Poor PV Manufacturers' Customer Support (Was BP 3160 module line failures) [
Jay Peltz, Peltz Power
jay at asis.com
Sun Jun 22 18:21:50 PDT 2008
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Hi Joel,
Although not a big fan of government supervision, but this might be a
case for it.
AS you know here in California, a 10 yr parts and labor warranty is
demanded of the installer.
Is there some way to have this linked to the manufacturer?
For example if the installer has more than a few problems with
installations they find themselves on a "watch list" for rebates.
Well how about the manufacturers, so if they got X number of
complaints, they would find themselves out to the CSI program?
For one it would relieve the installer of some liability but could it
force some accountability of the manufacturers?
thanks
jay
peltz power
On Jun 22, 2008, at 5:42 PM, Joel Davidson wrote:
>
> Bad modules happen and BP, Kyocera, Sanyo and other manufacturers
> replace their bad modules and life goes on, but PV manufacturers'
> customer service is still very immature. Customers expect quality
> service and contractors who are not responsive to end-user
> customers' needs get a bad reputation and lose business. Not so
> with PV module manufacturers because module demand is growing so
> rapidly that manufacturers can abuse and abandon customers and
> still expand their sales revenue. Resellers (distributors,
> integrators, contractors, retailers) have little influence as
> manufacturers jump from market to market and to new resellers. Even
> reports of bad modules made by Sanyo, Kyocera, BP, and other
> manufacturers do not affect those companies' sales growth which
> only reinforces their bad behavior of abandoning and poorly serving
> long-time customers (who helped them get started in the market in
> the first place). If you stop buying from a bad supplier, two or
> more new customers jump in line. Is there a remedy to this poor
> customer service problem or is this just a condition that resellers
> must accept until the supply/demand situation switches in favor of
> the customer?
>
> Joel Davidson
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Sky Sims"
> <sky at ecologicalsystems.biz>
> To: <RE-wrenches at topica.com>
> Sent: Saturday, June 21, 2008 7:31 AM
> Subject: RE: BP 3160 module line failures [RE-wrenches]
>
>
>>
>> We've had 5 Bp 3160's go exactly as described out of about 2000
>> installed between 2001 and 2003. The first one that went I just
>> assumed
>> was caused by some freak object hitting it but the burn marks
>> directly
>> above the junction box made me suspicious. I ate the cost on the
>> first
>> one and just swapped it out with one of the replacement modules I
>> keep
>> in stock. When the second one went with the exact same marks I
>> knew it
>> had to be a factory defect of some sort. BP has honored the
>> warranty on
>> them but the turn around time is usually over a month and they expect
>> the customer to pay for shipping them back. BP burned a lot of
>> bridges
>> with a lot of customers over the years. At least they are honoring
>> the
>> modules with replacements. But it's a shame that it feels like
>> pulling
>> teeth every time I deal with them. They seem to give Home Depot
>> whatever
>> they want and just give their oldest customers the cold shoulder.
>> Course
>> that mentality is what lost them the North American market. Wasn't
>> too
>> long ago that they were america's first choice for solar projects but
>> they threw it away with poor customer support.
>>
>> Sky Sims
>> Ecological Systems
>> http://www.ecologicalsystems.biz
>> 220 County Road 522
>> Manalapan, NJ 07726
>> 732-462-3858 toll free)866-759-7652 fax)732-462-3962
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Greg Seelhorst [mailto:greg_s at sonic.net]
>> Sent: Saturday, June 21, 2008 12:45 AM
>> To: RE-wrenches at topica.com
>> Subject: BP 3160 module line failures [RE-wrenches]
>>
>>
>> Re: BP failures for BP3160 line of modules
>> We have no experience with the BP75s, but we do with the BP3160
>> series.
>> As of June 20, 2008 we have the following statistics to report for
>> failed or
>> shattered BP panels for installations since Nov. 2001:
>>
>> 1.34% Percent of installed BP panels (BP3160s) have failed (or
>> shattered)
>> [41 BP Panels Failed out of 3057 BP Panels Installed].
>>
>> 13.7 % Percent of our customers with installed BP3160 Panels have had
>> failures ranging from 1 to 14 panels within 6 years of
>> installation [13
>> Customers out of 95 Total Customers].
>>
>> BP says the buss bars are failing on the module at the soldering
>> joint
>> above
>> the junction box. About half of the failed panels are actually
>> exploding
>> causing the glass to shatter in place in some cases. If we can catch
>> the
>> buss bar starting to show burn marks before they fail BP will
>> authorize
>> us
>> changing them out. Since we have over 3,000 BP3160 panels out
>> there we
>> have
>> to keep about 5 in stock, just to keep up with the failing panels.
>>
>> Due to the nature of the failure, it is easier to tell because the
>> entire
>> string is taken out and shows at the inverter display. The hard
>> part is
>> getting the customer to relay this information to us close to the
>> time
>> when
>> it happens so that they can get the lost string back online.
>>
>> We no longer install BP panels since mid 2005.
>>
>>
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>
>
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> Hosted by Home Power magazine
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> wrenches/read
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