I was wondering when this exact post would appear. It makes me wonder if there is not some business handbook out there with a chapter on playing the victim in order to silence your critics. I have seen Reef Aquarium companies, Ham Radio Companies and a Video Game makers make this exact same kind of posts about being the Victim who is selfishly trying to help people by offering fantastic support for their customers and yet they have been bashed by a small group of misfits that seem to hate them. BTW it typically ends with them saying they will no longer offer support on the forum, but I guess James is not giving up the free Targeted Advertising.
Signature Solar and EG4 both offer great customer service in my opinion. I've personally called dozens, if not hundreds of other solar suppliers during my time here for a number of reasons. That is, if they even offer phone support at all.
You do know there are a Ton of posts to the contrary but hey as you say, that is your opinion.
Can you name some of these places that offer no support at all? It's pretty hard to be a US company and not have some sort of support system. I have dealt with EcoDirect and they are excellent.
Lets be honest, pretty much anyone here can tell you that 99.9% of solar suppliers don't even offer consumer support
Rubbish! My first choice for Solar was SMA and I was calling their CS twice a day for two weeks. I always reached someone on the first call and when they said they would email me files they arrived on my PC before the call was even finished. I give them an A+ for support and a D+ for giving out accurate information
My Second Choice was Outback and I had Zero problems reaching their customer support. They were very knowledgeable and friendly but it was clear that for the price vs Features I needed to talk to Sol-Ark also.
Sol-Ark was my final pick and I honestly do not think you even want to start comparing Sol-Ark customer service with Signature Solar. It would be like comparing the American Moon Landing to the Soviet Moon Landing.
- and you are lucky if they will talk to your installer. When they do offer any support, its almost always an email system (trust me, I've sent more emails than probably most on this forum to solar suppliers in the industry). It's only when I attach my relationship with SS or EG4 that I hear a response at all in 90% of the cases.
Which one's I have never had that experience except when dealing with Chinese companies that setup a store front in the USA.
The issues people report on this forum are not limited to Signature Solar - but the fact remains that we are one of the very few companies who help and respond. That's a big reason we see a large influx of posts for SS - because people know they actually will get a response here.
And there is your Dilemma. I warned James that offering Customer Support on a Public Forum is a risky business that is why most smart companies stay away from doing it.
Of course there is the huge advantage of going to where the money is and getting your name and products seen everyday, but the downside is that your dirty laundry is on full display for the public. So if this post is supposed to try and get rid of the negatives while you keep taking advantage of the positives, it will probably not work.
I don't know how many customers I've talked to with other systems who simply gave up because they can't even get a response at all. Just this morning I went out to a third party install (this was not done in my official capacity at all, this was a friend who had a system from prior to my joining of SS) and helped them fix the issue. It was a different system, but lots of the same menu items etc if you know what I mean. Anyways, they had reached out to their installer (who surprisingly didn't respond at all) and then to the place where they had purchased the equipment (again - no response) before finally asking me if I'd try and take a look.
So your old time friend has an LV6548 and called you for some help and you went out and helped your friend program his menu items and this is significant how? I don't know about you, but helping my friends and family with problems is a daily thing for me. As for the Installer, they are always hard to reach.
There are a number of users, on this forum specifically I've noticed, who go out of their way to target any post with SS or EG4 in them and rehash the same old issues again and again, not helping the original poster with their issue, simply chiming in about their terrible experience with Signature Solar.
Rehashing of the same old issues is typically a sign that the issue has not been fixed. Nobody would be bringing up error 61 if there was a solution that worked. In my own personal dealings, on at least three occasions I asked you for some information on fixing issues and you said yes I am going to look into that and get back to you on Monday. In every one of those cases the day passed, the weeks passed and then when I reminded you and it was another wait as the months passed and the I eventually gave up. Remember the last question, Richard. How do you set the Clock and Date on the EG4LL.
I'm not here to say everyone has had the best experience with SS or EG4 - trust me, I have seen and fixed a number of issues since I've been here - but these people are not helping the community at all and simply make it harder for others like me who are trying to help get the information I need to do so. These people are making it MORE DIFFICULT for other users to get support and help to their issues.
As I said Richard I get the Play your making. You want the Benefits without the downsides.
Richard you do an excellent Job with communication. The problem is that you rarely follow through when it comes to technical solutions. You can get James to refund people money sometimes but what is really needed is someone with electronic engineering experience.
I've turned more 1 star reviews into 5 stars simply by listening and going out of my way to find a creative solution. In some cases, I've simply explained why the person was in the wrong and what they can do in the future to avoid the problem.
Yes you have and in other cases you have delayed an answer until the person got frustrated.
One thing I've consistently noticed though, is the fact that every issue on this forum, as soon as it has SS attached to it, seems to garner pages of responses from the same people over and over, meanwhile, posts with the exact same issues on other products and distributors seem to be completely ignored.
The only Distributors that have products like yours that are sometimes on the forum are Ian from Watts247 who sells the original MPP equipment that has given people almost zero problems. His customer service track record is impeccable. Unlike SS he can actually give customers instant answers because he knows the products he sells. Ian has Engineering expertise.
Then we have Dexter who competes with you in the Battery Area. He is also here constantly dealing with customers. He put in the work before he started selling his batteries to make sure it had Com capability with the popular Inverters. You guys seem to sell the product first and then try to figure out how it works afterwards.