Company's I would think about buying from again.

Submitted: Tuesday, Jun 04, 2024 at 20:18
ThreadID: 147807 Views:2025 Replies:7 FollowUps:17
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I had a problem with a Renogy solar controller. The initial warranty claim went well until I tried to get a refund.
It is dragging on.
They may have good products but their after sales support is awful.
Another company is Hardkorr.
I ordered a solar blanket for a upcoming trip, I ordered one and after some time waiting I contacted them to find out they were out of stock. No communication about this.
Not being very bright I ordered a headlight piggy back adaptor. I paid for express shipping so I would get it earlier.
Guess what? Out of stock.
Thats my moan done.
William

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Reply By: Member - Ups and Downs - Wednesday, Jun 05, 2024 at 07:29

Wednesday, Jun 05, 2024 at 07:29
Australia Post would have to be low on the list of good companies, although there is little competition to their business.

Their site states that an 'Express Post' article should take 3-4 business days to arrive from 'A' to my location, 'B.'

To be fair it did that, but in between was a farce.

Posted on a Wednesday 29th from 'A'.

I checked the tracking number on Friday 31st and saw 'It's coming today'. Sounds good.

But hang on, on the same page, underneath that was another line that stated 'Expect your item Thursday 10th'. So is it today or next week?

I rang the local Post Office, gave them the tracking number to be told that they had nothing on their screen. The number was re-checked 3 times so that wasn't why it didn't show. They referred me elsewhere.

I filled out a complaint form and received the reply from 'Sandy'. (a real person?)

'The estimated delivery date of your parcel was due to arrive on (04/06/24). We kindly ask that you allow 10 further business days from the EDD to pass to allow more time for the item to be delivered. If the item has not been received by (18/06/24) please re-open or lodge an enquiry through our Help & Support Portal.

So complaining about an 8 day delivery time, turns into a possible 13 working days.

As stated it did arrive, but does anyone at Australia Post know what's happening?

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Follow Up By: Member - bungarra (WA) - Friday, Jun 07, 2024 at 11:24

Friday, Jun 07, 2024 at 11:24
Australia Post would have to be the worst business I have ever dealt with.

I could quote example after example, but their latest effort meant an express post package took 3 days to move from the "blackhole of Welshpool" (local PO nickname for it!) to another spot in the same building and a further 4 days to arrive back to me the sender!!!

So, 7 days to do a return journey of 140km. Then they had to resend back to where it was intended...

14 days later it arrived to where it was addressed.
Life is a journey, it is not how we fall down, it is how we get up.
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Follow Up By: Member - Ups and Downs - Saturday, Jun 08, 2024 at 07:45

Saturday, Jun 08, 2024 at 07:45
I did fill out a further complaint online, but as of this morning there has been no reply.
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Follow Up By: Member - McLaren3030 - Saturday, Jun 08, 2024 at 08:02

Saturday, Jun 08, 2024 at 08:02
AP is certainly not a rapid delivery service. Ordered an item from the East Coast of the USA, was “overnighted” to the West Coast, cleared US Customs on the same day, arrived in Australia 24 hours later. Cleared Australian Customs, and arrived at an AP distribution centre, all within 4 days of placing the order. Took another 7 days to be delivered to me.

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Reply By: RMD - Wednesday, Jun 05, 2024 at 08:46

Wednesday, Jun 05, 2024 at 08:46
G'day William
Funny you mention companies not to deal with.
Although I mentioned this previously, after responses all went quiet for a while, I suddenly got an email reply from someone in Renogy telling my Regulator is out of warranty which they reminded me of, as if I didn't know. I simply asked if the offending section could be reset.
All replies about my reg/controller showing stupidly high history figures in every field were simply nonsense. I believe the cleaner at Renogy has more idea about their products do than staff. Contact staff definitely NEVER talk to the tech staff.
I regard businesses who have to have a name like HardKORR to get sales as being deceitful. They only source and resell anyway!

While companies are in business to make money, most have a business model of, get the money first, and maybe we may provide customer service, just maybe if you are lucky.
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Follow Up By: Richard M29 - Thursday, Jun 27, 2024 at 21:13

Thursday, Jun 27, 2024 at 21:13
Renogy, I have a good a Renogy Flexible solar panel, but needed info on their non lithium batts, that they sold when they first came here, as I bought one from them then. They denied that they ever sold such a battery. I would not buy from Renogy ever again for the lies and no customers service. I do like their product though. I will stick to the tried and true, where I can get reasonable product but excellent customer service and that is Jaycar.
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Follow Up By: Member - McLaren3030 - Friday, Jun 28, 2024 at 08:19

Friday, Jun 28, 2024 at 08:19
Hi Richard M29,

I am not sure who you spoke to at Renogy, but their own website still has AGM Batteries listed as in stock, 100 AmpHr $299.

