AEL stands for American Electric Lighting.

Here is how to contact them the formal way http://www.acuitybrands.com/about-us/contact-us and the informal way    vern.nagel@acuitybrands.com (yep that is the CEO's email address, emails have to be professional and they will be dealt with swiftly) I emailed the CEO of Philips and it took all of one week to get updates on there website and someone from Philips to personally call me and address my questions..

I already contacted them directly, and they wanted me to go through a distributor.

I already contacted them directly, and they wanted me to go through a distributor.

If the distributor is trying to do you a favor like better pricing work with them but I would be upfront and ask them that, and if they are just treating you like joe-diy and trying to avoid you, that email address above, and I'll really stress this, a professional email stating only the facts, not emotions, or four letter words, will get the distributor to deal with you, pretty quick, the last thing he want's to hear is someone is turning away a customer, it's not like your trying to buy a highly restricted item like a centrifuge to enrich your own uranium, it's a street light..

And just so everyone knows, this is his public email address, not that it's super easy to find but the US securities and exchange commission (sec.gov) will release it if you ask them for it. So it will be a surprise to him if he gets an email from a potential customer, and he'll just tell someone to deal with it and what he says goes without questions from the 11,800 people below him.     

I just scavenge things tbh... Lol I, d just keep an eye on their dumpster, I'm sure something would pop up eventually yes they likely have "codes" on disposal but peeps don't always follow these, case and point: my summer job, I literally tossed hundreds of miligrams of mercury in a dumpster on school grounds, that was labeled "non toxic waste" just because they did not want to take the time to recycle them properly. The tubes were burnt out and pretty well useless as far as I was concerned, I did not argue I just played darts.

You sure it wasn't "electricians" license? 

You sure it wasn't "electricians" license? 

I would see that as way more plausible thing.
Or a license allowing you to design and specify an electrical installation (so specify what cable to run from where to where, what circuit breaker to use, on a new project,...). But this license alone won't allow you to actually do the installation work and maintenance anyway, it allows you to just "draw the blueprints"...

Need either of the licenses to buy the luminaires ? Not plausible at all

Need either of the licenses to buy the luminaires ? Not plausible at all

I'm with Ash on this one, I know several engineers and they aren't the type to go to a store and pick something up they could sent a grunt to go get for them and deliver to there desk while they have someone else bring them coffee..

Medved, you don't need to be an engineer to draw blueprints, I draw on them all the time and add parts to a BBQs in the drawing just to frustrate the engineers ( but it does help to be an engineer to draw them, and if the engineer is nice to the installers they are also nice in return and they don't add things to the blueprints )

Just wondering, what was your outcome on this? I know you were finally able to order one, did you just "put up a fight" until they sold you one?

Just wondering, what was your outcome on this? I know you were finally able to order one, did you just "put up a fight" until they sold you one?

I ended up going to loads of different electrical suppliers and none of them knew how to get a price, so I contacted AEL and I found a good supplier.

It's really annoying how you need a license for everything nowadays.    Maybe because electricians have to idiot-proof everything nowadays.