If I get the resolution I'm looking for, I will delete this post. Currently the Victron sales rep for our region and our distributor are gaslighting us.
My Victron MPPT stopped working properly about one year ago. This reflected as a battery bank that could not charge to 100%. I didn't know what was going on, so I contacted the distributor we bought it from. Mind you we spent about $15,000 with their company. They looked at our VRM and said our system looked fine. The problem was not resolved.
We reached out again this year, and were given suggestions like, "your panels must be dirty." This is a distributor who has threatened to not honor warranties in the past for reasons that were never communicated prior to purchase. The purchase was in two installments, and there were about two months in between each installment. If they had simply forgotten to mention their conditions prior to the first installment, then they had about two months in which to start practicing transparency with us. They did not. Instead we received a message saying that our order was taking up too much space in their warehouse, and they demanded prompt payment.
Some retroactive conditions we received in the form of threats to not honor our warranties due to various, seemingly whimsical, creative reasons such as:
1) For not hiring a "qualified" installer (i.e. someone from their list).
We actually tried to hire the guy they recommended, despite not sounding very confident, but then he actually moved to another area of the country for work, and he was no longer available. Probably for the better as that guy admitted not having any experience with the kinds of batteries we bought. How's that for qualified? At that point the distributor basically said, either pay one of us to come out there (opposite side of the country) and do it or we will not honor your warranties. They wanted roundtrip travel expenses, room & board, and of course a nice cushy stipend to support their capital city lifestyle. That would involve an hour flight, a three hour drive, and a twenty minute hike to get here. Naturally we opted to look for our own installer closer to us.
2) For wanting to purchase a MK3-USB cable.
This one's my favorite. One of the only things they promised in writing was to include an installation diagram with the "plug and play" system they sold us. About four months after we received the shipment I told them, "hey where's the installation diagram like you promised?" They hastily put together a diagram that was riddled with errors. I pointed the errors out to their electrical engineer and he had the document corrected. Naturally I started doubting their competence and wanted to make sure they had setup the parameters on the Multiplus inverter correctly according to the Victron-Pylontech compatibility document prior to installation. So, I requested they sell me an MK3-USB cable. They replied that they had it in stock, but that if I were to purchase the cable then they would no longer honor my warranties.
3) For purchasing a battery diagnostic cable.
Similar to the above. When I noticed the batteries no longer charging to 100% I naturally wanted to connect a laptop diagnostic cable to see what the cells were reporting. Again the distributor said I could pay $47 plus shipping for the cable, but then they would no longer honor my warranties. Instead they wanted me to ship to the capital to their shop on the other side of the country where they were going to hook up the same cable. Guess who had to pay for roundtrip shipping for that 70lb battery? The battery was finally returned after two months from the date of shipment to them. There was no padding other than two layers of cardboard. Luckily the thing was OK. Distributor says they found cobwebs inside the unit and that was the reason. I think their heads are full of cobwebs.
Here's why:
A very smart engineer with experience in Victron (a prominent member of this forum and Victron Community) helped me out of the goodness of their heart, when I could not get any competent help from the distributor. He successfully diagnosed the problem over the phone. It was the MPPT. He figured out a workaround and actually got our batteries to charge to 100% for the first time in about one year. No thanks to the distributor whatsoever. I had another battery that I did not send to the distributor that was also producing errors. Once the helpful engineer taught me the workaround for the charge controller, the battery with errors stopped producing any errors. It didn't require removal of cobwebs.
The distributor's electrical engineer admitted in whatsapp chat that they had successfully charged my battery in their shop to 100% multiple times without any errors or alarms prior to cleaning out the cobwebs, but they still listed cobwebs in their service report as the reason the battery was not charging to 100%.
I responded to the CEO of Victron on the thread started by the helpful engineer over at the Victron Community forum raising my concerns about pursuing warranty service with my distributor.
Apparently he had his sales rep reach out to me. The guy seems to be buddy-buddy with the distributor, and they seem to be insinuating that I somehow caused this glitch with the charge controller. His latest email insisted I pay out-of-pocket to the original distributor for a new unit and they will bring the new controller to me, install it, with the condition that "he can review [my] system, configuration and take pictures if required to make sure all is properly done. If any improvements are suggested, can decided how to proceed."
Righhtt. So give these excuse makers the chance to come up with more excuses not to honor the warranty. I can just imagine, "oh this battery is too close to the window. Oh we saw a spider in the bathroom and the installation is close to the bathroom, there should be loose wire instead of ferrules, let's get the ladder and check the panels on the roof, let's open the string box and make sure the fuses are still working, let's pull on some wires with all our strength to see if we can argue that they're not secured properly, oh these wires are not properly concealed and look unsightly, ahah! there's some cobwebs touching the charge controller. Sorry charlie, here's how much our roundtrip airfare cost and here's your new charge controller, we'll take the old one to our shop and decide not to follow the Pre-RMA bench test instructions, but will definitely tell our buddy buddy victron sales rep that we followed them and that the unit is OK, but you just need to clean your house better. Then we'll make you pay return shipping for your faulty unit and also charge you a service fee for not following the Pre-RMA bench test instructions. If you don't like it, then we can also sue you for defamation. Hasta la vista, Gringo!"
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Just some food for thought if you're considering purchasing Victron components. I'm sure a lot has to do with the poor quality of distributors here, and the unfortunate sales rep of this region, but one year is too long to have to fight to receive warranty replacement.
What am I proposing that's so difficult to fulfill, you ask? I just wanted to purchase a new unit out of pocket, send the old unit to a competent distributor and then receive reimbursement when they actually follow page 24 of the Pre-RMA bench test instructions. No games, no BS. But apparently it's asking too much. The original idea Victron had was that I would just disconnect my MPPT and ship it to a distributor and they would determine the error that we've already determined here thanks to our helpful resident engineer. Then they would figure out how to get a new unit and ship it here. Hopefully that would take less than two months. Honestly though, I'm thinking I might rather be without electricity for two months than continue dealing with Victron staff and Peruvian distributors to come up with a slightly better solution. Did I mention we live outside a village of less than 100 people and it's a twenty minute walk along a steep muddy trail to get to our place? Pretty off-grid. Maybe we can go stay with our friends in the village and share some dirt floor space with their seven kids while we wait until the next decade for a replacement unit.
