VanLife + Signature Solar = Resolved

[Tulex]

I just read the BBB site, now I'm nervous. We bought 42 panels. A pallet of 31, and 11 additional. They arrived a few days ago. They come standing on edge, outer panels facing in. So, when unloaded, can't see the faces of them. I've yet to cut the banding, as they are going to have to be laid down once that is done, and I'm not ready to install them yet. But, I guess I know what I'm doing tomorrow.

 

[farmhand]

What is your email so I can look into this and get you taken care of?

Nice to see a company on this forum. Wish Ecoflow would jump over, being only on Reddit... which is nice will you ask a Tier II question and the just ignore it.....

 

[S610]

@S610 I've been trying to get this resolved for two months, and its been made clear that they don't care.

Sold batteries that didn't support my request.
Then was sold the cable that was i was "missing". (if i had the correct batteries)
Took 2 weeks for tech support to confirm i had the wrong batteries.
RMA team wanted them shipped back in boxes/pallet, and when i told them that wasn't an option they canceled my RMA ticket.
Peyton just tries to save face on the forum by saying he will help, but still not heard anything from him.
Customer service got the RMA ticket reopened.
RMA then escalated me to the Solution Specialist (with out letting me know) after i told them i'd have to drive them back.
Specialist offered me 5% off if i spend more money.

So only 1 out of the 6 points of contact i've had has been semi positive. Which was customer service, updating me on info they had from the other departments.

I have my appointment Monday for my return/refund, depending on how that goes i'm considering filing a complaint with the BBB. Not that their rating can go any lower on there.

Can you also file a complaint through the payment processor? Also look into filing a lean against them. Sending a registered letter to the CEO demanding payment in ___ days or you will take them to small claims court would also get his attention.

 

[S610]

Nice to see a company on this forum. Wish Ecoflow would jump over, being only on Reddit... which is nice will you ask a Tier II question and the just ignore it.....

Not so nice if you follow some of the threads. I had heard of Signature Solar but after seeing their posts on here and their God awful customer service I would never consider them.

 

[SignatureSolarPeyton]

@S610 I've been trying to get this resolved for two months, and its been made clear that they don't care.

Sold batteries that didn't support my request.
Then was sold the cable that was i was "missing". (if i had the correct batteries)
Took 2 weeks for tech support to confirm i had the wrong batteries.
RMA team wanted them shipped back in boxes/pallet, and when i told them that wasn't an option they canceled my RMA ticket.
Peyton just tries to save face on the forum by saying he will help, but still not heard anything from him.
Customer service got the RMA ticket reopened.
RMA then escalated me to the Solution Specialist (with out letting me know) after i told them i'd have to drive them back.
Specialist offered me 5% off if i spend more money.

So only 1 out of the 6 points of contact i've had has been semi positive. Which was customer service, updating me on info they had from the other departments.

I have my appointment Monday for my return/refund, depending on how that goes i'm considering filing a complaint with the BBB. Not that their rating can go any lower on there.

 

[SpeedFusion]

Apparently having to return the batteries in person, they consider taking care of me.

 

[Tulex]

I can honestly say, I've never seen a rep do a worse job at reading the room. Regardless of whether or not they take care of everyone, this was a golden opportunity to at least make it look like they do. All he had to do was jump on this one, apologize, show the great effort they make to go above and beyond, and you have the potential to show thousands of people what a great company they are. Instead, he did just the opposite.

But, I only ran my own business for 29 years, what do I know about customer relations and word of mouth reputation? (Hint - Enough to have NEVER had to advertise)

 

[Tulex]

"Our apologies and we wish you the best"
Try
"I sincerely apologize. Please let me know where this stands in your view so that I can make sure this is indeed being taken care of. Please let me know if there is anything else I can help you with or if there are any other issues. Again, I do apologize."

 

[Crowz]

I can honestly say, I've never seen a rep do a worse job at reading the room. Regardless of whether or not they take care of everyone, this was a golden opportunity to at least make it look like they do. All he had to do was jump on this one, apologize, show the great effort they make to go above and beyond, and you have the potential to show thousands of people what a great company they are. Instead, he did just the opposite.

But, I only ran my own business for 29 years, what do I know about customer relations and word of mouth reputation? (Hint - Enough to have NEVER had to advertise)

Its like a train wreck you just can turn away from waiting to see the final outcome.

