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AIMS voids inverter warranty unjustly

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kathyg

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We would like some help from this forum in solving this issue with AIMS. We are a community solar energy project in Vieques, Puerto Rico. We were suprised that AIMS voided the warranty on a 2KW Pure Sine Wave Inverter, within the warranty period, and without any evidence of "an unsanitary environment" or "a short circuit from dirt/dust build-up".

This is the note I received from the volunteer installer, Lu Yoder.


"Hi Kathy,
We helped Herminia install her AIMS 2kw pure sine inverter/charger in January of 2022. It worked perfectly in Solar Priority mode saving her electricity day-to-day and providing back up power in blackouts. In July or August of 2022 (well within the warranty period) it malfunctioned, sounding an alarm and turning itself off.
I corresponded with AIMS in September requesting support. I was in MA, the inverter is in Vieques. My desire was to try and troubleshoot and repair her inverter with help from AIMS upon my arrival in Vieques in January 2023. After initially agreeing to this plan, Angel at AIMS would not provide me with possible repair parts to bring with me to Vieques, instead offering me spare parts at retail prices. Then in October I received a terse email saying the warranty was voided (see email excerpt). Since then, no AIMS rep has responded to my continued attempts to get some kind of help for Herminia's inverter.
Many people in Puerto Rico are defecting from the grid with the help of AIMS excellent products. Now more than ever these "early adopters" need and deserve technical support. They represent the beginning of an enormous future market for these products.
Lu Yoder"
---------------------------------------------
The following email is from Aims:
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Angel Cruz <acruz@aimscorp.net>
Date: Tue, Nov 15, 2022 at 1:29 PM
Subject: RE: Herminia Belardo / PICOGLF20W24V120VR
To: Lu Yoder
Cc: Andrew Frey <andrewf@aimscorp.net>, AIMS Support <techsupport@aimscorp.net>

Lu,

The warranty for this inverter has been voided due to lack of upkeep which can be defined as misuse. I have included my supervisor Andrew if you have any questions regarding the warranty coverage.
 
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Did Aims offer return and replacement when first contacted? The concept of sending possible parts for free to fix the unit with your volunteer installer is not something I believe any company would agree to. I do find that their voiding of a Warranty (without direct inspection of the unit at their repair/warranty facility) to be possibly in violation of Consumer Protection laws but I do not know the standards in PR.

I doubt that there is much influence that people at the forum can wield with Aims. I do not think they have any representatives that visit this Forum.
 
kathyg said:
We would like some help from this forum in solving this issue with AIMS. We are a community solar energy project in Vieques, Puerto Rico. We were suprised that AIMS voided the warranty on a 2KW Pure Sine Wave Inverter, within the warranty period, and without any evidence of "an unsanitary environment" or "a short circuit from dirt/dust build-up".

This is the note I received from the volunteer installer, Lu Yoder.


"Hi Kathy,
We helped Herminia install her AIMS 2kw pure sine inverter/charger in January of 2022. It worked perfectly in Solar Priority mode saving her electricity day-to-day and providing back up power in blackouts. In July or August of 2022 (well within the warranty period) it malfunctioned, sounding an alarm and turning itself off.
I corresponded with AIMS in September requesting support. I was in MA, the inverter is in Vieques. My desire was to try and troubleshoot and repair her inverter with help from AIMS upon my arrival in Vieques in January 2023. After initially agreeing to this plan, Angel at AIMS would not provide me with possible repair parts to bring with me to Vieques, instead offering me spare parts at retail prices. Then in October I received a terse email saying the warranty was voided (see email excerpt). Since then, no AIMS rep has responded to my continued attempts to get some kind of help for Herminia's inverter.
Many people in Puerto Rico are defecting from the grid with the help of AIMS excellent products. Now more than ever these "early adopters" need and deserve technical support. They represent the beginning of an enormous future market for these products.
Lu Yoder"
---------------------------------------------
The following email is from Aims:
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Angel Cruz <acruz@aimscorp.net>
Date: Tue, Nov 15, 2022 at 1:29 PM
Subject: RE: Herminia Belardo / PICOGLF20W24V120VR
To: Lu Yoder
Cc: Andrew Frey <andrewf@aimscorp.net>, AIMS Support <techsupport@aimscorp.net>

Lu,

The warranty for this inverter has been voided due to lack of upkeep which can be defined as misuse. I have included my supervisor Andrew if you have any questions regarding the warranty coverage.
Click to expand...

How about some pictures of the unit?
 
