Batrium-poor customer service

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rtgunner

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Jan 14, 2018
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I guess the folks at Batrium have decided not to support the Longmons I purchased from them.

I have a Longmon that will not go into bypass. I have corresponded with Maxine at Batrium by email, sent them the screenshots and logs they requested
but have not heard a word from them after several re-inquireies about my issue.

Disappointing... :mad:
 
how long ago was this. you know Batrium is in east Australia so it would have been the weekend for them where it is Friday in the US... just saying.
 
tremors said:
how long ago was this. you know Batrium is in east Australia so it would have been the weekend for them where it is Friday in the US... just saying.

Been a problem since January 2018... last 3 emails not even a response...
 
take it up with Business and Consumer Affairs or ACCC in Australia since I'm originally from there. Lodge a complaint
 
Not happy seeing threads like this when I am gearing up to make a purchase with them. Aside from Batrium I dont really another solution to consider.

Might have to suck it up and order anyways, but the makers probably already know that.

Competition is generally a good thing. Id love to see more established vendors in this niche space.
 
I do think they genuinely do try to help, but the lack of detailed documentation (which is slowly getting better) really means there is a high workload on a very small number of resources. I am currently working with them on a number of issues that I have with my system, I believe at least some of them are hardware related, and initially I expected a snappier turn around, but they are slowly working through it with me. My issues are only since June/July and I'm hoping we are getting pretty close to a hardware swap of the main WM4 unit.

Have you tried checking all the longmon cables. I initially had loads of defective longmon cables, this caused me hours and hours of headaches and troubleshooting. The longmons would pass the network test, then still behave really strangely. They have a new cable supplier and I ordered 5 or 6 of the new cables to replace my faulty ones and the new cables are way better made. Could that be something you try?
 
mbrunton said:
I do think they genuinely do try to help, but the lack of detailed documentation (which is slowly getting better) really means there is a high workload on a very small number of resources. I am currently working with them on a number of issues that I have with my system, I believe at least some of them are hardware related, and initially I expected a snappier turn around, but they are slowly working through it with me. My issues are only since June/July and I'm hoping we are getting pretty close to a hardware swap of the main WM4 unit.

Have you tried checking all the longmon cables. I initially had loads of defective longmon cables, this caused me hours and hours of headaches and troubleshooting. The longmons would pass the network test, then still behave really strangely. They have a new cable supplier and I ordered 5 or 6 of the new cables to replace my faulty ones and the new cables are way better made. Could that be something you try?

I have moved the longmon in question to different positions in my array ant the problem sticks with the longmon... same problem since I first powered on the system back in Jan 2018
 
I think some forum members would be more than willing to help with somesupport, but we would probably need to ensure we are giving the correct information out. Whether Jaron would be interested in 'Open Sourcing' to the community the web pages that the Batrium help points to? I have found that the help is written from the perspective of an expert and tends to be things like "Flux Capacity Mega Fine Tuning Adjustment Threshold Bypass" - This setting is to adjust the Flux Capacitor tuning parameters, increase to raise the adjustment, and decrease to lower the factor" :p. Having come from a development background, I have done exactly the same as once something is obvious to me, I do struggle to explain it to others (I suck as a teacher).

There are heaps of people that love the Batrium product, and I think there is a large amount of effort that people would be willing to put in to support, as I don't think it's very sustainable to have a quality expensive product that people can't get going properly or get so frustrated that they give up and send it back.

I haven't wanted to put my issues on a public forum as if heaps of people see a lot of threads all talking about issues in a product, that might devalue the brand, but at times when I have had extensive timeframes between responses, it's crossed my mind as the only avenue.

I've had a talk to Jaron and he is super helpful and obviously far, far in advance of mostnearly everyone on the forums, and I get that he has a business to run, but I know myself, I am holding off investing any more in another 3 or 4 sets of longmons until I get my current setup going.

I know of another person that is around 20 mins south of me that was trying to order a new system and was told that there is a 3 week backlog, so it's not like they are only concentrating on sales as far as I can see.

I know he is trying to get another release nearly finished off, and he shared a few features with me that personally I think will be pretty awesome (no I won't share what they are). I'm hoping after that the next release is out, that I can get my issues sorted.

Anyone got any other thoughts?


The pins in the connector socket are not bent? (they are really thin and you have to be super careful). I had some really wierd stuff go on with faulty cables - they passed the network test, but fairly random issues until I figured out it was the cable. So that's why I'm wondering if it's the connector the cable plugs in to?

So it gets a flashing light as part of the normal polling sequence? Do you get a temperature reading for that longmon? Does it go up if you aim a hairdryer at it?
 
If you move the longmon and the problem moves with it, it's the longmon - email them and give them all the troubleshooting stuffs and send the info to them - making a point it's a long-term issue that needs urgent attention.

It's a sub 20 dollar part, really just must have been lost in the 'system' somehow.
 
I've just fixed a problem on mine ( I hope ) the impression I got was that they are a small company, large companies tend to give case reference when logging the fault, seems to be that Maxine deals with the initial contact then passes it on to Jason if unable to resolve quickly.

Which could be where the back log begins if he's the only one.

To be fair if the problem moves with that longmon and the others are working fine its a very good indication that this one is faulty. From the information provided If I was screening this call Id send you a longmon to test if it works then an easy call close the one problem resolved.

