunately, northernlights only takes American Express, so I used a check. For this naive move on my part, I guess I get to kick it up to small claims court if a BBB (Better Business Bureau - do they have that in the UK?) warning does not get their attention. I'm a poor grad student who just wanted to grow cacti - I will fight, legally and exhaustively, for my $281.
My next step is to put it in writing, like you suggested.

Anyone else with advice is welcome to give it!:)

Good luck. I'm just getting out my lights this week to get a few cacti through the winter blues.

Thanks for the info- I'll be looking elsewhere. Good luck- I hope you get your money back. (I was a little wary because they don't have an address anywhere on thier website) My suspensions were confirmed.

Just an update... I almost couldn't believe it even when I saw it sitting on my porch, but I recieved the light I ordered, 2+months after I ordered it and 4 days after mailing a legalese letter demanding my money back. I think they shipped the light before they got the letter, though. The light seems to work so far.
I still wouldn't recommend anyone buy from them - it took over 2 months for me to get a light from them when they initially promised 2-3 weeks, and even though backorders/mistakes happen sometimes, not once did they call to tell me about delays (once they did return a phone call, but that's it). They also failed to return any phone calls the whole last 5 weeks, forcing me to start thinking about legal proceedings. It's really unacceptable.