How can Current Connected improve?

[Stockmonkee]

I recently purchased a complete Victron system with SOK batteries from Current Connected. I called on a Friday one hour before closing and Jason answered the phone. Even though it was right before closing prior to the weekend, he spent the entire hour helping me design the system.

I also asked him to delay the delivery one week because of all the storms in California that we had and that my property was flooded. He said sure no problem. Now that’s outstanding customer service. The system was delivered by FedEx right on time.

I also agree the website should be modernized a bit. It works fine but kind of plain looking.

One last thing, your phone hours are quite short 9am-4pm Mon-Friday. It’s probably due to short staffing possibly but maybe 8am-6pm or even just 9am-5pm would give your customers just a little more time to reach you.

Other than that thanks for the great customer service!

 

[ArtieKendall]

I'm just starting so I haven't ordered anything yet, but one thing I find very annoying about your website is that every time I go to a new page, it tries to start downloading something. It's great that you make docs available for download, but not when you push them without asking. I'm using the Firefox browser if that makes a difference.

 

[HighTechLab]

I'm just starting so I haven't ordered anything yet, but one thing I find very annoying about your website is that every time I go to a new page, it tries to start downloading something. It's great that you make docs available for download, but not when you push them without asking. I'm using the Firefox browser if that makes a difference.

I have been unaware of this issue and will get it fixed immediately. Someone also just DM'd me about it too, so I'm getting to the bottom of this ASAP.

 

[Mattb4]

No one ever gives us feedback on here...it's a blessing and a curse.

I'm taking the chance to take feedback constructively before it becomes destructive like other vendors on this forum.

Some things we are already working on:

• Hiring and training more technical support staff to spread the load of technical sales & support calls
• Dedicated web developer to improve UI and website experience.
• More complete catalog including Ironridge, Unirac, Tigo, multiple panel options and electrical panels, circuit breakers and wiring components so we can better offer complete solutions not just a majority of the solution.

What do you like and what can we do better?

Took a look at your commerce site last evening for the first time. Your product lineup appears to be reasonable though limited and as you mention you are in the process of expanding that. The few times I have seen your company mentioned here on the Forum it has all been fairly positive.

That is all the feedback I can think of based on my limited experience. Oh it strikes me you might look into outreach to folks leaving the military for a candidate pool. There is a lot of young men/women that have good technical training and often a great work ethic that would be a source. Thinking back to when I left the Navy as a Nuclear trained and qualified enlisted person I would have given serious considerations to a job offer.

 

[KITROBASKIN]

Now that it appears Current Connected has hired someone to improve the website, consider a method that will not waste potential customer’s time spent looking at products that are out of stock. Some websites have a filter to show only items in stock.

If a product will likely not be carried anymore (or for a long time), please remove the listing. A reasonably accurate explanation when an out of stock item might be available again would further improve the customer experience.

Ideally someone using your website will feel good about the experience as opposed to the need to tolerate having some of their time wasted. Consider inserting more information that will help less experienced viewers, in addition to consistent (between similar products) relatively detailed specifications (which you already do for the most part). The charge controller/shunt setting recommendations for your batteries that you provide are excellent.

It just seems smart for Current Connected not attempting to have so much variety in their stock. Sell the good stuff, meeting a couple different price levels, and have your sales/support people knowledgeable or can ask someone on staff instead of trying to fake it.

 

[HRTKD]

None of your switches can be used in a 48 volt system, as near as I can tell.

No breakers that I can (quickly) find.

No Class T fuses or fuse holders.

 

[Adam De Lay]

Would be nice if the the mobile website had the search feature just like the desktop version.

 

[Alkaline]

You might want to ditch woocommerce and wordpress. When I was working at the data center in Carrier 1 the number 1 most hacked platform there was wordpress. In fact wordpress sites accounting for 90% of all hacked sites online, just google search it: https://cyberforces.com/en/wordpress-most-hacked-cms.

Almost every day we would had somone calling and crying their whole life is ruined because the mysql data is now encrypted and they have to pay ransome ware or some other story. Our response: We only manage the servers not the software on the servers.

IMHO woocommerce + wordpress Really bad stuff.

 

[RSahan]

You might want to ditch woocommerce and wordpress. When I was working at the data center in Carrier 1 the number 1 most hacked platform there was wordpress. In fact wordpress sites accounting for 90% of all hacked sites online, just google search it: https://cyberforces.com/en/wordpress-most-hacked-cms.

