I never said you had to fire them. Just tell them you will fire them
Signature Solar refuses to honor a warranty for a defective product! (And Solar Assistant Discussion)
- Thread starter theoriginalgiga
- Start date
Tulex
Solar Wizard
You can't replace people you don't get rid of. It's doubtful it's the employees though, more than likely, they are echoing talking points from above.
dmkjr
Solar Enthusiast
When I was researching why my Solar Assistant wasn't communicating properly, I was told the same thing that I should use Watch Power and not a third party solution as it will void the warranty. We all didn't talk to the same guy. This was a talking point at one time that seems like they are backing up from now.
Yup. I’ve run 3-4 FTE short all year. Finally hired my last open position. Which means surely a good one will move out of town in a few months again. Have to make do with a few but hopefully they grow.
I think in todays society finding enough skilled, competent, and reliable workers is hard and not getting easier which is why it seems it would be better if they ironed out bugs prior to releasing new products
cs1234
Solar Wizard
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- May 9, 2022
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I think they are onto that one. I am pretty much only firing the ones outright stealing from me at this point.I never said you had to fire them. Just tell them you will fire them
Zwy
Emperor Of Solar
It appears you are getting an RMA. You are lucky. I can't even get a response/acknowledgement of correspondance from them now.
I started this thread on Sept 6th. https://diysolarforum.com/threads/e...500vdc-100a-mppt100-48hv-sets-code-f01.68669/ Received an email on the 13th saying they closed my case even though I sent them the requested photos and video on the 12th. The email claimed I hadn't responded in 7 days but I had responded in less than 7 days. They wanted a video of the code setting and it doesn't always set everyday so I waited to see if I could catch it.
Have sent another email to the tech handling my case, no response. Clicked on the link in the email that links to the support page for my case, it shows closed and allows you to send a message thru it. Sent that thru today, no response or acknowledgement from anyone at Signature Solar.
I will be working on the Youtube review for this product and will include a review of the customer support at Signature Solar. It is quite possible they are ghosting me as they don't have any units in stock for a RMA, nor do they have any idea why this code sets intermittently.
The company is starting to become a joke on how it is run. I've never in 37 years of operating my business seen a company so unfocused on providing positive customer support. I was even told it could be installer error but when I responded I've had one of these running since July 4th and the second one ran for over 2 weeks before it started setting an intermittent bus start failure code, how could it be possible to be installer error? It's a charge controller, PV positive goes to the positive marked terminal and negative to the negative terminal. The battery connections are the same, positive and negative. There isn't anything else except a ground wire to the case.
I thought I'd give them a second chance after the 6500EX inverter problems and support did come thru and refunded my money but this latest episode is a huge failure on their part.
I started this thread on Sept 6th. https://diysolarforum.com/threads/e...500vdc-100a-mppt100-48hv-sets-code-f01.68669/ Received an email on the 13th saying they closed my case even though I sent them the requested photos and video on the 12th. The email claimed I hadn't responded in 7 days but I had responded in less than 7 days. They wanted a video of the code setting and it doesn't always set everyday so I waited to see if I could catch it.
Have sent another email to the tech handling my case, no response. Clicked on the link in the email that links to the support page for my case, it shows closed and allows you to send a message thru it. Sent that thru today, no response or acknowledgement from anyone at Signature Solar.
I will be working on the Youtube review for this product and will include a review of the customer support at Signature Solar. It is quite possible they are ghosting me as they don't have any units in stock for a RMA, nor do they have any idea why this code sets intermittently.
The company is starting to become a joke on how it is run. I've never in 37 years of operating my business seen a company so unfocused on providing positive customer support. I was even told it could be installer error but when I responded I've had one of these running since July 4th and the second one ran for over 2 weeks before it started setting an intermittent bus start failure code, how could it be possible to be installer error? It's a charge controller, PV positive goes to the positive marked terminal and negative to the negative terminal. The battery connections are the same, positive and negative. There isn't anything else except a ground wire to the case.
I thought I'd give them a second chance after the 6500EX inverter problems and support did come thru and refunded my money but this latest episode is a huge failure on their part.
theoriginalgiga
New Member
Clearly you don't play EA games ?. But in l seriousness the lack of wanting to help is rampant in companies that focus on profits first. I have a strong suspicion that techs are encouraged to deny warranty claims or are reprimanded for having too many rmas. Just my thought.
My suggestion is become a pest, that's what I had to do. You know what they say, squeaky wheel gets the grease. As you saw in my email chain I had to constantly follow up with them and I spent a few days calling in and waiting on the phone to get a tech. It sucks you have to do that but it's my money and I bought it because of a warranty. I could have piecemealed my own system together for cheaper but I chose to pay the premium for the support.
Hedges
I See Electromagnetic Fields!
- Joined
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- 21,468
Kind of hard to blame an accessory previously plugged in for inverter outputting 60Vrms.
Is that what you say it is doing? Without anything else plugged into the port that comes from a wall outlet?
