Generator finally repaired after seven months
Well the generator is finally in and hopefully all the parts fit correctly. As I mentioned in two other posts, our 5.5KW Onan Generator failed last year and because I didn’t want to try and remove and repair it myself, I looked up factory recognized repair facilities. The one I would have preferred is one that the ingress and egress were in my opinion not only difficult but unsafe. The one I chose was closer and had great accessibility but no storage area. Both were about 15 miles from the house. So I decided that Advanced Generator Service in Azusa CA was the best choice. The shop was rate a Three Star Shop by Cummin/Onan. To be a tree star shop the technician(s) have to attend factory training classes each year. That seemed better than repair facility with no stars, one star or two stars.
I could find no rating system or site that gave reviews on the shops.
Well to shorten the story, I took the rig in on October 30th, initial troubleshooting indicated that it was not a simple repair and that the generator would have to be removed and torn down a bit. I approved that knowing it would be expensive. A few days later the owner called and gave me an estimate of around $2000 dollars. I approved the estimate. I did say we would like the generator back in operation ASAP due to reservations we had for camping in December.
That was the last time the owner initiated contact with us until he called us and said we could come on December 12th for re-installation of the generator. I had requested updates on his progress when we dropped the generator off and several more times while he was in repairing the generator. I even drove over to the shop because the owner would not talk to me personally. He has one employee who does the paperwork and while she know her job and a lot about generators, she only repeats what he says and either cannot or will not go into any details.
This is getting way too long, so here it the timeline, we get the generator back in December if failed again in January the shop scheduled us in on Feb 13th for removal and diagnosis. From Feb 13 through May 30th, we received one phone call and one email from the owner. I made three trips out there for the reasons stated earlier, the owner just wouldn’t call and give us any information
In mid May I had become so frustrated that I emailed the owner and said That I wanted my generator back running or not and gave a specific date. He refused and said he would contact us when he had some news. Then I threated to file a law suit and get it back, no reply but before our attorney could get paperwork prepared he called and said he had it working and gave us an appointment for reinstallation.
During this entire period, he had two excuses why the repairs were taking so long, one was the parts were delivered so damaged they were unusable and that the parts arrived and were assembled but they did not fit together properly and that they would cause another failure. It was not until my wife spent an entire day calling Cummin/Onan and talking to at least a dozen people that he managed to get the generator running. My wife found out from Cunnin/Onan employees that the shop owner didn’t return their calls either and that it was not uncommon for parts to arrive at shops that did not fit together properly or damaged beyond usefulness because they were not packed correctly from the warehouse.
Garry Patton may be a great technician and a very knowledgeable tech but his communication skills are terrible and Cummin/Onan may produce a good group of products but their QA and QC is performed by the end users facilities rather than the manufacturing facilities as noted by their own employees.
According to Garry Patton, he received more than eight rotor/stator sets and end bells before he could find a rotor, stator and end bell that when the brushes were installed would ride on the slip rings. Hopefully , our generator is in proper working order and will remain that way. If it fails again I’ll tear it down and find out if it is the brushes again and the fill suit for all my money back and just buy a new CARB compliant generator and hope it never fails.
I could find no rating system or site that gave reviews on the shops.
Well to shorten the story, I took the rig in on October 30th, initial troubleshooting indicated that it was not a simple repair and that the generator would have to be removed and torn down a bit. I approved that knowing it would be expensive. A few days later the owner called and gave me an estimate of around $2000 dollars. I approved the estimate. I did say we would like the generator back in operation ASAP due to reservations we had for camping in December.
That was the last time the owner initiated contact with us until he called us and said we could come on December 12th for re-installation of the generator. I had requested updates on his progress when we dropped the generator off and several more times while he was in repairing the generator. I even drove over to the shop because the owner would not talk to me personally. He has one employee who does the paperwork and while she know her job and a lot about generators, she only repeats what he says and either cannot or will not go into any details.
This is getting way too long, so here it the timeline, we get the generator back in December if failed again in January the shop scheduled us in on Feb 13th for removal and diagnosis. From Feb 13 through May 30th, we received one phone call and one email from the owner. I made three trips out there for the reasons stated earlier, the owner just wouldn’t call and give us any information
In mid May I had become so frustrated that I emailed the owner and said That I wanted my generator back running or not and gave a specific date. He refused and said he would contact us when he had some news. Then I threated to file a law suit and get it back, no reply but before our attorney could get paperwork prepared he called and said he had it working and gave us an appointment for reinstallation.
During this entire period, he had two excuses why the repairs were taking so long, one was the parts were delivered so damaged they were unusable and that the parts arrived and were assembled but they did not fit together properly and that they would cause another failure. It was not until my wife spent an entire day calling Cummin/Onan and talking to at least a dozen people that he managed to get the generator running. My wife found out from Cunnin/Onan employees that the shop owner didn’t return their calls either and that it was not uncommon for parts to arrive at shops that did not fit together properly or damaged beyond usefulness because they were not packed correctly from the warehouse.
Garry Patton may be a great technician and a very knowledgeable tech but his communication skills are terrible and Cummin/Onan may produce a good group of products but their QA and QC is performed by the end users facilities rather than the manufacturing facilities as noted by their own employees.
According to Garry Patton, he received more than eight rotor/stator sets and end bells before he could find a rotor, stator and end bell that when the brushes were installed would ride on the slip rings. Hopefully , our generator is in proper working order and will remain that way. If it fails again I’ll tear it down and find out if it is the brushes again and the fill suit for all my money back and just buy a new CARB compliant generator and hope it never fails.
