[RE-wrenches] Has anyone ever had one of his customers get a note from SolarEdge like this one?

Amos Post integrityenergy101 at gmail.com
Fri Aug 19 09:23:52 PDT 2022


I know everybody is experiencing supply chain problems and it’s over my head as to what’s going on…

I have also recently  had poor support from Solaredge.  Support was good several years back when the company was young, but it’s been getting worse and worse the last couple of years.  

We have an 11.4KW where the customer is now on his 4th inverter in 4 years.  We are still waiting for a replacement after 6 weeks.

We also recently had a SE6k stop producing.  SE did a firmware update on day one, and that didn’t help.  Day #2 we did a “load test”, by turning off all of the house AC loads and leaving just the inverter on (per SE recommendation), still no dice.  Day #3 I called in and they are going to send a replacement but no concrete timeframe.  

This is very frustrating for customers and us as installers when our customers have to wait this long for a replacement, especially during prime producing days of summer.  Somehow they are able to maintain a good stock price and some inventory at local distributors(but not in their warranty department).   Solaredge’s customer support needs to step up a notch (or two) if they are going to make it through this.

The long wait times and level 1 techs are also not so good.

Amos


       Amos Post
   Integrity Energy
  W 802.763.7023
   C 802.291.2188
    ienergyVT.com <http://www.ienergyvt.com/>
        Facebook <https://www.facebook.com/integrityenergyllp?ref=hl>

> On Aug 15, 2022, at 9:56 PM, No Name via RE-wrenches <re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org> wrote:
> 
> Apologies my Google keeps thinking I have no name lol, this is Joe Nelson over at Sustainable Energy Group.. (thank you Michael my apologies)
> 
> On Mon, Aug 15, 2022, 6:53 PM No Name <spaceshipnelson1 at gmail.com <mailto:spaceshipnelson1 at gmail.com>> wrote:
> Very disappointing to say the least. 
> 
> My strategy has had to adapt at least a dozen times through the years as we are between a rock and a hard place out here on the left coast (between lack of equipment availability and cleaning up other's messes almost constantly). 
> 
> Scot, do you ever get the option for a "call back"? Usually with a wait time that long they give you an option to be called back in the same amount of time.
> 
> But then you're not onsite, and many of their lame diagnostics require a tech to be onsite.
> 
> I frequently use the chat (online) support, as you can choose an option to have your chat transcript emailed to you (make sure you check the box in chat) which at least lends supporting evidence to the conversation. 
> 
> I also encourage you to seek some sort of interaction from SE and a retraction of their error. Don't let the lower foot soldiers (lvl 1 tech support) stop you, politely keep insisting you speak with a higher lvl tech to resolve the issue. I am certain my face is on their dartboard as some days these issues required calling & chat support multiple times in one day. Be polite, but be unrelenting.
> 
>  Continued success will be increasingly difficult, as manufacturers "race to the bottom". ( I miss the days of old Xantrex and SunnyBoys).
> 
> On Mon, Aug 15, 2022, 6:26 PM Jason Szumlanski via RE-wrenches <re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org <mailto:re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org>> wrote:
> We never sold SE and never will. Their service has always been pretty poor and recently it's just bottom of the barrel. Blaming everything on installers and making you jump through asinine diagnostic hoops is the name of their service game. They don't seem to want to solve issues, or at least they want to avoid responsibility for defective products. This is in stark contrast to the big orange 'e' that recognizes they have defect issues from time to time, but resolves things routinely with mostly competent level 1 techs, and often without site visits.
> 
> On Friday I got bounced around to three departments over 2 hours at SE only for the last guy to tell me he needed to send me to another department - except I recognized his name as someone who had emailed my client that he was taking personal responsibility for the issue. Busted! I demanded that he stay on the line and resolve the issue, which he ultimately did, to his credit. 
> 
> I can't remember the last time I was up against a SE proposal in Florida. Everyone has jumped ship apparently and only offer microinverters. It's very reminiscent of Fronius as another Wrench pointed out. Fronius used to dominate here until they started the same nonsense on-site diagnostic requirements. I'm not waiting on on hold, on site, for hours because you can't pick up the phone in a reasonable timeframe, only to be given the runaround for an obviously defective piece of hardware. Send pictures of my Fluke measurements? I think not.
> 
> My client from Friday just signed a $9,000 contract with me to send her SolarEdge gear to the landfill and replace it with microinverters. Seriously. People are fed up (consumers and contractors).
> 
> Jason Szumlanski
> Florida Solar Design Group 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On Mon, Aug 15, 2022, 7:55 PM Scot Arey via RE-wrenches <re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org <mailto:re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org>> wrote:
> We just had the second SE7600 Energy Hub internal error in a year at one of our sites. Our customer none too pleased as you might imagine. We send in pics to SolarEdge and they say they are assessing since this is 2nd inverter failure. Customer gets super upset and calls SE to be told – and I’m summarizing – oh, your installer didn’t send in what we need.
> 
>  
> 
> Huh? We sent in the pics as requested and were told they were assessing and not once have we been asked for further details or better pics, even after we called back for updates.
> 
> The customer insists to SE, “send me new inverter” and SE sends this attached note to the customer. I almost fell over…I’ve put in hundreds and hundreds of SolarEdge to include many dual-inverter/BUI/storage systems and to have a tech roll me and my company under the bus like this is stunning.
> 
>  
> 
> Has this happened to anyone else?
> 
>  
> 
> P.S. – I tried calling SE today for support and was told the wait was “116 minutes.” This just isn’t working. I can’t be the only one.
> 
> Posted this on LinkedIn a month ago – no retractions: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:ugcPost:6948389740500987904?utm_source=linkedin_share&utm_medium=member_desktop_share&utm_content=post <https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:ugcPost:6948389740500987904?utm_source=linkedin_share&utm_medium=member_desktop_share&utm_content=post>
>  
> 
> 
> 
>  
> 
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