{"id":8324,"date":"2016-11-30T12:35:04","date_gmt":"2016-11-30T03:05:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/?p=8324"},"modified":"2016-12-19T16:05:13","modified_gmt":"2016-12-19T06:35:13","slug":"battery-warranties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/battery-warranties\/","title":{"rendered":"Unwitting Warranties: A Ticking Time Bomb For The Battery Industry"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"dodgy

As soon as a battery manufacturer says this, your battery magically gets a 20 year warranty in Australia. No matter what the warranty document says.<\/p><\/div>\n

The other day a salesperson give me the rundown on a home battery system he had on display.\u00a0 While it wasn’t cheap, it certainly appeared to be a very impressive piece of technology.\u00a0 The salesperson clearly had a lot of confidence in it because, even though its written warranty was only for 10 years, he very generously doubled that to a 20 year warranty without batting an eyelid.<\/p>\n

\"Ben

Ben Affleck would bat his eyelids for two hours a day in preparation for this role.<\/p><\/div>\n

We weren’t related, so nepotism wasn’t the reason for his generosity.\u00a0 And it wasn’t because I saved his life in Nam…bour.\u00a0 (That sugar cane train<\/a> could be really dangerous.)\u00a0 We weren’t old schoolmates, and as hard as it may be to believe, he wasn’t taken in by my charm and good looks.<\/p>\n

No, the reason why he gave me a 20 year warranty was simply because he didn’t realize he was giving one.\u00a0 Or possibly, he did realize he was giving one and really hates his company.<\/p>\n

He gave me a 20 year warranty when he told me the battery system had a design life of 20 years.\u00a0 According to Australian Consumer Law<\/a>, if a salesperson makes a statement that a reasonable person would conclude to mean that a product can be expected to last for 20 years, then that counts as a 20 year warranty.\u00a0 It doesn’t matter that this warranty was given verbally or that it is twice as long as its written warranty, legally it still counts.<\/p>\n

Unwitting Warranties Are A Ticking Time Bomb<\/h2>\n

Currently the residential battery industry is unintentionally giving away extended warranties willy-nilly and it is going to bite them on the bottom when consumers take them to court because a system they had been led to believe would last for 20 years stopped working after only 12.<\/p>\n

There are many battery manufacturers who don’t realize the huge amount of potentially business destroying liability they are setting themselves up for by failing to ensure they aren’t unwittingly giving customers free extended warranties they never intended to.<\/p>\n

They can be quite shocked when they do find out what they have done.<\/p>\n

Anecdotal Evidence<\/h2>\n

Finn recently attended a talk on Australian Consumer Law at a solar energy conference.\u00a0 He asked the lawyer speaking if a salesperson stating a battery had a design life of a specific number of years counted as giving a warranty for that long.\u00a0 The speaker said it definitely did.\u00a0 At the end of the talk the representative of a Chinese manufacturer came up to Finn and asked, “Is this true?”<\/p>\n

When Finn assured him it was he looked dismayed and walked away shaking his head, presumably calculating how much trouble his company was in as a result of these Australians and their crazy consumer laws.<\/p>\n

If battery manufacturers and resellers are to avoid being legally required to cover warranties they never intend to give, then many are going to have to immediately change the way they talk about and sell batteries.<\/p>\n

It Is More Serious Than Solar Panel Warranties<\/h2>\n

The situation is quite different from the one with solar panels and their performance warranties<\/a>, as many people aren’t going to bother to chase down the manufacturer when one panel fails, because a replacement may soon only cost $100.\u00a0 But battery systems are much more expensive and people will be much more likely to go to small claims court to get their money back if their battery system doesn’t last as long as they were led to believe.<\/p>\n

Australians Got Consumer Guarantees<\/h2>\n

Under Australian Consumer Law all goods sold by businesses for under $40,000 or over $40,000 if normally bought for personal or household use, come with a set of consumer guarantees<\/a>.\u00a0 These guarantees include, but are not limited to, the product being safe and performing as described.\u00a0 But a very important one I see people in the home battery industry repeatedly ignoring is any express warranties must be honored<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Express Warranties<\/h2>\n

Any home battery systems sold by a business are automatically covered by Australia’s consumer guarantees.\u00a0 Express warranties<\/a> are any additional promises made about the performance of the product, whether written or verbal.\u00a0 The written warranty a product comes with is one type of express warranty, but they also include any verbal promises made by salespeople.<\/p>\n

It doesn’t matter if salespeople didn’t realize they were giving a warranty, had their fingers crossed, or kept repeating, “Wink, wink, nudge, nudge, say no more.”\u00a0 The business must live up to any promises made, even if they were unintentional.<\/p>\n