SplashDancer wrote:
Interesting, that the Champion 2000 is no longer in my local Costco stores, and in looking at Costco.ca site, they now show NO Champion products, having a range now of Powerhouse (???) units. Closest is a 2000 unit, with 1900 net output.
The
unofficial word is that Costco's "liberal" return policy made it difficult if not impossible to make a profit from generator sales. Generators were bought, used for a storm or power outage and then returned with a "doesn't work" statement. Generators were either field destroyed or returned to the supplier. This amounted to a total loss for the manufacturer/supplier. One supplier noted that upon technical examination most of the returns showed no faults. Any manufacturer not doing "final lot sales" has to eat the returns.
Most retailers will no longer accept a return on a generator once it is taken out of the box and fueled. They will exchange the generator if it is defective or have it repaired. Unfortunately they found it necessary to adopt this type of policy because of abuse of previous liberal return policies on products of this type. It is my understanding that Costco continues to accept generator returns for most any reason. Apparently their investment is minimal since they can charge the item back to the manufacturer/supplier and they have less to lose by accepting the return than insisting on repair or replacement only.
Champion does not sell their products directly to customers like you or me. They only sell through authorized retailers.
SuperGen Products has quickly become one of the largest retail outlets of both new and factory refurbished CPE products.
