Do not buy Sylvania
I have over one hundred light bulbs in my house. I have replaced about 90 of the incandescent bulbs with CFLs. I started about 3 years ago and bought some off brand and GE bulbs. About a year and a half ago I started buying the Sylvania bulbs. Within a couple of months, a bulb burned out. It was a Sylvania. I figured out of 90, one failure could be expected. A month or so later, a second one burned out. It too was a Sylvania. After a year and a half, I have had over 15 of the original 45-50 Sylvaina bulbs burn out. The ones I put in 3 years ago from various other manufacturers are all still going strong. People have said it depends on where the bulbs are installed but the bulbs that have burned out in my home were in ceiling fans, bathrooms fixtures, table lamps, and floor lamps. They were in all types of rooms so there was not a consistent source of the problems.

I went to the hardwar store where I purchased most of the bulbs to see what I could do about replacing the faulty ones and they told me to contact the manufacturer. After contacting Sylvania, they commented that they would replace the bulbs only if I could produce a copy of the original receipt. I did not have one so I was out of luck. In addition to the ones that quit working, I have now had two of the Sylvania bulbs burn out and spew smoke throughout the rooms they were in. One in a ceiling fan and the other in a bathroom.

I am a believer in reducing energy consumption and think that the CFLs have a place but I will never buy another Sylvania bulb. Check out other brands before using these, the failure rate is just way too high. Oh yeah, keep your receipts.

Pathetic lifespan
I bought this item a year ago and have used the bulbs in some bathroom fixtures since then. So far, 4 out of 12 have failed. That is just unacceptable. The packaging claims a 10,000 hour life span, but these never made it to 800. The fixtures are quite open and well ventilated, so I figured this would be a good application for CFLs. Of course, there is a guarantee. Just package them up with the receipt and send them to the manufacturer AT YOUR EXPENSE. Never mind the fact that you will pay more for shipping than the cost of replacing the bulbs. Having purchased many CFLs over the past few years, I have learned (and read) that there is a lot of variation in quality. Don't waste your money here. Buy some decent components, Sylvania!

Saving what exactly?
These "swell" Al Gore CFL bulbs are a questionable purchase, whether they will be mandated in the future or not. What is the payoff time that one would have to use these things to realize a savings over the tried and true regular old incandescent bulb? Also, is the premium price paid for these bulbs going somewhere to mitigate their environmental hazard when they are disposed of? They do contain evil old Mercury ya know.
Also, who is setting up a healthcare program for the little fellahs in China and other third world countrys whose labor produces these bulbs? Oh, you haven't heard about the negative health affects on the assemblers of the bulbs? You should learn to read. I suggest getting an incandescent bulb to light up your computer room and doing a bit of research on this proud product of the mind numbed moronic syncophants of the environmental movement.
I also suggest stocking up on good ole regular incandescents to use when they become like freon. Priced a can of "real" freon lately? A person could have gotten quite wealthy had he purchased large lots of Freon back in the 80s simply by selling that fantastic product on todays market.
If you have bought into the CFL craze, when the bulbs fail one might suggest placing them in a weighted box and depositing same into whatever source supplies Al Gores water supply. Drink hearty Al!! You Putz!

Don't last as advertised
I have had 12 of these bulbs installed in various locations in my house for less than 8 months and 3 have already failed. The packaging claims they will last 9 years average......not even close! Also,although not a big issue, is that they take a minute or so to "warm up" and get to full brightness...even longer in a cold location such as a porch or pole barn. Then of course there is the disposal issue, I have returned mine to Sylvania but I wonder how many people will simply throw them in the trash.

Dissapointed with Sylvania Quality control
I bought a 2-pack of Sylvania Candelabra base CF at Lowes. One bulb was bad. I took them back and bought two 2-packs. From these 4 bulbs, one of them was bad. I then bought a 3-pack of Standard base Sylvania CF bulbs at Home Depot. One of these three bulbs was bad.

I was reluctant to purchase the no-name brands but it is apparent that the Sylvania brand is a piece of crap. Another gotch is that if you buy a multi-pak and one is bad you have to return all the bulbs. If you buy them in single packs you pay a lot more.

I'd stay away from Sylvanias until they do something about their QC.