I purchased a brand new battery from them in march 2014 and it was faulty, I took it back a few weeks later and they issued me a replacement. The replacement was faulty and kept dieing every few days. I took it back today for an replacement or better to upgrade it to a different model and they said nope, nothing we can do as a company, even though it had 3 year warranty.

 

I even had the battery drop tested and the car tested for battery drain and the skoda techs said it was definatly the battery and not the car causing it... the alternator is brand new from Skoda aswell and 5 months old! When I showed eurocarparts this as proof and the drop test results, they quickly backed down and replaced the battery, again.

 

They then proceeded to state that "this will be the last time they exchange it and I would need to purchase a more expensive battery if it fails again and that the warranty would then be void, nothing else they can do". Pretty sure that's against the Sale of Goods Act 1979 and the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982.

 

It's a disgrace and I have purchased many things from them and never had trouble like this!

 

Is it just me or are they trying to fob me off? Or am I just being an arrogant shi*?

 

Battery: http://www.eurocarparts.com/ecp/p/accessories-car-batteries/car-batteries/most-popular-car-battery/012-car-batteries/?444770121&0&cc5_1003

Edited 29 May, 201412 yr by Forrepell

Just ask the question on twitter, with 1000's of eyes on them they will answer in line with both acts 

 

@EuroCarParts

I did and they said yes they will replace it again but store said no and they don't listen to the twitter guys.

 

Anyway, if it goes again, i'll just complain to the head office...

I'm not sure that's the right battery for your car. I thought all the early 1.8 Octavias use a an 027 form factor. The 1.8T certainly does. Which engine is it? Manual or auto?

It's an auto

I purchased a brand new battery from them in march 2014 and it was faulty, I took it back a few weeks later and they issued me a replacement. The replacement was faulty and kept dieing every few days. I took it back today for an replacement or better to upgrade it to a different model and they said nope, nothing we can do as a company, even though it had 3 year warranty.

 

I even had the battery drop tested and the car tested for battery drain and the skoda techs said it was definatly the battery and not the car causing it... the alternator is brand new from Skoda aswell and 5 months old! When I showed eurocarparts this as proof and the drop test results, they quickly backed down and replaced the battery, again.

 

They then proceeded to state that "this will be the last time they exchange it and I would need to purchase a more expensive battery if it fails again and that the warranty would then be void, nothing else they can do". Pretty sure that's against the Sale of Goods Act 1979 and the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982.

 

It's a disgrace and I have purchased many things from them and never had trouble like this!

 

Is it just me or are they trying to fob me off? Or am I just being an arrogant shi*?

 

Battery: http://www.eurocarparts.com/ecp/p/accessories-car-batteries/car-batteries/most-popular-car-battery/012-car-batteries/?444770121&0&cc5_1003

 

Hi!

 

Sorry to hear of the trouble.

 

All of our batteries carry a 3/4/5 year warranty (depending on product) - and this is pretty much no quibble - Although its a manufacturers warranty which covers the unit from manufacturing defects or failures - We are able to make the decision to accept it back or not. 

 

Batteries are VERY reliable items, and if there is a manufacturers fault, it is normally apparent very early on, and if you're unlucky enough for this to happen the warranty will cover you.

 

If another (brand new) battery fails again, then its really bad luck (failure rate of the hundreds of thousands of batteries we sell is less than 1%) - So we will naturally honor the warranty and exchange it.

If another (third battery) fails, in that time, then we need to put a stop to it - As its clear that something external to the battery is causing it to fail - At this point we would normally refuse the no quibble warranty and offer to send it to the manufacturer for full testing - They can then break down the battery (if required) and respond with a detailed test outcome, and 99% of the times they can pinpoint the exact reason for failure - If its a manufacturer failure, then the no quibble exchange stands, however if they find its be damaged through another reason - then the claim will be rejected.

We don't do this to get out of replacing the battery, in fact we'll go out of our way to help investigate the failure and report back to the customer. At the end of the day, we simply want the customer to have trouble free motoring, but after several warranty exchanges, its clear we're not actually helping the customer, as the product continues to fail - and we then need to investigate.

Theres hundreds of reason a battery can be damaged in use, ranging from poor fitting, alternator issues all the way to simply the wrong battery. If you need some help feel free to PM us your order details and reg (or tweet me @eurocarparts) and I can help to investigate.

Hope that helps,

 

Pat 

 

That's fair. I'll use 1% for now partly because it makes the sums easy, but I'll happily update if you supply a more accurate (at least 2 significant figures) value.

