Warrantys?

[MelTx]

  Warning the following may be disturbing to women and small children:

      Last week went shopping at wally world, looking for some small batts to put on my new electric tricycle...Found two I wanted, they said because I had no old batts to turn in it would be 7.00 each,core charge 14.00 for two, no eceptions....I said keep them, and left...

           Today I took 3 of my other deep cycle batts in and wanted to prorate an exchange....OK they had a 1 year free replacement and a 13mth--24 prorate...These batts were 19 months old...  Here is where they get the fuzzy math going.The 19 month old batts now were worth only 4 dollars apiece...Less that they tried to charge me for fantom trade ins last week... So from the 12 month to the 19 month they became nearly worthless...regular car batt have a much better pro rate than that.......

        I usted to know a guy he would buy a lawn mower from them and use it so hard in hot weather[TX]in would burn it up. And then take it back and get a new one no charge...Then he would just laugh like a hyena.I think I now know why he was laughing so much. Moral of this story TAKE THEM BACK IN 11.9 MONTHS.

                                                 MelTx

[johnlm]

So if everybody that buys  1 year free replacement battery from Walmart took them back in 11 months (whether defective or not) wanting a new one free, year after year what do you think walmart would do?  What would you do if you managed walmart?

John

[terry5732]

3 out of the last 4 batteries I bought at Walmart were bad within one month. And they still hassled me on the exchange. One was flat dead after one day in a vehicle and wouldn't charge at all. Of course they wanted to blame the vehicle, but the next battery in is still going after a couple years. I like cheap prices but there should be a slight amount of quality control. Avoid anything electrical that has the word "Mexico" on it.

I also got 2 out 3 bad alternators from Pepboys - remanufactured in Mexico. Number 4 and 5 were tested at the store before we found one that worked. So actually it was 1 out 5 that were good. Of course I installed 1 and 2 at about 10 below, outside.

I haven't found any batteries warranty to worth anything.

[MelTx]

   OH I am sorry JLM Did I forget to mention the Deep cycle batts would not hold a full charge? I dont realy dont know what other people would do I am not a qualified mind reader like some people.Everyone must do as they feel is right.I only presented some info that might help others take care of their money.It just amazes me how something can become worth less than something that never did exist..and in so short of a time.

[johnlm]

Mel,

I was going to ask first if the batterys you were taking back were ok or not.  I suspect that the warrenty period is pretty much set by the manufacturer (likely Exide) and Wallyville only administrates it.  I was reacting to what I thought was being implied by the whole story including the guy burning up lawn mowers and laughing about getting a free one everytime.  Since the life expectancy of deep cycle batteries has been well documented on this site -most everyone knows that if you discharge them below 80% of capacity the life expectancy goes down, and if discharged severely very many times they go to heck pretty fast.  The story could have just as easily been about someone (not implying you) harshly using the batteries and getting free ones. Wallmart has no way of knowing what the batteries (especially deep discharge ones) have been subjected to.  I think the manufacturer's and Walmart analize the pros and cons of getting business by offering a fairly liberal return policy (not necessarily talking only of batteries here) verses the number of times they have to deal with things like the lawnmower issue.

 I do agree with you that the batteries' value should not have been less than they charge for a core charge.  And your correct, if you know the battery is not good before the 1 yr free replacement is up then don't hesitate to get them in there and save yourself some money.

  And in regard to any other comments about how bad Wallmart's (Exide) batteries may be, I suppose the logical conclusion is why keep buying them there then?

  I personally know one of the assistant managers at the local wallyvile and she told me a story one time about how a guy bought a lawnmower (shipped with no oil in the engine as is typical of just about all places), the guy took it home, apparently didnt even look at the warning lables about adding oil, put gas in it an mowed his lawn until the engine siezed.  He took it back and got it replaced (the clerk compounded the problem by not looking to see if there was oil in it), and took the second one home and did the same thing. When he took it back again (cursing wallyville in the store for their junky lawnmowers) somebody wised up, checked the oil and made him keep the second one.  The bottom line is that liberal return policies are very nice for the person who gets a lemon now and then, any maybe even for the person who once in a great while screws something up and wants it replaced but if abused it only drives the prices up for everybody.

thanks for listening

Johnlm