We’ve been running this website for 16 years. In that time, we’ve published tens of thousands of reviews and written plenty of posts about installers and manufacturers. Shock horror, some have been critical.
We’ve seen every kind of response. From genuine, constructive engagement to personal threats to multi-page demands from top-tier law firms. I’ve had at least one death threat.
The legal threats are always interesting. Not because they scare us, but because of what they signal. A company comfortable with its product or ethics doesn’t reach for a lawyer when someone criticises it. A company that knows the criticism landed and wants to stop anyone else reading it does.
Which brings me to a story that’s been doing the rounds in the battery world.
In 2024, a Queensland YouTuber named Stefan Fischer published the results of testing lithium batteries made by Deep Cycle Systems1. His verdict: they were degrading faster than they should and weren’t fit for purpose.
DCS’s response was to sue him for defamation.
If your product is good and the review is wrong, you engage. You show your data. You provide your side of the story. You invite scrutiny. You don’t drag a bloke into the District Court of Queensland.
The lawsuit backfired about as badly as a lawsuit can. Fischer’s GoFundMe raised $150,000. His channel surged. Prominent YouTubers in Australia and the US covered the saga, racking up over a million views. More customers came forward with their own horror stories.
The case was dismissed in March 2025 because DCS wasn’t even eligible to sue for defamation2. Fischer has been awarded costs of six figures and had to apply to wind up the battery company to recover his money.
DCS’s lawsuit told you a lot more about DCS than Fischer’s video ever did.
I know this dynamic from the other side too – some of the best things we’ve ever built at SolarQuotes came directly from harsh criticism:
Some people hated that we forced three installer quotes on everyone, so we changed it to a choice: one, two, or three.
The Good Installer Guarantee came from customers telling us referrals alone weren’t enough.
Our vetting has got progressively tougher because people kept telling us it wasn’t tough enough. They were right. Harsh feedback, taken seriously, made us better.
So when I see a company respond to criticism with a lawsuit rather than a listen, I don’t just think they’re making a dumb mistake. I think they’re telling you exactly what kind of company they are.
Footnotes
- A company Ronald had reservations about in 2017 ↩
- One of the lesser-known aspects of Australian defamation laws is that companies with 10 or more employees can’t sue for defamation. They generally threaten you with ‘injurious falsehood’ instead, which sounds scarier but is actually harder to prove, since they have to show the statement was false, made maliciously, and caused real financial damage ↩
About Finn Peacock
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It’s good business practice 101. Own your problems. Once you let someone else own them they get a life all of their own. And one that is now well out of your reach. You end up playing catch up
Oh – and thanks for update on case above. Lost track of it. Closure at last
As a 4-wheel driver I have followed Stephen’s YouTube blog for years and followed the saga where they put him through the wringer in a manner you would not believe. I do not know of anyone else in that field who does a fairer review of products after long term testing on his travels, not just taken out of a box and admired, and he has done countless tests.
It all boiled down to Lithium batteries being very sensitive to heat and under bonnet is never cool and life shortening and problematic whatever the maker says.
To all those that have taken advantage of the govt. home battery promotion I hope they have been installed in a shady spot or under some heat protection so they can have their intended life.
Home batteries unlike the under hood sort have active temperature management systems built in to keep things in an acceptable temperature range.
These are very different batteries.
I know when charging my home batteries generate a lot of fan noise as they actively cool.
The batteries in this saga are about as different from a home or EV battery system as a AAA battery is from an AGM. Both may store power but thats about where the similarities end.
I recall seeing this claim and thinking…good luck with that. It says more about one person integrity and the facts. A good way to tarnish their own product and corporate reputation.
Speaking of battery suppliers and threats to those who post honest opinions of sub-par products…
Is now a good time for SQ to update us all on SigEnergy’s not-a-recall saga?
Perhaps also an update on whether or not SQ will put Sig back on your recommended products list?
Thank you.
Hey something doesn’t feel quite right here, the YouTuber pledged in 2024 that any extra funds will be going to Royal Flying Doctor Service in the GoFundMe: “I repeat that if there is money raised above my legal costs, then I will donate the surplus to the Royal Flying Doctors Service.”
His latest update on YouTube says:
“I’ll be straight. Early on, I said everything would go to the Royal Flying Doctors. That was genuine, but as things dragged on for 2 years, I stopped making this promise. I couldn’t honestly guarantee it. Also, a lot of you said to keep the money anyway for all the hassle and stress.”