Mattb4 said:
Did Aims offer return and replacement when first contacted? The concept of sending possible parts for free to fix the unit with your volunteer installer is not something I believe any company would agree to. I do find that their voiding of a Warranty (without direct inspection of the unit at their repair/warranty facility) to be possibly in violation of Consumer Protection laws but I do not know the standards in PR.

I doubt that there is much influence that people at the forum can wield with Aims. I do not think they have any representatives that visit this Forum.
Click to expand...
thanks for your feedback. I don't think they ever offered a replacement. I think our volunteer was trying to avoid the shipping out and back of the unit to Vieques because we live in a remote island off the coast of PR. You are right, I was hoping AIMs would have someone in this form. We have lost email communication with them. We do have a Consumer Prtotection agency we can write to. Kathy
 
It certainly doesn't look like a rough environment. Is that inside a house? Outside moisture etc?

Do you/they know what failed?
 
Mattb4 said:
The concept of sending possible parts for free to fix the unit with your volunteer installer is not something I believe any company would agree to.
Click to expand...

I believe it's not that uncommon for US (headquartered that is) generator manufacturers like Champion and Westinghouse to do just that - send warrantee repair parts on the basis of a support call explaining a problem. e.g. bad weld in a exhaust manifold, malfunctioning switch, etc.

Albeit, generators are equipment that will definitely need internal maintenance within its lifespan anyway, so they expect you to open it up periodically. They also tend to be tremendously heavy, so it is in everybody's best interest to avoid shipping them around if possible.
 
Checkthisout said:
It certainly doesn't look like a rough environment. Is that inside a house? Outside moisture etc?

Do you/they know what failed?
Click to expand...
yes, inside the house. It was installed in Feb 2022. below is a decription of what failed. There were multiple emails between Lu and AIMS describing every facet of the system.
"Hello Angel,
Thank you for taking the time to speak with me on the phone. According to Herminia, when she turns on the inverter, within 20 seconds the overtemperature alarm sounds."
 
Checkthisout said:
It certainly doesn't look like a rough environment. Is that inside a house? Outside moisture etc?

Do you/they know what failed?
Click to expand...
It was installed in Feb 2022. below is a decription of what failed. There were multiple emails between Lu and AIMS describing every facet of the system.
"Hello Angel,
Thank you for taking the time to speak with me on the phone. According to Herminia, when she turns on the inverter, within 20 seconds the overtemperature alarm sounds."
 
Symbioquine said:
I believe it's not that uncommon for US (headquartered that is) generator manufacturers like Champion and Westinghouse to do just that - send warrantee repair parts on the basis of a support call explaining a problem. e.g. bad weld in a exhaust manifold, malfunctioning switch, etc.

Albeit, generators are equipment that will definitely need internal maintenance within its lifespan anyway, so they expect you to open it up periodically. They also tend to be tremendously heavy, so it is in everybody's best interest to avoid shipping them around if possible.
Click to expand...
Now that you mention it I did get a Warranty replacement of a motor on a brand new drill press I had bought. I supplied photos of the obvious manufacturing defect that led to the motor failure and the company shipped me a replacement motor for free. I did not have to return the defective motor. Of course it helped that I can tear down, troubleshoot and repair things.

Electronics can be a bit more difficult to establish reason for failure. Bit of a black box and magic smoke issue.
 
I warranted my Aims 3k (inverter only) about 3 months into ownership. You do have to ship it back on your dime.

They look at it (or don't) and then send you a new one or fix yours and send it back.

You're also supposed to pay for return shipping from them back to you after replacing/repairing but in my case I did not.

Going to guess that shipping that dude to Aims is cost-prohibitive and they probably don't have any parts to repair.

I hate to say they are just blowing you off and making you fight but it would appear that way offhand.

Pull the cover and let's see if there is dust on the fan, heat sinks etc.
 
Hedges said:
Overtemperature could indicate overload, or blocked airflow. At no-load I would have thought longer than 20 seconds to overheat.
Some debugging is in order.
Click to expand...
the installer is in Vieques now with no computer and he is on rooftops installing donated systems with his donated time. he has no computer and no wifi. I will try to get him to join this forum and respond. I guess I was looking for basic warranty guidelines. AIMS had an extensive email exchange with Lu....and Lu provided all the information requested by AIMs and then he got the surprise email about "misuse". that came from nowhere because there has been no misuse. we will have to call back AIMS one more time. Then we have to raise funds to buy anotyher unverter for this family.
 
