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How Do I Repair A Hybrid Automotive Prolong Discharger?

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Main Forum' started by Phildo, Apr 21, 2020.

  1. Phildo

    Phildo Active Member

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    Vehicle:
    2008 Prius
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    i-Tech
    - He didn't ship it back to Australia. He sent it to California (a freight forwarder) without telling me first, and I had to retrieve it from there. This is despite my Australian return-address being on the box that I sent the discharger in.

    - There is no dispute about George's honesty. However, I don't have a whole lot of faith in his repair/testing skills, or his interest in resolving something with minimal cost to the customer. Why is sending parts to me now an option, when it wasn't possible last year? "We will need to have that unit send back for repair."
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    When the discharger originally failed the first time I contacted George.

    My original request was to fix it locally (ie for him to send me repair parts). He denied that request.

    Me: "Although I appreciate that it's a proprietary design, is there anywhere in Australia that is able to repair the discharger? Shipping is going to be expensive for both of us."
    Hybrid Automotive: "I am really sorry to hear that, yes it does look like the resistors inside the unit went bad. We will need to have that unit send back for repair."

    When it was "repaired" he sent it back to the wrong address.

    I ended up paying the return freight to me.

    And the discharger failed on the first use.

    So yeah, I'm a tad miffed with George (the actual words that spring to mind are not permitted here).

    He insisted on the most expensive way of doing something, and still didn't repair the discharger.

    This would have been obvious if it was tested before sending it out, but I'm assuming that testing didn't happen.

    So no, I haven't contacted George directly since his repair didn't work.

    I gave George a chance. The freight cost me around half of the original cost of the discharger.

    To take it up with George again will just repeat the same cycle, and I'm damn angry that he didn't fix it the first time I paid to send it back.

    My experience with that repair was that it was done the most costly way possible, and I did not want to repeat that.

    Rather than create any more bad sentiment with George I wrote a lengthy email to the owner of Hybrid Automotive, Jeff Sloan.

    Jeff saw a comment of mine on a Facebook group that I'd had problems with my Prius discharger and messaged me directly, asking for more information. Hence the email to him - it was lengthy, but reasonably constructive and conveyed the point of view of a frustrated customer.

    But after six weeks I haven't received a reply from Jeff (I've also asked him on Messenger if he's going to reply - which he's seen).

    I wanted a solution, and I figured that if there's a dissatisfied customer out there somewhere then Jeff would want to know about it, and hopefully address it.

    The email (copied in a post above here) not only covered the repeatedly faulty discharger, but also a bunch of other things - why aren't there serial numbers on the items, what options are there for future out-of-warranty repairs, instructions for later model Camrys, why can't I use my Camry discharger on a Prius battery and a few other things.

    This issue shouldn't involve George anymore - that's why I haven't contacted him again.

    It should be moved up the management hierarchy to someone with the authority to make a more senior decision (ie in this case, Jeff Sloan).

    When I originally started this thread my simple request was if anyone knew how to repair a Hybrid Automotive discharger.

    This thread was never meant to be about George.

    TL;DR: There aren't further emails to George because I took it up with the owner of Hybrid Automotive instead, and didn't receive a reply.

    All I wanted was to learn how to fix my Hybrid Automotive Prius discharger. If anyone has experience with this then please contact me.
     
    Meg&Bear likes this.
  2. qmanqman

    qmanqman Active Member

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    Right on Phildo. I hear ya bro. Funk George LOL

    If resistors were bad couldn't you figure that out?
     
    #22 qmanqman, Jul 16, 2020
    Last edited: Jul 16, 2020
  3. PriusCamper

    PriusCamper Senior Member

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    It's a very simple device... Anyone with soldering board skills is going to be able to replace that resistor. If anything else is wrong that likely won't be that hard to deal w/either.
     
  4. Meg&Bear

    Meg&Bear Junior Member

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    Other Hybrid
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    I realize this thread is old and wish now in hindsight 20/20 that I had done a little more research regarding Hybrid Automotive and their Prolong System. I purchased the deluxe for my 2006 Toyota Highlander Hybrid in May 2021 and just installed the harness this past weekend which took me at least 20 hours for just disassembly and install of harness. All seemed ok but now my charger is not working and I had to reassemble my car and am on serious time constraints and fear I’ve caused my battery more harm than good :/ I emailed and received response from George whom I also briefly spoke with during installation and I agree with you completely that I felt slight condescension, annoyance, and apathy during my phone call with him and was distressed and disappointed that I’m now dealing with him again via email (as I want everything on record).
    I’ve had no issues with my battery despite the age and only 112K miles on my vehicle. I’ve followed all instructions and safety precautions provided by Prolong, which are limiting and lacking detail and a troubleshooting section on their website. I’m being told that most likely my fuse harness or charger fuse is to blame but given no further instruction on how to test these properly aside from fuse specs for harness. Which I am not about to disassemble my entire vehicle interior again only to verify what I already suspect to be true that something occurred to my charger upon first connection (after the testing) when I experienced a small pop backlight screen flash twice attempting to connect my harness. Another thread on this site has a prolong owner with a similar incident titled awful experience with Prolong or something similar. I’m unfortunately past the 30 day warranty for returns which is my fault for being unable to install and utilize the system until now but I wish I could return it because Hybrid Auto’s support is seriously lacking for their customers. Even if they had a troubleshooting section on their site that covered things like fuses and any other stuff, I’d be more likely to refer their products granted this issue gets sorted properly. I’m frustrated to say the least and can’t imagine having spent what you did on top of your purchase and without adequate results! I’m considering just chalking this up to a huge mistake and loss and looking at alternative systems that actually work and have adequate instructions and employees whom are actually helpful and not dismissive. I don’t have the time to waste with this back and forth and being unable to use my time I purposed for reconditioning also wasted and considered a loss. I’m sorry this happened to you and grateful that I found this so I don’t waste more money I don’t have right now shipping anything back to them for naught