What exactly did you ask them? I would not write Renogy off just because of a possible misunderstanding.

I have a Renogy 2,000 Watt Pure Sine Wave Inverter. Very happy with it. My experience with their customer service has been excellent.

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Reply By: Member - LeighW - Wednesday, Jun 05, 2024 at 08:54

Wednesday, Jun 05, 2024 at 08:54
Australia post....Had an item showing for a couple of weeks as still awaiting customs clearance in the US. Checked with US customs and they indicated it had been passed to USPS. Checked with the USPS and yes they had received it but it had but they had lost it!

Granted not Australia posts fault it had gone missing but that is why I insure any items sent. Put in a claim and their response was it is still in US customs. I forwarded the emails from US customs and the USPS and still there response is our sytem shows it is still awaiting customs clearance and we allow 90 working days for US customs to process items. This is for a service that specifies 6-10 business days!

I had to wait 90 business days before they would accept the claim.

Then there are all the other similar claims, their standard response these days for missing items is get the receiver or for me to chase it up with the USPS, hang on I'm paying you to ship it but you want me to do your work and chase it up. Their response is we don't have anyway to chase it up with the USPS, sorry guys that's your problem not my problem as I'm paying you to ship it!

The above is not company bashing, I ship a lot of items to the US, most get delivered without an issue but due to the amount I ship quite a few do get "lost" and the above is their standard response over the past couple of years. The insurance aspect of their delivery service is the cream on the cake to them and they certainly don't like it when they have to pay compensation for the items their partner companies or they loose themselves.
AnswerID: 645990

Reply By: Briste - Wednesday, Jun 05, 2024 at 09:07

Wednesday, Jun 05, 2024 at 09:07
I'm not as negative about Auspost as some. I think that problems like the one described are a result of sellers misusing the Auspost business posting facility to fool customers. What they do is book the shipment and pay for and print the shipping label, which allocates a tracking number, and then wait for the item to come into stock. Auspost sends a message that "it's coming", but when you look at the tracking information there's no nothing until they actually post this item. This is an issue with Ebay sales in particular. I've had quite long delays between being sent the tracking number and the item actually being shipped.
Personally I'd prefer Auspost to wait until the physical item is actually in the system before they tell you it's coming.

I have mixed views about HardKorr. I have had two sets of their folding crockskin solar panels lose much of their capacity fairly quickly. Having researched the problem I found that I'm far from alone, so they must know there is an issue. On the other hand they dealt with my warranty claims very professionally and I eventually got a refund. Selling items that you don't have in stock without warning the customer is pretty poor form in my view.
AnswerID: 645991

Follow Up By: Zippo - Wednesday, Jun 05, 2024 at 10:27

Wednesday, Jun 05, 2024 at 10:27
This year alone I've had three consignments through AusPost go missing this year while in their custody here in W.A. Two had AP's tracking and were demonstrably in their system. On both those occasions (*), AP eventually offered (and paid) compensation to the tune of my outlay. While not expensive items, the delay in getting replacements is frustrating.

(*) The second was ordered to replace the first lost item!
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Follow Up By: Nomadic Navara - Wednesday, Jun 05, 2024 at 11:53

Wednesday, Jun 05, 2024 at 11:53
"Personally I'd prefer Auspost to wait until the physical item is actually in the system before they tell you it's coming."

Each time I have had an AP delivery, it was not AP who sent me the number, it was the vendor who advised the number. In each case, there was an entry in the tracking list indicating when the item was actually delivered to AP. I like knowing when the delivery actually commenced. Having the tracking number allows me to check on that.
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Follow Up By: Briste - Wednesday, Jun 05, 2024 at 12:35

Wednesday, Jun 05, 2024 at 12:35
"Each time I have had an AP delivery, it was not AP who sent me the number, it was the vendor who advised the number. In each case, there was an entry in the tracking list indicating when the item was actually delivered to AP. I like knowing when the delivery actually commenced. Having the tracking number allows me to check on that."

