Signature Solar refuses to honor a warranty for a defective product! (And Solar Assistant Discussion)

[Gavin Stone]

I actually wish someone could do a solar equipment business that did not offer support, but did offer fast returns on defective units. Having all of these companies support all of these customers cost a lot of money and we all have to pay for it with higher equipment prices. It would be nice for DIY type people to have an option that's cheaper if they do it on their own. I know that's unrealistic but I would love it personally ?

You wouldn’t believe the amount of issues I see on Reddit and Facebook that could be fairly simply solved in the beginners section of the forum here.

That would be funny if a company used that as a business model. And called themselves “Just the equipment” and at the bottom of their page they’d link this forum as the basic tech support.

 

[Will Prowse]

This is mainly for Sol-Ark, since battery comms use the CAN pins and SA uses the RS485 pins, that are on the same RJ45 port.


How do you make sure a unit is defective without troubleshooting/support? What do you do with all the non-defective return units if you have no technical support to figure out what happened with the first owner?

Yeah that's the tough part. It's just so much money for the customer service. And we all have to pay for it. And so many times it's user error. This is where having a large customer support team that's not trained well will cause so many issues.

Edit: I didn't realize it was you from the new profile picture! Haha

 

[theoriginalgiga]

You wouldn’t believe the amount of issues I see on Reddit and Facebook that could be fairly simply solved in the beginners section of the forum here.

That would be funny if a company used that as a business model. And called themselves “Just the equipment” and at the bottom of their page they’d link this forum as the basic tech support.

Maybe they could run their own forum, call it "just the tips"?

I'll see myself out.

 

[theoriginalgiga]

Yeah that's the tough part. It's just so much money for the customer service. And we all have to pay for it. And so many times it's user error. This is where having a large customer support team that's not trained well will cause so many issues.

Edit: I didn't realize it was you from the new profile picture! Haha

I think you nailed it, a tech team that isn't trained. There's basic user triage but I feel when you're going to support tech you need a team who'll tear down and really understand the nuts and bolts. I know it isn't always possible to train everyone from phone support to the tier 3 engineers, but an internal wiki of the basics and working it's way up through the complex issues. I know that's a lot of work but hey if we can do it in the IT field, why not others?

 

[wildbillpdx]

Tech support is needed. But, there need to be different tiers. Tier one for beginning users and simple questions. Tier two, more complex issues, hardware configurations issues/problems and RMAs. Tier three, really serious problems with the hardware showing up with many users (including @Will Prowse ) when stuff just isn't ready for production yet.

 

[wildbillpdx]

I'm looking at the manual for the SolarPower software that came with my 6000ex. It runs on various operating systems. It connects via USB or Serial Ports. It also allows the user to change inverter settings. How is that different than SolarAssistant?

2. SolarPower Install and Uninstall
2.1
System Requirement
512 MB physical memory at least (1 GB is recommended)
2GB hard disk space at least
Administrator authority is required
More than 32-bit colors and 1280 x 800 or above resolution display is
recommended
An available communication port is needed
Platforms supported by software are listed below:
Windows 2003/2008/XP/Vista/7/8/10 (32bit &x64bit)
RedHat Linux 8,9
Linux RedHat Enterprise AS3, AS5, AS6(32bit &64bit)
Linux SUSE 10 (32bit &64bit)
Linux Cent OS 5.4
Ubuntu 8.x,9.x,10.x (32bit &64bit)
Linux Fedora 5
Linux OpenSUSE 11.2 (32bit &64bit)
Linux Debian 5.x, 6.x (32bit &64bit)
Mac OS 10.x(x64bit)
(32bit &64bit)

 

[Zwy]

I actually wish someone could do a solar equipment business that did not offer support, but did offer fast returns on defective units. Having all of these companies support all of these customers cost a lot of money and we all have to pay for it with higher equipment prices. It would be nice for DIY type people to have an option that's cheaper if they do it on their own. I know that's unrealistic but I would love it personally ?

We already have one of those, it's called Signature Solar.

I contacted support about a problem, they don't respond since the initial contact. Tech support is mainly here in this forum by members not employed by SS, it's way better than what SS is offering.

