question

raphael303 avatar image
raphael303 asked

How to get Victron Support if seller doesn't respond and forum doesn't answer?

Hi Community.

I have multiple problems and questions with Victron-products.

Victron can not be contacted directly.

The company who sold me the victron products does not respond. (Generic answer, says they are overloaded, will respond in a couple of day, but never respond)

I have three forum questions without an answer. A forth one coming this evening.

I have multiple problems (also outside of the three posts I made) and no one to turn to.


What can I do? What am I doing wrong?

support
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3 Answers
nickdb avatar image
nickdb answered ·

If you do some googling, there is a form you can submit to victron which will identify the distributor of your equipment based on serial number, they are responsible for support.

While the community tries to help, it is not an official support site, just one of the tools that can (often) help get answers, but manned by mainly private volunteers. There is much more forum “noise” these days from inexperienced users and installers that can make it difficult to answer every post, though in most cases, the answers are already in the docs, training or existing topics. It just takes time and some effort to find it.

2 comments
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raphael303 avatar image raphael303 commented ·
Which is what I did to send a message to my distributor who doesn't answer
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nickdb avatar image nickdb ♦♦ raphael303 commented ·

Fair enough, feel free to name them if they aren't living up to expectations, just be constructive about it. You aren't alone in the experience of disties being overwhelmed by demand and coming up short.

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Jason - UK avatar image
Jason - UK answered ·

@Raphael303 I feel your pain. I've been in the same position many a time with unanswered questions and no support form the company I purchased from. Regarding your questions, they are very particular of which you might find there isn't many people with experience of 3 phase set ups compared to single phase installation therefore they might get lost in the quick succession of other questions. . You might get a better response if you keep the questions relatively short in the first instance to get the conversation going then provide more information as the conversation gets going. Also, if you are mod'ing the unit with Node Red, I wouldn't expect that to be covered by distributor.

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nickdb avatar image nickdb ♦♦ commented ·

Wrt node red, it may be better to ask those questions in the modifications section, but, having asked a few myself, it is a niche and particular group that tend to use it so answers aren’t always forthcoming.

With the unsupported capabilities like node red, you just have to do a lot of research and trial and error.

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raphael303 avatar image raphael303 nickdb ♦♦ commented ·
Thank you. I don't use node red on the Cerbo. I use it on the home assistant. I only use MQTT on the Cerbo as "unsupported options" and I do not have any questions about this.


My core questions are all about core functions native to Cerbo etc.

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nickdb avatar image nickdb ♦♦ raphael303 commented ·
@Raphael303 the integration on the cerbo is very good, it also integrates into VRM for proxy access to node red and your dashboards. Well worth using on the GX.
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raphael303 avatar image raphael303 raphael303 commented ·
Also thank you for the tipps on the questions. I will try.
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Alexandra avatar image
Alexandra answered ·

@Raphael303

To be honest support does fall into several categories and has several considerations

1. Warranty - this should be supported by supplier and distributor this is fully supported by Victron through the chain. As mentioned by @nickdb there is a page to visit if your supplier is being daft.

2. Set up and system design. Requires a bit of knowledge and background experience depending on how complicated and knowledge of regulations etc. Yes can be done DIY (with a ton of research) to a certain degree, but DIY level installers don't know what they don't know. The forum is not really the place for that as each set up has unique challenge/considerations and issues.

3. Node red is not officially supported and it is clearly stated, so if you are playing with that you need to be prepared for sorting out your own headaches. Also the forum is available but not every one may have tried what you have. Programming and the logic is (or really was - now moving away from that) fairly specialized and requires some programming (or a lot of DIY research) knowledge.

4. As for the forum, well we do try, but maybe no one here has tried what you are doing - or maybe there are a few who have but don't want to share. Feel free to share you knowledge as you gain it through experience - we could do with some help- so if you work out the answers to your own questions - please share. There are so many unique set ups out there. Supporting untrained people is time consuming particularity because they don't fully understand the product/application.

5. There are boundaries for support as well, in some cases like an energy meter install - DIY/untrained persons are not allowed by regulation to be fitting or fiddling with them. So a DIY person should not be doing some things even under instruction. Some systems set ups should not be done without a quite bit of experience on smaller stuff for example a three phase or parallel, also stated. As again really a person doesn't know what they don't know. And one of the things that is learned is troubleshooting the setup)

Victron have done well in making their knowledge open source and allow people play and create by giving them as many tools as possible. Plenty of training on Victron professional for free and documents as well as short videos out there to support learning and correct use.

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raphael303 avatar image raphael303 commented ·

Thank you,

1. Not applicable

2. Not applicable, system design recommended by distributor, basic setup preset. Fine tuning should be distributor, but again: Not answering

3. Have no questions about Node Red or MQTT, don't use NodeRed on Cerbo, but on HA.

4. Thank you for trying! I Appreciate it.

5. I don't have questions for install, but for usage and configuration in the widest sense. A Victron-tech now has answered to my satisfaction.

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Related Resources

Additional resources still need to be added for this topic

Victron - Where to buy - Authorised Installers, Sales and Distribution

Warranty and Repairs.