SunGoldPower-----Buyer Beware

[Mendo Home Power]

Edit-- Sungold power has agreed to reimburse my customer. The conversation should continue on that basis.

I installed a SunGoldPower all in one 10k unit for a client here in California after an EG4 fiasco. Everything worked as it was supposed to for around six weeks. Then the inverter shut down and started leaking oil from the inverter which would suggest that the capacitors blew on the inside. After lengthy discussions with a representative in China about what went wrong, they sent an obscure video on how to check the transistors on the interior of the unit rather than have someone with technical expertise communicate with us. Since their video was ambiguous at best on how to test the unit for defects, we opted to send it back for them to repair at their California facility. at 23831 Via Fabricante, Suite 302 Mission Viejo, CA 92691-3149 which turns out to be an office facility and not a repair facility.
After paying over $100.00 to ship the non functional unit to their offices in Mission Viejo, they were silent for close to two months and did not respond back until prodded several times via email. Once they responded they wanted more details as to the installation of the unit to make sure that it wasn't the fault of the installer. More information was sent to them showing that the unit was installed per SGP's specifications and this morning an invoice for payment due of $690.00 for repair of the inverter was received instead of any acknowledgement of faulty equipment by SunGoldPower.
I had faith in SGP from their previous equipment that has been on Amazon and their website for several years. From what I have experienced now, SunGoldPower's newer all in one equipment is of less quality than one should purchase for the money and their warranty is non existent.

 

[Crowz]

I'd suggest if you fool with them again to email at 1am to 5am central time from my experience. They mail out anything you need from parts to replacement units that way from what I have experienced and read.

The usa bunch is about useless.

 

[Quattrohead]

I have said this before and I will say again, they are great sales people and terrible technical support..... actually non.

 

[Mendo Home Power]

The drama gets better. After my client confronted them on the $690.00 bill for repair of the unit, They sent pictures back of a unit that was covered in dust from being installed outside and had different internal issues than the one that was sent back. They must be getting a lot of returns and are doing whatever they can to not honor warranties.
Next I will see how Consumer Affairs here in CA deals with them. Probably to no avail but one can hope.

 

[Crowz]

That's why I mention the weird hours for contacting them since that gets you the asian support people and they just mail out replacement stuff without hassle.

 

[Mendo Home Power]

That's why I mention the weird hours for contacting them since that gets you the asian support people and they just mail out replacement stuff without hassle.

The replies were coming from China at early A.M. hours

 

[Crowz]

The replies were coming from China at early A.M. hours

No idea then. Ive had great luck with them so far but I chose to let them send me the parts to fix it myself so I never dealt with "repair center" bunch.

 

[Crowz]

I have said this before and I will say again, they are great sales people and terrible technical support..... actually non.

They had mine diagnosed and the part shipped within 40 minutes. That is far from non-supporting.

 

[Quattrohead]

Yep that is support.
But me and another chap here in the past we're having issues with flickering lights and all they did was deflect and defer. I kept mine because they run hard loads very well but LED bulbs do not like them. They have no clue they're just shipping blue boxes.

 

[Mendo Home Power]

So the current update is that the have diagnosed the unit as being defective because of dust in the machine and it would cost the customer $690.00 to repair it and then the customer would incur another $160.00 to have the repaired unit shipped back from their facility here in California.
I questioned the representative, Alisa, in China about the issue of significant amounts of oil leaking from the bottom of the inverter which would indicate problems with the capacitors and she replied that they really hadn't looked that closely at the unit and that would happen with further diagnosis once the repair estimate was sent to them.
I've suggested that, since the unit was sold to the client on a website available to the client here in California and the unit was shipped from a California facility and returned to a California facility that the transaction was subject to the California Small Claims court system and that I could file a claim in our local court so that one of their representatives could travel to my town to make their case. Awaiting a response.

 

[Tomthumb62]

So the current update is that the have diagnosed the unit as being defective because of dust in the machine and it would cost the customer $690.00 to repair it and then the customer would incur another $160.00 to have the repaired unit shipped back from their facility here in California.
I questioned the representative, Alisa, in China about the issue of significant amounts of oil leaking from the bottom of the inverter which would indicate problems with the capacitors and she replied that they really hadn't looked that closely at the unit and that would happen with further diagnosis once the repair estimate was sent to them.
I've suggested that, since the unit was sold to the client on a website available to the client here in California and the unit was shipped from a California facility and returned to a California facility that the transaction was subject to the California Small Claims court system and that I could file a claim in our local court so that one of their representatives could travel to my town to make their case. Awaiting a response.

Curious to hear the response. At least in the states, the moment you mention anything legal related kicks your case to their lawyers. Meaning all communication with customer support and repairs stop, until the legal issue cleared up. It might feel good to threaten suing, but it’s likely just going to make your client wait longer now. They can keep you in legal limbo for years. Maybe the Chinese work differently legally, but since you mention California, they must have either lawyers in the states or one who understands legal things between China and California. Or maybe they’re not that organized but will drag you along with a contracted lawyer to make you just give up.

I wasted so much time and energy and money with Renogy. Time I’ll never get back. Time that I didn’t care about when I was younger but at my age it’s much more precious than money. Because money is the driving issue as to why people buy other than mid or top tier devices from names like Outback, Schneider, Victron, Morningstar, etc.