There is no getting away from the fact that Batrium is a very good product for this type of project the only other one that comes close is rec-bms

I'm a little worried myself as I plan to expand my system and may need assistance in the future, as they are bringing more products to market that the support structure will needs be ramped up, as their new products will be aimed at smaller users could lead to a higher call volumes.


If you want look for my fault on the Facebook page as the batirum guy was tagged in there could be a way to give them a gentle nudge
 
CrimpDaddy said:
Not happy seeing threads like this when I am gearing up to make a purchase with them. Aside from Batrium I dont really another solution to consider.

Might have to suck it up and order anyways, but the makers probably already know that.

Competition is generally a good thing. Id love to see more established vendors in this niche space.

I am in the same boat... very close to purchasing from Batrium, and have had my own experiences with customer support. Having read this thread I'd be lying if I didn't have the voice in my head telling me to choose carefully.

I guess the one saving grace is the amount of members in here that have Batrium products, so I'd hope if I have a problem I can obtain some help. Highly possible Batrium are suffering from success and are having growing pains... but if that leads to poor customer experiences, it could cripple their reputation.
 
They are a one man company you could say where its family driven. Its not always easy to do it all and since this forum the requests have expanded 10 fold.



I have done alot of work with them and I can ensure they will do their best to sort any issues. They have even hired one more guy to help out during this expansion and slowly getting back into pace.

3 mails since january isnt much in terms of asking for help?

I personally have 5 of their systems here and 4 in running gear. I have installed several others as well and have gotten the help I needed. With that said I do understand their situation and I help them with the support when needed.

Please make sure if you havent sent in a new case last week then do that and Il ping them for you.
 
First, we have had a few issuesand arestill working through them. Whilst we improveour support a big thank you todaromerand several otherswho continue to offer advise when we dont reply fast enough.

It is accurate to say that we are experience growing pains, partly from :
  • many questions from the community
  • not having enough stock, andrunning out too frequently of one component or another
  • continue togetmorestaff to help with the support
  • the perfect product (or variants) to suit different applications
  • QA procedures to guard against failures arriving at customers
  • easy to usedocumentation

Yes, we are small with 4 of us working on different parts of the business tohelp ourcustomers. We are open about ourendeavours and blogged openly about the roadmap ofdevelopment. We were openaboutWatchmon4 that was forceddue tocomponents no longer available fromWatchmon1. We regularly post to about our progress and most importantly working to solve the pain point. Being small we think we are nimble enough to listen and solve problems.

There are a number of other bms vendors, what we are building we think will be special as a IoT BMSwhere youget improved functionality from the same hardware as we release updatesand improvements. We are looking forward to when people will have the remote access and mobile app visibility.

If there are people who started a conversation who have not heard from us in over a week please start a new conversationat info@batrium.com. This will allow us towork out what happened and plan any rectification, however also be patient as we are small and replying within minutes is not always possible as we may not be in your same time zone.
 
daromer said:
They are a one man company you could say where its family driven. Its not always easy to do it all and since this forum the requests have expanded 10 fold.



I have done alot of work with them and I can ensure they will do their best to sort any issues. They have even hired one more guy to help out during this expansion and slowly getting back into pace.

3 mails since january isnt much in terms of asking for help?

I personally have 5 of their systems here and 4 in running gear. I have installed several others as well and have gotten the help I needed. With that said I do understand their situation and I help them with the support when needed.

Please make sure if you havent sent in a new case last week then do that and Il ping them for you.

It was a long string of emails, files sent, screenshots sent then nothing after 3 email over the course of a month. I'm not that hard to get along with... :)


Problem solved! Maxine at Batrium responded to another iteration of emails and they are sending an RMA longmon.

I did have to place an order that they can include the RMA longmon into as the shipping from AUS for one longmon is more than the purchase price of a new one...

I'm not trying to drag them through the dirt. I know that it is difficult and risky creating a startup like they are doing... I appreciate the gargantuan efforts to get us stuff we need!

BTW I am shipping back the bad longmon to their aggregator in the US so I won't be spending more to ship to AUS than the cost of the unit itself.

Again - Problem solved.

Kudos to Maxine and Batrium for supporting their products...! :)
 
Yay I love happy endings
 
I found this thread in searching another topic on Batrium. I am reviving it because of the statement:

"BTW I am shipping back the bad longmon to their aggregator in the US so I won't be spending more to ship to AUS than the cost of the unit itself."

Can I ask ...who is this aggregator in the U.S..? I have not been made aware of any organization providing any kind of customer support for Batrium in the U.S.. Thanks, Richard
 
Batrium only exist in AU.
What they do on Return is to instead of shipping it all the way they collect it in one place in a region to make the RMA easier to handle. Thats what he refers to as an aggregator. Its a place that holds RMA goods.

Same procedure in Europe.

You have not been made of aware of any Batrium in US because it does not exist. Batrium is AU.
 
One man company?!?!?!?!? Serve half the world, i thought i was busy...
Just to small to hire an extra person, just not big enough to not hire an extra person...
Been there done that(read: still doing that).
Good luck in busy times, and don't forget to take care of yourself.
 
They are like 5-8people or something now i think. Dont remeber the last head-count but they have grown for instance the support and testing department.
 
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