Support for Professionals?

Community feedback
1

Is there such a thing like “Victron Support” for Professionals? I mean this community forum is all nice and neat, but
we’re actually a company and need some reaction times if problems arise. Sure, we have our Distributor, but that’s
for other types of queries.

Current problem: Can’t login to professional.victronenergy.com anymore.

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Yeah. Very nice. Except “Continue” does not continue, no email arrives, signup doesn’t work, because
that email already exists. Sure, tried removing cookies, incognito browser, different browser…
Nothing.

So here I am, I have NO IDEA whom I could ask, No support@victronenergy.com, or whatever.

Seems like Victron is assuming everything always works flawlessly and no support needed.

Except…

2

Is it possible that you’ve not registered that email on that service?

And if you’ve gotten no registration confirmation then maybe have a look in spam?

Or maybe wait till you get the mail?

Because if you get no mail, you are not registered and cannot log in because the system doesn’t know who you are.

Maybe your domain petajoule.eu is experiencing issues?

Is it possible the issue is on your end and not Victron?

A quick scan confirms that your network is up and running

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But the website clearly says it doesn’t have your information

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3

Hi @PetaJoule

I have heard a few similar issues from others as well recently with Victron Professional, I’ll forward on your email and have someone contact you.

Speaking in general you have described the support path though. Your distributor is equipped with the chain of support for these requests (including VRM).

They can escalate enquires they can’t help with directly to their Victron sales manager who knows who to ask.

If that process is too slow or fails for some reason, then the community is here for a catch all alternative channel.

4

This is the weak link. I like ALL of the North American sales managers and especially our assigned rep. But Victron gives the sales managers so many responsibilities and busy travel schedules that getting timely information or responses is often just not possible. Response times are usually measured in days after a reminder email. That’s why it’s so important to pick a very experienced distributor to work with. The distributors just moving product helps Victron’s bottom line, but do little to provide good support to the field.

1 Like
5

I agree

I agree wholeheartedly

In the long run of working with Victron we want the distributors that provide the best level of service to their customers, which means understanding the product and knowing how to solve problems efficiently to get the most business.

In the beginning it can be tempting to just choose the lowest cost supplier, but if they keep their costs low by not providing knowledgeable support staff and maintaining their training then it’s a false economy when you need support.

There is always the tension and pressure for Victron the manufacturer to take on more global support. The model is clear though and unlikely to change, we want to grow our network because we believe that local dealers are in the best position to help their local customers with their local issues arising from the products they have sold.

Situations like issues with Victron Professional (and VRM) log in credentials, which are clearly out of scope for distributors just need to be efficiently forwarded on by them, the same as any other issue their receive where they don’t have the knowledge to solve it.

That path exists for them via their sales manager.
In this case the sales manager isn’t solving it either, and they also have an escalation to R&D.

When that breaks down, I have put myself forward as a publicly accessible representative of Victron to help as an alternative channel to all those normal processes.

The only way it’s possible for me to keep up with the global demand is with the incredible support of the rest of the Victron Community here, so that I don’t need to answer the 100+ questions per day personally, but just those that no one else can, or need me to escalate.

The reason for all these “barriers” is because without them the R&D team who knows how to fix the issues would be inundated with people who don’t know the difference between a simple answer thats already in the manual and a real urgent bug that requires stopping new feature development until it’s fixed.

I know it’s frustrating while you’re waiting for a fix or even a response, but that also the reason for the other half of my work to make the answers as accessible as possible via the documentation and training (which in this case is ironic because it’s accessed via Victron Professional which you need help to re-enable).

1 Like
6

You should have access to all the support you need. If you aren’t getting support, if possible, look around until you do. I have about 4 choices of distributors in my region. Only two of them are reliable sources for professional advice, engineering and troubleshooting. For this reason I have started buying Victron product from the distributor that is farther away to get the best support. Furthermore I have access to the regional Victron Rep who is very knowledgeable. There isn’t much that I can’t get sorted out pretty quickly between these options.

1 Like
7

Love to hear it, and exactly how things are supposed to work.

Success to you and your distributor.

8

@guystewart
I am leading the level 2 support for digital products at a global equipment manufacturer.
If you like to exchange on support topics, pls reach out.
BR Björn

9

But the website clearly says it doesn’t have your information

Clearly? The website clearly says I should verify my email address. Not that it doesn’t know it.