Almost every day we would had somone calling and crying their whole life is ruined because the mysql data is now encrypted and they have to pay ransome ware or some other story. Our response: We only manage the servers not the software on the servers.

IMHO woocommerce + wordpress Really bad stuff.

Agreed. Shopify should be the easiest way to go

 

[TorC]

You might consider trying for the harder to find heavy duty power lugs, and in some of the less common arrangements. Perhaps for typical solar applications a flared starter lug is sufficient, but I decided to go with all heavy power lugs for my system. Harder to find ones I ended up needing: 4/0 right angle 3/8" stud; 4/0 straight 1/4" stud; 4/0 straight 5/16" stud, #2 right angle 1/4" stud.

I'd had lugs from you in my cart until I decided to go power lugs and went elsewhere, also for the need for 1/4" stud 4/0.

 

[HighTechLab]

You might want to ditch woocommerce and wordpress.

We've got a multi-tier off-site backup in multiple locations. At most we would loose 10 minutes of data, but most likely far less. I fire up dev sites from a backup of the main site on a regular basis...that part of things is rock solid because I share the same concern. The biggest vulnerabilities in wordpress are out-of-date plugins - I stay on top of those like a fly on ... yeah. We're not going to arbitrarily throw away the hundreds of hours developing our theme from scratch to our exact needs and create a mess of our orders database.

Would be nice if the the mobile website had the search feature just like the desktop version.

yaknow, that stupid search box is killer. Not playing fair in any way...but it's on my to-do list for this revision cycle of the theme.

No breakers that I can (quickly) find.

No Class T fuses or fuse holders.

Soon! Very soon! Now that the t-class fuse shortage has calmed down.

You might consider trying for the harder to find heavy duty power lugs, and in some of the less common arrangements. Perhaps for typical solar applications a flared starter lug is sufficient, but I decided to go with all heavy power lugs for my system. Harder to find ones I ended up needing: 4/0 right angle 3/8" stud; 4/0 straight 1/4" stud; 4/0 straight 5/16" stud, #2 right angle 1/4" stud.

I'd had lugs from you in my cart until I decided to go power lugs and went elsewhere, also for the need for 1/4" stud 4/0.

We just added 1/2" lugs in 2AWG - 4/0 and 1/4" lugs in 6AWG - 1/0. None of our suppliers have UL listed 1/4" lugs in 4/0 and I'm starting to think it's because you can't carry the ampacity of 4/0 through the limited clamping force of a 1/4" stud. Right angle lugs on the other hand...that's a good idea. I also want to carry the TEMCO crimping tools, however, they were only interested in giving us something along the lines of a $10 off coupon as a distributor buying in bulk...I get them cheaper buying on Amazon with our credit card rewards points at that rate...pretty disappointing response from them.

 

[jmjack]

No one ever gives us feedback on here...it's a blessing and a curse.

I'm taking the chance to take feedback constructively before it becomes destructive like other vendors on this forum.

Some things we are already working on:

• Hiring and training more technical support staff to spread the load of technical sales & support calls
• Dedicated web developer to improve UI and website experience.
• More complete catalog including Ironridge, Unirac, Tigo, multiple panel options and electrical panels, circuit breakers and wiring components so we can better offer complete solutions not just a majority of the solution.

What do you like and what can we do better?

I have only purchased bus bars from you and the turn around time was great. Being in east Texas, the only thing I can suggest is add a warehouse in Texas to accommodate cheaper shipping and/or in person pickups for us Texans!

 

[jcbarr23]

The biggest vulnerabilities in wordpress are out-of-date plugins - I stay on top of those like a fly on ...

IMHO, the biggest WP vulnerability is anyone can create one and password mgmt is awful. Saying "WP is most hacked" without context of how many WP sites there are in the world (and who is running those sites) is PR masquerading as useful info. I seriously doubt properly-secured WP sites are hacked any worse than others.

 

[Alkaline]

We've got a multi-tier off-site backup in multiple locations. At most we would loose 10 minutes of data, but most likely far less. I fire up dev sites from a backup of the main site on a regular basis...that part of things is rock solid because I share the same concern. The biggest vulnerabilities in wordpress are out-of-date plugins - I stay on top of those like a fly on ... yeah. We're not going to arbitrarily throw away the hundreds of hours developing our theme from scratch to our exact needs and create a mess of our orders database.