I keep waiting for that bingo moment when everything works out.......

Its going to be a looong thread at this rate.

 

[Hedges]

List of things i offered/tried to make it right:
1. Asked them to send me 3 correct batteries and i would use the boxes/pallet to return the existing the same day. Could have handed them back to the delivery guy in less than 15 minutes. They refused to do a 1 for 1 swap. (Price Difference was ~$275, due to not paying taxes this time)

This is what I was going to suggest, since you weren't able to retain packaging from previous shipment.
A credit card with hold put on it but no charge so long as old batteries returned should make transaction secure for both parties.

Signature Solar: You just need to put yourself in customer's shoes and ask, "What would be fair and reasonable"?

Any time the product shipped turned out to not be as described, you should bend over backwards to make it right at zero cost to customer. In this case that could mean shipping out a pallet with empty packing material and taking the return, giving 100% refund of all costs including product, taxes, shipping.

But if customer is satisfied with exchanging for correct product, so much the better for everyone.

 

[SignatureSolarPeyton]

Apparently having to return the batteries in person, they consider taking care of me.

View attachment 147361

I can honestly say, I've never seen a rep do a worse job at reading the room. Regardless of whether or not they take care of everyone, this was a golden opportunity to at least make it look like they do. All he had to do was jump on this one, apologize, show the great effort they make to go above and beyond, and you have the potential to show thousands of people what a great company they are. Instead, he did just the opposite.

But, I only ran my own business for 29 years, what do I know about customer relations and word of mouth reputation? (Hint - Enough to have NEVER had to advertise)

Okay. In the spirit of full disclosure, I can share additional information that may shed some light on why this became such a large issue. While some of my private messages have been taken out of context and used to run my name through the mud, I would just like to say that I went out of my way and beyond the scope of my position in order to try and get this customer taken care of.

That said, I share this information not to create further animosity, but for clarity. So that all readers of this topic may understand the full story, and I leave them to make their own conclusions based on the full story.



Now, I think we can all agree that going a week without power is never the best option, however, we do have processes in place and if those are not followed (like in this case), the best option cant be guaranteed. That being said, the "best option" would have been to follow the processes that we have in place so the return would have gone smoothly. No one at this company told you had to drive down here, in fact, you made that decision yourself, so next time you feel it's necessary to post private conversations or bash a company's name, make sure that you've done everything right yourself.

Again, in no way do I want to start issues, but my main goal here is to get people the help they need when they slip through the cracks because sadly, it does happen and it's hard to prevent especially when I am not a part of any support teams, only social media. My mission with the message I sent to him was to show that I did care and wanted him to know where the hiccups in our conversation came from. He then used my attempt at transparency and turned it into some sort of ammunition for a forum post, which I do not appreciate.

Best regards,
Peyton

 

[SpeedFusion]

Dropping off the batteries now.

They still wanted to know if i wanted the correct batteries with no additional discount. Won’t compensate me for having to drive them back.

They took the batteries and told me they will process the refund end of day. Which i was not ok with.

So had to wait on them to “push it through” now and give me a receipt.

 

[Tulex]

Okay. In the spirit of full disclosure


Peyton

I feel like you are completely missing the point. Perception is everything. I know there are always two sides to a story. In this case, it doesn't matter, at least not from the business side. This played out over a long period of time, a month on this thread. And instead of saying, "Yeah, we dropped the ball on this one", you are here trying to explain yourself. It doesn't matter. What it shows me is that this is what I should expect if it happens to me. I was right a lot of times dealing with customers, I just never needed them to know it. I needed them, and anyone aware of the situation to know I would make it right. What did Will say? 20 million hits, 360,000 unique a month? I simply see a lost opportunity.

 

[GuyG]

Jesus, dude. First rule when you’re in a hole, is stop digging. Y’all effed up at every turn. It’s clear to everyone reading this train wreck of a thread. From the beginning, and now you keep making it worse. Take the L. Quit making excuses. Apologize to the man, with no more of your “buts” thrown in. And if ya’ll haven’t already compensated the man for all the trouble and expense he incurred through no fault of his own, you might want to question your wisdom.

Cheers.

 

[Tulex]

Hello, my name is Robert and I am a content specialist for Signature Solar. I work in the same department alongside Peyton. I have moderated forums outside of Signature Solar several times, over the course of something like a decade. My experience in these regards gives me a unique and valuable insight into a lot of what is going on here.