In fact, I CLEARLY wrote:

signup doesn’t work, because that email already exists.

And it has existed since… idk 2014 maybe?

10

It’s a little frustrating advice you’re giving there to someone who has been communicating 10+ years ago with Matthijs Vader and Johannes Boonstra and helped to form some of the documentation you rely on today (still got their email addresses but wouldn’t bother them ofc).

The apprentice at our distributor (assigned after we lost - unannounced - distributor status) purely handling my sales requests is happy that after 1-2 years working there and me being benevolent and teaching him in would probably have to forward it somewhere.

So yeah. I’ll just tell my customer his EV Charger Firmware update has to wait until Victron sorts out a few things.

11

When there is a public post on this community site asking how Victron support is supposed to work, my reply is usually going to be something that I would expect 100’s of other people to see and read, and will then try and generalise it to be applicable to everyone.

Matthijs and Johannes couldn’t help you any further than has already been done by me in this case. I would expect to hear an answer back from the engineer today. There have been 4 other cases that I know of somewhat similar to yours, but all with different causes after investigation.

My work around if you need immediate access for a firmware file would be to create a temporary account as an installer with another email address you might have that isn’t already registered. That should be instant, until we know what happened to your main account.

12

When was the last time you logged into your account?

13

If it’s urgent than the easiest (temporary) solution would be to just create a new account with another e-mail address, that’s done in a few minutes.

For the future I would recommend to use Dropbox to synchronize the all FW files.
That way you have all files up-to-date on your computer or in the cloud without Victron Professional.

1 Like
14

Hi @PetaJoule

Please try logging into Victron Professional again, it should now be resolved.

15

Hello Guy,

am I an outlier in that I have to report that the support path you describe does not work at all?

I had my Victron ESS installed by a professional official Victron distributor, the only one geographically close (support staff of whom is rather active in the forums here), and if it was not for the support, I’d give the whole experience a 10 / 10. Very clearly however they only provided support while they felt the margin covered the cost and consequently stopped answering support requests. An escalation to the Victron country sales manager never actually even solicited a reply by that person or a change in the distributors behaviour. I had to learn much more about the system than I had intended, to fix problems that arose. The various ressources, Victron Professional and the forums, are hard to navigate if one is not by profession an electrician. Additionally, the forums do not offer information in a curated manner, nor is anyone there required either to answer questions and fix problems. My experience with Victron “support” is a harrowing one, and I am indeed at a loss as to why it seems to be set up that way. I am just at year two in a 10 year extended warranty period. All I know how to avail of support, is to post a question in a forum about my professionally installed system, only to see it being moved to “diy”. I am glad if the system works for everyone else - it does not for me.

I am glad only the product quality is such that it is unparalleled in the market. Let’s hope I am not in a position where I need assistance again.

So - am I alone with that experience?

16

Hi @CaptainChris

System level questions are more difficult to get answers about than product level questions, as the installer is the one who is the best position to understand all the details and interconnections.

The community here can get there is the end with enough patience, but it’s not the most efficient process.

After your installer stopped responding, did you submit your support requests via Need support? - Victron Energy

Have you asked your installer why they stopped responding?

I haven’t looked into your posting history here yet, but to speak generally an installer is responsible for a working system, but Victron is capable of much more than that with all the customisation and configurations.

Getting support beyond the installation and function for those (like configuring DESS for maximum value) can’t be assumed to come for free indefinitely from the installer unless that is something they specifically offer as part of their offer.

Try talking again to your installer to understand why they have stopped responding to your questions, perhaps you can negotiate something or at least find out the reason.

17

It’s nice that Victron tries to make professional installer level information publicly discoverable so that those who are interested and motivated can do their own research.

But it’s absolutely not the intention that end-users are required or even recommended to do this compared to working with a professional with experience.

Professionals will usually need to charge for their time.

Exactly how the professional gets paid, whether included as part of the installation costs, or by the hour, or so on needs to be decided by them and discussed with you.

Installers may have to learn this the hard way, but it’s inevitable when working with technical equipment that support levels and costs needs to be considered as part of their offer.