I replaced my Renogy with a Victron and all the headaches I had with the Renogy are gone. I will probably never need to reach out for Victron support, because the thing works so well. Yes I paid 2.5x the cost of the Renogy, but had I known how much of my life I would waste learning about just how bad Renogy sucks, I would have paid 4x, but I’m glad I didn’t have to.

 

[Mendo Home Power]

Curious to hear the response. At least in the states, the moment you mention anything legal related kicks your case to their lawyers. Meaning all communication with customer support and repairs stop, until the legal issue cleared up. It might feel good to threaten suing, but it’s likely just going to make your client wait longer now. They can keep you in legal limbo for years. Maybe the Chinese work differently legally, but since you mention California, they must have either lawyers in the states or one who understands legal things between China and California. Or maybe they’re not that organized but will drag you along with a contracted lawyer to make you just give up.

I wasted so much time and energy and money with Renogy. Time I’ll never get back. Time that I didn’t care about when I was younger but at my age it’s much more precious than money. Because money is the driving issue as to why people buy other than mid or top tier devices from names like Outback, Schneider, Victron, Morningstar, etc.

I replaced my Renogy with a Victron and all the headaches I had with the Renogy are gone. I will probably never need to reach out for Victron support, because the thing works so well. Yes I paid 2.5x the cost of the Renogy, but had I known how much of my life I would waste learning about just how bad Renogy sucks, I would have paid 4x, but I’m glad I didn’t have to.

They replied back this evening and said they would repair it and ship it back at no charge. It's a disadvantage to them to have an office in my State. They become subject to local rules. Small Claims can't include attorneys and its a short time frame for a court date. They would have to send a representative to my area that is not an attorney to defend the company's position. Sometimes the less complex solutions are the best solutions.

 

[Mendo Home Power]

New update; SunGoldPower has made an offer of refunding $1,000.00 without returning the inverter if I remove the negative review on Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-...=cm_cr_othr_d_rvw_ttl?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B01N0IVZ6Z So now they don't even want to fix the defective unit. Getting ready for the small claims route. Possibly a report can be filed with Amazon as well for trying to hold a partial payment as ransom for removing a review.

 

[Quattrohead]

Yep they are great until something goes wrong, then they turn to the tricks. I keep warning people about this with Sungold.

 

[Lighthouse Beacon]

New update; SunGoldPower has made an offer of refunding $1,000.00 without returning the inverter if I remove the negative review on Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-...=cm_cr_othr_d_rvw_ttl?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B01N0IVZ6Z So now they don't even want to fix the defective unit. Getting ready for the small claims route. Possibly a report can be filed with Amazon as well for trying to hold a partial payment as ransom for removing a review.

Honestly i don't think that's a terrible deal. I mean I know it's not ideal, but for the prices they are selling this equipment we can't expect a huge amount of warranty and support. Now Sol Ark prices.. yeah I'd expect more

 

[Kenny_]

New update; SunGoldPower has made an offer of refunding $1,000.00 without returning the inverter if I remove the negative review on Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-...=cm_cr_othr_d_rvw_ttl?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B01N0IVZ6Z So now they don't even want to fix the defective unit. Getting ready for the small claims route. Possibly a report can be filed with Amazon as well for trying to hold a partial payment as ransom for removing a review.

Why did you choose that model? Did you have previous experience with Sungold products? I've only have my 10K48v for a week or so and two SG batteries ... I'm quite happy with it other that the WIFI is shit! and my minor interactions with customer service have been horrible.

 

[Mendo Home Power]

Why did you choose that model? Did you have previous experience with Sungold products? I've only have my 10K48v for a week or so and two SG batteries ... I'm quite happy with it other that the WIFI is shit! and my minor interactions with customer service have been horrible.

Maybe after a month or so your experience will change.

 

[Mendo Home Power]

Honestly i don't think that's a terrible deal. I mean I know it's not ideal, but for the prices they are selling this equipment we can't expect a huge amount of warranty and support. Now Sol Ark prices.. yeah I'd expect more

Not terrible as in if totally ignoring were their other option. But if they don't stand behind their equipment and we accept that as normal then the quality doesn't ever get any better because we have just become too complacent to care.

 

[Kenny_]

Not terrible as in if totally ignoring were their other option. But if they don't stand behind their equipment and we accept that as normal then the quality doesn't ever get any better because we have just become too complacent to care.

Yep, I agree and I don't know the details so can't really say what's right or not, I do know that when I toasted my Ecoflow River 2 Pro a couple of days ago while installing additional solar panels and I contacted them admitting the error etc....they honored the warranty in any case, sent me a shipping label and are replacing the broken unit with a reconditioned one at no cost to me.

 

[Lighthouse Beacon]

I don't trust the Sungold LF-PVSeries as much as the HF variants like the SRNE clones @Kenny_ and I have. Based on my research alot more issues with those units. We'll see if these units do much better, they may start to pop too.

I would take that credit and grab an HF 10k with the Black Friday sale they just launched you can get it to door for a couple hundred more bucks? Unless this has soured your taste for Sungold which i'd undstand the frustration for sure.