[RE-wrenches] Discover battery RMA costs

[Jason Szumlanski]

Oh boy, does Sol-Ark charge for shipping... The costs for warranty on their
inverters are ridiculous, not to mention the $3,000 deposit they require
before they advance ship a unit. For this reason, among others, including
lack of compensation for their ridiculous diagnostic hoops and
replacements, I stopped selling Sol-Ark altogether. They have no idea what
damage the service department is doing to their brand.

I haven't had to RMA many batteries, but in every case, the costs were
covered by the manufacturer (EG4, Tesla, Enphase, HomeGrid, Midnite, etc).


Jason Szumlanski
Principal Solar Designer | Florida Solar Design Group
NABCEP Certified Solar Professional (PVIP)
Florida State Certified Solar Contractor CVC56956
Florida Certified Electrical Contractor EC13013208


On Thu, Feb 26, 2026 at 11:00 AM Laura Conchelos via RE-wrenches <
re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org> wrote:

> Hi all,
> I need to replace a Discover rack-mounted battery under warranty. When I
> started the RMA process, I was told I'd have to pay shipping costs for the
> replacement battery, which I found appalling. That, of course, is on top of
> the fact that they will not pay any cost for my labor or for the disposal
> of the battery. I'm in a rural area, so disposal is difficult. If anyone
> knows of a place to dispose of lithium batteries in Denver, please let me
> know. I can haul it up with me next time I go!
>
> I'm not as surprised that Discover is not paying for my labor. though that
> sucks. It's a fight to get Solaredge to pay for my labor for
> inverter replacements and I've never been reimbursed for
> module replacement. But the shipping really surprised me. I've never had to
> pay shipping for an RMA before.
>
> So I'm wondering what costs y'all are having to absorb when RMA-ing
> equipment these days? A guy at Discover told me that Sol Ark was now
> charging shipping for replacement products?
>
> It feels very bad to have to pass these costs onto the consumer when the
> equipment they purchased fails, so I guess these are costs I'm going to
> have to build into the initial install going forward. Thoughts?
>
> Laura Conchelos
> Sandhill Solar LLC
> Monte Vista CO
>
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