Portable Generator

[OhioGuy]

Well, It's been a little over three months in the shop. I called last week and was told parts were on backorder. I asked when the parts were ordered, their not sure, someone else ordered, he didn't have the paperwork in front of him.

He did say it was the control board that failed.

I think I call Genewreck again tomorrow and see if I can rain on somebodys day there, why should I be the only one unhappy?

Time to get ugly!

Curt

 

[Moon]

Sorry about your ordeal, but thanks for the heads up. I"m in the market for a generator and this is just the kind of info that will keep me away from the Genewreck brand.

After taking this long they should offer to replace it. I've found that correspondence in writing seems to get better results. I'd be tempted to write the head of this company and demand something right now!

best of luck!

Moon of Ohio

 

[plaindave]

First off, you have to get the company name right. If I remember right our service guys refered to them as either "Gene-junk" or "Gene-crap".

I wouldn't argue with them. I have one Generac piece of equipment and that is more than enough for me.

But be careful what you buy - Generac private labels producs for a lot of companies including WW Grainger and Sears.

 

[OhioGuy]

My latest round of discussion started with, "Could you give me a number or address of someone that can escalate a call"?
Her answer was, No. She wasn't being disagreeable, that just wasn't an option she had available. She looked up my service ticket and said she would pass it on to her supervisor that wasn't in at that time. She also said they would follow-up with the local repair shop and try to expedite the repair.

OK, that was Thursday, do you think a call back MIGHT be in order.

Good thing I'm gettin that extended warranty!

Genewreck, We're working to destroy our customer base, one customer at a time!

 

[OhioGuy]

Well, another month has past, parts are backordered. Four months in the shop, absolutely unacceptable.

I would never consider a Generac product again.
They are part of Briggs and Stratton as I understand it.

Horrible, horrible, horrible service.

Curt

 

[sherpa]

I have an idea but I dont know if everyone will take part and go to the trouble to help you.

What if you drafted an inquiry with all the info on it including repair number, mailing address or email address, contact persons name, etc. Make it easy for everyone to copy and paste. And then everyone on this post send an inquiry to gererac stating we are monotoring this particular work order to see how they are going handle it. Or we could be objective and simply state that we have heard your side of the story, now we want to hear their side of the story. Either way I think it would call attention to your problem and someone at generac would realize that you are not out here alone.
Sherpa

 

[ducati996]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Well, another month has past, parts are backordered. Four months in the shop, absolutely unacceptable.

I would never consider a Generac product again.
They are part of Briggs and Stratton as I understand it.

Horrible, horrible, horrible service.

Curt

)</font>

I would take it out of that repair shop fixed or not and find another....Give them a 5 minute warning telling them you want your machine. This shop is part of the problem...get it fixed elsewhere and sell it...you have suffered enough, and small claims Generac for restitutuion

Ducati

 

[OhioGuy]

Sherpa and Ducati,
About a month ago a service manager called and told me as a result of the hurricanes they had sold thousands of generators in the south. The normal out of box failures dried up much of their existing part supplies and the stator mine needed was backordered. It seemed like a reasonable scenario and he was the first person I talked to at Generac that seemed to have a clue, more importantly he said he'd get it taken care of.

So to remove it from the service center won't help if the part is still backordered. I'll call tomorrow and see what the latest holdup is.

Sherpa, I appreciate the offer to flood them with inquiries, I think that would get their attention anyhow.

I post again after talking with the service folks, for all I know, he might have shipped the part the next day and now the service center is sitting on it.

Hey guys, thanks for some good suggestions, I'll keep you posted. My main objective is just to alert anyone else considering a Generac product.

Curt

 

[OhioGuy]

Well,
It's hard to believe but the direct line to the service manager I was given a month ago has changed to a general number for service related voicemail, all I could do was leave a message yesterday.

I thinking of another route, maybe if I go retrieve it from the service center, since it's apparently never going to be repaired anyway, put it on a trailer and park it at Home Depot with a sign, something like, purchased here, piece of useless garbage, no support from Home Depot, or Generac.

With any luck, it will be stolen and the story will have a happy ending.

Whatever.

Curt

 

[rswyan]

Curt,

I'll throw my two cents in here on how you might escalate it. About 10 years ago I had a tape backup drive for my computer fail in warranty. It needed to go into the service depot to be repaired (replacement was not an option) Due to some internal logistics (moving the repair depot to another location, someone was on vacation, we're too busy, whatever ....) I got jerked around for a week or two and through a number of people ..... none of which appeared able to do anything EFFECTIVE about my situation. Additionally, I was met in at least one instance with blatant conduct which, to put it mildly, might be considered not real good PR (public relations) The situation looked pretty hopeless (I needed the drive asap to restore some data) and I was getting pretty pissed.

So I found out the contact info for the corporate offices and called and asked the name of the CEO (even better if you can get his/her name prior to calling - say off their website)

I then called again later (to avoid being filtered by the traffic cops) and (using my best professional business execfutive manner) asked to be connected to the office and secretary for Mr. X - just like he and I were old golfing buddies. Once connected I explained that I was trying to send a fax to Mr. X and did she have a number that would go directly to him or would definitely result in him seeing it. She gave me the number and told me that indeed anything that I sent in he would definitely see. (Incorrectly restrticting incoming communications to an executive can be a dangerous thing for a lower-level person to do)

So I wrote up a letter, as the owner of one business to another, and basically told him the problems I was having, the incompetencies of his junior personnel, and then informed him as business owner and consultant who recommended his products that based on my experiences that there was no way I would ever be able to recommend them in the future. The letter contained some degree of ridicule (basically "what the heck kind of operation are you running there ?") although it was fairly well couched so as not to offend the CEO personally - but it was plenty plain enough so that he got the point (with a bullet /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif )

Within an hour after sending the fax I had a call from the CEO's secretary explaining that by the following day they would be sending out overnight to me a brand new tape drive and would I please return the old defective unit. Her manner in the call was so grave that it prompted me to ask her if my fax had caused much of reaction. Her reply was that yes it had - and that a number of people were now looking for new employment as a result.

The bottomline on all this is that if whoever you are dealing ain't getting the job done you have to BYPASS THEM BY WHATEVER MEANS YOU CAN, and get to someone who can do something about it. In almost all cases the CEO can - and he/she might well appreciate you contacting him/her - the individual may be desperately trying to figure why some company problem exists (sales are on 12 month downslide) ..... and not have a clue what the real reason is.