He closed the fund raiser the day after that update.
I’ll note that the promise is still on the GoFundMe, he has been saying all along the extra is going to RFDS. It sounds like he’s going to steal some of the funds away from the charity.
My comments/questions about this to him, and from others, have been disappearing from his YouTube.
His costs kept growing and he has publicly stated he would use that money to cover it. “Steal” is the wrong word, and I for one don’t blame him as he had the fortitude to tell the truth.
Yeah that’s the thing. Using the money to cover costs is what he’s said all along, then what ever is left goes to RFDS.
Now he’s saying not all of the left over is going to RFDS.
Still hasn’t updated the GoFundMe to reflect that, I only found out because I happened to see a YouTube Video.
I love this story of a company trying to sue its way out of trouble. Even with the $150k settlement, Stefan offered DCS a deal that would have saved them a lot of money and they refused. Just recently he applied to have the company wound up to pay the debt and at the last minute he was paid in full.
I think the nail in the coffin was when Louis Rossman featured the story to his 2.5 million YouTube subscribers.
Overall, it was found that DCS:
Lied about their number of employees.
Lied about having facilities all over the world.
Lied about manufacturing their own batteries.
Stole their logo from a US company
I can’t see them surviving this.
It’s a crazy situation, I’m not sure what to make of it.
We had Stephan begging for money all this time, telling us that he will donate the surplus after costs to RFDS.
He got the cash from DCS. And he got $150,000 from donations. Then backtracks on that promise at the last minute, in his latest video!! Where is the surplus going now? Well, he promised everything that was left over to RFDS.
I wonder if RFDS or GoFundMe will sue Stefan for failing to live up to his promise?
I hope he does the right thing. Since he promised to deduct costs from the pool of funds and send the rest to RFDS, that’s what needs to be done.
Jezza,
This makes THREE posts now from you, ALL banging on about Stephan and a donation to RFDS. What’s your agenda? I’ve never seen your name in any other SQ blog comments. What has drawn you here, just for this topic?
Full transparency: I have no horse in this race. Prior to Finn’s blog here I wasn’t aware of DCS nor ‘Stephan’ and his YouBoob channel.
Thanks Finn for publicising this issue.
Hi,
My agenda is to highlight the fact that Stephan promised to donate surplus funds to charity. To point out that on the last day of a 2 year saga, after receiving $149,000 in donations and the cash from DCS, he posted a video saying that he doesn’t intend to honour that promise.
I was drawn here by a simple Google/Facebook search.
My goal is to see all the money raised in surplus going to charity as promised, not the YouTuber.
My horse in the race was a donation over a year ago to support costs + RFDS.
So you’re on a crusade, actively searching the web for every forum you can find to ‘out’ poor Stephan. He suffered a tonne of anguish at the hands of DCS’ legal team. I think he deserves some peace now.
I think you made your point adequately in your first post. The rest are redundant. [Aside from failing to declare your vested interest in the situation. At least now you’ve admitted that. Thanks for being honest.]
Our YouTuber has sent an update via GoFundMe to be as transparent as possible and has adequately addressed the change of plans, and I do thank him for this.
My Solarquotes installer has a “performance guarantee” (it is still advertised on their Solarquotes page) which promised that the installed system would not output more than 10% below their estimates over a 12 month period. These estimates include allowances for rain, cloudy days etc. This mob wernt the cheapest but I went went with them because of this guarantee
A few months in I realised this promise could not be met – their estimate for June was 12.8kwh/d however even on a clear sunny day in late May I was getting <12kwh/d. There was no way that June, with shorter days, could statistically meet 12.8kwh/d even if every day was sunny. I told them this at the time.
I decided to formally wait out 18 months to see if things would improve but they have not. On a rolling 12 month basis, I am consistently performing 12-15% below their estimates.
The company has ghosted me since i presented this info to them 6 months ago. Can you please advise whether the Good Installer Guarantee applies?
Hi Titus,
I’ve looked up your system – I see it was an Enphase system on a shaded roof installed about 2 years ago.
The terms of the Good Installer Guarantee are here
One of them is that we need to be told within 12 months of the install.
But of course, we’ll look into this for you and see how we can help to resolve it for you.
Expect a call from Ned soon.
Finn