Outback dealer protection? [RE-wrenches]

[Darryl Thayer]

Hi all

It sounds to me like a failure to communicate, I agree
the dealer should have have a chance to get coverage
for his risk, however the dealer needs to make his
position clear to the vendor.  

I have had very good results from Outback, but I have
had very few failures.  In this case I am sure Outback
was trying to give good customer service, but the
system did not work.
Darryl

--- "David Palumbo, Independent Power & Light"
<ipl at sover.net> wrote:

> 
> Hi Bob,
> 
> That's just sad. OutBack would be wise to look at
> how they treat their
> dealers like you who are really OB's
> representative's to the end customer.
> When manufacturers become successful they can fall
> into the trap of thinking
> that it will always remain that way. When they lose
> their focus and mistreat
> professional installing dealers it becomes easier
> for a competitor to come
> in and take market share from them. Why should we
> have loyalty to them when
> they pull stunts like that on you. Remember what
> happened to Trace/Xantrex.
> Xantrex's actions, or inactions, made it possible
> for OutBack to start their
> company and grow rapidly.
> 
> Unfortunately I also had a recent interaction with
> Out Back that reminded me
> of dealing with Xantrex in the late pre-OB days.
> 
> Service is a vital component in what we as
> dealer/installers provide to the
> consumer. And service is also equally important for
> OutBack to provide for
> professionals in the field. OutBack is making a
> mistake if they value the
> wholesale direct
> seller over the company making the service call. I'm
> sure all of their sales
> outlets are valuable, but those of us actually
> dealing with professional
> design, installation and service of their products
> AND dealing face to face
> with the end buyer/user are critically important to
> OB. We invariably share
> our opinions with the customer. The opinions that we
> have formed of Out Back
> Power Systems, not only, from our trust in how their
> products will do the
> job but also in how well the company treats us with
> regard to the service
> and business respect that we, as professionals,
> deserve.
> 
> I think that you deserve a written apology for their
> actions and
> compensation for the profit on the boards that they
> deprived you of. They
> also need to train their tech/sales people on
> conducting their dealings with
> proper business ethics.
> 
> David Palumbo
> NABCEP Certified
> 19 years in business as Independent Power & Light
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Bob Ellison [mailto:ellison at gisco.net]
> Sent: Sunday, July 09, 2006 6:49 PM
> To: RE-wrenches at topica.com
> Subject: Outback dealer protection? [RE-wrenches]
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I had an experience the other day that the longer I
> think about it the more
> it irritates me, here goes.
> I got a call from a customer that had a pair of
> VFX3648 inverters and took a
> 2 1/2 hour drive to the site,
> 
> He had no lightning cans and took a bad lightning
> hit, the inverters were
> already off the rack and opened up.. Both inverters
> were down and he had an
> insurance inspection the following day. Real bad
> timing. I did not supply or
> install the gear and low buck wholesale never
> suggested lightning
> protection.
> My regular supplier is at a show so I called Outback
> to get the boards and
> was informed that we had to send the inverters back.
> Also the board prices
> were up from $700.00 to $1200.00. and we needed all
> of them, 2 sets. There
> was no doubt that all the boards were bad, the burns
> were obvious.
> 
> I was not having any luck getting the boards sent
> and asked the tech to
> explain to the customer that they had to be sent
> back. I  found out after he
> got off the very short phone conversation that he
> had been sold all the
> boards at my cost, and on my dime for the phone
> call!
> 
> It just ticked me off, I guess the dealers don't
> have an advantage over the
> customer any more at Outback.
> I didn't expect the customer to get dealer pricing.
> I could have gotten a
> verbal PO easily or just put it on a card and
> actually made some money on
> the process instead of the way it worked out.
> 5 hours drive time and a couple on site add up fast
> towards wasting a day
> real fast.
> 
> Back to packing for Solarfest,
> 
> Bob
> 
> 
> 
> [Non-text portions of this message have been
> removed]
> 
> 
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