TG
Terry G
Active since May 2023
3
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3 reviews4 months ago
Have been with OUTsurance for over 20 years and they have Amazing service, quick response and turnaround
Have been with OUTsurance for over 20 years and they have Amazing service, quick response and turnaround. Claims are settled quickly, no haggling or anything. They are still cheaper than any other insurance company. 🙏🏼🙌💜
56 replies
29 months ago
*****STERS / CON ARTIST - DO NOT GIVE THEM A CENT
Have ordered previously from them and had no issues. Now they are just *****sters, took our money and still have not goods. Placed our order in October and still have not received our goods. In the beginning they gave us some BS that they were going to courier it on Friday ... several fridays have come and gone. Then the next excuse was that they were waiting on stock and would send the following week, nothing. For several days we could not get hold of them, they do not respond to Whatsapp messages nor do they answer their calls. I decided to contact a courier company to collect at the address their ****book page shows, 41 Barney Road, Benrose, Jhb - place is empty. I have contacted my bank to reverse and waiting their response.
0 replies
35 months ago
First National Battery ..... more like LAST batteries you should ever buy.
I purchased my second lithium 100 amp 48V batteries end January 2023 from First National Battery in Cape Town from one of their agents. They knew it was to be added on to my current system as I did not have enough power to get me through 3 - 4 days of Cape winters. Here is a brief timeline of what took place; I had issues with the battery from day one, as I had no additional storage than I had with the one battery. I contacted the agrent and after several weeks backward and forwards, it was established that the 2 batteries were on different software and did not "talk" to each other and that they did not communicate to the inverter. I was given First National Battery support number in order to speed things up and that they could get the information directly. Elton Scullard was the Western Cape support I was to deal with 8 March Message from support requesting information on my inverter I was using. I sent the electronic manual so he could have all the info on which GrowWatt intverter I had. 9th March I was told that the software would be updated when their colleagues arrive, which would be in a day or 2. 10 March I was sent the User define settings to change while we wait for their collogues from China. 17 March I get a message to inform me that they have been promised the software update but still waiting on them. 22 March I was then offered by them to swop out my 2 batteries for 2 new, "better" batteries. There would be a delay as they first had to download the software to communicate with my GrowWatt inverter. 31 March I contact them to find out what is happening, was told to wait and that he had spoken to the agent that I had purchased it from. Why would he speak to the agent when I was told to deal directly with him I have no idea. 5 April I has asked to send a picture of my current battery terminals which I immediately responded with. I was to meet with Elton (support) and Pieter (agent in Gansbaai) in Herm**** to make the swop of the batteries. 6 April Meet at Whalecoast mall in Herm****, around 45 km from our farm. Elton was coming from Cape Town and the agent was coming from Gansbaai which is about 23 km from the farm. Was whatsApp the communication settings and was to exactly what to do. That afternoon when I got back to the farm, I installed the new batteries and changed the settings on the inverter. I immediately got a error message on the inverter that the output voltage was to high and would not supply power at all. I contacted Elton around 15:30 pm and gave him all the information via WhatsApp. No response and I heard nothing back from Elton. I then set the inverter back to user define manual settings and got power back to the house. 11 April I finally had a response from Elton who asked for pictures of the batteries dip switches as well as the serial numbers of the 2 batteries. I also explained to him that the mobile app that I was told to download and set up did not work and I could not get the batteries loaded on the app. Sent all the screenshots so he was informed. He responded saying that I had not set the dip switches correctly and was told to change them and gave me the settings. I responded that according to the manual I was given my settings were correct as he was looking at the series layout when it was set up as parallel (series would up my voltage from 48 to 96 volts and parallel is to increase the amp / storage capacity). I did not change the settings as this would blow my inverter and I informed him. He then said that I was correct and to leave it but to change the inverter from user define to lithium and connect the communication cable. When I connected the communication cable the inverter would give me an error code 36 - Total over voltage. I then changed back the inverters settings to user defined and removed the communication cable. Elton did not know why the inverter was doing this and would have to check with his collogues in China Still cannot load the batteries on the app so I cannot see what is happening with the batteries. 15 April Contacted Elton as the batteries went off due to running flat. No response at all from Elton, even tried calling. I reset the batteries and changed the user define settings to the inverters default settings. 17 April Elton responds saying that they have to update the batteries OTA (Over the Air) and I have to get the batteries connected to the WIFI via the app. (The same app that he know that it does not want to load). This is because the batteries had outdated software. (the software that I was told would be loaded and the reason why the delay). I must meet him back in Herm**** so he can update the software. You would think after all these issues we have had with these batteries that he would drive to the farm to resolve. If he came via Caledon, we are talking maybe 20 km further that a parking lot in Herm****. Heard nothing more from Elton and on the 2 April as the batteries had run flat again and had cut power. 