10 days ago, took a sales call from a supplier (who we'll call Solfex for the purposes of this thread) about aurora power-one inverters, offering to be a secondary supplier for the inverters for us.
As it happened, I knew that our primary supplier was out of stock of the 3 phase units, so asked about them... yes, no problem, we've got plenty in stock, and we'll price match etc.
So, off I go quoting on a couple of jobs with the power ones again, even emailing to double check they're still available the day I'm about to sign the contract... yes still available, can't reserve them but get me a confirmed order and I'll get you a proforma across.
Next day, I place the order only to find that the Solfex sales guys have had an edict from on high, and they're now not allowed to sell the 20kW inverter by itself, only as part of a package with the panels and mounting kit included.
The pig headed sod of an MD at Solfex wouldn't budge even after I explained there was no way I could now change the entire equipment on 2 contracts just to suit them, and that we'd been discussing this for 10 days with their staff, not even after I asked Power-One to intervene.
So I've managed to rework things around the SMA tripowers from Segen, and Solfex can stick their inverters where the sun doesn't shine as they now sit proudly at the top of my suppliers blacklist.
Fair play to the guys at power-one for attempting to find a solution for us, but I do know my systems designs, and the option we'd been discussing for 10 days was the only power-one option that would work.
I also promised Solfex that I'd warn other installers about their shoddy practices, so this thread had to be born. mods - I have a full email trail to support this post if needed, so it's not slander etc and I hope you'll let it stand as a legit warning to other members.
As it happened, I knew that our primary supplier was out of stock of the 3 phase units, so asked about them... yes, no problem, we've got plenty in stock, and we'll price match etc.
So, off I go quoting on a couple of jobs with the power ones again, even emailing to double check they're still available the day I'm about to sign the contract... yes still available, can't reserve them but get me a confirmed order and I'll get you a proforma across.
Next day, I place the order only to find that the Solfex sales guys have had an edict from on high, and they're now not allowed to sell the 20kW inverter by itself, only as part of a package with the panels and mounting kit included.
The pig headed sod of an MD at Solfex wouldn't budge even after I explained there was no way I could now change the entire equipment on 2 contracts just to suit them, and that we'd been discussing this for 10 days with their staff, not even after I asked Power-One to intervene.
So I've managed to rework things around the SMA tripowers from Segen, and Solfex can stick their inverters where the sun doesn't shine as they now sit proudly at the top of my suppliers blacklist.
Fair play to the guys at power-one for attempting to find a solution for us, but I do know my systems designs, and the option we'd been discussing for 10 days was the only power-one option that would work.
I also promised Solfex that I'd warn other installers about their shoddy practices, so this thread had to be born. mods - I have a full email trail to support this post if needed, so it's not slander etc and I hope you'll let it stand as a legit warning to other members.