Tulex, in your post you state, "What it shows me is that this is what I can expect if it happens to me."

We gave this customer options, and there is a procedure in place, which the customer refused to follow. That should be cut and dry. If we did not follow procedures, nothing would ever get done correctly, and things would fall apart. That goes for any system. Therefore, if you follow procedure, then NO, the same thing will NOT happen to you.

Now, that is all BEFORE Peyton attempted to help this person. Peyton spends a great deal of time scouring the forums in order to find problems just like this and resolve them. To be clear, his current job title does not require him to do this, and he is actively applying skills that go beyond what is asked of him, such as completing tickets in our system that deal with tech escalation. That has to count for something.

I've done interviews with several of our customers who have had a great experience with our entire process, and one thing they all have in common is that they followed the process through to the end. Are there things that make these processes encounter hiccups from time to time? Sure. But the issue here was the customer NOT following that process, blazing his own trail, and attempting to shift the blame back onto us.

TLDR: We attempted to help this customer(including multiple departments reaching out to him) and provided him with solutions, which he refused, thus leading to his choice to RMA the product in person.

Let me guess, you do the replies on the BBB too?

Was getting the wrong product part of the procedure?

But, you win, you are right, for whatever that is worth.

 

[Crowz]

Hello, my name is Robert and I am a content specialist for Signature Solar. I work in the same department alongside Peyton. I have moderated forums outside of Signature Solar several times, over the course of something like a decade. My experience in these regards gives me a unique and valuable insight into a lot of what is going on here.

Tulex, in your post you state, "What it shows me is that this is what I can expect if it happens to me."

We gave this customer options, and there is a procedure in place, which the customer refused to follow. That should be cut and dry. If we did not follow procedures, nothing would ever get done correctly, and things would fall apart. That goes for any system. Therefore, if you follow procedure, then NO, the same thing will NOT happen to you.

Now, that is all BEFORE Peyton attempted to help this person. Peyton spends a great deal of time scouring the forums in order to find problems just like this and resolve them. To be clear, his current job title does not require him to do this, and he is actively applying skills that go beyond what is asked of him, such as completing tickets in our system that deal with tech escalation. That has to count for something.

I've done interviews with several of our customers who have had a great experience with our entire process, and one thing they all have in common is that they followed the process through to the end. Are there things that make these processes encounter hiccups from time to time? Sure. But the issue here was the customer NOT following that process, blazing his own trail, and attempting to shift the blame back onto us.

TLDR: We attempted to help this customer(including multiple departments reaching out to him) and provided him with solutions, which he refused, thus leading to his choice to RMA the product in person.

I have one question out this. Did you or did you not false advertise the product being compatible with his equipment?

I'm not throwing blame or stepping into something that isn't any of business as far as the transaction went. I'm just curious on that one thing.

 

[GuyG]

Second Rule of Holes: You can dig a deeper one if someone else helps.

 

[sunshine_eggo]

For anybody who finds this based on battery communications with Victron:

Battery Compatibility [Victron Energy]

www.victronenergy.com

 

[SpeedFusion]

@SignatureSolarPeyton I do like the fact that you hand picked emails between me and the RMA team, while saying i'm posting things out of context.

I've been trying for over a month to find a way to return these batteries, which no viable option was provided to me by signature solar. When i said the one and only option didn't work, my RMA ticket was cancel due to "lack of customer response".

We can ignore when i asked that two of the correct batteries be sent, plus an empty box, and you can pick up the lifepower4 same day.
Lets forget that your sales team built the order for me, with the wrong batteries then told me its because i didn't have the special cable.
Disregard that the spec sheet published Jan 2023 said the BMS talked to Victrion. (i see you finally updated that)

@SignatureSolarJames
I felt i had no option other than to drive them back. Plus the fact that your Resolution Specialist, expected me to leave with out a receipt of the refund blew me away. That some BS form that i signed saying i dropped them off would be enough. That i should have the money end of the day.

At the end of the day, your sales team made a mistake, and the entire RMA process put the burden to fix it on me.

 

[richwolf]

Does SS stand for sleezy and slimey??
At least you’ve made your customer service experience crystal clear!
I am sure you have satisfied customers but when things go sideways it reveals the true character of an individual or company.
The little money you saved in not helping this customer out cost you a lot more in future sales and goodwill!