2 May tried to contact Elton, did not pick up so I sent a WhatsApp, no response 3 May Again I WhatsApp Elton asking what the issue is as I use to get by with only 1 x 100 amp battery and then also had a higher consumption, now that I have double that I cant get through 1 day of bad weather, makes no sense. I send a screenshot of my inverters app data which shows solar production, usage and battery discharge. It seems that the batteries a not charging fully or running itself flat as it definitely is not getting used through the system. Finally that afternoon he comes back with new user define settings which I change on my inverter. He also confirms that due to my load consumption that the batteries SHOULD NOT discharge overnight. He then asks what phone I have, model and version of software to try and resolve the mobile app issue. I sent all information through to him. 4 May Elton asks for screenshots of the errors I get with the BESS app for the batteries. I send this through to him with the error message is Chinese (I do not read / speak Chinese so do not know what it says). After sometime trying to load the batteries in the app I was told that I must try again as the app server is down and apparently the batteries would then reflect in the app. 9 May Finally the batteries are now showing on the app. I change the inverter settings to Lithium and put the data communication cable back to connect the batteries to the inverter. Inverter gives error code 04 - batteries disconnected and cuts all power to the house. I message Elton and inform him together with photos. I also explain what the BESS (battery app) does not show me any proper information about the batteries. I inform him that I have changed the settings back to user define in order to get power from the system. Elton responds and says he would let China take a look as the batteries are now online and they could let us know what the issue is. 10 May A new WhatsApp group is created by Elton and I am added together with his Chinese collogues. I send screenshots to show that the BESS app shows the 2 batteries online but the times for each are different yet they are both online. The date and time also reflects China's time zone although I am in South Africa. China is going to check with their engineer. Later that afternoon Elton asks China for any response 11 May China responds and asks me to refresh and check the app again. I am not on the farm and could not log into the app, which I inform them of this. They said it was because my cellphone signal was not stable, yet I had LTE with full bars. 12 May Nancy from China asks if I managed to log into the app. I responded that I could not as I got home after dark and we had run out of power again. I was waiting for the sun to be up and on the panels before I could try again. I sent screenshots and asked why I could not see any data on the batteries. I also sent screenshots of the inverter app to show the previous days solar production, charge and usage with a lot of questions to try and understand why the batteries were discharging when I am not using them that much. No explanation but get given new user define settings for the inverter. 13 May Battery are flat around 4:50am and we lost power again. 14 May Send another WhatsApp message through to the group to inform them and also let them know that the battery app time is not the same as the inverter app which makes it very difficult to get corresponding information between the two. I do however get information on only 1 of the batteries which shows a battery icon (no percentage) which is very low. I send screenshots of my inverters data to show how much solar production verses usage and that I had charged that day 5.8kWh with only 1.5kWh discharge, so why are the batteries running flat. I also state that the battery app is showing that the batteries very low, 1 line yet the inverts app shows the batteries to be full at 100%. To me it seems that the batteries are not really getting charged, but then I am not the specialists. 15 May I WhatsApp the group and say that the data I am looking at does not make sense as the apps are not even close with the charging / storage. I send more screenshots that afternoon and ask them to please explain why after a very good day of solar production and very little consumption, why the batteries are not fully charged. 16 May Around 8am Nancy from China responds with the battery serial numbers and informs me that the date and time are China's time and that is the way it is. She then tells me that the master battery is 37% and that both batteries show the same SOC. I respond and say according to my inverters app that the batteries are showing 75% full and that I can also still only see info / data from the 1 battery. Her response is that I will only be able to see only the master battery info and never the slave battery. (this makes no sense what so ever as how am I supposed to manage my batteries??? I have 2 batteries) I then ask if the batteries are showing her 37% (which is around 25% full) why is the voltage on the battery app showing 52.11? I can see the voltage, I cant see the percentage. The voltage is what the inverter would interpret how full the batteries are as I am still using define settings. My inverter is showing that the batteries are 75% full. Nancy response is that she can see that it is 37% on her system and that is why they are 37%. Around midday Elton responds and asks if my communication cable is plugged into the inverter from the batteries. I responded tagging the message of Nancy when she gave me the new user define settings when I was told to remove the communication cable as when I did the settings I got no power to the house and get an error. I then go on to show them the screenshots from my invert app which was around midday. There is full solar production, little consumption yet the batteries are not showing that they are getting charged. I then ask if they can look at this as to me the excess solar production is getting dumped. About 45 minutes later Elton says that if I don't have the communication cable plugged in between the inverter and batteries it would not show the same SOC. He then goes on why the SOC differs between the 2 apps because I don't have the cable in. Leon then comes on and asks am I running the batteries under voltage? I tag Nancy's message and say these are the settings I was given. He responds "That is fine" and goes on to say that the SOC between the 2 apps will not be the same as I don't have the communication cable in. I do understand this but why the difference between the 2 apps? Battery says flat and the inverter says 75%???? Again I send a lot of screenshots of the inverter app showing the solar production verses the consumption and storage that is taking place. I basically repeat myself explaining what all has been happening and would like to know why the batteries are running flat. That evening I tag Leon's message and ask for a response. 18 May I message the group to inform them that during the night between 10:30 pm - 11:45pm the power went out. I send screenshots and ask 2 very simple questions as nobody is answering them over the entire group messages since 10 May. 1. Please explain why the batteries do not fully charge? According to the inverter app they are, yet the battery app shows maybe 1 bar (37%) 2. How can the 2 batteries run flat in 1 day with partly cloudy sky's and very light rain occasionally? I have had no response from Elton (SA support) nor from China. I have had enough. There is no support and in the end of the day I would have paid close to R 60 000 for the 2 batteries which do not work how they should. I do not get 200 Amps of storage / power from them. These 2 batteries do not even give me the storage capacity that my original 100 Amp battery gave. I cannot see what is going on with the batteries as the data on the app is very limited. There is no screen to vie this on the batteries either. DO NOT BUY ANY FIRST NATIONAL BATTERY FROM THIS COMPANY OR FROM ANY AGENTS. There is no support and even if you do get "support" it is pointless as the issues do not get resolved. This is WORSE than ESKOM!!!!!!
0 replies
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5 Star
1 (33.333333333333336%)
4 Star
0 (0%)
3 Star
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2 Star
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1 Star
2 (66.66666666666667%)