Actually mostly a tale of what happens when you combine a manufacturer and a distributor of a questionable quality product, both of which would take awards for a LACK of customer support.
In August of 2010 I bought a Flopower 3.3 GPM pressure pump from Holland Marine Products here in Toronto ( actually in Mississauga a suburb). Flopower is a Chinese made pump but it had good specs so I went ahead. In June of this year the pump quit and it was the switch. I took it back to HMP to be told that they only warranteed the product for 1 year. So I bought a new switch for $39. It lasted until this week- through about two tanks of water, or about 20 min running time!!. When I returned this switch, HMP refunded my money, said the switch was burned out , and they wouldn't sell me any more as the pump was "drawing too much current"- see my other thread.
I found the product brochure from Flopower when I bought the first switch and it states very clearly "FLOPOWER warrants this product to be free of defects in material and/or workmanship for a period of two years after purchase...." I emailed Mr Jerry Zhang, The president of FLOPOWER and got the following reply "our pump is keep 1 year warranty.your pump is buy from 2010 year.so it beyond the expiration period."
Subsequent emails pointing out and sending a scanned copy of the warranty page in the brochure have gone unanswered. Emails to HMP with the same info have been answered with:
"dear sir the pump was 1 yr 10 months old when you purchased a pressure switch. our warrantee is 1yr. this pump is 10 months past our 1 yr warrantee.
we would suggest you read our published warrantee on page 7 of our catalog for our policies. any other "published warrantee" is from the manufacturer and you will have to deal with them."
So. The lesson is- don't buy Chinese knockoffs and expect any customer service, and don't deal with retailers who are more concerned with perceived dishonest customers than providing good customer service- read the beginning pages of HMP's catalogue and I think you will get the drift.
In August of 2010 I bought a Flopower 3.3 GPM pressure pump from Holland Marine Products here in Toronto ( actually in Mississauga a suburb). Flopower is a Chinese made pump but it had good specs so I went ahead. In June of this year the pump quit and it was the switch. I took it back to HMP to be told that they only warranteed the product for 1 year. So I bought a new switch for $39. It lasted until this week- through about two tanks of water, or about 20 min running time!!. When I returned this switch, HMP refunded my money, said the switch was burned out , and they wouldn't sell me any more as the pump was "drawing too much current"- see my other thread.
I found the product brochure from Flopower when I bought the first switch and it states very clearly "FLOPOWER warrants this product to be free of defects in material and/or workmanship for a period of two years after purchase...." I emailed Mr Jerry Zhang, The president of FLOPOWER and got the following reply "our pump is keep 1 year warranty.your pump is buy from 2010 year.so it beyond the expiration period."
Subsequent emails pointing out and sending a scanned copy of the warranty page in the brochure have gone unanswered. Emails to HMP with the same info have been answered with:
"dear sir the pump was 1 yr 10 months old when you purchased a pressure switch. our warrantee is 1yr. this pump is 10 months past our 1 yr warrantee.
we would suggest you read our published warrantee on page 7 of our catalog for our policies. any other "published warrantee" is from the manufacturer and you will have to deal with them."
So. The lesson is- don't buy Chinese knockoffs and expect any customer service, and don't deal with retailers who are more concerned with perceived dishonest customers than providing good customer service- read the beginning pages of HMP's catalogue and I think you will get the drift.