[RE-wrenches] Damaged in shipping

Tue Jul 2 23:30:18 EDT 2019

For the last five years, I start off by telling new off-grid clients that the available equipment is crap and that they should expect said equipment to fail and that they will be paying me a lot of money over the life of the system to journey out to troubleshoot and make repairs. All my clients come by referral, quite often from neighbors who’s SW’s and VFxs I installed have been running trouble free for for many, many years. I build a good system and go the extra mile for my clients but I refuse to subsidize manufactures by eating troubleshooting and repair costs. It seems like most of what I do these days is service related……..hmm

Michael
> On Jul 2, 2019, at 7:12 PM, William Miller <william at millersolar.com> wrote:
> 
> Dave:
>  
> It is obvious that a lot of the problems are not your fault.  It would seem unfair for you to bear the expense of circumstances not of your making. It is noble to have concern for the client’s best interest and there is a lot to say for giving a little to build a relationship.
>  
> It seems to me this is a perfect chance to negotiate the charges.  You might consider explaining carefully to the client what has transpired and ask them what they think is fair.  You might be surprised at how much they appreciate your dilemma.
>  
> You sound like a contractor with a conscience.  Good for you.
>  
> William
>  
> PS: Need an empty Radian carton with all the packing?  I got a few on the shelf…
>  
> Wm
>  
>  
>  
> Miller Solar
> 17395 Oak Road, Atascadero, CA 93422
> 805-438-5600
> www.millersolar.com <http://www.millersolar.com/>
> CA Lic. 773985
>  
> Quote of the month:  “As they age, batteries transition from energy 
> storage devices to energy consuming devices.“ W. Miller
>  
> From: RE-wrenches [mailto:re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org <mailto:re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org>] On Behalf Of Dave Tedeyan
> Sent: Monday, July 1, 2019 8:32 AM
> To: RE-wrenches
> Subject: [RE-wrenches] Damaged in shipping
>  
> Hi All, 
> I thought I would pick the hive mind to get some thoughts on whose responsibility it is when you service a system and things go wrong beyond your control.
>  
> Here is the situation:
> Outback Radian GS8048 inverter (out of warranty) goes offline and stops working. Customer calls me to check it out, and in the meantime, they had an electrician rewire the backed up loads to bypass the inverter (not realizing there was a simple bypass switch...). By the time I get there the inverter is working again. I wire the backed up loads back to the inverter, educate them about the bypass switch, and call Outback. We see some erroneous data on Optics, and so they suggest I replace all the ethernet cables with shielded cat5e. I do that, and charge the customer for the visit.
>  
> A few days later, the inverter goes stops working again. I go back out and this time the issue is still active. Outback suspects it is one of the control boards, which cannot be field replaced. So the choices are send the whole inverter to Outback, or get a new Power stack for about $2500. So I send the inverter in. I offer to the customer to not have them pay for my labor this visit, since they already paid me to fix this issue and it did not work.
>  
> Outback tests the inverter, finds no fault, although I ask them to replace the board anyway, since the fault was intermittent. They tested it and it was working then it left their facility. I receive it in a rough looking box. I go reinstall it, and the mate3 sees it, and the communications are okay, which is the original issue that I sent it in for. But now it will not put out any AC voltage. So a completely different issue, but still a useless piece of equipment in its current state. Tech support and I cannot determine exactly what is wrong after running through some troubleshooting steps, so they say I need to send it back to their facility. The best I can come up with is that it got damaged during shipment on the way back. (I was not excited to see that they left some poor Fedex driver to handle a 130lb package on their own....) So the inverter is currently in transit back to Outback.
>  
> Here is the question:
> Would you all be charging the customer for all the time spent on troubleshooting and shipping, or at some point do you eat some of these costs? Even though (I am fairly certain) that I have done nothing negligent and none of this is my fault... but I am still not sure if it is right to charge the customer for all this back and forth when my actions have not resulted in a fixed and usable inverter. I'd appreciate anyone's thoughts and feedback on this sort of situation.
>  
> Cheers, 
> Dave
>  
> Dave Tedeyan, PE
> Senior Engineer | Taitem Engineering, PC
> 
> 110 South Albany Street | Ithaca, NY 14850
> o. 607.277.1118 x121  f. 607.277.2119
> www.taitem.com <http://www.taitem.com/>
>  
> Solar • Sustainability • Energy • Design
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	Michael Morningstar

     	Morningstar Electric
	PO Box 1494
	Mount Shasta, California 96067
	530-921-0560
	CSLB 949635

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