question

It is ultimately the distributor who supplied the equipment that is responsible.

Assuming it is of course genuine Victron.

Yes, it is really bad that you one cannot contact the Victron and they want the purchaser to contact the distributor, when the distributor doesn't even answer their phone.

@Seamas @z_zk_z

Fill out the form here.

The serial numbers are traceable if they are Victron genuine.

Buying from a known supplier is important.

Victron are being very badly let down by their response to my problem. Here's a summary I posted on another forum summarising what has happened since I returned this unit to the retailer in December -

The retailer messed around for a few weeks citing end of year pressures, new year holidays etc as excuses but eventually in mid January said he’d checked the unit and it was fully working and he’d return it. Rather than argue I said great can you just send me a screenshot showing it connected to the Victron Direct app. More messing, more excuses and more time wasting and eventually he said on further checking it was failing intermittently. He said he’d contact the distributor and return it to them under guarantee. The distributor is in Adana which was one of the cities affected by the 06 February earthquakes. So more delays, albeit this time understandable and unavailable. Eventually we established contact with the distributor and he cast doubt on the provenance of the controller. He maintained it was not a unit supplied by him to the retailer in question and said there was no record of that serial number having being sold by Victron in Türkiye. He said it was not covered under guarantee and he was returning the unit to the retailer in Ankara. At this stage my lawyer was involved and in contact with both the retailer and distributor but getting nowhere and said we’d need to go to court. It was clear by now there was some serious issue between the distributor and the retailer and no love lost.

Last week after a bit of googling I found an email address for Victron head office. I told my story and got an email from the Victron sales manager in Türkiye telling me the retailer was not a trustworthy company and asking me to furnish serial numbers, photos etc of the two units I bought. I sent them. I got an email from the distributor saying they had checked the unit and it was NOT one supplied by them to the retailer but following communication from the Victron sales manager they had requested the retailer to resubmit it to them for further assessment. They also confirmed the retailer had been an authorised reseller but they were in dispute with him now and he was no longer authorised. This was followed by an email from the Victron sales manager confirming not only were my two units genuine but that they had, despite his denial, been supplied by the distributor to the retailer.

So where are we at today? The retailer says he sent the unit to the distributor by courier last week and what more can he do. The distributor says he hasn’t received it and can do nothing until he does - conveniently ignoring the fact he had it in his possession previously and took delight in denouncing it as irregular and unregistered in Türkiye. I get the impression the Victron sales manager is regretting ever getting involved and hoping the whole thing will go away.

Me? I’m still down one controller after 3 months and getting nowhere fast.

Dear @Seamas , my apologies for the slowness of getting you a proper working product!

I've been in touch with Islam and he'll get back to you tomorrow.

Hello @Seamas , as we have contacted via emails, we would like to respond as Distributor here as well. As you have been informed, your provider Atakale has been kicked out of our reseller circle 9 months ago due to inappropriate behaviors like this issue. But they were supplying Victron products from other distributors before as well. The MPPT's serial number which they have sent to us was not the one we have supplied to them, but they had sent it in our provided MPPT box. Our note was (same note were to you) product is GENUINE but not provided from us, we sent back to ex-reseller and kindly proposed to consult concerned distributor. As @nickdb mentioned above, in such cases it supposed to consult related distributor. But after Victron Sales Manager approval for replacement by us, we have demanded the defected product for replacement. Due to devastating Earthquake and since our HQ is located in one of those cities, cargo companies has limited distribution capabilities here and defected product didn't reached to us. But this morning we have got the parcel and our logistics team immediately sent a brand new MPPT to your address.

We are always ready to give assistance within the rules. In any case please contact our technical guys for a smooth response to your concerns.

Solitek Team

@SolarStorage You have been trying to involve me in issues which should not have to concern me. It is no concern of mine what commercial issues or disputes exist between you and your former reseller. You say you didn't supply the unit in question to Atakale but I have an email from Mr Islam Varol, Victron Sales Manager in Türkiye which says you did supply it to Atakale. I'm satisfied what Mr Varol wrote to me is true and correct which obviously calls into question the accuracy of what you say. Atakale sent the unit to you and, as far as I can determine, you saw the serial number on the box was not the same as the serial number on the unit and you branded it irregular. You told my colleague there was no record of the unit in Victron Türkiye and it was suspicious and was not covered by a guarantee. It's true the numbers didn't match - I bought 2 units at the same time and when returning the faulty unit I didn't check which box I was using. Did you check the Victron system to determine if the unit was genuine and under guarantee? Apparently not. You told us it was suspicious and not guaranteed. If you had been doing your job correctly this would not have happened. If I had accepted your decision I would have been at the loss of the unit. You only started to take my position seriously when I contacted Victron and Mr Varol got involved. Despite all this you sent me an email yesterday admonishing me and demanding respect for your efforts on my behalf. In my book ,respect is not something you demand - you have to earn it.

As I said if it was up to you and your company I would have been denied my rights under the Victron guarantee. It was only through the involvement of Mr Islam Varol and the intervention on this forum of @mvader (Victron Energy) that this is being sorted out.

Frankly I don't know why you are trying to defend the indefensible instead of just apologising.