Has smart experience with dealer on warranty. Took forever. I paid shipping there and they wanted me to pay to return. Hell no! It’s warrantied. So they eventually sent it. Had I paid I woulda had $100 in a $170 product! $50 each direction.
I can attest to the the lack of support I have send multiple reminders for a simple question, but NO response.
I think Victron dealers should have better support and have trained service people to advise as part of there service to sell there equiement, not just shift boxes, Victron needs mto vet these resellers, if they cant supply this service even if they have a charge to it.
Here in NZ there are some with poor service, and some with very good service, they charge extra for the victron gear but comes with backup. Then Victron takes away the dealers with good service and gives it way to just box shifters, Victron know who i am talking about, It all polical here in NZ, Victron you being told!!!
Here the same, asked questions, but no response.
I did a lot of studying before buying my equipment at a reputable reseller/installer. When buying I asked what the conditions were to get support if needed. The answer was that they could send someone at a certain hourly rate to help. For me this was OK so I ordered the equipment knowing that, if needed, I would get support. It all worked out fine and in the end I knew enough to finish my project without the help of the company. While preparing I was really happy to find a lot of detailed information on the Victron website, the Victron forum and also a lot of youtube films. A lot of competitors don’t document their equipment as well as Victron. If you are not ready to study yourself just use AI, they always provide an answer (not sure about the quality though) It is always easy to complain, it is much harder to invest yourself in your project and find the solution yourself.
Perhaps your reply to the OP is based on correspondence that occurred in another thread, however, reading your reply as a stand-alone response to this thread alone absolutely does read as a personal attack on the OP.
It appears there are various assumptions made about the OP, their installation and the issue(s) they are facing that could very easily be unfair and unfounded. Unfortunately I see a lot of this sort of overly defensive response on this community when people have legitimate frustrations with Victron’s business model for product support.
I have worked with Victron equipment for a number of years now (as a system designer and installer) and I understand the reasons and motivation for the chosen method of providing support to installers and customers, however the fact is that these business decisions do result in Victron outsourcing BOTH product support AND responsibility for maintaining their reputation in the marketplace.
If a dealer can’t/won’t provide crucial information that is missing from Victron’s documentation, or solve a genuine problem with functionality that has been discovered, then access to Victron’s R&D engineering team who are the only ones (even within Victron itself) with the necessary understanding of the internal workings of the products is usually ZERO. On random occasions Matthijs will spot a thread on here and respond personally (which is amazing), but it does not ensure genuine issues are consistently resolved in a timely and satisfactory manner.
In my experience dealers don’t consistently get answers to questions they send up the chain to Victron and dealers’ number one priority is obviously to focus on making sales, not expending lots of energy chasing answers to support questions sent to one individual supplier/manufacturer out of dozens of they purchase stock from. It is not easy to consistently get a satisfactory response to valid technical queries.
When die-hard Victron fans in this community get defensive on Victron’s behalf and try to shift the blame onto the person who attempts to raise a legitimate issue on here all it does is discourage anybody else from seeking support via this community. Yes the OP was venting frustration rather than describing a technical issue to resolve in this thread, but that frustration with the flaws and limitations of the business model for support is also a valid issue in its own right and happens often enough that Victron should pay attention to this as is does affect their reputation in the marketplace.
Good evening,
I do not know where everybody is living exactly in this topic, but one thing I can say;
Indeed when you buy from these fake internet companies showing they are inverter specialists, if a fail in equipment, the only thing you can do is to make an RMA through a real dealer, and then, hopefully the main office will accept, if not, you have no grounds on the warrantee, specially with self installs of course, common sense.
But, guys, please, why didn’t you check the Victron site, service points, sales points, etc before buying, it is all there, and if in doubt, call or mail, easy!
So, for the issues I see above, not one person tells where they bought the parts from in detail, but be aware, as soon as the main office or distributer receives your RMA and so the part number involved, it is registered already before when it was delivered to which country and company….
Did you register your warrantee through this sales company, no, Oeps….
When that company is not giving you then the desired outcome (making a basic RMA), that’s not to claim to the main office, it was your own choice not to look for a proper service point but buy it from a box mover internet company as it was there a couple of cents cheaper….
Example, you buy an iPhone in a real iPhone shop, 1500euro, the same I can buy on the internet for 1200euro, within warrantee it’s now broken, what does iPhone say when you bring it to the official shop, it was never registered on the sales day, no warrantee, even with your purchase ticket, iPhone tells you to send it back to where you bought it from….all companies do the same and are legally correct with that…AND…Victron is not so bad with that and sell you the same product under coulance, and you pay for a new one about half of it, when it is not repairable for example and bought from a non registered place (so to say), very nice service.
I (we) repair, service, maintain all brands of inverters/batteries on IMO vessels and shore installs (which is just a byside of our core business actually), Victron is the last we have issues with, and after 42 years in this service, easy to repair, almost bullet proof, you better believe me, AND, I’m not a Victron fan as many think that from me, no, its a just part of my work and just know all brands, but, as said also, these blue boxes can do strange things, 
, other brands even more, .
With the very best regards, Jeroen.
And again…
I was in contact with the Sales Manager DACH at Victron Energy B.V., who offered assistance and asked for the serial numbers of my devices.
AND - since then, no further response. I really wonder who these people are!
Good evening,
Guys, please…you really think that by placing a question to buy one inverter, people have time for you, the answer is yes, but big orders go first as in all companies policy.
So, be patient, each customer will be attended to, as usual, I can only explain as an installer, big issues first, small ones later, more power or bigger the system first, small ones later.
And, indeed, there is nothing wrong with a self install, but, if questions, ask the forum here, as that’s where it is for, not any installer or distributor will burn his hands on giving advice on mail or paper to help you with that, see my point?
Did this explains the issue here, solved I would say!
Regards, Jeroen.
Nothing has been resolved here, and the issue at hand has not been understood.
I cannot comment on Victron’s support, as I have never had occasion to use it. However— based on this forum and several others — I am quite certain of one thing: no other system enjoys a higher level of support than Victron.
My decision to purchase Victron was based on the following criteria:
- an open system offering the ability to integrate products from a wide variety of other manufacturers
- a broad market presence—and, above all, a strong DIY community
- extensive configurability, extending even to the programming of custom control loops
- competitive pricing
Not only am I extremely satisfied with my DIY Victron system, but I am also constantly surprised anew by the capabilities I continue to discover.