When my electrician hung a new 12 light chandelier, one bulb did not light up. We tested with other bulbs, etc., and it appeared that the socket at the end of one chandelier arm was a dud.

The company I bought it from sent out a whole new light. Is there any way for a homeowner to test a chandelier to make sure all the light sockets work before paying another electrician to hang it?

I saw a youtube video of a man testing a ceiling fan light unit before installation. He does not say what he is using, but he appeared to plug a meter into an wall electrical outlet and connected it to black/white wires on the ceiling fan unit. He was sitting down in a chair while doing this.

Any suggestions?

 

You could wire a lamp cord to the wires at the chandelier and plug it in the wall, just make sure the connections are wire nutted or taped.

 

Using an ohmmeter, you should have continuity between the white wire and each of the sockets, but not with any of the center tabs, and you should have continuity between the black wire and each of the center tabs, but not with the sockets.

 

If the chandelier has the basic black white-green/copper wires, yes, it's simple.

Yes, as noted above, you either hook up a temporary cord, or you could use a meter to check that all the wiring is connected. A lamp cord and 25 pack of mixed size wire nuts should be around $10 at the local hardware store / big box store.
Lamp cord has hot wire (aka "black" with narrow prong and textured / line on wire) and return wire ("white" wide prong and plain side of wire) but no ground (green).
Hot wire from cord is connected to black wire on light by twisting the hot and black wires together and usign a wire nut; return wire is connected to white in the same way.
Plug it in, and all the lights should work. If you reverse them, the light will still work, but you may get a shock if you touch the metal portions of the chandelier.

I've you've already paid the electrician for installing the prior chandelier (installing the box that holds the weight, running the wiring) and you've got black-white-green wires sticking out of the box, then I'd consider that as an entry level diy project, you're just lifting the chandalier up, hooking up the wires, and connecting a few screws.

Do you still have the old one? Tracking down and repairing the bad socket might be a good entry level DIY project for a snowy day.