Considering that some inverters put about 60Vrms on their PV connections, this seems too much to be coincidence.
Did you measure 60V between two pins of the port? Between one pin and chassis?
If the inverter drives common mode 60 Vrms on an RS232 or USB port, I wouldn't be surprised if it fried itself when something grounded was connected.
theoriginalgiga
New Member
Correct, the port itself is generating 60v between 2 leads, 30v on a couple other legs.
Nobodybusiness
Solar Sponge.
Ouch.
I guess they don’t have friends at the BBB like another vendor who came on here a while back.
Quattrohead
Solar Wizard
Non isolated power supplies are the problem here, not solar assistant or Pi's or bad customers. But finding random stray voltages around the inverter or associated parts could be bad installation.
Solar Guppy
Red Cobra Guppy
With these type of non-isolated PV / Inverter designs, all user ports should be opto-isolated, which it seems the USB port was over looked?
Zwy
Emperor Of Solar
I can be a pest but I have plenty of things to do in a day.
One has to think of those people out there that aren't part of this forum and SS just ghosts them. The only reason the OP received the RMA was to shame SS on this forum.
dmkjr
Solar Enthusiast
While I received some bad information from Signature Solar, I have not had the same experience as everyone else. I hope they can improve, but I'm not thinking they are going to when I see the posts from over the past few years on this forum. It's disappointing since that is one location we all go to get our gear. I like EG4 products, but other than Victron, I've never used anything else.
I had the same expectations, and unfortunately the same experience, they also offered me the first strike policy on 1 of 3 of my 6500ex inverters, the other two on my dime. Also ordered and paid for a special comunication cable gor my batteries, they sent the same cable 4x times, a 9 pin once, but not the cable they had listed, and refused to send correct one. I also had a display on my #2 Ex-6500 that had a bad micro usb port, reported with in 30 days of receiving, sent pic if M# S# of box, and display, they needed pic from unit side, had duct in way impossible to get pic, no replacement, rj45 worked so that's what was talking to the Solar assistant.
I DO NOT WISH TO GIVE SIGNATURE SOLAR ONE PENNEY OF MY MONEY. So I purchased a Sol-Ark 15k, been less than 2 months 2.6MW generated, whole house running on solar and battery, with grid back up, (wife /daughter want to run elecric drier @20:00) no problem unit pulls a little from the grid, garage does not sound like a airport mid day.
PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF SOLAR, DONT PURCHASE FROM SIGNATURE SOLAR, as a Newby I was also very interested in an American based supplier, but it's mostly made in China, so find a good company to deal with!
I DO NOT WISH TO GIVE SIGNATURE SOLAR ONE PENNEY OF MY MONEY. So I purchased a Sol-Ark 15k, been less than 2 months 2.6MW generated, whole house running on solar and battery, with grid back up, (wife /daughter want to run elecric drier @20:00) no problem unit pulls a little from the grid, garage does not sound like a airport mid day.
PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF SOLAR, DONT PURCHASE FROM SIGNATURE SOLAR, as a Newby I was also very interested in an American based supplier, but it's mostly made in China, so find a good company to deal with!
No they zap me sometimes ? and yes, that's why I created this forum. The 3kW unit has the least amount of issues around versus other aio, and is made by a completely different company than their other products. But thanks to this forum, I can hear everyone's experience.Will's enthusiasm for products is contagious. It's hard for him to really determine the quality of after sales support for the products though. It's not like it comes out and physically zaps him, or shoots out smoke, like some of the cruddy products he might get to review.
cs1234
Solar Wizard
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I guess the reviews don't weigh heavily on the grade. They are an A+.
No, I don't call customer support. They are useless to me. I am a diy type person and figure things out on my own. If it doesn't work for me, I make a video crying about it.Wasn't targeting him at all. I realize he reviews a lot of products and seems to have much better support from the vendors than you or I might expect. Wonder why that might be?
When I get a defective product, I blast YouTube with my problems. Gets more views.
cs1234
Solar Wizard
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- May 9, 2022
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Am I the only one that finds the name of the policy insulting? I understand the logic, three strikes seems "reasonable".. but just something about it rubs me the wrong way.
Actually I've run multiple polls and people like signature solar more than sol ark and many other distributors of these Chinese solar products. SS does more volume than the others though, and they come to the forum. So I'm expecting around 10X complaints than the others.I didn't get the impression that you were.
Yeah, it's a real puzzle, that one, why he might see their happier side when he deals with them.
We do hear from happy SignatureSolar customers sometimes. It's not as though they don't do nice things on occasion. It's just their reactions on here to product questions and concerns are often confrontational, which doesn't make for a good impression.
Many of the other distributors don't sell enough to even see the defective cases. Or they may have one every few months. Depends on distributor of course, but signature solar makes most of their customers happy. Not the defective unit ones. Like my megarevo units that had multiple issues.
You are rubbed in the correct manor.
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