LG and Solar Service Guys Respond to Data Breach Allegations

LG Energy Solution Australia has moved to reassure resellers caught up in its long-running battery recall that their data has not been subject to a data breach.

The issue ignited, then blew up on Facebook when resellers began receiving marketing emails in error, and interpreted this as meaning their personal information had been either been handed to a third party without permission, or was subject to some kind of data breach.

The two companies involved, LG Energy Solution Australia and Solar Service Guys, assured SolarQuotes that neither privacy nor security were breached.

LG Energy Solution Australia’s managing director Philip Crotty explained to SolarQuotes that the emails came from Solar Service Guys (SSG). Since SSG is LG Energy Solution’s partner for managing the LG battery recall, they have a legitimate reason for holding customer information – so there’s no privacy breach.

As for a security breach, Crotty said SSG told him the emails weren’t deliberate spam, but rather sent in error.

Crotty told SolarQuotes he holds Solar Service Guys in high regard, and is satisfied both with its explanation of how the messages were sent, and with SSG’s assurance that it won’t happen again.

“We are satisfied with the explanation that this was an error and the steps that have been taken to ensure it is not repeated”, he said.

Peter Matthews, SSG’s managing director, told SolarQuotes the problem arose after an update to the company’s CRM system.

“When we sent the messages, the CRM pulled data from the wrong place,” he said.

The messages the resellers interpreted as spam were meant to be sent only to people who had requested information from SSG’s website form.

However, the error – apparently an SQL query corrupted during the software upgrade – meant a number of resellers were included in the mailout.

“Resellers that received the messages should not have”, Matthews told SolarQuotes.

SSG has called in an IT auditor to make sure the error is not repeated, he said.

The email blunder is the latest hiccup in the LG battery recall saga which started in 2020, and continues to this day.

If you have an LG, SolaX, Opal Storage, Redback, Red Earth, Eguana or VARTA Pulse battery, installed before 2019 – please call 1300 677 273 to check if it is subject to the recall.