It is an attack on the customer. The customer isn't bound by any agreement between Sol-Ark and Deye.
^
This is the part I think is most relevant to all the commentary in this thread. I know we all have strong opinions, especially when it comes to privacy, control, etc. I certainly do. We also likely have preferences for certain equipment. I don't think anyone's attacking people who are using Sol-Arks. You may have had it for awhile, long before any of this surfaced and before other options came to market.
What's prompting a lot of the back and forth -- from my perspective -- is that some of the responses are absent any obvious compassion for the people who do not have power and depend on these inverters. Whether they took the risk knowingly and purchased on the 'gray' market or not, completely disabling what could be a person's or family's only source of power is absolutely immoral. Full stop. If you're without power, I doubt you give a rat's ass about contracts, exclusive distribution rights, so on.
I purchased inverters from China (OEM versions of rebadged equipment available in the US, but cheaper, even with shipping). I did that knowing they may not last as long as other inverters and minimal expectation of any support. While I don't expect everyone to be as informed or 'in to' the tech or solar as a hobby, etc. I do expect the inverters to continue to run just as those impacted likely did theirs.
While it could be viewed as mildly commendable that Sol-Ark is offering this discount, I can't imagine why anyone would want to continue using the very same equipment with different badging that likely could suffer the same fate.
Open invitation to anyone here that is impacted, whether you've posted or are just following along, to PM me. I'm happy to give some pointers to alternative solutions, etc. if you're interested, once I know how you're set up.
And to be clear, I want nothing more than to help those impacted.