battery costs rising [RE-wrenches]

[Bob-O Schultze, Electron Connection]

<x-flowed>

Amigos,
I quit using Trojan about 6-7 years ago when they produced a BIG  
batch of rotters and refused to cop to it. Richard Perez got some of  
those as did many of my other clients. Richard's L16s got replaced by  
Trojan for political and marketing  reasons. Everyone else got the  
middle finger. Trojan also started their strange distribution  
consolidation at about the same time and my favored distributor got  
whacked. I switched to Dyno Battery out of Washington State on the  
recommendation of some friends from Trace Engineering (RIP) who were  
using them on their burn-in benches. The Dynos were an unmitigated  
disaster in the RE real world. Never again for them. I switched to  
Surrette S-460s a few years back and -so far- have been more or less  
satisfied. The hell of dealing with batteries is that you really need  
to have them out there in systems for 4-5 years to see if they are  
worth a damn or not.
The Surrettes were more expensive than Trojan -tho not anymore- but I  
hate service calls for stuff that ain't my fault. Nobody except the  
manufacturer makes money servicing crap. That is one of the beauties  
of this forum. We can share experiences with gear and vote with our  
checkbooks.
Like Jay, here in the Pacific NW, our prices have gone up  
considerably and are far over $200. each even buying at the multiple  
pallet pricing.
Onward, Bob-O
On Oct 9, 2007, at 10:54 AM, John Raynes wrote:

>
> We've had multiple issues with Trojan.  We've had to deal with the  
> pricing problems like everyone else, but we now have major  
> distribution issues as well.  2-3 years ago, Trojan eliminated  
> competition among dealers in the state of Utah, giving exclusive  
> distribution rights to one dealer in Salt Lake.  Figures, they  
> picked the worst of the two distributors, so pricing became an  
> issue and they won't stock the L16 varieties that we wrenches prefer.
>
> OK, so we go over the border to CO (same travel distance) and get  
> what we want, at good prices.  Then, this past year, the same lousy  
> distributor managed to wrangle exclusive Trojan distribution in CO,  
> so now we're totally screwed.  I've sold 4 T105 this year,  
> everything else is going to other brands, mostly Deka.
>
> Our Deka 8L16 and GC15 pricing has gone up, but we're doing  
> noticeably better than the prices I'm seeing quoted in this  
> thread.  Relative to the Trojans, we're now probably about %40  
> cheaper, (as best as we can tell what our Trojan price actually  
> would be, if the Trojan distrib stocked what we wanted).  We've  
> found with batteries you really have to jaw to get the best prices,  
> not the way we like to do things, but...  And at least with the  
> Dekas we get to deal with the old Trojan distributor that we  
> preferred.
>
> Both the Deka and Trojan distribs out of Salt Lake will give us  
> free delivery for orders of 8 L16 batteries or greater, we just  
> have to work around their once every two week truck run.  Which we  
> gladly do, since pick-ups are a 450 mile round trip for us.
>
> I agree, Deka carrying handles aren't up to snuff at all.  And  
> we're getting some squirrely terminal orientations, not like the  
> spec sheet shows, meaning cabling isn't as clean.  But, that's  
> where the market in the intermountain region has driven us.
>
>
> John Raynes
> RE Solar
> Torrey, UT


- - - -
Hosted by Home Power magazine

To send a message: RE-wrenches at topica.com

Archive of previous messages: http://lists.topica.com/lists/RE-wrenches/read

List rules & how to change your email address: www.mrsharkey.com/wrenches/etiquette.php

Check out participant bios: www.mrsharkey.com/wrenches/

Moderator: michael.welch at homepower.com
--^----------------------------------------------------------------
This email was sent to: michael.welch at re-wrenches.org

EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?bz8Qcs.bz9JC9.bWljaGFl
Or send an email to: RE-wrenches-unsubscribe at topica.com

For Topica's complete suite of email marketing solutions visit:
http://www.topica.com/?p=TEXFOOTER
--^----------------------------------------------------------------

</x-flowed>