Money matters, service doesnt

I do not recommend Solar Supply. The reason for my review is not to bad mouth but to warn potential future customers. It was an easy buy, delivery was swift. The issue came in with after service.

We bought an Automatic switch over and generator and wanted to return the switch. We have confirmed that we may return, and was happy to pay handling fee. But the rest of the money was such a nag to get the money back. And its always the managers problem and he is never in office. A month later they said its paid and we had to nag for 4 months before getting the payment back. So they deducted the handling fee AND paid short after that as well. We just left it, it starts getting hassles to hassle someone thats owing you money. They have confirmed that they are receiving our communications.

Later, we then asked them for advice on an issue we had on the generator. We specifically asked for technical support as it seemed like a warranty claim issue. They only said they will get back to us. We eventually got it right ourselves. They insisted we keep on asking our queries on Whatsapp so they can get back to us but they just read.

Later, we then asked them for advice on servicing, and they did not help us with our query. We then started servicing ourselves, later on finding out that there is specific brands oil we should not use, which we used as they did not specify this info upon purchase or at any time throughout this process.

Skip to our second service, we requested a quote on a part and to our surprise, the service was quick and great (Sales is what matters.) A price was given, a formal quotation supp**** and would be available within 2 days. Although we decided to skip replacing this part, as a family member (note not Solar Supply) adviced that it is not needed, its only the filter of that part that needs to be cleaned. That part may be replaced only a while after your purchase. This generator is currently not even a year old. We were eventually advised that we should bring the generator in as they only look at it at walk-in basis. Its not easy to have to transport such a big generator(7kva). But anycase, we want to comply and be hassle free from our side.

Eventually we encountered another issue after a while. And wanted to bring the generator in. They then said they have technicians that can come out. So we organised that. Upon the technicians arrival, we only found out that the technician is a sub contractor and we have to pay a call out fee. So then after the technician checked out the issue, he came again to fix it. We thought it was fixed then another, new issue popped up. He came again and brought someone with to help. They werent sure what to do. They said its electrical and wanted to bypass on the board. We advised them to rather call in as we dont want to be liable for them breaking it even more, while in warranty. The lady on the phone was on speaker with the contractor and claimed that this issue comes from pushing the generator to the limits. She did not know that you can see on the dashboard the amount of power you are pulling and questioned us about how would be know how much power we are pulling. She claims this without asking us anything about out our situation before hand. If we were asked, our response would be that we never push the generator longer than allowed. We actually feel sorry for the thing when the 4hr loadsheddings come through and we try to not use it for 4hrs. Its worth mentioning, that its a 7kva generator running at 100% efficiency which means it gives 7kw out and that we never come close to that amount of kilowatts. We average around 3 or 4kw. And we were told that there is a safety switch that trips/switches off the generator when the load is too much as to prevent damage to the unit. So either the sales misinformed us of this feature and dont know their machine, or they are looking for excuses and forgot what they promised. We now have to wait for a part to see if it may work or not. Above that, the technician is asking another call out fee.

In conclusion A lot of promises of getting back to us was made through this whole process but was never kept. The sales is what was easy but the after sales was bad, if you can count this experience as any after sales. Once again, the reason for this review is not to bad mouth but to warn.