I need to buy a second EG4 Indoor Wallmount battery. My first was from Signature Solar which went well, but they had stopped offering free shipping so I looked around at others.
Solar Sovereign was offering free shipping and a free EcoFlow RIVER 2 Pro portable power station. That good a deal was a clue something was wrong here. They also claimed the battery was "in stock". I placed on order on Sep 7th, got an email confirmation, and my credit card was charged almost immediately.
3 days after the order, I inquired about a ship date and/or tracking info. Got this response:
"Due to the current backlog with the shipping company, the pickup is scheduled for mid-to-late next week.
Once the carrier picks up your order, they will promptly send you tracking information to your email within 24 hours."
I asked which shipping company was delayed and got no response.
12 days after the order with no updates, I inquired again since we are now clearly past the "mid-to-late next week" mark.
I get this response:
"I am having our shipping team look into your order now and will get you an update as soon as I have the proper information."
13 days after order, I get this:
"I heard back from my shipping team that your order has been packaged and palletized since 9/9 and is awaiting carrier pickup from our warehouse scheduled for mid next week.
I understand the delay on this order is frustrating, right now we are working as hard we can to get these orders pushed out and are dealing with carrier restrictions with them only picking up Mon Wed and Fri."
Again, not their fault, the shipping company, and again "mid next week".
I asked again who the carrier was, no response.
20 days after the order, I inquired again.
Got this response:
"Now all I can say is that I don't have a definite answer for you as to when your items will ship. However, we are on a first come first serve basis and we are diligently working daily trying to knock out these backlog of orders. Once your order has been loaded on the carrier for delivery, you will receive a conformation email with tracking information within 24 hours."
Wait, I was told earlier my shipment was on the dock waiting for the carrier, not behind some backlog.
Further inquiries produces this:
"Unfortunately, the shipping carrier for your items has not yet been established, and we’ve received an update that all shipments to Florida are currently on hold due to Hurricane Helene flooding. I want to be as transparent as possible, but I cannot provide a specific shipping date until the carrier is confirmed."
So my shipment was waiting on a carrier that has not yet been established? I was told it was on the dock ready to go Sep 9th and the delay is the carrier's fault, now I'm told there is no carrier yet. Lies all around.
21 days after the order I decide to cancel, this is clearly not going to work and they don't actually have the product at all.
The response:
"A request of the cancellation will be submitted for you"
A request? To whom is this request?
"We have a system that we follow for that
you requested a cancellation and we requested that for you
Have a good day"
They can charge you card in minutes, but it takes an untold number of days to refund it. Their "system" is a delaying tactic.
I pointed out all the EG4 products disappeared from their website.
"And for the products on the website as our technical team was working on updating the website"
Yeah, right! You've been turned off, dude.
My credit card company requires a 10 day period from requesting a refund to when they will pull back the transaction. I'm now sitting at 5 days into that period and will call them when I reach the 10 day mark. I do not expect Solar Sovereign to process the refund in that time based on the above experience.
I suspect that Solar Sovereign was using Signature Solar as a drop shipper, and then Solar Sovereign was late in sending payments to Signature Solar, so Signature Solar turned them off. Now they had orders they couldn't fill and they wanted to string along customers while they tried to figure out how to get another supplier lined up. They wouldn't be honest with me that this was all happening, so they lost all credibility with me on the order.
I would find it incredibly not surprising if Solar Sovereign is out of business soon. Not paying your creditors is the first indicator. Lying to customers is the next.
As my brother said: "there seems to be a lot of shady characters in the solar business".
****************************************
I still need the battery, so I ordered it from Current Connected. They claimed to have stock, and while they charged shipping, it was a small amount ($175) and they offered a small discount on the unit which effectively made the shipping free.
I placed the order yesterday at 1025. I received an email that it had been shipped 5 hours later with tracking number.
I'll get it next week.
Now that's the way it should work.
Only thing I found slightly odd about Current Connected is that they want to charge you extra for some shipping insurance, adding it on the order without my asking, but which I could decline on checkout, which I did. The EG4 battery crate is well designed, so I didn't feel the need for that. I will find out when it arrives.
