Panasonic - Terrible Service, and Li-Ion Charging Inconsistency!

**JulianH** · 30th April 2008, 10:06 PM

After significant amount of reading and review on this and other forums/sites I purchased at the end of January one of the new Panasonic Multi-Impact Drill Drivers (the 14.4Volt Li-Ion EY7542).

After using it on one project, which was fastening M10 bolts on a small sleeper wall (total of 50 bolts) and a redgum wood capping (total of 40 bugle screws) I put the unit to rest - until this week.

I've been fastening Brush Fence Panels to 90x45 Treated Pine Rails (and the rails into hardwood posts). I finished one side of the house which was 12 bugle screws into TreatedPine/Hardwood Posts, then 40 roofing screws into the Panels/Treated Pine Rails. At this point I switched to the other side of the house.

After securing two rails (6 screws) I went to put up the first Panel and the battery light came on - I switched battery, and...the battery light came on. I put the "fresh" battery back on the charger, and saw within 5 secs that the charger was indicating "Battery Malfunction".

THUS begins the tale of Service Support!

My first call was with a guy called Heath - after being on hold for over 15 mins, and him repeatedly telling me that batterys were not covered by Warranty, refusing to put me through to a supervisor, I hung up.

My second call was with a guy called Peter - he went straight into a speech about not being covered by warranty, but in exceptional circumstances the battery could be sent to "Paul C" at Panasonic. When I asked how long it would take for Paul to send through a replacement he relaunched into the spiel about Warranty. He could not tell me if i would be without the battery for 2 days, 2 weeks or 2 months.

I tried to get him to understand the situation - that Panasonic had provided me with a Battery which had been charged TWICE, and which had then malfunctioned, so that it makes NO difference what the warranty says or does not say, clearly they have provided a defective device and therefore I am protected by statutory rights which exceed any manufacturers warranty. He did not want to know.

Rather than following his instructions to send the battery to Paul C, I dug around on the net and managed to get hold of Paul C's number. Guess what? Paul had ABSOLUTELY no idea why anyone in Panasonic would tell a customer to send a Battery to him (and he said he would try and followup).

Paul then suggested I go to Huntingdale Power Tools - it was an hour drive but thought it would be worth it; He called to let them know I was coming. When I arrived, at first they wanted to take the whole Drill Kit (Good Battery, Bad Battery, Drill and Charger) - remember I am in the middle of a project! - I said I could not do that, at that point they became a bit more helpful, and I was able to just give them the faulty battery.

I still had to purchase a replacement battery. $164 battery for a Drill purchased for $599 in January ie One Quarter of the purchase price.

When I returned home I opened the new Battery, and read the small enclosed leaflet: "For Appropriate Use of Li-ion Battery Pack - Charge Battery Before Storage". hmmm... On Page 9 of my Drill Instruction manual it reads "For optimum battery life, store the Li-ion battery pack following use with-out charging it." Wow...so helpful.

At this point I have done the following:

Written the date purchased on the back of my batterys.
Recorded the number of recharges on the back of each battery (3 on the original working batter, and 1 on the new battery).

Panasonic are meant to have these great 14.4 V drills - if I was in market now, I would wait a couple more months to see if these new releases are actually all they are hyped to be, because if you have a problem as I have had it may well prove to be expensive, and I suspect you will get little joy from Panasonic.

I'll keep updating relevant posts with my future experiences with this drill.

Apologies for this very long rant, I was really off this morning with the response I got, and hopefully this may cause others to think carefully about Panasonic.

**Groggy** · 30th April 2008, 10:40 PM

Julian, I think Eli had some trouble with a tool dealer down your way, I wonder if it is the same crowd?

**Claw Hama** · 30th April 2008, 10:47 PM

Get it working, put on ebay and get rid of it. I have a Hitachi 18v with hammer that I use almost everyday 100mm bugal heads, roof screws, 50mm hole saws 16mm masonary drills. It was about $600ish came with 3 batteries that go for so long that you get surprised when they go flat.

**Eli** · 30th April 2008, 11:23 PM

I had trouble with a fella down on the peninsula, bought new off of one of the ebay type sites, it was a Bosch product. To his partial credit, after much hassling and wastage of my personal time, he did make good.

I had to hound him to make him do the right thing though.

**rowdyflat** · 1st May 2008, 10:50 AM

There is no excuse for dodgy batteries .
Panasonic are supposedly the best.
My Makita + Dewalt go for ever if looked after ie avoid heat, charge + trickle charge regularly although they are Nicad.

**thesupervisor** · 1st May 2008, 12:19 PM

dewalt now offers 3year warrenty on batteries and they only cost $110
yipeeeeeeee

**Master Splinter** · 1st May 2008, 09:38 PM

Li-ion batteries should be stored at 30-50% of capacity, and recharged to this yearly.

From the batteries for OEM's section of their website (see the pdf files):
http://www.panasonic.com/industrial/...ion/index.html

**Bloss** · 3rd May 2008, 11:49 AM

It is always important to remember in these sorts of situations that under the Trade Practices Act (warranty, fit for purpose, reasonable expected life etc) the shop that sold it to you has to fix it for you regardless of them or the manufacturer trying to take control (or push back at you).

Your contract for purchase is with the retailer and that is who you should deal with to get resolution - for warranty too. The retailer's contract might well be with the manufacturer or distributor, but that is not your problem or issue and you should not allow their obligation to you to be transferred.

Although this can squeeze small businesses and make them the filling in the sandwich that is just too bad from a client perspective - the Act is clear and is supported by similar provisions in the various consumer protection and fair trade laws at state government level.

Continue pressure on whoever you bought it from - be accurate with your claims and stay calm, firm and persistent, but don't give up and especially do not get angry. My dear old Mum used to say 'if you lose your temper, you lose, even if you are right' and that is very true in dealing with customer complaints.

In this instance you should have insisted that if they wanted your whole kit back then they should have given you a replacement whole kit or your money back. They have taken advantage of your mid-project situation to make you put out more money that you should not have had too.

In the case of batteries you have always to be insistent - they do have warranty by statutory regardless of claims by an retailer or manufacturer. The period would be assessed as what is a reasonable expected life in the circumstances. The TP Act is clear here too - the benefit of the doubt has to go to the buyer.

Unless there is evidence of damage through misuse or an attempt at fraud one would expect a Lithium Ion battery to last at least two year - the ads for Panasonic and others say so! So either the ads are misleading or they should last a reasonable time - say 12 mths minimum. Unlike NiCads and to a lesser extent NiMh batteries the Li-Ion have no memory effect and that is one of the key selling points along with more linear power output and more rapid charging.

So if I were you I would be pushing harder to get the right result here.

**blute** · 6th May 2008, 10:45 PM

Originally Posted by Bloss

Your contract for purchase is with the retailer and that is who you should deal with to get resolution - for warranty too.

So true. Retailers are so quick to give you the manufacturers customer service hotline and pass the buck.

After 20 min on hold the manufacturer then passes you on to their "authorized service center" and claim no responsibility for the service or lack of service you get there because they are an external contractor.

This problem is across the board. Retailers AND manufacturers need to lift their game!!

Luckily it is so easy to shop online. At least you get more competitive pricing and your guaranteed the same pathetic after sales service from the manufacturer!

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