Service Call Reimbursement [RE-wrenches]

[Allan Sindelar]

Wrenches,
I saw a very interesting press release this morning on Renewable Energy
Access. The link is here:
http://www.renewableenergyaccess.com/rea/market/business/viewstory?id=41005.

The story is that Fronius is promoting a new policy of an automatic service
call reimbursement of $90 for "qualified field issues". They also are
increasing the warranty period and a few other issues, but for me it's the
service call issue that has attracted my attention. I have hollered from my
soapbox from time to time about the need for we Wrenches to demand this from
all of our manufacturers. So when one of them announces it as policy, I say
YES! We have already used or designed in a few Fronius (Fronia?), so this
will help tilt our design preference further in their direction.

Let's keep this discussion going. I made the mistake of posting the rant
below during Quiet Week between holidays, and only saw a couple of posts in
response. I hope I'm not the only Wrench with this opinion. If I am, maybe
I'll shaddup about it.

Allan at Positive Energy

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Allan Sindelar" <allan at positiveenergysolar.com>
To: <RE-wrenches at topica.com>
Sent: Tuesday, December 27, 2005 11:42 AM
Subject: Service Call Reimbursement (Was Outback MX60 question)
[RE-wrenches]

Jay, my answer is an emphatic "Yes, I do." I do think we should be
reimbursed for service calls for manufacturer's defects, and I believe that
you should be reimbursed, too. As I have posted here in the past, most
mature industries have this, and consider it a natural and given part of how
business is done. If a water heater or boiler fails during the warranty, the
manufacturer automatically pays a qualified installer a predetermined
stipend to cover the cost of the service call to repair or replace the
equipment. Anyone who doesn't have such a program doesn't sell many
products. Why are we RE installers not demanding the same? So yes, dammit, I
do expect Outback, and Xantrex, and SMA and the module manufacturers, and
everyone else who claims to make a top-tier product to develop a program to
pay a nominal reimbursement to any qualified dealer who has to replace a
product that is defective. And until we Wrenches demand it, it ain't gonna
happen, because nobody's gonna offer it until we demand it. Making this
demand of our manufacturers and suppliers is part of helping our industry
grow up. Jay, you should be solidly on this issue as a respected Wrench.
When Xantrex lost their SW GT listing, they paid a nominal cost to
installers to add the GTI. I think they also paid a reimbursement for SunTie
swapouts. That should be expected of all manufacturers.


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