Mike C.
Solar Sovereign was offering free shipping and a free EcoFlow RIVER 2 Pro portable power station. That good a deal was a clue something was wrong here. They also claimed the battery was "in stock". I placed on order on Sep 7th, got an email confirmation, and my credit card was charged almost immediately.
3 days after the order, I inquired about a ship date and/or tracking info. Got this response:
"Due to the current backlog with the shipping company, the pickup is scheduled for mid-to-late next week.
Once the carrier picks up your order, they will promptly send you tracking information to your email within 24 hours."
I asked which shipping company was delayed and got no response.
12 days after the order with no updates, I inquired again since we are now clearly past the "mid-to-late next week" mark.
I get this response:
"I am having our shipping team look into your order now and will get you an update as soon as I have the proper information."
13 days after order, I get this:
"I heard back from my shipping team that your order has been packaged and palletized since 9/9 and is awaiting carrier pickup from our warehouse scheduled for mid next week.
I understand the delay on this order is frustrating, right now we are working as hard we can to get these orders pushed out and are dealing with carrier restrictions with them only picking up Mon Wed and Fri."
Again, not their fault, the shipping company, and again "mid next week".
I asked again who the carrier was, no response.
20 days after the order, I inquired again.
Got this response:
"Now all I can say is that I don't have a definite answer for you as to when your items will ship. However, we are on a first come first serve basis and we are diligently working daily trying to knock out these backlog of orders. Once your order has been loaded on the carrier for delivery, you will receive a conformation email with tracking information within 24 hours."
Wait, I was told earlier my shipment was on the dock waiting for the carrier, not behind some backlog.
Further inquiries produces this:
"Unfortunately, the shipping carrier for your items has not yet been established, and we’ve received an update that all shipments to Florida are currently on hold due to Hurricane Helene flooding. I want to be as transparent as possible, but I cannot provide a specific shipping date until the carrier is confirmed."
So my shipment was waiting on a carrier that has not yet been established? I was told it was on the dock ready to go Sep 9th and the delay is the carrier's fault, now I'm told there is no carrier yet. Lies all around.
21 days after the order I decide to cancel, this is clearly not going to work and they don't actually have the product at all.
The response:
"A request of the cancellation will be submitted for you"
A request? To whom is this request?
"We have a system that we follow for that
you requested a cancellation and we requested that for you
Have a good day"
They can charge you card in minutes, but it takes an untold number of days to refund it. Their "system" is a delaying tactic.
I pointed out all the EG4 products disappeared from their website.
"And for the products on the website as our technical team was working on updating the website"
Yeah, right! You've been turned off, dude.
My credit card company requires a 10 day period from requesting a refund to when they will pull back the transaction. I'm now sitting at 5 days into that period and will call them when I reach the 10 day mark. I do not expect Solar Sovereign to process the refund in that time based on the above experience.
I suspect that Solar Sovereign was using Signature Solar as a drop shipper, and then Solar Sovereign was late in sending payments to Signature Solar, so Signature Solar turned them off. Now they had orders they couldn't fill and they wanted to string along customers while they tried to figure out how to get another supplier lined up. They wouldn't be honest with me that this was all happening, so they lost all credibility with me on the order.
I would find it incredibly not surprising if Solar Sovereign is out of business soon. Not paying your creditors is the first indicator. Lying to customers is the next.
As my brother said: "there seems to be a lot of shady characters in the solar business".
****************************************
I still need the battery, so I ordered it from Current Connected. They claimed to have stock, and while they charged shipping, it was a small amount ($175) and they offered a small discount on the unit which effectively made the shipping free.
I placed the order yesterday at 1025. I received an email that it had been shipped 5 hours later with tracking number.
I'll get it next week.
Now that's the way it should work.
Only thing I found slightly odd about Current Connected is that they want to charge you extra for some shipping insurance, adding it on the order without my asking, but which I could decline on checkout, which I did. The EG4 battery crate is well designed, so I didn't feel the need for that. I will find out when it arrives.
Mike C.
