Section 75

[provr6]

I think you will find the IWA biz warranty is near useless. They will only match the guarantee offered by the installer in the event they go bust. That means the installer needs to give a 10 year guarantee which they will have to uphold all the time they are solvent.

How many installers give a 10 year guarantee? mine didn't give any company guarantee just a 10 year backed IWA biz warranty which would match his warranty ie none.

I wasn't too worried as the inverter has its own 5 year warranty and the panels their own 10 year.

 

[MicraShed]

I think you will find the IWA biz warranty is near useless. They will only match the guarantee offered by the installer in the event they go bust.

Having got the IWA paperwork today I agree, that they only offer to mirror the warranty offered by the installer - which despite my contract saying :

is in fact only a 2 year warranty when the paperwork was sent to me. So in effect the IWA warranty covers me for 2 years only. ( the contract says scaffolding as well, but they just installed it all off ladders with no scaffold erected)

Hardly a 10 year insurance backed warranty then (which if Im honest is the key reason I signed with this installer).

Back to the credit card company then to see what they feel.

 

[SolarRoofSols]

Little update.
REAL got nowhere fast, the credit card company have indeed prodded buttock and by the sounds of it threatened a charge back with the company concerned.

The threat of a chargeback would hopefully do the trick because it raises a fine against them from the CC company and, i think, can be attached to their credit rating; which could do more damage that REAL seems able to muster. You would have thought that they would WANT to do right by you as they are still trading though, not be forced to!! Are you naming them?

 

[MicraShed]

Finally got the 10 year guarantee.

I am flabbergasted the amount of aggro and 9 months its taken to get to this point but I have just posted the paperwork off to the IWA with a copy of the guarantee the installer has now finally delivered! I do believe it was only as a direct result of the credit card company getting involved though that I have finally got this.

 

[puddy]

Great news

 

[Earthstore]

Well done,

Thanks for letting everybody know, it may be an inspiration to others that the battle is worth it.

 

[Gavin A]

Well done,

Thanks for letting everybody know, it may be an inspiration to others that the battle is worth it.

yeah, until you actually try to claim on the policy of course...

 

[MicraShed]

yeah, until you actually try to claim on the policy of course...

Oh ye of little faith:biggrin5:
Aye well, we'll cross that rickety bridge as and when we come to it!

 

[jason121]

yeah, until you actually try to claim on the policy of course...

I agree. At the moment I am trying to help resolve a dispute that a disable woman has with her solar thermal system, which is leaking at the pump station and has issues with the flashing kit, which is also leaking. I told her before I could repair it she better phone REAL they told her that it was a technical issue speak to NAPIT. They have come back and said system is out of warranty. NAPIT will only provide 2 years. System is around 30 months old. So she spoke to REAL again, they told her go back to NAPIT because they need paper work from NAPIT. The company is still trading but ignoring her calls and have moved offices. Now this company is using his MCS to sign off another company work and together have set up three other companies installing a lot of High temp ASHP, Eventually the companies will be dissolved and the new companies will start to trade. All warranties out the window for both companies. I have left it, with her phoning the insurance backed warranty. Saga with continue.:rant:

 

[Gavin A]

what ****es me off is that I'm a sole trader, so the liability rests with me whether still trading or not unless I declare myself personally bankrupt.

Limited companies however seem to be free to close the company down at will to avoid liability issues for warranties etc with no come back on the directors at all, and it's these companies where the insurance is then needed to cover the warranty liabilities that they've wriggled out of. Which means that effectively we're subsidising those shoddy companies who're only in it for a quick buck / prefer to cut and run rather than getting on with it and meeting their liabilities, and yet we've still had customers who've decided to go with someone else because we're not a limited company...

I just don't get why the uk public seems to have such greater trust in ltd companies when all they really are is a mechanism for shoddy directors to escape their liabilities with no come back on them personally. Every company that has ever gone bust owing me money, where I've never seen a penny from them of that money has been a limited company, as has been every solar company that's shut down that I'm aware of and left their customers in the lurch....... [/rant].

eta - not that I'm making out that all ltd companies are shoddy obviously, just that virtually all the cut and run type of companies are limited companies as this framework enables them to do it time and time again with minimal danger of any come back to them personally.

 

[jason121]

I agree, been done over a couple times and one of them was a so called mate

 

[sedgy34]

There are no mates in business just remember that

 

[Earthstore]

I have never been had over, maybe I have not taken the risk that I should havel done in business.

I have had a couple over the years that have tried, but my dept collection is let's say a little old fashioned.

Never owing anybody at all, I expect all my customers to be the same, and it rattles my cage when I hear of people/companies that use this approach to decent folk.

 

[sedgy34]

Few yrs back I wAs owed enough to buy a nice brand new bmw x5 that will take years to recover from as a business the law is crap you work hard and get screwed over and you can't do anything about it

 

[Gavin A]

I have never been had over, maybe I have not taken the risk that I should havel done in business.

I have had a couple over the years that have tried, but my dept collection is let's say a little old fashioned.

Never owing anybody at all, I expect all my customers to be the same, and it rattles my cage when I hear of people/companies that use this approach to decent folk.

This was from when I was involved in event management / festivals. I had 2 in a row go bust on me after basically lying about their financial position, owing me and my team around £5-8k a time - one of them had even basically robbed my team of around £3k in cash they'd taken managing the car parks, which was supposed to cover our costs before any went to the festival, then the bloke running it did a runner to norway with his norwegian girlfriend and hasn't shown his face since - he owed around £100k all told due to his financial mismanagement, and as far as we could tell had basically been working on the basis of just going bust if a miracle didn't happen nad he didn't sell an exta 25% tickets to what we'd agreed as being a sensible base line for ticket sales.

t'other was pretty much the same, ended up disappearing from site on the saturday night, apparently being drive out in the boot of his car by his girlfriend, leaving a festival site with 5000 people on it, and all the companies running it suddenly realising they weren't getting paid, and that he'd somehow blagged virtually all of them into doing it without paying the standard 50% up front deposit. He was back up and trading again ab out 2-3 months later via his girlfriend owning a new company that somehow had the rights to trade under the same name as the first one.

Not had a problem with payments so far in the solar world, but this is why we insist on 60% up front deposits before we buy the equipment - one none or late payer could have a huge impact on our cashflow position, and I'd rather lose the odd 1% or so of customers who don't want to pay a deposit than risk having that happening to us.