On reflection you may be right. With many deliveries I get multiple emails,some of which were from AP, and perhaps I don't notice which was which. Perhaps it was entirely the vendor at fault. I'll watch out for this more closely in future.
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Follow Up By: Andrew L - Thursday, Jun 06, 2024 at 10:34

Thursday, Jun 06, 2024 at 10:34
alot of ebay sellers dont have the stock in hand, but as soon as you order from them, the stock is dispatched from a warehouse somewhere in the world.....
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Follow Up By: RMD - Thursday, Jun 06, 2024 at 12:19

Thursday, Jun 06, 2024 at 12:19
I ordered an Android tablet from XI and it arrived in astraya and was advised it was ON IT'S WAY by AP. The Tablet disappeared in CUSTOMS SYDNEY and although AP is still sending it to me, they NEVER got their hands on it despite having tracking and forwarding it with a due date of arrival too. Still waiting 20 months later for it to arrive. AP took no action and CUSTOMS won't bother to even LOOK for it.
Nice people to deal with.
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Reply By: IvanTheTerrible - Wednesday, Jun 05, 2024 at 21:03

Wednesday, Jun 05, 2024 at 21:03
Company's I will be buying from again.
Opposite Lock in a neighboring town.
Ordered 4 Wolf Pack storage tubs. Was told they only had two but had more coming Thursday. We were leaving Saturday so that would still give us time to get a courier to pick them up and deliver to us. They rang me Thursday morning to tell me that the extras were not in their delivery and they were on the phone looking were they were. Now they were now aware we were leaving Saturday so I was a bit pissed when I got another phone call Friday morning to re state they had no clue were they were. We had given up on getting them when we got a phone call 4:30 Friday arvo saying they had finally shown up. Now this is were they stood out from anybody else I have ever dealt with. The salesman loaded them into their work ute and drove them 100km to my door, on a Friday evening, in his own time!
AnswerID: 645995

Reply By: Bob Y. - Qld - Wednesday, Jun 05, 2024 at 22:01

Wednesday, Jun 05, 2024 at 22:01
A company I plan to purchase from again is Lithium Battery Wholesalers in Perth WA, selling ATG lithium batteries & other products, such as solar panels, chargers, & plenty of Victron items. Alan is very approachable & goes out of his way to help customers.

The only time I’ve had to wait some weeks for an item(300Ah battery), on receipt, the faded condition of the delivery docket suggested our local freight person must have “lost” it somewhere in her yard for a week or two.

Bob


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AnswerID: 645996

Follow Up By: Garry L - Thursday, Jun 06, 2024 at 10:09

Thursday, Jun 06, 2024 at 10:09
I've never had any issues with BWS or Dan Murphy's

Happy to buy from them again :)

Cheers
Gazz
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Follow Up By: RMD - Thursday, Jun 06, 2024 at 12:13

Thursday, Jun 06, 2024 at 12:13
Garry L
What chemistry is the electrolyte in the containers you mention?
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Follow Up By: Garry L - Friday, Jun 07, 2024 at 08:44

Friday, Jun 07, 2024 at 08:44
" What chemistry is the electrolyte in the containers you mention? "

RMD - they are anti stress capsules full of vitamins !

Vitamins B E E & R and taking these vitamins daily has kept me healthy and stress free for many many years.


Cheers
Gazz

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Follow Up By: Member - Bigfish - Friday, Jun 07, 2024 at 15:47

Friday, Jun 07, 2024 at 15:47
Never had much luck with any of the Dan Murphies products. It might be the heat up here in FNQ but the liquids all seem to evaporate very quickly indeed once the lid is taken off....
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Follow Up By: Tony W - Saturday, Jun 08, 2024 at 09:36

Saturday, Jun 08, 2024 at 09:36
Garry L posted:
I've never had any issues with BWS or Dan Murphy's

Happy to buy from them again :)

Cheers
Gazz

To be fair Gazz, I'll bet you've never tested their refund services
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Reply By: Member - Northern Wanderer - Wednesday, Jun 12, 2024 at 13:52

Wednesday, Jun 12, 2024 at 13:52
Hi William
Just to let you know that I wouldn’t be buying any HardKorr solar blanket/panel products. Had a 200watt solar mat which stopped working after a few uses and was replaced by HardKorr without issue. Now the replacement has done the same thing. Fortunately I also have a Redarc 160w panel that has been excellent. Think I’ll just get another Redarc even though they are expensive. I think one of the issues with HardKorr is that aluminium wire rather than copper wire is used and it just breaks easily.
AnswerID: 646026

Follow Up By: Briste - Wednesday, Jun 12, 2024 at 14:39

Wednesday, Jun 12, 2024 at 14:39
My experiences with HardKorr exactly. See my earlier follow-up. I got a refund after two failures.
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Follow Up By: Member - McLaren3030 - Thursday, Jun 13, 2024 at 08:17

Thursday, Jun 13, 2024 at 08:17
Hi Pat,

Have a look at the reviews on the ITechworld Solar Blankets. I know not all their products live up to expectations, however, I have been using a 200 Watt ITechworld Solar Blanket for quite a few years now, and am very happy with it.

Macca.
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