Battery warranties

Jimbohorlicks

Jimbohorlicks

Joined
Sep 3, 2012
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C Class Elddis 175
Exp
8+ years
I bought a new Hankook 12v 100 aH starter battery last year and it now cream crackered and won't take a charge.
Bench charged overnight and then take off the smart charger and it reads 12.4 v and drops overnight, disconnected ,to 10.8v
Tried a different charger with the same result.
I an going to return the battery to the supplier when we are down at Pershore.
Its battery Megastore. It's guaranteed for 4 years.( against manufacturing faults)
Has anyone had any warranty dealings with them and what was your outcome please.
 
Good luck.
I hope you fair better than I have with a 13 month old Yuasa starter battery that has failed with 2 years warranty left.
The supplier won't even accept the battery back for testing stating that the vehicle must have been left standing for a long period resulting in the battery draining to low and sulphating.
How they can state this without testing is beyond me.
Plus the van hasn't been left standing for more than 2 weeks and also has a Vanbitz Battery Master fitted.
 
Thanks, for the reply who was that with?
I trust you challenged them?
 
Jimbohorlicks said:
I bought a new Hankook 12v 100 aH starter battery last year and it now cream crackered and won't take a charge.
Bench charged overnight and then take off the smart charger and it reads 12.4 v and drops overnight, disconnected ,to 10.8v
Tried a different charger with the same result.
I an going to return the battery to the supplier when we are down at Pershore.
Its battery Megastore. It's guaranteed for 4 years.( against manufacturing faults)
Has anyone had any warranty dealings with them and what was your outcome please.
Click to expand...
Batteries are so easily damaged and I think the suppliers always assume that the battery has been allowed to go completely flat for too long, especially if they know its fitted to a motorhome.
You would like to think if they had a problem with this battery from other customers, that they consider that it might be a faulty batch and honour the warrantee.
 
Jimbohorlicks said:
Thanks, for the reply who was that with?
I trust you challenged them?
Click to expand...
I've been trying to get somewhere with them for the last 4 weeks, since I couldn't start the van and had to buy a new battery.
I sent them a copy of the report done by the garage but they won't accept it.
As far as they are concerned I have failed to maintain/misused the battery.
I have now threatened them with small claims court so at this point feel I shouldn't name them.
I previously, years ago, had a battery fail well within it's warranty on a car.
The battery was sent away to the distributor 3 times and 3 times it was returned and I was told it was fine even though it wouldn't start my car.
It seems to me that battery warranties are worthless.

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Battery warranties are very iffy especially with a leisure battery. There is no defined test for a leisure they will do a CCA test on them which is a starter battery test & not representative of leisure use.
I had a couple of Banner AGM's fail in 18 months one was giving 10 ah the 11 ah but they passed the CCA test at 80% so wouldn't change them under warranty. My dealer would have probably changed then but that would have meant a trip to Belgium so I just bought a couple of Gels, transferred them to this van still going strong at 7 years old.
 
Lenny HB said:
Battery warranties are very iffy especially with a leisure battery. There is no defined test for a leisure they will do a CCA test on them which is a starter battery test & not representative of leisure use.
I had a couple of Banner AGM's fail in 18 months one was giving 10 ah the 11 ah but they passed the CCA test at 80% so wouldn't change them under warranty. My dealer would have probably changed then but that would have meant a trip to Belgium so I just bought a couple of Gels, transferred them to this van still going strong at 7 years old.
Click to expand...
My starter battery showed 12.7v but on the CCA test the garage did it went straight to zero.
 
headlight said:
My starter battery showed 12.7v but on the CCA test the garage did it went straight to zero.
Click to expand...
That be knackered, don't think there was any argument on yours just the supplier wanting it returned to where it was bought.
 
Lenny HB said:
That be knackered, don't think there was any argument on yours just the supplier wanting it returned to where it was bought.
Click to expand...
No the shop doesn't want it now even if I took it there or paid for a courier as they have said that the distributor that supplies them won't refund/credit them.
They suggested that I take it or send it to their distributor.
I have told them (again) that my contract is with them and not with their distributor and it is up to them to deal with their supplier.
I have now, as a last resort, threatened small claims court but as yet they haven't bothered replying and TBH I don't expect they will.

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headlight said:
No the shop doesn't want it now even if I took it there or paid for a courier as they have said that the distributor that supplies them won't refund/credit them.
They suggested that I take it or send it to their distributor.
I have told them (again) that my contract is with them and not with their distributor and it is up to them to deal with their supplier.
I have now, as a last resort, threatened small claims court but as yet they haven't bothered replying and TBH I don't expect they will.
Click to expand...
That may do the trick hopefully.

When I had hassle with a builder some years ago I sent them a letter and at the bottom I put "cc, name of solicitor", it worked.
 
Lenny HB said:
That may do the trick hopefully.

When I had hassle with a builder some years ago I sent them a letter and at the bottom I put "cc, name of solicitor", it worked.
Click to expand...
I'm not holding my breath.
It is the last resort to try to get them to honour the warranty.
They haven't bothered replying and I made the small claims court threat over a week ago.
 
A few years ago i bought a Varta battery for my landrover, had it for over a year, lots of stop start and short journeys, it died just under 2 years, contacted the mail order supplier here in France, he asked me to take to a local place that can test batteries and get a printout showing the status of the battery, emailed the results. They shipped out a new battery, didnt even want the old one.

It was only later i discovered a problem with the starter that was causing an issue.
 
If you paid by credit card, contact them. They'll fight on your behalf.

