In February of last year, I purchased a CREE 3-way LED bulb for my mothers bedside table lamp.  It worked great and provided great light output.  Then not too long ago, I looked in the light bulb cabinet in the laundry room and found the bulb sitting in there.  Asking my mother, she stated it stopped working a few months ago and she put back in the old 3-way CFL that I had taken out because of long warm-up times.  Well phooey!  I just sent CREE a message to see if they will warranty this bulb, but in reading reviews online, it seems that the CREE brand has a high failure rate among their LED bulbs.  What a shame.  Lesson learned.  I will stick to the major brands, GE, Philips, and maybe FEIT & Sylvania.  

http://www.lighting-gallery.net/gallery/displayimage.php?album=lastcom&cat=11240&pos=13&pid=117207

well on the plus side they do have a ten year warranty, if you have the proof of purchase just take it back  to the store and let them sort it out, honestly I have better luck doing this then taking it up with the manufacturer, if you think cree will listen to a single customer good luck, but they will listen to home depot pretty quick... 

And your right some of the reviews are pretty brutal, just looking on homedepot.com there is more 1 star then any other star review..

They responded to my inquiry and are going to mail me a new one.  Glad they will do that!