That is all seperate to warranty claims where Victron sets the requirements in our distribution agreements and then sales managers will get involved when there are unresolved disputes, with Victron ultimately backing our products.

But I suspect in an ESS installation this is more to do with configurations and customisation than hardware failure and warranty.

18

Hi Guy,

thanks so much for the in depth and understanding replies.

So let me answer bit by bit. Did I submit requests on via the support link? Yes, twice. That was the process providing the option to escalate to the sales manager when the distributor no longer responded; as he never replied I felt (and still feel) that I have no path into support services, warranty cases excluded. Those I reckon I will still get my distributor to respond to; not keen on finding out otherwise though if that need ever arises.

Did I talk to my distributor: yes. Up until the last support request, when they told me that they would no longer deal with any questions coming from me, citing the margin on the project.

Warranty vs. help with the installation: I am aware of and understand the difference. I think it fair that the installer shall be sufficiently remunerated for any services they provide, and I actually think this is one of the advantages of the support model: installers will likely be able to value-add to plain installation services. Rarely in fact I believe would they do just plain installs. So naturally, my expectation as a customer is that they might offer support for the solution they designed and provided, akin to how a heating installer will not simply provide a setting box, a wrench and a manual but rather some form of yearly inspection services. I do not understand why I am ultimately left to care for the installation myself and the conversation never segued into offering a retainer or maintenance contract or something alike. I am actually glad at the end of the day Victron do offer all they do. I’d be none the wiser why the system behaves as it does, were it not for the professional pages and yes, also the community. So these have their uses - but do they substitute a skilled hand when updating the firmware of a 3 phase MP II setup? Do they perform health checks? Will they take responsibility and adjust system level settings when required by code or regulation?

So what can Victron do? I believe there could be value in training the professionals not only in technical matters, but maybe also what domestic (or marine or other common) use cases exist, and how to monetize them. Victron could even set standards distributors have to meet, and provide further incentives to support the support model more broadly. (In IT, manufacturers will usually sell unit and maintenance as a bundles, which some vendors use skillfully to lock in maintenance already at project time - Victron could provide such deals to their distributor network with those as fulfiller).

Victron could provide better guidance for supported settings (altough I am not 100% sure that maybe that exists somewhere). I learned the hard way which firmware versions do not work together. A guidance or compatability matrix accompanying release notes and new software might be beneficial.

Victron could look into the process behind the “need support”. How can that simply break down? I looks very resilient from the outside, what with recognizing the units and sending weekly reminders. It is more or less an automated mail-flow to distributor and sales manager that does not provide escalation paths otherwise.

Alright. Thank you again for taking the time to reply, much appreciated!

19

I know this is not a fit for everyone and is primarily focused smaller off grid stuff but it is an option to offer to those who need it. Maybe more importantly could serve as a model to inspire others. Maybe there are others already doing something like this. I would be interested to know.

Explorist.life has put together a pretty simple tiered membership program for support and troubleshooting. You don’t have to be their customer at all for the service. They also offer some very specific services like firmware updates, inverter programming, system analysis and efficiency and consultations.

https://shop.explorist.life/shop/all-products/membership-tiers/

https://shop.explorist.life/shop/all-products/membership-tiers/

For the record I don’t have any connection with Explorist.life but appreciate what they have done and the quality tutorials they put together on Youtube(except for the Battleborn sponsorship, I think they could do better there :grin: )

20

Indeed this does happen like this in some markets, driven by the regional Victron sales managers, in collaboration with their regional distributors.

What ‘Victron’ as a head office company in the Netherlands decrees is limited to the global matters (quality products, R&D, warranty support, VRM + VictronConnect level). While the individual sales managers and distributors are responsible for meeting the needs of the professionals and installers in their local regions.

The purpose of the support model is that it leaves quite a lot opportunity and diversity. The results have been good, and while I think there is merit to all the issues raised in this topic and things could be better all round, that doesn’t necessarily mean that it it is best done by Victron (either dictating, or delivering).

These increasingly put in place, and still being adapted based on feedback and results. I think there is still a willingness from Victron head office to give a freedom to the regional sales managers for their model of requirements for their markets.

We are now drifting further away from my core expertise though. I am not part of the sales team, and I don’t know the plans beyond what comes up sometimes when working on the more technical issues, documentation, or training that arise.