Checkthisout said:
I warranted my Aims 3k (inverter only) about 3 months into ownership. You do have to ship it back on your dime.

They look at it (or don't) and then send you a new one or fix yours and send it back.

You're also supposed to pay for return shipping from them back to you after replacing/repairing but in my case I did not.

Going to guess that shipping that dude to Aims is cost-prohibitive and they probably don't have any parts to repair.

I hate to say they are just blowing you off and making you fight but it would appear that way offhand.

Pull the cover and let's see if there is dust on the fan, heat sinks etc.
Click to expand...
I will pass this to the installer. THANK YOU.
 
kathyg said:
and then he got the surprise email about "misuse". that came from nowhere because there has been no misuse. we will have to call back AIMS one more time.
Click to expand...

Give them the benefit of the doubt, might have mixed it up with another customer's situation?
Inquire again as you plan, and look into whatever is economical shipping.

But I'd start by disconnecting all AC loads, check battery voltage while turning on. See how it behaves.
Examine with flashlight or possibly pull cover (after disconnecting battery and giving time to discharge), see if something plugged it up, or coated boards with dust. If nothing is actually getting hot, could be conductive contamination causing erroneous reading. Often boards get coated with dust, and humidity makes it conductive.
 
They can't void a warranty without a specific reason for doing so. If the product was misused, in what way was it misused and abused and how did misuse/abuse lead to the failure?
 
Hedges said:
Give them the benefit of the doubt, might have mixed it up with another customer's situation?
Inquire again as you plan, and look into whatever is economical shipping.

But I'd start by disconnecting all AC loads, check battery voltage while turning on. See how it behaves.
Examine with flashlight or possibly pull cover (after disconnecting battery and giving time to discharge), see if something plugged it up, or coated boards with dust. If nothing is actually getting hot, could be conductive contamination causing erroneous reading. Often boards get coated with dust, and humidity makes it conductive.
Click to expand...
I can only assume our installer did sufficient testing. But I will pass this on to him. I did not do the testing myself. We are not planning to open it up because we don't want to cause any void of the warranty.
 
I have a 12,000w AIMS with 25,000hrs (4+ yrs) that recently started going haywire on voltage output. Clearly not a warranty issue (after 4 years of good service) but I'd like to try to repair it.

Contacted AIMS support on Dec 22 - and did some back and forth and they agreed (I think) to sell me a new control board on Dec 30th....
1674932548891.png
But it's been more than 3 weeks now and haven't heard anything. I believe Jan is sort of a 'month off' in parts of China?
In any case the jury (on support) is still out for me and of course I'd have liked better service than 'wait 3 weeks' and still no followup.

We'll see... and I hope that you get timely support for you're issue as well!
 
kathyg said:
I can only assume our installer did sufficient testing. But I will pass this on to him. I did not do the testing myself. We are not planning to open it up because we don't want to cause any void of the warranty.
Click to expand...


You can try operating it with all AC disconnected. To see if you have excessive loads.
Listen for fans. Feel for heat. Use a flashlight to look inside for dust on boards or heatsink.

I killed the graphics card in one laptop by ignoring the fact fans ran constantly. After it died I opened it up, found cat hair packed on heatsink.
I now have panty hose taped over air inlets.
 
I would say give them the benefit of the doubt, but my experience with AIMS says, why should you when this behavior is in line with their track record?

The approach of voiding the warranty at every chance is outrageous and what we ran into even as a business and why we cut ties in the end.

My company used to buy a lot of their products. Last year, we got a batch of 300 of their chargers that later we found all had an internal defect that would cause them to blow up internally. It was unrelated to how they were installed, and they would fail after about an hour of use once the internals came up to temperature (so a quick bench test would show the unit as working).

One customer of ours had to hard-wire the charger into their electrical panel because it was impractical to add an outlet to plug it in to. After powering it up the unit failed in the same manner the other 299 units died (that aims later admitted that they knew about the defect but issued no recall notice). Well, they voided the warranty because the power cord was modified...but the unit was in the batch of known defective SKUs!!!

I've had multiple customers modify Victron chargers in this same way and know Victron has still covered the warranty, no questions asked!

Countless examples of their equipment not lasting are why I don't offer them as a renewable energy solution (the heart of what our business offers). It's more like a renewable energy NIGHTMARE with AIMS products.

Here's someone else that got caught in the same batch of failed chargers: https://diysolarforum.com/threads/aims-power-warranty-scam.45369/

I hope that $200 they saved not honoring their warranty is worth the bad reputation and bridge they burned.
 
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