Well good luck to you, most hacks are not from known vulnerabilities, by the time they are discovered new ones have taken there place are in the hands of attackers, woocommerce is targetted the most by far...

Woocommerce is not PCI-DSS compliant: https://woocommerce.com/document/pci-dss-compliance-and-woocommerce/ so basically if card data gets hacked or your checkout is compromised you'll be on the hook for all the fraudulent charges, not to mention the fall out that will happen with rates with your merchant (I have seen as high as 9% after a breach that is if any card vendor would even work with you..)

I don't want to be a negative nancy but I have seen this type of hack destroy and bankrupt a business many times, so best of luck to you. Should you decide to go another route: https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/ has a list of complaint software.

 

[Alkaline]

IMHO, the biggest WP vulnerability is anyone can create one and password mgmt is awful. Saying "WP is most hacked" without context of how many WP sites there are in the world (and who is running those sites) is PR masquerading as useful info. I seriously doubt properly-secured WP sites are hacked any worse than others.

wordpress mos thacked platform - Google Search

• WordPress – 95.6%
• Joomla – 2.03%
• Drupal – 0.83 %
• Magento – 0.71%
• OpenCart – 0.35%

 

[HighTechLab]

I feel that your suggested approach of starting again from scratch is highly impractical.

if card data gets hacked or your checkout is compromised you'll be on the hook for all the fraudulent charges

Credit card data is not stored in any of our databases, it's all processed through Stripe (3rd party processor). Stripe has extremely bulletproof security and has a whole myriad of fraud prevention measures - which is why we and millions of other businesses choose them.

Sony Music, Playstation Blog, TechCrunch, Meta Newsroom, Time Magazine, CNN Press Room, Disney Books, The Rolling Stones, and Spotify Newsroom are some examples of multi-billion dollar companies that are based on Wordpress. If WP were that susceptible to hacking, I might think one of them would have made the news by now.

@jcbarr23 well said!

 

[TorC]

We just added 1/2" lugs in 2AWG - 4/0 and 1/4" lugs in 6AWG - 1/0. None of our suppliers have UL listed 1/4" lugs in 4/0 and I'm starting to think it's because you can't carry the ampacity of 4/0 through the limited clamping force of a 1/4" stud. Right angle lugs on the other hand...that's a good idea. I also want to carry the TEMCO crimping tools, however, they were only interested in giving us something along the lines of a $10 off coupon as a distributor buying in bulk...I get them cheaper buying on Amazon with our credit card rewards points at that rate...pretty disappointing response from them.

Interesting on the lack of UL 1/4" lugs. Kind of makes one start to wonder about the cells themselves and the limited contact area on probably an M6. Or perhaps it just means I went way overboard with 4/0 wire for a single string of 280Ah LFP cells. I have found different ones vary in both wall thickness and overall diameter for a nominally 4/0 lug, and in fact had been thinking to do a post on that very subject.

I'd be very curious now if you have enough pull to get a clear answer on this out of one of the manufacturers. The 1/4" ones I have seem to be the same as any others from the same source, except with a smaller drill hole, so it shouldn't be hard for them to make them.

Bummer on the difficulty of working with Temco. I ended up choosing the FTZ bolt cutter style crimper, and have been pleased with it so far.

 

[HighTechLab]

The main thing for me right now is on mobile it is very hard to reach the sub catagories in your navigation menu. I use Firefox mobile and when clicking on the navigation drop-downs for batteries, inverters.. etc, the sub catagory menu pops up but I get navigated directly into the main catagory before I can hit any of the sub catagories

Fixed & published. Have a look.

Would be nice if the the mobile website had the search feature just like the desktop version.

Done. Please let me know if you have any issues using it as I have limited devices to test with.

No breakers that I can (quickly) find.

Will have them listed this upcoming week! Just waiting on the photography department (my dad!) to finish photoshopping the images from last week.

 

[zcskywire2]

Fixed & published. Have a look.

Perhaps the update hasn't reached me yet, but clicking on the drop-downs to view the subcategories still sends me to that page right away.

 

[Quattrohead]

I just clicked on "Victron 48v Phoenix – 1200va 120v Inverter" and your site automagically downloaded the manual.
I am not cool with that....but on the other hand it may make people RTFM !!!
Edit to add the whole page for this device is borked up and it downloads all 3 manuals. Seriously not cool.