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Newpriusbatterys Out of business?

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Technical Discussion' started by edthefox5, Jul 27, 2020.

  1. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    Getting waay off topic?
     
    #21 Mendel Leisk, Jul 28, 2020
    Last edited: Jul 28, 2020
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  2. sam spade 2

    sam spade 2 Senior Member

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    No it isn't.
    He should be able to get a refund fairly easily.
    If you pay for a "reconditioned" battery, you will "have an issue" over and over and over and OVER......with some intervals without a problem mixed in.

    Your shameless promotion of Green Bean is getting kind of old.
    Especially when it is an insult to all those people who have had a problem with them.
     
  3. AzusaPrius

    AzusaPrius Senior Member

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    What is shameful is your constant attack on that company any time it is mentioned or is it when I say it?

    Yea pretty shameful.
     
  4. ETC(SS)

    ETC(SS) The OTHER One Percenter.....

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    Green Bean sells "refurbished/reconditioned" turn-key batteries with a warranty that may (or may NOT) be better than the 3/36 industry average.

    Newpriusbatteries sell new cells that an owner can use to refurbish their own batteries with a hand full of very common household tools....again with a warranty which may or may not be better than the industry average.

    The difference seems to be that of time versus money and a little effort.
    Otherwise?
    These are two different companies, selling two different products.

    If I had a G2 or a G3 that needed a new traction battery I pretty much know which one I would use....but then.....hope is NOT a plan. ;)
    I have a spare car and a JIC fund, so I have options, otherwise my options would be more limited and that would greatly influence my strategery.
    Either way?
    @edthefox5 will share his results with the forum......and we'll see. ;)

    NOT everything has to be like facemasks..... 1919 OR 2020.......;)
     
    #24 ETC(SS), Jul 28, 2020
    Last edited: Jul 28, 2020
  5. 2k1Toaster

    2k1Toaster Brand New Prius Batteries

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    Well I just saw this thread.

    I (personally) answer texts because it goes to my phone. I answer emails and email contacts to my business when I am at the warehouse using the business computer. Otherwise we have 4 people that run the show in the warehouse now and answer most emails themselves unless it is something technical they forward to me to answer.

    As of today, we are out of stock with batteries. So nobody is in the warehouse to just twiddle their thumbs. My main employee comes in once a week and answers all the emails and calls she can right now. I don't want her to be out of the house for no reason. We have no batteries to sell and have nobody doing installations since it has been a few weeks since we shipped out any batteries. I personally usually go down to the warehouse and answer emails/phones when I can. However I recently traveled by plane and was self-quarantining for the required 14 days. I am not getting anyone sick to answer a phone early.

    As of yesterday I am back in action. I am the only one who will respond at all hours and all the time. The phone number on the website has a text number that goes directly to my cell phone. I answer that when I can. You can PM me here which is my personal accounts, and I will answer whenever. I do not allow any of my employees to work like I do, because it is a terrible work/life balance. When they leave the warehouse, they have left. There is no way for them to check emails or phone messages for a reason. If there was a way for them to, I am sure they would. And then they'd be working constantly all day. As the owner, I will do that. They will not.

    As to this order, there was (and is) a banner on the website that shows all shipping dates are estimates due to COVID. Customs clearance usually takes 2 to 3 days. Since COVID, it has been taking 3 weeks or more. I can't control that. We had estimated a July 22nd ship date because that was 3 weeks after when they should have been here. This is the "July shipment" that landed in the US end of June. Allowing for 3 weeks of customs clearance, and delivery on the 21st to us, that would be July 22nd ship out date. As of today, I got word that they had cleared which took 5 WEEKS instead of 2-3 days. We now expect them to arrive this Friday. We will then ship out on Monday to those that ordered. Since we will have batteries and be shipping them, we have a schedule to rotate in a person a day to answer emails and phones because there will always be installation questions. After we ship the last battery we have in stock, 2 weeks from that date, we will go back to one day a week until the next shipment comes in or we no longer have stay-at-home guidance.

    I believe Ed texted me (goes to my cell) thismorning, and he got a response an hour and 6 minutes later (after lunch) which was the first communication I had to my devices. I have also cleared out all the messages by email as I went in to the warehouse today, 15 days after traveling. So if anyone is waiting on an email response and doesn't have one as of right now, please resend. We get tons of spam, like close to 1000 messages a day. Most of it is porn links or website builders / SEO people. Some is just unintelligible text that was most likely part of a website attack attempt that failed. So while sifting through literally thousands of email messages, sometimes we miss a legit one. Especially when it is just "u ship yet" which is an actual email we've received (not from Ed!) but so hard to know if it is worth responding to.

    Hopefully this clears things up. Sorry again, just lots of factors going into things right now.
     
  6. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    and my apologies for the delay, and not being able to respond sooner.(y)
     
  7. royrose

    royrose Senior Member

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    Where is the banner? I can't find it. I do see "The next shipment is expected around Aug 7th 2020" but nothing abut Covid.

    Also, suggestion: Your phone number is listed on the order page but not the contact page. Some people may not find it. You might also say "text for quicker response" or something like that.
     
