Posted by: @editor

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Yet when it comes to aftercare and support for existing customers, it feels like that side of things is almost non-existent.

I had a similar situation when my EV charger was deemed to have valuable debug info. The manufacturer had not considered an electrician would be needed to keep me going with a replacement charger! 🙄 

They were so keen to get the debug data from the box.. As if it was theirs to take, and the pain they inflicted on me as a customer would be overlooked... 

Whilst I take some comfort from remembering how I frustrated their beta lab testing scam, marketing and spin is still getting them new sales. 😡 

@editor 

The firm that invented/developed the Immersun was a PV/solar thermal/renewable energy installation company based in a small town in northern Lincolnshire, they installed our original Solar Thermal & PV, in fact the technical guy that was the brains behind the outfit commissioned both our systems.

Government slashed FiTs in early 2012 and the gravy train was over so the over the next few years the small firm went pop.

Immersun was a brand that was sold off - presumably by the liquidator.

Myenergi emerged from the ashes about the same time that the original firm went into receivership with some (most?) of the same directors - in particular the brains behind the Immersun, they developed a new product and the Eddi was born.

The arrival of electric cars allowed them to develop the concept and hence the Zappi was developed.

The firm has grown very quickly over the the last 5 years or so being flexible and fast moving enough to take advantage of a rapidly growing market for electric car chargers, however I understand that larger players have moved in making margins much tighter.

Early in the boom they expanded their organisation faster than sales grew which led to fairly significant redundancies and presumably significant cost challenges.

They are local to us and manufacture in Grimsby so when we looked for a solar diverter and subsequently a car charger we bought from them, the Eddi has been in use for over three years and works really well, the Zappi is installed waiting for our first EV at the end of this month.

Its great to see a firm designing and manufacturing in the UK and I really hope they succeed and manage to survive past their “difficult third album”

@bornagain Those staff redundancies were possibly linked with the employment of their AI Chatbot. I suspect another redundancy would have been the person who would have minded the workings of the AI Chatbot; as it would seem this aspect has been overlooked, so they are chugging along in blissful ignorance of the damage it is causing to their reputation, support services and future.😟 Regrets, Toodles.

Posted by: @toodles

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so they are chugging along in blissful ignorance of the damage it is causing to their reputation, support services and future.

I'm quite certain there's no blissful ignorance, @toodles. Their actions are calculated so either they're seeing that reputational damage as the least bad path or they don't care.

I agree with @bornagain about it being good to see a firm doing its design and production in the UK but I'll judge the quality of their operation before the location of it; if they are peremptory and cynical with their customers I don't care if they're home-grown British.

@majordennisbloodnok To keep this thread up to date, I have attached the latest communications from this morning; as you say Major, they don’t appear to place any value on service or reputation any more. This is such a great shame, a good product now in jeopardy by rubbish after sales service - I feel sorry for the hard working staff whose futures are at stake due to a callous (and I think extremely short sighted) attitude towards all those who have been purchased their products by the management (and possibly the ‘bean counters’).

Today’s correspondence.

MyEnergi wrote:

Hi xxxx,
 
We only appoint third-party installers who are fully qualified electricians and have been vetted by us. While there are many electricians who may be qualified to carry out the work, we can only use those who are registered on our list of approved installers. This is necessary for insurance and liability purposes.
 
Of course, you are free to use your own installer; however, any works carried out by someone not on our approved list would be undertaken either at no cost to us or at your own expense.
 
We were also made aware that changes had been made to the wiring of the Sunamp system without our knowledge. We offered to send one of our approved installers to rectify the issue, but this offer was declined and your alternative installer was used instead, this we cannot pay for as mentioned above, 
 
Thank you.

I then replied:

Hello Chris.,

@batpred I have now had a reply from Chris Davis (Customer Experience Manager) and have been provided with a warranty repairs extension. We have also discussed at great length about the faulty ‘bypass’ switch preventing its’ use to provide power for continuation of a supply of hot water and am told this is a very rare event. I have been banging on about the inordinately long response times and their use of AI Chatbots as the only means of communication to request speaking to a human. I have now had an update on this situation - nevertheless, I hope I never need to avail myself of the warranty service again!

Chris Davis wrote:

“Regarding support response times, we are in the process of bringing in additional resources to improve how quickly we respond to customers. There have been many internal discussions about how we can improve this, and we believe we now have the right plan in place we just need to implement it and ensure new team members are fully trained. We have also invested heavily in AI systems, which work very well in some scenarios, though not all, and we continue to refine this.”

Regards, Toodles.

Posted by: @toodles

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@batpred I have now had a reply from Chris Davis (Customer Experience Manager) and have been provided with a warranty repairs extension. We have also discussed at great length about the faulty ‘bypass’ switch preventing its’ use to provide power for continuation of a supply of hot water and am told this is a very rare event. I have been banging on about the inordinately long response times and their use of AI Chatbots as the only means of communication to request speaking to a human. I have now had an update on this situation - nevertheless, I hope I never need to avail myself of the warranty service again!

Chris Davis wrote:

“Regarding support response times, we are in the process of bringing in additional resources to improve how quickly we respond to customers. There have been many internal discussions about how we can improve this, and we believe we now have the right plan in place we just need to implement it and ensure new team members are fully trained. We have also invested heavily in AI systems, which work very well in some scenarios, though not all, and we continue to refine this.”

Regards, Toodles.

@toodles positive news it seems. 

Customer experience managers can really bring that customer viewpoint into an organisation (if they are really empowered). They can allow it to self correct issues with automation including generative AI. 

I have to keep some scepticism, the real test for me would be whether they are offering the same service to all customers being impacted in similar situations. Like if they are able to avoid clients going onto social media and fora by supporting the vast majority of clients before they have to. 😉