[RE-wrenches] Discover battery RMA costs

[Ray Walters]

Hi Laura;

You didn't state how old the batteries were. If its an "out of the box" 
problem, then I don't even consider that a warranty issue.  The company 
has an initial obligation to sell you a functioning product, not a big 
hunk of junk.  That's part of the initial sale; you bought a battery, 
you should get a battery. Speaking of Rolls, that's why I quit selling 
their batteries; they sent me a battery that was wired internally 
backwards, so it had no voltage.  This was a simple quality control 
issue they should have caught at the factory, but instead they insisted 
on charging a serious freight charge to correct it.  Never sold their 
series 5000 stuff again (sorry Steve) so they might have controlled 
costs, but they lost about a train load worth of sales with me over the 
years, so I think their internal business calculus was flawed.

  I went on to sell HUP batteries (now gone, RIP) and they had what I 
thought was a very fair warranty policy. For the first year they paid 
parts, labor, and freight.  For years 2 through 7, they gave full 
credit, but the dealer paid freight and labor, and years 8 through 10 
were prorated, so you got a little credit, but definitely were going to 
be paying some.  Overall, we rarely used the warranty, but it was fair.  
I also recently had a minor issue with Midnite, and they sent a new unit 
out, at their cost, and I put the old unit in the box and sent it back 
to them.  Magnum used to be that way too, for "out of the box" or DOA 
products.

The other issue, is that you quickly quit selling products you have 
trouble with.  I'm considering posting a Good, Bad, and the Ugly list of 
my experiences with all manus.....

Ray Walters
Remote Solar


On 2/26/2026 8:59 AM, Laura Conchelos via RE-wrenches 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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