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I've had to return at least 2 batteries to Halfords admittedly both due to me not looking after them. Exchanged without a quibble
 
GMLS said:
I've had to return at least 2 batteries to Halfords admittedly both due to me not looking after them. Exchanged without a quibble
Click to expand...
They are known for their no quibble battery warranties and if you buy using their trade card they are as cheap as you can get them for anywhere.
 
Jimbohorlicks said:
Bench charged overnight and then take off the smart charger and it reads 12.4 v and drops overnight, disconnected ,to 10.8v
Tried a different charger with the same result.
I an going to return the battery to the supplier when we are down at Pershore.
Its battery Megastore. It's guaranteed for 4 years.( against manufacturing faults)
Click to expand...
A battery that charges OK then drops quickly to about 10.5V is likely to have a shorted cell. A '12V' battery has 6 cells at about 2.1V each, giving a terminal voltage of 12.6V. If one cell is shorted, only 5 cells are working, giving a terminal voltage of 10.5V. I don't know of any reason why one cell should fail and the others carry on working, other than a manufacturing defect or a random failure, both of which should be covered by a decent warranty.
 
headlight said:
I'm not holding my breath.
It is the last resort to try to get them to honour the warranty.
They haven't bothered replying and I made the small claims court threat over a week ago.
Click to expand...
Can you remind me. Did you say the 'shop' where you bought the battery was local to you or miles away.
 
Yorick said:
If you paid by credit card, contact them. They'll fight on your behalf.
Click to expand...
.
good point !

Also consider that the battery suppliers I queried about this, do not keep their stock batteries on charge.
I assume they rely on quick turnover to ensure the Batts dont get discharged whilst in storage.

My point regarding battery warranty is that the thing may already have been damaged before you even buy it.

An eBay seller was advertising 2xHankook 110ah for £150 (3 year warranty). I asked what the criteria for warranty claims, but they wouldnt reply / comment.

Nuff sed ?
_

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headlight said:
480 miles away from me
Click to expand...
Thank you for that.
In that case, it's a no brainer for you to go down the Small Claims Court route.

All you have to do is write up a 'letter before action letter' (there are good examples online.
Send the letter, giving the shop a set date to pay up.

You then sit back.

If they choose to refuse to pay up, you take them to the SCC.

The shop would have to defend the claim AT YOUR LOCAL COURT, presumably at least 450mls from them.

Even if they chose to defend your action it would cost them, at no risk to you.
 
As a follow up ,I dropped myvHankook 110 ah starter battery off at Battery Megastore today, as on the way to Hereford with another group.
(I was going to call via the Pershore meercarceaster but that was cancelled.)
Anyhow, the young lady that took the details and the battery said they would test it ( voltmeter reading was 11.3v ,charged previous night overnight).She said my 5 amp smart charger was insufficient to charge up a 100+ amph battery and that may be the reason. Told her it didnt hold charge after driving a 100 miles or so either . In the fault section, she just put "duff". Asked me how I knew it was the correct battery for the vehicle ,- (I used thier website reg plate checker) so got the impression it was a wriggle out of a replacement situation but after it's been on charge for 12 hrs they will call me..If it needs replacing they will post another to me.
I will await the phone call ,hopefully tomorrow. As we are on our way back home on the 1st.May.
 
Probably of no help to you, I had a battery one of the original AGM’s the dealer stated the same you must have let the van stand and allowed it to run flat. I gave them a printout from my tracker which disproved his theory battery replaced on the spot!! my tracker stores the last 6 months of vehicle movements where it’s been etc.

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Jimbohorlicks said:
I bought a new Hankook 12v 100 aH starter battery last year and it now cream crackered and won't take a charge.
Bench charged overnight and then take off the smart charger and it reads 12.4 v and drops overnight, disconnected ,to 10.8v
Tried a different charger with the same result.
I an going to return the battery to the supplier when we are down at Pershore.
Its battery Megastore. It's guaranteed for 4 years.( against manufacturing faults)
Has anyone had any warranty dealings with them and what was your outcome please.
Click to expand...
Good luck with your claim. I bought two new expensive Victron GEL 110ah batteries from Battery Megastore and both failed 12 months later . Megastore blamed my charger ( although it’s designed for Gel ). Lessons learnt … don’t buy from Battery Megastore and don’t by expensive Victron batteries .
I ended up taking the two Victrons to the scrappies £30 and I bought two new much cheaper Carbon Gels from Alpha batteries.
 
I have had good dealings with battery megastore, who replaced my varta landrover starter battery without argument, or return, just a printout reading from a proper battery tester. But i was dealing with them in france not uk.
 
Jimbohorlicks said:
I bought a new Hankook 12v 100 aH starter battery last year and it now cream crackered and won't take a charge.
Bench charged overnight and then take off the smart charger and it reads 12.4 v and drops overnight, disconnected ,to 10.8v
Tried a different charger with the same result.
I an going to return the battery to the supplier when we are down at Pershore.
Its battery Megastore. It's guaranteed for 4 years.( against manufacturing faults)
Has anyone had any warranty dealings with them and what was your outcome please.
Click to expand...
What was the final outcome ??
 
Widge said:
I have had good dealings with battery megastore, who replaced my varta landrover starter battery without argument, or return, just a printout reading from a proper battery tester. But i was dealing with them in france not uk.
Click to expand...
I think the problem comes with Leisure batteries that are dud but pass a normal starter battery test
 
As an update on the Hankook starter battery from Battery Megastore that wouldnt hold charge, I had a call from them this morning and they advised that after testing the battery, it was considered to be only 60% accepting a charge and they will send me a replacement which should get to me by Tuesday. I asked if it was due to one of the cells failing and they confirmed that was likely the cause.
So top marks for BMS on customer service from me.

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