Service Call Reimbursement [RE-wrenches]

[John Berdner]

Allan / Wrenches:
 
IMHO, service call reimbursement is becoming the industry norm.
We have had such a policy in place for some time now for our Solar Pro
Club members, i.e. installers we have trained.
I believe Xantrex also offers a similar program but I do not know the
details.
I am unaware of any "module only" suppliers who offer such a service.
 
If anyone has further questions about our programs please feel free to
contact me offline.
 
Best Regards,
 
John Berdner


>>> allan at positiveenergysolar.com 1/4/2006 07:15:26 AM >>>

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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