  8. 2k1Toaster

    2k1Toaster Brand New Prius Batteries

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    estimates.jpg

    That is purposeful. There should be very few hybrid battery emergencies that require immediate contact and being routed to my cell phone directly. Most general inquiries, I'd hope that people can wait a week if they have an answer that can't be found on our website or on Priuschat. My hope is that if you can find the number, you're looking hard for it. And by the time you find it with a google, most of the answers to basic questions are answered. I and my employees spend a lot of time answering questions like "how do I buy a battery", "how much is shipping", "will this work in a Prius", that sort of thing. Once I start getting those questions by phone, the phone becomes useless too. It should be high priority or emergency use only. If I had unlimited resources and could staff people to answer the phones and answer emails 24/7, I would. As it is now, we make very little off every battery mostly due to rising shipping costs (almost double over the past 4 months) and tariffs of 25% slapped on every battery even though they cannot be produced or manufactured in the US. The US government makes more per battery then we do. After I pay people, it's not much. I own a lot of businesses and work in a lot of different fields. The Prius battery business is a love, not a profit motive.

    Edit: Anyone that wants to reach me directly, PM me here or email me directly at [email protected]. That goes directly to my emails. If you don't receive a response within a day, try again. I have stricter SPAM filters inplace than the general email address, but I do answer as I can.
     
  9. dig4dirt

    dig4dirt MoonGlow

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    @edthefox5

    Hope you get your batt soon and can install it and have a nice new functional Prius!

    @2k1Toaster

    Being a business owner myself, when I read your posts, you brought back some nightmare memories.
    So glad I am past that stage and operate differently now then the past. lol.

    GL2U both!
     
  10. edthefox5

    edthefox5 Senior Member

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    Thank you I had the exact experience you did on there site. Identical thank you.
    Nice site but not layed out well. I missed what you did too. I never scrolled down far enough to see the number.
     
    #30 edthefox5, Jul 29, 2020
    Last edited: Jul 29, 2020
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  11. edthefox5

    edthefox5 Senior Member

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    ,thank you dig4 dirt very kind.

    2k finally contacted me. This morning I disputed the am ex charge.

    We worked it out. It may have helped he found out who I was on this site only the fact that I always liked his Posts appreciated his technical skills and almost always agreed with his posts. He knows his stuff which is the main reason I went for it. Lots of very smart people on this site.

    So we worked it out. All I ever wanted was a quick hey Ray thanks for paying me but I am seeing some delays on parts so hang in there. His silence was deafening to me.

    But he’s busy under covid hardships like the rest of us so I’ll chill out now that we are talking. I dropped the dispute.
     
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  12. sam spade 2

    sam spade 2 Senior Member

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    Just to be clear here: I am not necessarily attacking "that company", I am attacking YOU for blindly supporting them.
    I think YOU are giving out irresponsible advice.
     
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  13. AzusaPrius

    AzusaPrius Senior Member

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    Good job buddy I hope it makes your day.

    Nothing blind about mentioning a company I read all the details about them.

    Unless you can produce major defects or issues with images or actual customer statements on here.

    I will continue to mention them and you will continue to feel some type of way about it.

    Good day
     
  14. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    Guess I gotta ignore both the combatants...
     
  15. sam spade 2

    sam spade 2 Senior Member

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    I just did a search on here for "Green Bean" and it came up with about 100 hits.
    If you really care, read through them.
    You might learn something that is actually useful.
     
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  16. The Critic

    The Critic Resident Critic

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    Do you actually have an understanding of how hybrid batteries work, or are you just blindly regurgitating the marketing information you read?

    Green bean has not done anything groundbreaking. They are refurbishing batteries using industry standard methods which results in a mediocre outcome. However, in their defense, they have an excellent warranty. So, if reliability is not a concern, Green bean is a “lifetime solution” as long as they are in business to take your warranty claims.
     
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  17. dolj

    dolj Senior Member

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    Reading about something is one thing, but experience with the product is a totally different ball game.
    Here is but one of a few on PriusChat to get you started: Reconditioned Battery/5 year warranty/1500 dollars | Post #165
     
    #37 dolj, Jul 30, 2020
    Last edited: Jul 30, 2020
  18. Mavi

    Mavi Active Member

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    Refurbishers, no matter how well they stand again their products will never hold a candle to new battieries. It's basic science. When you got 28 cells that are 10 years old, and change out 3-4, you still got 10 year old cells.. they will fail sooner rather than later. It's just one or two multi month airplane trip to kill the rest of them off. Good luck getting them warrantied more than one and for free, on their time and labor. Even the best can't sustain that business model. Considering they cost nearly the same... it's not really an argument/debate worth having.
     
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  19. Frank1234

    Frank1234 Member

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    They can do business with a new company name to forgive all warranty aka bankruptcy and open up under a new name, so yes as long they stay on business under the same name!
     
  20. z686

    z686 Junior Member

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    When your web guy setup your website, they should have included a simple captcha (ex: 5 - 1 = ?) on the contact form.

    This will eliminate over 80% if not even 99% of all that spam you are getting. It will stop all the automated bots hitting your contact form, and only a few will get through from the more advanced bots.

    If your site ran wordpress, it would be a simple a plugin you could do yourself.