diy solar

diy solar

How can Current Connected improve?

Current connected can improve by answering the phone or at least retuning peoples calls. I will source all my equipment elsewhere thanks.
 
Joes_Going_Solar said:
Current connected can improve by answering the phone or at least retuning peoples calls. I will source all my equipment elsewhere thanks.
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When did you call? We have no missed calls that have not been returned in the last 7 days. On Monday, queue times reached 8-10 minutes, but other than that our average hold time is less than 2 minutes.
 
HighTechLab said:
When did you call? We have no missed calls that have not been returned in the last 7 days. On Monday, queue times reached 8-10 minutes, but other than that our average hold time is less than 2 minutes.
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I called Monday twice, waited on hold until I got the voicemail and left a message on the second call. Then I called again Tuesday and left a message with a rep for a return call, no one called back.
 
Joes_Going_Solar said:
I called Monday twice, waited on hold until I got the voicemail and left a message on the second call. Then I called again Tuesday and left a message with a rep for a return call, no one called back.
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Please DM me your phone number so I can get to the bottom of this.

EDIT: I found it. Jason was the one you spoke with and he was about to call you back yesterday when I pulled him into a meeting at the end of the day. He's calling you back shortly.
 
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ArtieKendall said:
I'll tell you one thing you're doing right --- you don't have an annoying popup every 30 seconds saying "Someone from Bumphuk TX bought a battery 2 days ago."
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That "feature" can actually cost money to add to a website funny enough lol. Tis very annoying on these types of websites.
 
I wish you could make sales and shipping options to Canada easier. I hate it when a website says to call or email for more info. I tried emailing two different times, one reply took days for vague info not answering my request and the second attempt received no reply. I gave up and eventually used Amazon. Also 18650batterystore.com has very good order service for Canada and prompt replies, though still not exactly answering the questions 100%. They also don't carry enough DIY products or tools that you do. But my past frustrating experience with Current Connected to place an order from Canada, gives me pause for trying to order again unless the process and shipping options improve greatly. I also find it frustrating to only have courier option shipping, as that is not an option to much of rural Canada. The nearest courier depot is 150 miles away for me to pick up. The nearest Post Office is 20 miles away.

FWIW, as a customer, I despise PayPal after 2 bad eBay purchases a few years ago and got no resolution for the eBay sellers bait and switch and the PayPal delays and hoops they wanted me to jump through. Will never use PayPal or eBay again.
 
@HighTechLab i don’t have any customer feedback for you…yet
But I do check both yours and Ian’s sites almost daily to see if any new “deals” pop up since you’re both less than a days drive from where I am.
I’ve considered reaching out with some Victron questions but don’t want to be a bother/waste anyone’s time either.

I can say that I am grateful for you and all of the vendors on here as I feel like there’s more transparency than some other industries
 
E. Cho said:
I wish you could make sales and shipping options to Canada easier. I hate it when a website says to call or email for more info. I tried emailing two different times, one reply took days for vague info not answering my request and the second attempt received no reply. I gave up and eventually used Amazon. Also 18650batterystore.com has very good order service for Canada and prompt replies, though still not exactly answering the questions 100%. They also don't carry enough DIY products or tools that you do. But my past frustrating experience with Current Connected to place an order from Canada, gives me pause for trying to order again unless the process and shipping options improve greatly. I also find it frustrating to only have courier option shipping, as that is not an option to much of rural Canada. The nearest courier depot is 150 miles away for me to pick up. The nearest Post Office is 20 miles away.

FWIW, as a customer, I despise PayPal after 2 bad eBay purchases a few years ago and got no resolution for the eBay sellers bait and switch and the PayPal delays and hoops they wanted me to jump through. Will never use PayPal or eBay again.
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As of mid-july, we started actively working on this - Victron, SOK and Sol-Ark are coming to Canada later this month and slowly but surely the other products we carry. We are actively setting up a 3rd-party logistics (3PL) warehouse up in Canada so the products are landed directly from the manufacturers, eliminating the compounding import duties (manufacturer to US and then US to CA) that come from sending them from our US based warehouses.

If you want some products right now, please reach out to us - it often times is as simple as a quick shipping calculation to get an order placed. Less than 5 minutes of your time - we will be very frank in terms of lead times, stock levels and availability. Some stuff may take longer than others to get shipped.

The only trouble is some parts such as our custom-made battery cables won't be available from the Canada warehouse, so it will likely be something you need to source locally.
 
I'd like to start first by saying that I'm not affiliated with current connected, nor have I ordered any of their products. I do periodically browse their website, their kits are really cool, and the one I built was pretty similar to what they sell.

I'm usually super critical of companies, and I'm the first one to talk smack about bad businesses and crappy experiences, even if it's somebody else's experience. I do a lot of reading on this form, and I don't see CC talked about in a bad light, hardly ever.

