ComplaintsforAlternative Energy Store, Inc.

• Initial Complaint

  02/03/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  In January 2023 I bought 2 Kilovault HAB 7.5 batteries from Alt E Store. On Jan. 16, **** one of them failed. I called their tech service twice that day and got no response, I called again on Jan. 17 & 19, **** and got no response. On Jan. 19, **** I went to their help desk and filed a request for help. I called again on Jan 22 & 24, **** and got no response. I sent an email on Jan. 26, **** asking for help and got no response. On On Jan. 29, **** I called and spoke to a company representative. He was no help,This battery has a 10 year warranty and is only 1 year old.They need to honor the warranty and either repair or replace the battery

  

  Business response

  02/21/2024

  *** first request for technical support was received the evening of Friday January 19th. Your second request was received six minutes later. Both requests were submitted after the close of business for the week.  *** next business day, Monday Jan 22ed our tech support team reached out requesting additional information as we did not have sufficient information to begin providing technical support.  
  
  We did not hear back from you till Jan 26th. You did not provide the information we requested. We responded within two hours requesting the information required to begin providing technical support. You replied about an hour later with an email that simply said your name ********************* and didnt contain any information requested.
  
  You called on January 29th at 4:50pm and a new help desk ticket was opened for you by one of our phone reps. *** information we need to provide tech support was not supplied during this call. Our tech support team reached back out 15 minutes later asking for basic information to begin troubleshooting.
  
  We did not hear from you till February 12, when you replied to our tech support team, but failed to provide the required info (product serial number). None the less, we give some basic advice on Feb 13th.
  
  We requested you to provide the serial number of the product three times, and in each of those cases you failed to give us that info. We cant do anything without knowing what product were working with.
  
  You have never submitted a warranty claim. We would need to know the serial number of the product to start that process. Please note, altE does not warranty products. Please see our warranty policy in the terms and conditions section of on our website. We do try and help customers process warranty claims with the manufacturers. We would be happy to help you find a copy of the warranty policy, but we need to know the serial number of the product you are asking about, so we get you the correct document.
  
  Every inquiry was responded to within one business day, as quickly as 15-minute response time. We never received serial numbers for the product the customer requested help with and were unable to progress the technical support case further.  We would be happy to help the customer with this inquiry, ***y will need to open a new helpdesk ticket at www.altestore.com/helpdesk or by phone at ************ during business hours. To speed things up, please include the serial number and all other information required with your request. 

  You can view our Terms and Conditions here: ****************************************************************************************

   

  Customer response

  02/23/2024

  [A default letter is provided here which indicates your acceptance of the business's response.  If you wish, you may update it before sending it.]
  
  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response submitted by the business and have determined that the response does satisfy my issues and/or concerns in reference to complaint #21243116. I understand that by choosing to accept the business response that my complaint will be closed as resolved. 
  
  Regards,
  
  *********************

• Initial Complaint

  10/27/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  Denied Warranty. On October 13, 2022 I experienced a catastrophic battery failure and fire resulting from a defective battery. I purchased the batteries in April of 2021 with a 5 year warranty. I contacted Alternative Energy Store on Oct 14 2022, I spoke with *****, explained what had happened, and was immediately accused of overcharging the batteries, BEFORE any questions were asked. Over the next week I was asked to test, disassemble, and photograph various equipment connected to the batteries, and other equipment not connected to the batteries in an attempt to cause frustration and to delay the process. Nothing was found out of specifications. On Oct 24 2022 I received the warranty determination by email:Hello *******,I heard back from tech support and unfortunately the batteries will not be covered under warranty for the following reasons: The PLC2100's will not be covered due to the powermax MP3 was set to constant voltage and not stage 3 charging. This caused the batteries to overcharge and heat up / melt.I'm very sorry that this happened. I've looped in your technical support representative to offer you replacements at a discount . ***,Could you offer Mr. ********** a quote for replacements at your best pricing?Regards,********************* ***************** :Just days earlier they request photographs of the selector switches, they were in the 3 stage charging position, as they always have been since the batteries were installed, all settings have remained the same since install. Photos of the switches set to the correct position were sent to them, as they requested, and are included in this complaint.

  Customer response

  11/07/2022

  I have not heard from the business in response to my complaint.

  

  Business response

  11/08/2022

  Were responding to a dispute filed by *************************************** for a purchase made via our Real Goods website on April 21, 2022 (Order # *********) in the amount of $2,529.10 for (6) ********* 2.1kWh 12V ************ AGM Batteries.
  ************************ recently contacted our *********************** for some help and indicated his batteries were up in smoke. Our *********************** requested information and reviewed 15 days of the customers battery history. They observed that his charge controller had records showing battery voltages as high as 29.44VDC (14.1VDC per battery for a total of 28.2VDC for 2 batteries in-series is the maximum recommended to prevent damaging the batteries). It was also noted that every other day it was constantly charging over voltage and 4 of his charging sources were at a constant power supply when 3 stage charging should have been selected. Photos received also indicated the parameter switch set at a constant voltage. Upon further research there was swelling on the PLCs but no burn marks, smoke or fire damage present in the pictures provided by the utility compartment of the RV.Our tech support representative did make a statement to the customer indicating that if a PLC is swollen and deformed that its generally because the batteries being overcharged. The rep also stated PLCs have very low failure rate and if it does fail only 1 out of 4 installed in a 48 volt system would fail and not all 6. The batteries came from 2 different manufacturing periods, so this lowers the chance of them being from one bad batch.He didn't mean to relay this information to the customer rudely, but in an informative manner to help the customer understand what we suspect *** have occurred. Unfortunately, due the unconventional charging methods of this system the batteries appear to have been constantly overcharged which does void any warranty. Information stated above can be found in the owners manual provided with each battery shipment. Weve included a manual as well as terms and conditions of the warranty for your review.
  In order to remedy this situation weve offered to sell ************************ 6 replacements at a deep discount if he is interested.
  Please let us know if you have any further questions. 

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