 

1% of new batteries fail; that's 1 in 100.

For a warranty replacement to also fail is therefore 1 in 10_000.

For a second warranty replacement to also fail is a 1 in 1_000_000 chance. It could happen, but I'd start wondering about the alternator over-charging the battery if it was my car.

If its three in a row like that, I would definitely be looking at other components. I had a very similar situation years ago with a similar age Ford. Battery died, so did the replacement. Eventually I found the alternator was overcharging it when smart charging. It was fixed by pulling the connector for the smart charging so it ran in dumb mode.

 

And a new battery.

It's an auto

Everything I can find tells me it should be an 027 form factor battery, which is 60Ah http://www.eurocarparts.com/ecp/p/accessories-car-batteries/car-batteries/most-popular-car-battery/027-car-batteries/?444770271&0&cc5_997 .

TBH, it's a long time since I've seen a 1.8 auto with old school trim levels, but if a battery 242mm long will fit, then that's the one to go for.

I would also check the ground strap is in good condition.

It's interesting that you assume all these new batteries are bad, without considering that the new alternator is bad or the failure to charge correctly is due to faulty wiring.

Looking at the OPs posting history, it is littered with electrical faults. Maybe they were caused by old (faulty) battery, maybe there are remaining electrical issues that are killing the batteries. I'd suspect the latter TBH.

I've also never paid as little for a battery as that one. Maybe that's because I've always needed beefier units but I thought they started at £75 and only went up from there lol

Looking at the OPs posting history, it is littered with electrical faults. Maybe they were caused by old (faulty) battery, maybe there are remaining electrical issues that are killing the batteries. I'd suspect the latter TBH.

I've also never paid as little for a battery as that one. Maybe that's because I've always needed beefier units but I thought they started at £75 and only went up from there lol

I'd agree get a full electronic check completed as I find it unlikely 3 batteries are dodgy mind you a works van had 2 that were faulty and warped plates but not from ECP

Did no one notice this part of the OPs first post.

 

I even had the battery drop tested and the car tested for battery drain and the skoda techs said it was definatly the battery and not the car causing it... the alternator is brand new from Skoda aswell and 5 months old! When I showed eurocarparts this as proof and the drop test results, they quickly backed down and replaced the battery, again.

 

If the first battery was faulty and then the second one as well it could have been a faulty batch with a number being at fault.

They have tested for battery drop and drain, but not done a charging test, therefore the testing is incomplete.

They have tested for battery drop and drain, but not done a charging test, therefore the testing is incomplete.

Well we don't know if they did a charging test but as it had a new alternator 5 months ago I would think they may have checked it.

He doesn't say they've done it, only the other tests.

They proved that the battery was dead and there wasn't a current drain - that's all.

An intermittant short on the D+ wire will cause the battery to overcharge and be destroyed. It's not uncommon on the Golf Mk4s and can occur on older Octavia Mk1s. Unless you are looking for this fault, you won't find it.

Bad ground straps can cause problems too.

Sorry to hear about your battery problem(s).

I bought a 'Lion' battery(Bosch out of stock at my local one at the time) from eurocarparts for my HRV a couple of years ago and had no problems whatsoever.

Even upgraded the ice and the battery coped.

Sounds like some sort of battery drain/charge problem.

Those damn electrical gremlins

Pat, I tried to PM you but it seems you can not receive PM's.  I can not twitter you as I don't do twitter.

I'm no fan of ecp, but by the looks of your other posts, I'd virtually put money on you having something draining current when the cars off.

Edited 7 June, 201412 yr by StevesTruck

When. Worked for unipart, I had the exact problem with a battery. The car had a brand new alternator 2/3 months before, I could not find any fault with the battery. The local auto sparky said it was the battery. At about that point we were given hand held analysers from boch who supplied the battery's at the time. So after a full elec test from an "auto sparky" turns out it was the rectifier in the alternator, that the hand held gizmo pointed out.

Manufacturer confirmed that the battery was faulty... This new 3rd battery has been fine and holds charge just fine with no faults whatsoever :lol:

Sent from my XT1032 using Tapatalk

Sometimes the statistics are not be all end all really

Get a Bosch, Varta or Hoppecke(if you can find one) next time.

Was the brand of the faulty ones ever mentioned?

Personally ive never had an issue with ECP, had a few niggles but they were down to either my personal experiance (not ordereing enough wheel bearings) and the only other time was due to a very very cheap patent part which would not bolt straight in.