I've never once said anything ill about Current Connected. Your posts here are professional, very helpful, and you don't engage with petty customer BS.

I read somewhere that something like 90% of feedback is negative, and posted when customers are angry. The fact that you're not getting feedback is absolutely a good thing.

If somebody asked me where to get a reliable source for batteries in the US, I would definitely recommend you.
 
For those of us who want to maximize the useful life of our large investment in batteries, could you publish a protocol for charging and storage? Particularly for batteries that are not in use yet. Thanks
 
HighTechLab said:
As of mid-july, we started actively working on this - Victron, SOK and Sol-Ark are coming to Canada later this month and slowly but surely the other products we carry. We are actively setting up a 3rd-party logistics (3PL) warehouse up in Canada so the products are landed directly from the manufacturers, eliminating the compounding import duties (manufacturer to US and then US to CA) that come from sending them from our US based warehouses.

If you want some products right now, please reach out to us - it often times is as simple as a quick shipping calculation to get an order placed. Less than 5 minutes of your time - we will be very frank in terms of lead times, stock levels and availability. Some stuff may take longer than others to get shipped.

The only trouble is some parts such as our custom-made battery cables won't be available from the Canada warehouse, so it will likely be something you need to source locally.
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This is great news for us Canuck’s! I get the initial landed Import tax in the us, but to be taxed again into canada is plain theft. It’s double taxation.

90% of Canadians live within an hour of the us border, and there are us based parcel services near the border. This is what I used to purchase my sok from current connected. It was a quick and painless process.

I will mildly complain about the 300 or so shipping for the sok. Shipping sok in Canada was only 75 bucks to my house. Usually shipping into/within Canada is way more expensive than the us. Not sure why it’s so much to,ship within us?

with that all being said I’d love to be able to be from current connected and have it ship within Canada.

(Victron and sok are lready in Canada, I had a bad experience with a Canadian company)
 
Nan_wpg said:
I will mildly complain about the 300 or so shipping for the sok.
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Yeah, everyone does, so that's fair. The fact of the matter is the 48v batteries have to go by freight due to their weight, since they are technically Hazmat. If they are shipped normal FedEx / UPS, there is a BIG fine if the shipper gets caught. The batteries also get damaged every time (front panel bashed in). There are threads on this forum about other dealers that tried it. Freight usually costs about 30-50% more than what we charge, but we cover it - we wish we could do "free" shipping, but to do that we would have to raise the price of the battery - one way or another you are paying for it, just one way you don't see that you are paying for it and feel better about it.

We are proud of our immeasurable shipping damage rate and don't plan to change it. When claims are required for shipping damage, everyone looses - half the time the claims get denied because the "product was insufficiently packaged"...I'd rather have someone work full time packaging stuff very well rather than working full time to handle shipping claims and dealing with angry customers.

Ah yes, and that Canadian company selling SOK...we get complains about them all the time. They don't get them through us so we have zero control over what they do.
 
HighTechLab said:
Yeah, everyone does, so that's fair. The fact of the matter is the 48v batteries have to go by freight due to their weight, since they are technically Hazmat. If they are shipped normal FedEx / UPS, there is a BIG fine if the shipper gets caught. The batteries also get damaged every time (front panel bashed in). There are threads on this forum about other dealers that tried it. Freight usually costs about 30-50% more than what we charge, but we cover it - we wish we could do "free" shipping, but to do that we would have to raise the price of the battery - one way or another you are paying for it, just one way you don't see that you are paying for it and feel better about it.

We are proud of our immeasurable shipping damage rate and don't plan to change it. When claims are required for shipping damage, everyone looses - half the time the claims get denied because the "product was insufficiently packaged"...I'd rather have someone work full time packaging stuff very well rather than working full time to handle shipping claims and dealing with angry customers.

Ah yes, and that Canadian company selling SOK...we get complains about them all the time. They don't get them through us so we have zero control over what they do.
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It,wasn’t,so much the 300 charge, it was “why is it higher than Canada?” But having dealt with the Canadian company I have to wonder.

very happy to,have bought my sok from you guys.

any word on the warmer for the rack battery?
 
HighTechLab said:
The fact of the matter is the 48v batteries have to go by freight due to their weight, since they are technically Hazmat.
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I can understand why 100-pound batteries full of hazmat are expensive to ship. But why does a $14, 4-ounce USB cable cost $10 to ship?
 
rhino said:
Have you checked shipping costs recently? Even flat rate padded envelope costs over $9 shipped via USPS.
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I had no idea. I'm old enough to remember when first class was four cents, and it was even three cents when I was born. And I guess Amazon and Home Depot have spoiled me. I'm almost embarrassed to order stuff from HD, because even when I put it all in the same order, they often ship it separately. The other day a UPS van pulled up to deliver a little packet of wire nuts. For free.
 
With the recent UPS pay increase companies may need to pass on more costs to the customer.
 
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