I recently reviewed an EG4 product on my Youtube channel and in the end, I recommended not to buy it simply because the tech support is so bad. The product does work but sets fault codes and I'm not the only one who purchased the product and has the exact same problem. SS tech support is worthless.

Here was a recent thread I started where there is a video by a licensed electrician and he mentions the problems he had with Signature Solar support. https://diysolarforum.com/threads/r...-sol-ark-15k-inverters-this-is-for-tim.69315/

I now tell people to simply stay away from any product SS sells. Even the 18Kpv because they might need support down the road and with SS, it isn't worth it.

 

[Zwy]

That sounds awful to use. Does someone have a more expensive system that works without tinkering?

Sounds like someone could replace the whole thing with a few timer switches to automate the loads and a few CTs and monitoring hub like the emporia. Would work everytime and be dead simple.

If you need to automate your loads it sounds like you don't have enough solar or batteries.

The loads are automated to shift PV power to other loads once batteries are full. I can see where this is advantageous. This time of year, my 54Kwh bank is full by 11 am.

 

[Will Prowse]

We already have one of those, it's called Signature Solar.

I contacted support about a problem, they don't respond since the initial contact. Tech support is mainly here in this forum by members not employed by SS, it's way better than what SS is offering.

I recently reviewed an EG4 product on my Youtube channel and in the end, I recommended not to buy it simply because the tech support is so bad. The product does work but sets fault codes and I'm not the only one who purchased the product and has the exact same problem. SS tech support is worthless.

Here was a recent thread I started where there is a video by a licensed electrician and he mentions the problems he had with Signature Solar support. https://diysolarforum.com/threads/r...-sol-ark-15k-inverters-this-is-for-tim.69315/

I now tell people to simply stay away from any product SS sells. Even the 18Kpv because they might need support down the road and with SS, it isn't worth it.

What's your YouTube channel?

 

[Zwy]

What's your YouTube channel?

Doc Zwy

I started it back when you put me in internet jail. Made productive use of my free time.

 

[Gavin Stone]

I saw you in front of the camera this time. Really putting yourself out there. ?

 

[Zwy]

I saw you in front of the camera this time. Really putting yourself out there. ?

Yes, thought I'd show my aged face and gray hair.

I do these unrehearsed and just say what's on my mind.

With the crickets in the background I just imagine I'm sitting by the lake in the evening.

 

[theoriginalgiga]

Yes, thought I'd show my aged face and gray hair.

I do these unrehearsed and just say what's on my mind.

With the crickets in the background I just imagine I'm sitting by the lake in the evening.

I do all my videos unrehearsed too. Just easier for me to do lol. And at least you got hair, I'm bald! ?

 

[theoriginalgiga]

For anyone who's curious about the finality of this here's the wrap up. I opted to put my CC on file and had them ship me the new unit before I shipped the defective one back. New unit worked flawlessly and rma covered shipping both directions. It took them about a week to issue the refund of the unit but it's all wrapped up and everything is working as expected.

 

[Will Prowse]

Nice

 

[Kenny_]

Yes, good. I'm on the edge about whether to purchase from them....

 

[theoriginalgiga]

Yes, good. I'm on the edge about whether to purchase from them....

Overall I'll say I'd purchase another inverter from them. I bought a trophy battery and couldn't be happier with that. I'd probably opt to buy solar panels local as I've read some horror stories about them through SS as well as other companies but that's just me.

 

[Wes Butler]

I'm kinda new here, and I just went through this whole thread and haven't seen a reason on why the supplied dongle and the ESS app don't work. Is there another thread on how to get them to work?

 

[theoriginalgiga]

I'm kinda new here, and I just went through this whole thread and haven't seen a reason on why the supplied dongle and the ESS app don't work. Is there another thread on how to get them to work?

Did you use the included cable? The pinout on the unit is non-standard and a standard rj45 to rs232 adapter won't work. That would be where I'd check first. If that doesn't yield any results you may need to open a ticket with SS.

Also if anyone is curious I opened the dongle to check it out, it's a custom esp32 module. Kinda neat that they use something simple.